Lisa’s only experience had been at her own hands. He could understand it, it made perfect sense; she was always in control that way. It made him super-aware of her now, super-sensitive to her breathing, and to the look in her eyes, to the set of her mouth, and to the touch of her hands on his body. He wanted it to be perfect for her. He wanted it to be the first time that either of them had ever felt like this.
Lisa drew in a sharp breath as Tino entered her, and then softened when she felt his brief hesitation. She didn’t want him to think he was hurting her and stop. The surprise at his size had been welcome, the panic over almost before it began. She had never imagined it could be like this, that any man could be so tender, that she could feel so cherished, or so safe. ‘Please, Tino… please don’t stop.’
Caressing her with his warm, strong hands, he did as she asked, tipping her up to meet him so that he could inhabit her completely, and then he groaned as she tightened her muscles around him, drawing him deeper still.
‘Are you sure you want this?’ He nuzzled her neck as she bucked beneath him.
‘Yes, but more than anything I want to please you.’
‘You are pleasing me,’ he assured her.
He made his strokes deep and slow, relishing the sight of her passion-dampened face. He gave the greatest pleasure he could as the silken noose of her body sucked on him convulsively. He applied a little more pressure at the end of each long thrust until finally she gazed at him in disbelief.
‘It’s so good,’ she managed breathlessly. ‘Oh, please don’t stop… Don’t ever stop.’
Her fingernails raked across his shoulders. He barely felt the pain as he slowed the pace to keep her teetering above the abyss of intense sensation for as long as he could. But then the tension in her face, the absolute hunger in her eyes, as well as the apprehension he sensed in her as she approached pleasure beyond her understanding, proved too much for him, and with a few firm strokes he pushed her over the edge.
She cried out then, joyously, continuously, as if the powerful spasms would never end. He held her firmly and it took all his strength just to keep her in position without hurting her while he made sure that she didn’t miss a single, satisfying moment of pleasure.
He calmed her afterwards with long, soothing strokes, until she stirred restlessly again. ‘Aren’t you satisfied yet?’
‘I’ll never have enough of you,’ she admitted, knowing she meant that in every way.
‘What else do you have in mind?’
As he teased her she drew back inwardly into her little shell of uncertainty. She wanted one thing, but Tino wanted something else. And she wanted too much. ‘How about I ride you into submission?’ The front she could always put in place to hide uncertainty in any given situation had really come into its own, Lisa realised, tossing her hair back provocatively.
‘To the finish, if you please.’
‘If you insist.’
‘I do insist,’ Tino assured her, swinging her on top of him.
She eased down on him slowly, and rubbed herself rhythmically against him. She was composed entirely of sensation…
‘No,’ he insisted softly, ‘let me do that for you.’
She gasped and slumped inert as his searching fingers found her, and gently, skillfully, began to work. ‘I won’t be able to move a muscle if you don’t stop doing that.’
‘Then I shall have to stop,’ he said, pretending regret, ‘because I’m holding you to your promise.’
When he took his hand away she started to move again, taking him deep inside her. But then she teased him, pulling back, and making him wait—but he was having none of it, and caught her to him again. Lisa’s spirit soared as Tino took control, and as their eyes met in that moment they were one. He touched her delicately, and persuasively, until she could only move convulsively in time to a rhythm of his choice until they climaxed violently together.
Sleeping in Tino’s arms was almost the best part of all, Lisa realised. She had woken in the middle of the night, and now she traced the line of his lips with one finger. She gasped as he captured the tip in his mouth. ‘I thought you were asleep.’
‘Barely.’ He narrowed his eyes to look at her. ‘In fact, I need very little sleep.’
‘That’s good to hear.’
‘Isn’t it?’ he said, moving behind her. He nestled close so that he could touch her while he thrust into her. He played her well, judging her responses so finely that she angled herself shamelessly, moving so that he could see everything he was doing to her in the low light seeping into the room from the lanterns outside.
‘You’re quite a woman,’ he murmured later when they were lying twined around each other.
Lisa could only manage to mumble groggily and snuggle a little closer. She felt so safe, so content it was like returning home after an arduous journey…
‘Do you know how special you are?’ Tino whispered as he stroked Lisa’s hair. Her breathing was so even he knew she was asleep. And it was as well she couldn’t hear him saying words that would have misled them both—dangerous words…
Instinct warned him to pull back while there was still time. There was only one possible ending to this—and it was the same ending he had envisaged the day he’d walked into the Bond Steel boardroom. And she would hate him when he took the company from her…
Moonlight was streaming into the bedroom as Tino started up in bed wide awake. He had fallen asleep so deeply he could hardly believe the old nightmare had returned. Springing out of bed, he paced the floor. Halting by the window, he gazed out, seeing nothing.
How could a man admit to having nightmares? How could a man live with such images in his mind? Why wasn’t his will strong enough to get rid of them?
Hearing Lisa stir, he quietly opened the doors leading onto the balcony and stepped outside. Planting his hands on the stone balustrade, he stared out towards the horizon. Stella was the closest thing he had to a friend, and even Stella Panayotakis didn’t know all the things that had happened to him in the orphanage. It was better she never knew… And yet the past had made him the man he was today—it drove his every move. It had given him a private island, unimaginable wealth, and even worldwide respect— the only thing it could never give him was the capacity to love.
He glanced back inside the room where he could see Lisa’s hair spread out across the pillow like a cloud. Her face, deep in sleep, was pale and trusting like a child’s in the moonlight… His appetite to compete with her, to subdue her in every way, had deserted him utterly. If he had been capable of love, he would have loved Lisa Bond. But learning to love, like learning to feel, was a luxury he could never buy. And more importantly he had embarked upon a journey that no one else could share… a lifelong journey that demanded everything of him, a journey that drove him from deal to deal in the endless quest for money to fund his dream, to sustain his project…
It shamed him that he had set out to triumph over her. Taking Bond Steel from Lisa was one victory he didn’t need… but there was something he could do to salve his conscience. He would buy her small engineering works. He would give her the break she so desperately needed… He would
