She pulled the towel off her body and let it slide to the floor.
“Aw, fuck.” Gio captured her lips again, one hand grasped the globe of her ass and fused their bodies.
He kissed her like his life depended on it. Head to the left, then right . . .
Emma snuck her hand into the back of his shorts, felt his cool, damp skin and gave it a squeeze.
Gio pulled at the fastening of her bikini behind her back. Once it was free, he tossed it to the floor and drew both of her breasts into his hands before dipping his lips to each nipple, one at a time.
Her head fell back. “Yes, please.”
He said something in Italian. Something she didn’t understand, but it sounded sexy and feral and made her body warm even more.
Standing was becoming increasingly harder to do. Emma backed up while Gio continued to pull her nipples between his teeth. Once at the bed, he let go long enough for them to fall together.
He kissed her again. “Are you still wet, cara?”
Wiggling her hips, she opened her legs slightly. “You tell me.”
Their eyes met and held as Gio trailed a hand down her stomach, to the edge of her bathing suit, and beneath.
She lost her ability to smile when his fingers swiped past her clit and sunk into the damp folds of her sex. Her back arched and pelvis tilted as he stroked the most intimate part of her body.
Too stunned to do anything but feel, she gripped the bed covering with one hand, and Gio’s hip with the other.
“Yes,” she managed when he played her body like a bass player in a band.
“So responsive,” he said over her lips.
She nodded yes, then no, then yes. She wanted him to continue what he was doing but wanted all of him inside of her more.
Emma lifted her knee enough to feel his erection against her thigh. “All of you, Giovanni. I want all of you.”
“Whatever you want, my darling.”
One more swipe of his fingers, and Gio lifted his body from hers and reached for the bedside table.
As he opened the condom, Emma lifted her hips and removed her bikini bottoms.
He kicked his shorts free and quickly covered himself.
Emma opened in invitation and reached for him.
“I’m going to make love to you slowly the next time . . . and the time after that.”
She nodded. “Okay. But not this time.” Emma took his cock in her hand, smiled at the thickness of him.
His eyes rolled back.
“Not this time,” he repeated.
He plunged in and she couldn’t breathe.
So much, so good.
He held still until she opened her eyes.
Then Gio kissed her and started to move. Together, hips matching the other’s pace.
Emma wrapped her legs around his waist until she felt him hitting the perfect spots. “Just like . . . yes, there.”
“Yes, bella . . . tell me exactly what you need.” He shifted a little to the left.
“No. Other side . . .”
He moved to the right.
“There.” Heat built in waves. She grabbed his ass, pulled him in faster.
Almost there . . .
Each rise and fall brought her closer, so much closer . . . until every internal muscle in her body contracted and she reached the red-hot tip of the fire’s edge and exploded into a million pieces.
She rode the feeling, body pulsing.
Emma dared a look.
Gio smiled down at her, his eyes looked pained. “Better, Emma?”
She gasped and nodded.
He thrust in hard. “Good.”
So deliciously good, she thought as Gio took over.
One minute she was on her back, the next he rolled her over until she was straddling him.
The man wanted his release, she could see that on his face.
But this new angle had some serious possibilities.
Emma sat tall and took even more of Gio inside of her. Yes, yes . . . this was very nice.
He reached for her breasts, squeezed them hard, and ran his hands to her hips, where he guided her.
She kept a tight grip on him from the inside, adding to her pleasure and, from the way he moaned . . . his.
Emma felt a little like a thief as a second wave started to crest.
Gio dove harder, deeper, and by the time her body stopped the spasms, he was calling out her name.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“I don’t know what I was expecting . . . but it wasn’t that.”
Gio dared a look to Emma’s side of the bed, their legs still tangled together, their breathing slowing to a normal pace. “I’ll need you to clarify that as soon as the brain cells return to my head.”
She rolled onto her side and rested her hand on his chest.
Gio pressed his fingers against her hand and held it close.
“Why did we wait?” she asked.
“I can’t remember.”
“Oh, that’s right, you swore off sex.”
He gave her what he thought of as a “snake eye.” “You’re the one that came up with that doomed idea. Not me.”
“I did. With good reason.”
“Which is?”
She raked a fingertip along his chest. “If this had ended up being awful, I’d have to sit on the bus next to you for three weeks, trying to avoid eye contact.”
His smile fell. “I never thought of it that way.”
“Instead, I wasted nearly two weeks of my life in complete sexual frustration.”
“And now, tesoro?”
She placed a kiss on his chest. “Do you think Nicole will be offended if I sneak to your room for the rest of this trip?”
He liked the sound of that.
Gio brushed her hair aside. “I’ll buy her all the wine.”
They stared at each other. “I didn’t expect you, Giovanni.”
“I came here for a wine vacation.” And ended up with so much more.
Her smile fell, briefly, and her eyes flickered. “I, ah . . .”
“What, cara?”
“I’m usually good about setting boundaries before I ever sleep with someone. So that no one gets hurt.”
Gio ignored the tightness in his chest.
“What boundary do you need?”
She eased back slightly. “I’m a strong woman. That puts men off.”
“Because they’re weak.”
There it was . . . the smile he liked so much. “I don’t like games. If you’re out, you say it. Ghosting is for college kids.”
Okay . . . he liked these boundaries.
“I remember what you said about ‘the one,’ and I’m not her.”
Gio felt her stiffen beside him.
She looked away. “I don’t want you believing this is the beginning of forever.”
When her eyes looked back to him, they’d hardened ever so slightly. Like she was building back up the walls she’d lost as they had made love. “What is this the start of, then?” he challenged.
She swallowed. “I don’t know. I do know that the thought of getting married again makes me physically ill. I don’t see that changing.”
Gio dissected her words, her body language . . . and the meaning behind both. The fact that she remembered their conversation about his desire to find his future sat squarely in the middle of his head . . . and if he were honest, his heart. Did she want this encounter to stay in Italy? He didn’t sense that.