Bound By My Scandalous Pregnancy / Redemption Of The Untamed Italian. Clare Connelly
now he’d provided the evidence.
As if I could think of anything else. Feel anything else.
With only one lover in my past, and a fleeting one at that, sex was still a mystery to me—a land whose borders I’d barely breached before retreating, first out of disappointment and then through the sheer strain of holding the tattered rags of my life together.
Now, presented with this tantalising feast, every past experience paled to nothing. My instinct warned that a man like Neo would have more experience in his little finger than I would in my whole body. That this brief taste was merely a drop in the ocean of what he could deliver to the right woman.
Except I wasn’t the right woman.
I was the woman he’d goaded into taking this risky, mind-altering challenge. A challenge whose fire blazed to heights I’d never encountered before.
You can stop. Now.
But his lips were intoxicating. And the way his tongue and teeth and lips commanded mine was intensifying that persistent, needy throb between my legs…
With another moan I locked my hands around his neck, strained even closer to that magnificent body. And gasped when he abruptly pulled back, his hooded eyes darting from my parted lips to clash with mine.
He let out a heavy, unsteady exhale. ‘This isn’t how I foresaw this meeting evolving,’ he rasped.
‘Me neither,’ I muttered.
He gave a short, jerky nod before his fierce gaze bored into mine. ‘Then perhaps it’s best if we draw a line under it,’ he invited.
But the slight clench of his fingers on my hip said that wasn’t what he really wanted. And when his hold loosened, when I sensed he was about to disengage, I clenched my gut against the lash of disappointment and loss.
‘Is that what you want? For me to leave?’
His jaw clenched and that hot gaze locked on my lips. ‘The more important question is, are you ready to let go, Sadie? I ask this because you’re clinging to me as if I’m the last piece of driftwood in your ocean.’
My arms unlocked from around his neck, slow with a helpless need to stay connected, moved down his chest. At his deep shudder a powerful sensation gripped me, along with a twinge of uncertainty barely born, before it was smashed beneath the colossal hunger clawing through me.
I’d never felt anything like this. And the voice inside telling me I never would again birthed a terrifying need to seize this unique experience.
Everything around me was slowly crumbling to dust. My mother’s spiralling gambling. Looming homelessness. The job I no longer had. My own shattered dreams…
A secret fear plagued me in the dead of night. One I’d never admitted to anyone. That perhaps my father was right. That unconditional love was an illusion—an obligation fulfilled only up to a point. Or worse, that I hadn’t been worthy of the effort.
The urgent need simply to forget for a little while longer hooked me with mighty talons, refusing to let go.
‘Say what’s on your mind,’ Neo insisted.
The raw demand in his voice. The turbulent look in his eyes. The edgy hunger in his face. All of them echoed the deep clamouring inside me perfectly. Like two halves of a magnificent, earth-shaking whole. And really, in the desolate landscape of my uncertain future, where and when would I get the chance to experience anything close to this?
‘Maybe I’m not…not ready to let go. Just yet.’
For the briefest moment he hesitated, as if he intended to refuse this…refuse me. More than a little panicked at the thought of being thrust back into my dreary life, I clung to his lapel.
Need smashed through his fleeting resistance.
Decadent headiness filled me, swirling in a sense of triumph I knew it was unwise to savour.
Strong fingers delved back into my hair, impatiently freeing the knot. As if he’d uncovered a wondrous sight, his breath caught as he fingered the long strands. ‘Your hair is like a living flame,’ he rasped, watching the thick tendrils glide over his skin.
The next instant he’d tugged open the button holding my jacket closed, pulled it off and had me back against the sofa, angling his powerful body over mine. I clung tighter to him, revelling in the erotic thrill of his kiss.
A moan ripped free from him as he settled his hips between mine and I felt the full power of his arousal. ‘Theos mou, you’re intoxicating.’
And he was far from lacking in the ultimate manhood stakes.
I wanted to return the compliment, but words failed to form beneath the assault of his touch. His tongue boldly stroked mine, coaxed it into a thrilling dance, and all coherent thought evaporated.
We kissed until we grew breathless, only the need for oxygen driving us apart.
Frenzied seconds ticked away as Neo stared down at me. From unkempt hair to parted lips to strained nipples. There was nowhere to hide my attraction to this man—the last man I should’ve been doing this with.
Whether he felt the same or not became a non-issue as he resolutely levered himself away from me to shrug off his jacket. His tie followed, both tossed away with complete disregard for expense or care.
Hot hands slid around my hips once more, moulded them for an exploratory second before gliding downward, past my thighs and calves to my feet.
He removed and tossed away my shoes. Eyes locked on mine, he conducted the most maddening caress of one foot before digging an expert thumb into the arch.
A melting sensation pooled into my belly, a lusty moan leaving my lips.
For one fleeting moment, his lips twitched, as if he’d gleaned something about me that pleased him.
By the time he was done with paying the same attention to the other foot, my back was arching off the sofa, my whole body caught in waves of pleasure so unique I couldn’t catch my breath.
He caught me in his arms, and sensation, earnest and powerful, overwhelmed me. Neo too, if his almost frenzied need to divest me of my clothing, filling the room with decadent sounds that escalated the passion-infused air, was any indication.
In minutes he’d reduced me to my panties and bra, and his hand was exploring every exposed dip and curve.
He lowered his head. At the thought that he was about to put his lips on my skin for the first time, I blindly reached for him, eager to undress him before I lost the ability to perform the function.
The first few buttons of his shirt came undone, giving me a tantalising glimpse of what lay beneath. But when I reached for the next one, Neo tensed, one hand staying mine.
‘No,’ he rasped, his voice tight.
Before I could question his response, he dropped his head and laid an open-mouthed kiss on the pulse racing at my throat, then counterpunched by grazing his teeth over the sensitive flesh.
‘Oh!’
‘You like that?’
‘Yes!’
His satisfied growl set off cascades of shivers, rendering my nerve endings even more sensitive as he intensified his caress. One hand slid behind my knee, parting my legs so he could mould his lower body to mine, accentuating his lean hips and the powerful outline of his erection. I swallowed, momentarily apprehensive of his overwhelming maleness.
Pausing, his gaze bored into mine. ‘Sadie, do you want this?’
The question was grave, and it also held a warning. He was reaching the end of his tether and he wanted to grant me the opportunity of ending this before insanity spun us completely out of control.
I didn’t want it to end. I was on that same edge.
I