A Dark Sicilian Secret(20)

“It hadn’t been my intention, but if you’re eager—”

“Not at all.”

“—and desirous of being my obedient, obliging wife—”

“That’s the furthest thing from my mind.”

“—then you can pleasure me. I appreciate that you are so sensitive to my needs.”

She flushed furiously, her pale cheeks flooding with bright crimson color. “You have many needs, if I recall.”

He took a step toward her. “And you begged for it every single time.”

Undaunted, she took a step toward him. “You flatter yourself.”

“No, if you recall, you flattered me. You were amazed at what my body could do and how I could make you feel. You wanted to know if all men were as well endowed as me, and if others could last so long. You were nearly always reverent when you took me into your mouth—”

“I was tired of being a virgin. I wanted knowledge and experience. You gave it to me. But I’ve been with other men now. I know what others can do, and oh, can they do.”

He took another step toward her and once again she moved closer, chin lifted, eyes bright and challenging. She was deliberately provoking him, daring him to lose control. He was getting close to losing control, too, intensely aware of the hot lick of testosterone, and the primitive drive of an animal hunting prey.

“And what can they do?” he murmured, so very aroused.

She held her ground, chin high, eyes bright as she breathed in and out in short, jerky gasps that made her breasts rise and fall beneath the ugly black blouse. Her cheeks were a vivid pink. “They make me moan and scream,” she threw at him.

“Really?”

“Mmm. And the good ones can make me come multiple times.”

This was a fine wedding day, wasn’t it? “You’ve really gotten around.”

“Why not? I wasn’t your woman.”

“But you are now.” He reached out an arm, and catching her low around her waist, drew her toward him.

And with his body hot, his groin hard, he roughly slipped his finger between the buttons at her breastbone and popped the first button off. “Just as you always will be,” he said, moving down a button and popping that one off, too. “So let’s dispense with this blouse, shall we?”

Her lips now were nearly as pink as her cheeks. “Why don’t you just lift my skirt and get this over with?”

She spit the words at him as if she could shame him.

He wouldn’t be shamed though. He remembered how they’d been together. Intense, physical, passionate.

“Why rush our pleasure?” he asked, reaching out to touch one of the loose blond waves that now fell past her shoulders.

She stared him in the eye, her expression disdainful. “You wouldn’t know how to pleasure me if you tried.”

“Why do you want to provoke me?”

“Not trying to. Just stating facts.”

Facts. His lip curled ever so slightly.

Despite everything, she was still determined to play a game with him, something he found both disturbing and intriguing.

She was either incredibly brave or ridiculously foolish. He wasn’t a man to toy with. She had to know that. So why dangle her adventures with other men before him? Why throw his so-called inadequacies in his face?

Brave or foolish, she did intrigue him.

She’d intrigued him in Istanbul and then she’d intrigued him in Bellagio and now here she was, cornered on his plane, his ring on her finger, mocking him. Challenging him. Attempting to defy him.

Interesting, so interesting because so few people tried to defy him, much less a slim scrap of woman who didn’t even reach his shoulder. Jill Smith was a complete enigma. She was small and fine-boned and yet so very fierce. She had a heart-shaped face, heartbreakingly high cheekbones and fire in her eyes. She flung her head back as if she were a tigress and to draw blood she talked of other men.

Of other men pleasuring her. Of other men making her moan and scream.

He should want to crush her. He should want to teach her a lesson.

But he didn’t. Because he also knew that beneath her fire and fury there was terrible sadness.

He’d sensed it that first night they were together and then nearly every night after they’d made love, she would wrap her arms tightly around him and cling tight. Clinging as if her life depended on it.

He held her against him, her cheek pressed to his chest, and he’d stroke her hair again and again until she fell asleep.