CHAPTER NINE

THEPASSIONATECLAIM Domenico was staking on her lips was making Rae's body tremble and her blood sing with delight. She'd missed this, she thought in the tiny part of her brain that was still capable of thought. Missed the masterly glide of his firm lips against hers, missed the bite of his hands into her tender flesh, and the feel of every line and contour of him pressed up against her. The moment was almost too overwhelming, every sensation fighting for dominance, and she couldn't decide which to revel in first...the imprint of his firm, masculine form or the deepening probe of his tongue, turning the desire already racing through her into a swirling inferno that was so potent it had the power to burn her from the inside out.

The last place that she had expected to end the evening was in Domenico's arms. And yet it felt right. More than right. Necessary. As he'd opened up, Rae had felt herself falling deeper and deeper into him, her body yearning to reach out to his and envelop him in her comfort. He had been so open and honest and she had wanted to be too, but when the moment for her transparency had arrived, Rae hadn't been able to do it. She had kept her secret locked inside, and chosen not to feel bad about doing so because, whatever it was between her and Domenico, it wasn't substantial enough to require the baring of her heart and soul. Their relationship was neither real nor lasting.

But then he abandoned the glorious assault on her mouth and feasted instead on the super-sensitive skin of her neck. As he scraped his teeth against the very spot he had just finished sucking on, Rae curled her fingers into his hair and snatched in a desperate lungful of cool air, needing that burst of oxygen because she was already drowning.

In him.

The feeling that speared through her seemed to be a direct and defiant repudiation to her stance that their relationship wasn't real. With every swipe of his mouth and every sweep of his hands Domenico was taking her over, inch by inch, kiss by kiss, and as he did, the parts of Rae's world that had felt out of sync for reasons she hadn't been able to identify began to shift back into perfect alignment.

She had spent so much time and energy trying to convince herself that she was okay without Domenico, that there was nothing missing from her life, but in that moment, with the imprint of his hands all over her and the sharp masculine scent of him surrounding her, she had no choice but to abandon that lie. Because she was coming alive again under the possessive pressure of his fingers against her skin and the hungry scrape of his mouth, and something very real was unfurling within her, something with a potent, glittering, unfamiliar power.

His hands moved to her blouse, reaching for the buttons, and as he did, he drew back enough so that he could stare at her. The look in his eyes was so hungry and yet so tender that Rae suddenly found it harder and harder to breathe. Because whilst they had done this many, many times before, for some reason it felt like the first time again. There was the remembered thrill and anticipation, but every other feeling spinning up inside her was so new, so profound and piercing, that she felt, just for a second, so wildly overwhelmed.

She could feel the thuds of her heart in her throat and they only grew heavier as he pushed the fabric of her blouse open and gazed down at her, hunger darkening the glow of his already dark eyes, turning them molten.

‘You're so beautiful, Rae,' he breathed, and the sentiment seemed infused with so much loving and open feeling that tears hit the backs of her eyes.

‘So are you.' Lifting her hand, she stroked it across his face, caressing the strong jawline and noble chin, brushing a finger across his full lips. It was a face she knew well, a face she would be able to find even in the dark, but now, as she looked into his eyes, for the first time she felt as if she could see into him, into his heart and soul, and she trembled. Because she had always wanted all of him, and now he was giving her exactly that. Only there was danger in that as much as delight, because the connection crackling between them was now all the more poignant and powerful. And it would be so much harder to extract herself from.

However, there was no question in her mind about turning back now. She wanted this connection with him. She was craving it. She needed it.

‘Take me inside, Domenico,' she commanded in a whisper, knowing they needed privacy for all that she wanted to unfold.

He inhaled a sharp breath as though he hadn't dared imagine he'd hear those words, and then raised himself to his feet and carried her with him, her legs curled around his waist, her body cradled in his strong arms.

They didn't look away from each other, but neither of them spoke. To do so would have interrupted the feeling flowing unspoken between them and, finding his way inside, Domenico set her down on the nearest flat surface.

The light in the room was dim, casting a dusky glow, and his mouth wasted no time in reuniting with hers, his lips asking questions that she answered with her own. Their kisses deepened, the effect sinking deep within her, making the honeyed river of lust flow with more speed, more ease. When he drew back to take a breath his chest moved up and down in an uneven rhythm and Rae's heart and pulse were just as restless, running riot beneath her skin.

Reaching out, she traced her hands over his chest, revelling in the smoothness of his skin, the unbelievable strength of his body. His was the first, and only, male body she had ever touched and tasted and explored, and although she had no comparison, she knew there could be none. Domenico had no equal, and definitely no superior. It was not a theory she'd been in any rush to test, but she knew without question that no one would be capable of making her feel all that he did. Lightning, after all, did not strike twice.

She kissed a pathway across his chest, her lips settling over his heart—the heart that had been twisted and torn by the cruel actions of others. He thought he'd never belonged, but he belonged with her. In that room, in that moment, there was nowhere else on earth he should be and Rae was determined to use all the power of her body to show him that.

Hands gliding downwards across the corded muscle of his stomach, she loosened the tie on the towel and let it fall away, a breath quivering from her mouth as his arousal jutted into the space between them. Her chest hitched, her mouth running dry as her blood ran even hotter. She'd forgotten what a magnificent sight he was and the jagged, restless feeling cut through her again, and she could almost feel how good it would be to have him inside her once more, filling her, completing her. Owning her.

Watching her breathless reaction, impatience fired in Domenico's eyes and he reached for her clothes, sliding the blouse from her body, pulling the trousers down her legs and tossing them over his shoulder, and then he moved into the space between her thighs, running his sultry gaze down her body.

Lowering his head, he pressed a line of kisses down her throat and along the cup of the bra. Her reaction was instant, her flesh swelling against his mouth, her nipples tightening.

‘Rae...' he groaned against her skin. ‘I want to run my mouth all over you, but I don't think I can wait to be inside of you.'

‘So don't wait,' she urged, pressing herself into him, as desperate as he was to complete their joining.

With a single move, he positioned himself at her entrance and then, eyes locked with hers, he pressed powerfully into her, her body accepting every inch of the sweet penetration. He filled her completely and Rae gasped, not just with the joy of his possession but because of how different it felt. Rawer, deeper, more...just more. Her breaths crashed from her mouth, the moment feeling too big, too powerful, too moving. But then all she could feel was the exquisite familiarity of Domenico stroking inside her, tenderly but firmly propelling her towards her orgasm with the powerful thrusts of his body.

She clung to him, tilting her mouth up to receive his kiss, and he obliged, touching his lips to her mouth, her earlobe, her jaw, her neck, his breath like fire. His hands clasped her butt, urgency in his fingertips and his rhythm changed, the drive of his body becoming more powerful and possessive, and he surged deeper inside her, deeper than ever before, pressing her back to accommodate that exploration. With every move of his body, he obliterated her defences, taking more of her for himself, and the connection was electrifying. The beginning and the end. Everything that Rae had ever needed and felt like she would ever need.

He held on to her tighter, hitching her leg higher up his waist, and that was when she started to feel it, the onset of that wild, unstoppable ecstasy spiralling up through her body, consuming all of her with flagrant ease, and Rae clung even more pleadingly to Domenico's shoulders, her mouth biting into his skin.

His own release was beckoning. Rae could feel him resisting, wanting them to hit their explosion point together, and seconds later they did exactly that. She broke apart with a cry of unadulterated delight a moment before he gave his own shout of release and, although they had made love a thousand times, the eruption was like nothing Rae had ever felt before and for an infinitesimal, heart-shaking moment she pulsed with the sense that nothing would ever be the same again.