Her eyes fluttered back open.
His face was closer to hers, his eyes so dark it was like gazing into obsidian. His mouth was a set line, the tendons on his neck elongated.
His pace was quickening…and she was quickening too. No matter how desperately she fought her body from betraying her, there was nothing she could do to fight the fizzing flames of sensation building within her with each hard stroke from his strong loins.
She fisted her hands to stop them from acting on the yearn to touch him. It was her last line of resistance, her last defence, because now there was a throbbing deep inside her, and as his breath changed and his thrusts drew even quicker, even harder, there was nothing she could do to stop herself climbing the ascent to an ecstasy so complete her whole body went rigid as she rode its blissful waves and white light flickered behind her eyes.
She was still riding the waves when he gave a long, strangled groan, and then there was a pulsating heat deep within her before he collapsed on her, his sweat-dampened cheek and soft beard pressed tight against her neck.
Chapter Five
To her horror,Gabriella was having to swallow back tears. She was also having to fight back – still – the yearn to wrap her arms around him.
She could feel the strength of Tommaso’s heart pounding against her breast. It made her swallow more tears to know he could feel the strength of her pounding heart too.
It took forever before she was able to speak. “You’re squashing me.”
His face turned. She felt the lightest brush of his lips on her shoulder, and then his weight lifted and he rolled off her and onto his back.
She could breathe no more easily with his weight off her. Without the heat of his body covering her, her skin chilled.
Grasping for the silk bed sheets, she covered herself in them.
“Light off,” he commanded.
Any thought that he was commanding her disappeared when the room plunged into darkness.
The bed moved as he turned his back to her and pulled the covers over himself.
Did he turn his back on all his lovers, she wondered with a stab of that old familiar jealousy, helpless to stop herself fromwondering again how many women had shared this bed before her.
Her thoughts torturously drifted to the huge box of condoms on his bedside table. “Do you usually forget to use protection?” she asked tightly.
“Never.”
“Then why…?”
“You’re going to be my wife, which means you will have my children.”
She turned her face sharply to the back of his head. “You can’t be serious.”
“Trust me, I am. You will have my children, so you can forget any secret plans you might be hatching to one day escape from me.”
Her horror at this was so acute that it took her an age to whisper, “Why would you do that? Why would you bring children into something as poisonous as this?”
“You are mine for life, Gabriella. Or have you forgotten that already?”
“But we can’t bring children into this. It’s not right.”
An edge came into his voice. “Do you forget the rules so quickly? If I didn’t make it clear already, my word is law. You do not get to question me. Now go to sleep.”
The fury and pain twisting in her chest was so strong that for a split second, she wanted to launch herself at him and batter him with her fists. “Ihateyou.”
An instant later, he’d twisted around, his face so close to hers she could feel his hot breath on her skin. “You don’t know what hate is, you treacherous rat,” he said, speaking with such ice it chilled her already cold skin. “I saved your life. You should be on your knees thanking me for my mercy.”
He turned his back to her without another word.
Trembling, her heart in her throat and trembling too, she edged away from him and tried even harder to hold back the threatening tears.
