CHAPTER TEN

RAEWASHAVING the most exquisite dream.

Domenico's skilful mouth was marauding across her neck, swiping and sucking and nibbling. Where his lips and tongue touched, her skin tingled and sparks of glittering, explosive pleasure ignited by the blissful contact streaked along her veins, arrowing to the very centre of her body, where the most intense feeling was building. She arched her neck, offering him even better access, and speared her fingers into the thickness of his hair, purring at the back of her throat as his teeth and tongue played on the same spot, making her nerve-endings shiver and dance.

Then he began to tease more of her body. His hand slid languidly up her ribcage and curled around her breast. His fingers were warm and tender and her senses stirred even quicker at the intimate contact, straining beneath the touch, seeking more of it. His fingers brushed across her nipple, the large pad of his thumb circling the ultra-sensitised and begging point before flicking across it once, twice...a torturous three times. Her body arched and a gasp of wanton pleasure escaped from her parted lips, every inch of her now feeling alight and alive.

Enraptured by the caresses, Rae desperately wanted more of them, more of that heady, obliterating feeling he conjured within her. But, feeling the tug of consciousness, she squeezed her eyelids tighter together, wanting to stay in the dream as long as possible, not wanting to wake yet again to a darkened room and a cold, lonely bed. But the golden light of day was already infiltrating her gaze and as the pleasure of Domenico's touch built towards a crescendo her eyes flew open...and she realised it wasn't a dream at all.

Domenico's hands were skating across her body, his lips making her shiver as they trailed down her neck and towards her collarbone. Feeling was fizzing in every inch of her, her blood was humming and her body purring at his touch. Fragments of the previous night returned to her in bright flashes and Rae realised that it had happened. She hadn't only imagined it.

‘Buongiorno bellissima,'Domenico murmured against her lips. They were the words he'd greeted her with every morning of their life together and Rae smiled, having never expected to hear them uttered again.

‘I thought I was dreaming,' she whispered as he held her close. ‘And I didn't want to wake up.'

He kissed her again, slow and long and deep, only pulling back to stare at her. ‘Did you spend many nights dreaming of me?'

‘Yes,' she admitted, tracing the sensual contours of his mouth with her finger.

During the day she'd never permitted him entry into her thoughts. During the dark secrecy of the night, however, when her consciousness had relaxed, she'd had no control over what—who—came into her thoughts. And Domenico always had. In the moment when it was said a person's deepest desires were revealed, he had always been hers. Rae had reassured herself that those mental slips were acceptable, normal even, and that with time her subconscious would relinquish its yearning for him.

But here she was, months later, in bed with him, and the feelings were as strong and imposing as ever. The shift of his hair-roughened leg against hers stirred detonations of delicious tingly feeling along her skin. The bulk of his body, so close, made her want him pressed up even closer. It made her question if her feelings for him would ever fade, but that was a worry she had no desire to dwell on in that moment. Worrying could wait until later. Much later.

‘And what exactly was I doing in these dreams of yours?' His smile grew wider and wicked as a blush burned in her cheeks. ‘Something like this, perhaps?'

Drawing her against him, Domenico buried his long fingers in the tumble of her hair and nuzzled his face in her neck and made her every wish come true as his naked body pressed up against hers. Rae moaned as his hard length moved against her, instantly suffusing her with the need to feel him inside her, filling her, claiming her. She pulled his head down, opening her mouth to his, excitement brewing within her as his tongue thrust between her lips in a dance that she knew only too well. A dance they had moved to several times during the night and, just like all those times before, the intimate slide of his body against hers transported her to heaven.

Later, she was resting, sated and sleepy, with her head on his chest and his fingers stroking up and down her back in a lazy rhythm when Domenico's phone rang and he reached for it with his free hand. Rae already knew it would be Nico, Domenico's assistant, with his morning round-up.

‘Morning, Nico,' Domenico greeted him, and Rae smiled as she felt the rumble of his rich voice vibrate deep within his chest. She'd missed that burr of his voice, missed the early part of the morning resting in his arms. It was in those moments that she had always felt most content, when her heart had felt beautifully full and her worries about their marriage had been diminished by the warmth and closeness of Domenico's presence.

However, her peacefulness was disturbed when Domenico vaulted into a sitting position, his body suddenly rigid.

Rae sat up too, clutching the sheet to her chest, concerned by the quick-fire chatter she could hear at the other end of the phone.

‘Did you...? No... No, it's fine.' Domenico dashed a hand through his too long hair, shoving it back off his forehead and, based on that agitated motion and the stiffening line of his spine, Rae guessed that whatever it was that was going on wasn't fine at all, a theory confirmed by the heavy sigh he emitted upon disconnecting the call, followed by the torrent of blistering Italian.

Vaulting off the bed, he snatched at the first piece of clothing he found, anger infusing his every jerky movement as he pulled on the drawstring pants and started to pace backwards and forwards, hands planted on his lean hips. His Italian blood had always run red-hot with passion, and in recent days she'd seen him overwhelmed with feeling about his past, but Rae had never seen his temper heightened to such a degree and she was immediately wondering what had set it off.

