That night, as they entered the dark hotel room, he found himself thinking of the man who had been so…attentive.
“Ernesto Ruzzo seemed very taken with you,” he said, keeping his voice even as they walked into the living room, lit by the lights that glowed through the French doors.
She shrugged. “We met back in Nice, too, actually.”
“He seemed to especially appreciate your dress. Particularly the cut of the neckline.” Alessandro complimented himself silently on the way he kept his voice perfectly even.
Ann-Sophie rolled her eyes. “Or maybe he just enjoyed my sparkling conversation.”
“Those possibilities are not mutually exclusive,” he said darkly.
Tension in his body rose, and for one short moment, he asked himself why he needed to keep up this control. What would happen if he simply let his emotions rule? But he knew the answer. As a teen the results were destructive but not irrevocable. But he was an adult, and with the power and attention he wielded, he could scorch the earth, wreaking havoc on everyone around him. Massimo. The baby.Ann-Sophie.
She was studying him, and she sighed. “Fine. I did notice that he might have been distracted by my breasts a few times, but I thought it was harmless because I am quite visibly pregnant with your child right now.”
“Men like that might see your situation as an invitation rather than an obstacle.”
“Men like that…?” She stopped, as if she was considering a new possibility. “Are you jealous?”
Alessandro shoved away the swell of emotions building inside him and frowned. “Cautious.”
That was the most generous word for what he was feeling right now.
“I don’t appreciate my behavior being monitored,” she said pointedly, and he braced himself for what was next. “But I suppose we both have our demons to struggle with. If we’re going to marry, we need to find a way to work together. Support each other.”
She gave him a wicked smile that brought him back to one particularly satisfying night in Nice. And then, right there in the living room, she got down on her knees in front of him with a hot burn of desire in her eyes that told him exactly what she meant bysupport each other.
Alessandro knew he should stop her. He knew mixing jealousy and sex was a dangerous game when his control he kept on such a tight leash seemed to be slipping. Yet, he couldn’t bring himself to stop it.
“I want to see your breasts.” He gritted out the words. “I also find this dress incredibly distracting.”
Her wicked smile grew as she slipped the dress off one shoulder, then the other, exposing her generous breasts. He groaned and leaned back against the wall. She turned her attention to his trousers, unfastening them. Then she pulled out his length and licked him, provoking a euphoric shudder so strong his legs shook. She took him in his mouth, and all his tension and jealousy was turning to fire inside him as he watched her pleasure him. Finally, he was allowed to lose control. But he held on to this feeling as long as he could until it was too much, and he came, trembling, leaving him rattled him to the core. He reached down to caress Ann-Sophie’s face as he reined in his harsh breaths. Then he lifted her from the ground, and let her to their bed.
“Sit. Please.” The words were tight as the need built so precipitously, impossibly fast. She sat on the edge of the bed, and he kneeled in front of her. He moved her panties to the side and found she was warm and so ready for him. So he teased her, letting her gasps spur him until she was crying with pleasure. Then he got to his feet and entered her. He slid in, relishing in how wet she was, how ready she was. She opened her eyes and met his gaze, and he felt a tightness in his chest so strong he had to look away. Instead, he moved, pleasuring her until she arched her back and let herself be washed away is ecstasy. And only after she whimpered and cried out his name did he allow himself to go over the edge again.
Chapter Nine
THE MORNING OFthe wedding, Ann-Sophie sat in her favorite chair in her favorite alcove of the library. A book lay open on her lap, but she was staring out the window at the town below and the narrow road that curved through the olive grove and out of sight. Alessandro had left on that road in the blur of the early morning.
“I have something I must do,” he had said vaguely, and she had been too tired to do anything but nod. Now, she wished she had pressed him or said…something. Because today was their wedding day.
He had left like this a handful of times over the last month since she had arrived. And while he had kept his promise to always tell her when he left, with each departure, she had felt acutely aware of how much she didn’t know about him. How much he still kept closed off from her. Alessandro had hinted that after the wedding, when he returned to the travel schedule he usually kept, his absences would be more frequent. So she knew the ache of his absence would only grow stronger.
But he wouldn’t disappear, she reminded herself, and the baby would not grow up with the ache inside that she had felt, searching for a father that would never be there. A want that had sometimes felt like a need.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the creak of a door and the tap of footsteps on stone. Ann-Sophie’s heart took off the way it always seemed to do when she thought of Alessandro. She turned and found not Alessandro, but Massimo’s wife walking toward her. Ann-Sophie blinked in surprise. They had not formally met, and yet Massimo and Catarina’s relationship had been documented by the paparazzi well enough that Ann-Sophie knew her on sight.
“Ann-Sophie? I’m Catarina.” Her voice was enchantingly melodic, and Ann-Sophie was reminded of Catarina’s famous mother, the so-called Nordic siren, known for her own captivating voice before her sharp decline into cancer. The loss must weigh heavily on Catarina, Ann-Sophie thought. And suddenly the woman in front of her felt much less like the glamorous and notoriously reclusive heiress that had made a splash in the tabloid not so long ago and more like any other person whose life was subject to the same whims of fate as everyone else.
“I’m glad to finally meet you in person. I’d get up but—” Ann-Sophie gestured to her very present belly. “I’m sorry you arrived when Alessandro isn’t here.”
“Please don’t get up,” said Catarina with a laugh and sat in the chair next to her. “I’m here to see you, but I hope I’m not disturbing you.”
Ann-Sophie shook her head and set her book on the wooden table next to her. “My mind has been wandering all morning.”
Catarina beamed. “Because you’re getting married today.”
Ann-Sophie pushed aside the last of her uneasiness and let herself get carried away by the excitement in Catarina’s voice. Today was herwedding day.
