She lifted a shoulder minutely. ‘Since you’ve been here you haven’t been behaving like a spoiled brat. Wrecking the place. Hosting debauched parties.’
His mouth twitched. ‘Is that what playboys do?’
Lili blushed and shrugged. ‘I wouldn’t really know, it’s just what I’ve seen in the papers. But I get it, maybe it suits to have everyone believe you’re not interested in anything permanent or serious.’
‘Says my wife,’ he responded. ‘You can’t get more permanent than that.’
‘Yes, but it’s not real, is it?’
‘What wasn’t real about what happened last night? That’s the most real thing I’ve felt in a long time.’
Lili looked at him. Messily, sexily tousled hair. The short beard hugging his jaw looking deliciously unkempt. Silver eyes. That twitch on his mouth. Maybe she was the fool here, and maybe he was as debauched as the next playboy, laughing at her earnestness and already planning his escape back to his exciting world, after he’d done the deed to protect his inheritance.
‘You mean since the night before you came back to the villa?’
He frowned at her and then his expression became enigmatic. ‘You looked me up.’
‘Of course I did. You’re my boss.’
‘Wasyour boss. And what did you find?’
Lili was sorry she’d started this now. But there was no escape. She was literally naked, beside an equally naked Cassian.Cass.
‘I saw pictures of you at an event in Rome, with a woman.’
‘And you put two and two together and came up with five.’
‘Are you saying you weren’t with her?’
‘Oh, I was with her…as my date. But the truth was that she bored me to tears. We left the event separately.’
Lili hated how the constriction in her chest eased. ‘It’s none of my business.’
‘No,’ he agreed. ‘But as my wife now you’re due a certain consideration.’
Lili’s heart thumped. ‘You’re saying you’ll be discreet…the next time you take a lover.’ Because of course he would be taking a lover. Hadn’t they already agreed to this?But that was before you slept together,pointed out a little voice.
‘Right now there’s only one lover in my life and contrary to popular opinion I’m not in the habit of taking multiple lovers at the same time.’
But then he said, ‘I meant what I said, Lili, I made a vow to myself a long time ago to not let anyone get too close. That hasn’t changed. I know that your first time can be…intense. It’s easy to imagine that emotions are involved and what happened between us was powerful.’
Lili went cold inside. He was telling her not to fall for him. Because she was gauche and inexperienced and naive. She pulled back a little and affected as airy a tone as she could. ‘You’re forgetting that I walked away from my own family, I made a choice not to let anyone close too.’
‘Good, then we’re on the same page.’
But in spite of her brave words, Lili had a feeling that she wasn’t so sure of anything anymore.
Cassian reached over and held his hand over where Lili was clutching the sheet to her chest. He said, ‘May I?’
The coldness inside her started to melt. Weakly she nodded her head. Cassian pulled the sheet down, exposing her to his gaze. He looked at her belly. Her very average and slightly soft belly. His eyes flared with heat.
He looked into her eyes. ‘Can I put my hand on you?’
Lili nodded. She lay back. Cassian put his hand on her belly, fingers spread out. Then, he leant forward and put his mouth on her shoulder and then on her breast…finding her pebbled nipple.
Meanwhile his hand moved down, over her belly and down further, between her legs. Fingers seeking and finding the secret folds of her flesh where the pulse throbbed and where an ache was already building. She parted her legs, allowing him full access.
Her back arched as he inserted two fingers. And this time, when he moved over her body and she looked up at him before he joined them, Lili realised that she felt no fear at all, just a growing insatiable hunger.