‘Domenico, what is it? What's happened?'

But he was already pacing away from her, brushing the flowing white curtain aside with an impatient hand and striding out onto the terrace, and Rae could only stare after him, bewildered.

Because in the space of thirty seconds the whole mood of the morning had changed and Rae was utterly unsure of what to do next. Not so long ago, she would have thought twice about rushing after him and querying his upset because she was so wary of being rebuffed. But things had changed a lot since then. She had changed, and the landscape between her and Domenico was shifting as well. The ground they had broken last night had been significant, and it was those moves that they had made to know each other better, to trust each other, which gave her the confidence to follow the instinct firing from her gut and follow him outside, where she hoped he would tell her what was bothering him.

The morning view was stunning, but all Domenico could focus on was the pressure pounding at his temples. The call from his assistant had delivered the worst news possible and with so much importance and emotion attached to the deal, and so much of his own self-worth tied to its success, his frustration was lodged so deeply he could barely think straight.

Hearing the gentle sound of footsteps on the tiles behind him, he emitted a sigh. ‘Go away, Rae. Please.' The last thing he wanted was her witnessing the state he was in. He understood that he needed to be more open, and he was proud of the barriers he had been able to bring down last night, no matter how painful doing so had been, but this cut to the deepest and darkest of his fears and he was in no way ready to cast them into the light.

‘Sorry. I can't do that,' she replied, her voice soft as she came to stand beside him. For a woman who bordered on being petite, only five-foot-four in height, he felt her presence immediately. ‘Do you want to tell me what's going on?'

Absolutely not.

Turning his dark head towards her, Domenico was ready to repeat his earlier command, but as his gaze caught on her and he was hit between the eyes with the bright shine of her blue eyes and her long hair gleaming with the kiss of sunlight, he felt the knots around him loosen and, to his shock, heard himself start to speak.

‘Lorca cancelled our sit-down today. His assistant phoned Nico ten minutes ago. She said that Lorca no longer has the time to meet me and that he sends his sincerest apologies, but still hopes to see us at his party this evening.'

Rae's brow furrowed slightly. ‘You don't believe that?'

‘He invited me out here to have that meeting, so why cancel it at the last minute?' he grated out, his voice frayed with aggravation. ‘Unless he's stalling the deal on purpose.'

‘Why would he do that?'

Domenico pushed his long fingers through his dark hair. ‘I don't know. But every instinct I have is telling me that's what is going on.'

Rae's eyes rested on him, gentle and kind, and yet they seemed to burn him with their scrutiny. ‘This deal with Lorca obviously means a lot to you. A lot more than any other deal I've ever seen you make,' she observed, and he could see her thoughts ticking over, trying so desperately to understand. She really was incredible. He'd neglected her emotionally, failed as a husband, but she was still standing at his side, trying to help him. Heal him. If it hadn't been clear to him before that moment, it suddenly was—he hadn't appreciated her enough in the past. Her strength, her kindness, her loyalty. He'd been so focused on his feelings, on the void in him that she had obliterated, he'd overlooked entirely the sensational woman he had been lucky enough to find. ‘Is it because this was Raphael and Elena's dream? You're trying so hard to make it happen for them?'

‘Yes, that's exactly it.'

‘No, it's not,' Rae challenged gently, after a long moment studying him. ‘You should know by now that I know when you're shutting me out, Domenico, when you're holding something back. What is it?'

In front of him, his hands curled into tight fists as he felt the truth bludgeoning its way to the surface from the depths where he had tried to bury it. ‘I do want to do this for Elena and Raphael. I just also want it for myself too. To prove that I am deserving of the life that Elena gave me, that she was right to keep me, right to give me the position of her son and heir.'

He stared straight ahead, his eyes fixed on the neutrality of the sky, but all he could feel was the poison of that feeling slinking through his blood, making his heart race with the fear that it was the truth.

‘Why would you need to prove that?' Rae asked on an aghast breath. ‘Elena left you in charge of the company because she trusted you so much, and she gave you everything that she did because she wanted to, because she loved you.'

A muscle worked tightly in his jaw as the insecurity continued to needle at him ‘She never made it official though, did she? She never formally adopted me, so there must have been some doubt in the back of her mind if I was worthy of all that she had to give.'

‘Domenico, there could be a dozen reasons why Elena didn't adopt you, and none of them have anything to do with you not being good enough,' Rae argued. ‘You are deserving. You are worthy. Your mother choosing to abandon you as a baby is a lot more damning of her character than of yours. You were just a baby, you did nothing wrong...'

‘But maybe...'

‘No maybe. You did nothing wrong. Look at me.'

Abandoning his forward stare, he turned his head.

Rae moved a step closer and pressed her hands to his chest, her eyes blazing with vehemence. ‘You did nothing wrong,' she repeated, slower than the first time. ‘There was nothing wrong with you. And even though your mother couldn't or didn't love you, Elena did and you have nothing to prove to her. But if you feel that you need to make this deal happen to believe that, then let's make this deal happen. Forget about the cancelled meeting. You'll speak with Lorca tonight at the party instead,' she said simply. ‘All you need is a few minutes to talk through whatever is bothering him and sort it out. I've seen you close deals in less than fifteen minutes, Domenico, so you can do this, no problem. Don't let him cancelling today be a big thing. Take the opportunity to have a day to yourself, to take it easy. Enjoy the island.'

‘I'm not someone who spends a lot of time taking it easy,' he muttered. ‘You should know that.'

‘I do know that. Which is all the more reason to do so now. You've been under a lot of pressure. You need some time to rest and destress so you're relaxed for tonight.'

She might be right, Domenico conceded with his eyes on the water below. He had been pushing himself harder than usual, partly because of this deal but also to avoid dwelling on his grief for Elena and his feelings about Rae's return. Maybe a day of leisurely pursuits would restore him to his usual pragmatic self and release some of the strain from his coiled body.

‘What do you have in mind for this day of relaxation, then?' he asked her.

‘Look at this beautiful island we're on. I'm sure we can come up with a few ideas.'

She smiled up at him, her eyes as blue as the waves rolling into the cove below them, and the tempo of his body shifted once more. Heat crackled in his veins and the simmering frustration melted away, only to be replaced with an entirely more pleasurable burn. They had shared a night of mind-blowing sex but, as satisfying as that reunion had been, Domenico was hungering to do it all over again.

He moved closer, succumbing to temptation and taking possession of her body with his hands. ‘I actually already have a few ideas,' he shared as his fingers loosened the tie at her waist and delved beneath the silky fabric of her bright robe to meet the warm, soft skin beneath. ‘And none of them involve you wearing clothes.'

‘Wow.' Domenico went hard all over as Rae emerged from the bedroom. He'd thought she couldn't look any better than she had that afternoon when they'd spent a few hours on their private beach and she'd played in the waves in an emerald-green strapless bikini. However, in a pale gold sequinned wrap dress, with straps that curled up towards her neck and a neckline that dipped low enough to hint at the full swell of her breasts, she was a sight capable of setting him on fire. ‘You look incredible.'

His eyes devoured every inch of her as his gaze swept from her head to her toes and then back again, a single look not enough. The dress showed off her figure to perfection—her toned legs, the sexy curve of her hips and slim waist, the globes of her breasts. The reaction of his body was immediate, his thoughts leaping ahead to when he could skim his hands across her body and peel away the material, sampling each piece of tender flesh as it was revealed.

‘Is this one of your own designs?'

Colour bloomed in her cheeks. ‘It is. An idea I was experimenting with that didn't quite work out, but I loved it anyway. How could you tell?'

‘I can see your touches in it.' Lightly, he touched the fabric between his fingers and then her, tilting her chin up to accept the graze of his lips. The taste of her as addictive as ever, he had to force himself to take a step back before he started to act on his fantasies and they never made it to the party.

‘The car is outside. We should go. It would be poor form for us to be late.'

The journey to Lorca's home was brief, a short drive along the winding coastal roads with amazing views all around, the rocky outcrops on one side and the drop to the glittering blue waters on the other. It pleased Domenico that he was able to enjoy the view, his relaxed mood a drastic change from the tension that had been simmering in his blood for days, and perhaps weeks.

As much as he wished he could credit himself with the turnaround of his mood, it was Rae who had calmed him, reminding him of who he was and what he was capable of. It was her advice to take the day for himself, which had been the right thing to do, and it was her company that had made the day as fun and relaxing as it had been. It didn't surprise him but it did trouble him because, as his guard dropped, he was revealing more and more of himself to her. His deepest and darkest depths.

Rae had proved to be the balm he'd so desperately needed so he couldn't say he regretted sharing as much as he had, but he detested that she had witnessed him at his most vulnerable, when he was lost in the darkest reaches of his mind. It was not a place that he liked to go to, so to have shown it to her was...unsettling at the very least. He had never wanted anyone to know how damaged he was inside...but now she did. And if that valve on his emotions loosened any further then she would know almost everything, all the ugliness that he wanted to hide.

If their relationship had been secure, perhaps he could live with that, but right now she was his wife in name only. At least that was all she was supposed to be, but he knew a part of him had wanted to open up to her that morning. To let her in that way, to feel more of what he had felt the previous night. The peace that had come from sharing.

‘You need her, Domenico,'Elena had insisted after Rae's departure, as she had tried to encourage him to go after her. ‘You need her.'

He'd denied it being true then, because how weak would a man have to be to admit to needing the woman who had turned her back on him? So, as happy as he was to have her by his side as they exited the car and walked up to Lorca's house, he was determined to resist it again now.

Because she was his wife in name only and in a matter of a few months she would leave Venice and him. So there would be no more sharing of his emotional secrets. The only intimacy they would share from now on would be physical.