Veretti’s Dark Vengeance (10 page)

Instead, she paid him back in kind, letting her fingers find the place at the back of his neck where she knew he was sensitive. She’d learned it last time and now she used it to the full, relishing the sensation of his response, which he could no more hide than she could hide her own. He drew back a little, gazing down on her, his breath coming harshly.
‘Don’t stop,’ she whispered.
At once he dropped his head so that his mouth was against her neck, leaving a trail of heat and excitement wherever it moved. Her neck was long, swan-like, and he paid it the tribute of total attention, taking his time, not moving on until he was sure of her pleasure.
‘Helena…’ His voice sounded as she had never heard it before.
‘Yes,’ she murmured.
But suddenly there was a slight bump as the gondola came to a halt.
‘We’ve reached the hotel,’ Salvatore said raggedly. ‘We have to become respectable citizens again.’
She clutched him. ‘I’m not sure I can manage that.’
‘Neither am I, but we’ll have to pretend.’
He began to fasten her buttons. His hands were shaking.
‘I think I’m just about ready,’ she breathed.
‘Then come with me.’
Somehow they managed to walk sedately into the Illyria and across the lobby. In the elevator they stood side by side, not daring to touch each other until they were safely in her room. Then it was unsure which of them moved first, but they were in each other’s arms, kissing fiercely, desperately.
He began pulling away her clothes, tossing them onto the floor. The buttons on his shirt opened easily, revealing the chest beneath, thickly haired, rough to the touch, exciting.
There were no lights on in the room but outside the room lightning was beginning to flash. Boats passed, their lights gleaming through the windows, then gone again. Here in the bedroom her body flared into new life with every touch.
She leaned back until she could feel her own long hair touch her waist, while his kiss went lower, between her breasts, and she clasped her hands about his head, unable to suppress a groan of pleasure.
The warmth that suffused her went to every extremity, melting her will, making it one with his own until she had nothing left to hope for except that this should last for ever.
Which was exactly what he’d wanted.
The words were like a shriek in her head, warning that this was still and always a struggle for supremacy, and their fierce sexual attraction was simply another weapon for each to use against the other, at its most deadly when at its most glorious.
Her violent excitement began to die as a chill of doubt went through her. It was so long since a man had taken her to bed that now she faced the prospect like a virgin. She’d enjoyed the mounting passion, the teasing and enticement, but as she neared the moment of truth she knew she was afraid.
‘What is it?’ he asked, feeling her grow tense.
‘Nothing, it’s just-give me a moment. No-no!’ The cry was drawn from her as she felt his lips against her skin again. ‘Let me go.’
He released her so suddenly that she staggered and had to clutch him to avoid falling. Desperately she realised that her legs were now too weak to support her without his help.
‘You pick this moment to say let you go?’ he demanded harshly.
‘I can’t help it,’ she gasped. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t go on. This isn’t-what should be happening.’
‘I’d love to know what “should be happening” according to that cunning little brain of yours. Look at me!’
He gave her a little shake that forced her to meet his eyes with their look of grim condemnation.
‘What should be happening, Helena? Should I just trail forlornly away like a whipped puppy because you’ve decided against me? If you thought that you were deluding yourself. I’ve warned you before not to take me on. You were very foolish to ignore that warning.’
‘It’s not as you think-’ she cried.
‘Be glad you don’t know what I’m thinking right now. It would make you shiver. Who did you think you were dealing with?’
‘It’s just that I’m not quite ready-’
‘Don’t play the innocent with me. You knew what was going to happen when you walked through that door. You knew before that, in the gondola, back at the restaurant-unless I misunderstood what we were talking about.’
‘Let go of my arms,’ she said desperately. ‘Salvatore, I mean it. Let me go now.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
TO HER relief Salvatore released her. She backed away from him towards the tall window, but he followed her, speaking in a harsh, ragged voice.
‘You didn’t come up here with me expecting to hold hands.’ Suddenly his eyes narrowed and he drew a sharp, angry breath. ‘Dio mio, I was right about you all the time. You planned this whole thing, you scheming, spiteful little tease. Is this how you get your perverted pleasure?’
She was about to try to explain, to defend herself, but she was stopped by a flash of lightning that came through the window, illuminating the room for a second, then vanished. In that dazzling moment she saw the man standing close to her, the magnificence of his naked body.
Her mind was sharp with bitter irony. This was the moment that had haunted her thoughts and her fevered sensations, when she would see the truth about him, finally discovering if her fantasies had been correct. And they were. He was everything she’d hoped, his legs as long and muscular, his stomach as flat, his buttocks as taut.
She saw the arousal he was fighting to control, fierce, threatening, promising. His chest was rising and falling as though the effort to stay in command of his desires was torturing him, but there would be no yielding, for this man never yielded either to himself or another.
Here was the fulfilment of the dreams she’d barely admitted to herself, and it had happened now, at the worst possible moment. For above all she saw the terrifying look on Salvatore’s face; a look of sheer, murderous hatred.
It was like finding herself in an alien world. What she was seeing in him now was no mere annoyance at last-minute frustration; rather it was as though he’d been taken over by another man, one driven by deep, violent feelings beyond her experience.
Common sense warned her to end this quickly, calm him down, get rid of him as soon as possible, but she had the sensation of standing in the middle of a furnace. Far from being frightening, it was exhilarating, rousing her temper to match his, carrying her to unpredictable heights. Common sense couldn’t compete.
‘I planned nothing,’ she snapped. ‘But you’re so eager to think the worst of me that you twist everything.’
‘What do I need to twist? You’ve sent me one message throughout the evening and a different one now, and I guess I know why. This is how you operate, isn’t it? Teasing a man, hoping to drive him into a frenzy?’
Temper drove her to say defiantly, ‘What do you mean, hoping? I’ve never had any difficulty.’
She made the words deliberately incendiary. It was madness to provoke him, but she was too angry to think straight.
‘Is that how you get your fun?’ he sneered. ‘How many men have you driven to the edge before you give yourself to them?’
There was a perverse pleasure in knowing that she’d confirmed his opinion of her. The madness that possessed her now drove her to needle him further.
‘I never give myself,’ she said deliberately, knowing he would understand the hidden meaning. ‘That part of me is my own exclusive property, and you won’t come close to it.’
‘You’re wrong,’ he murmured. ‘You’ll offer it to me, I promise you.’
‘No, you mean you’ll take it,’ she accused him.
‘I never do that. Any fool can take. The pleasure is when you offer-even against your own will. You’ll end by giving me everything I want, and begging me to take more.’
‘Try me.’
‘Is that a challenge? Because I’m going to accept it.’
Moving fast, he slipped his arm around her waist and tightened it so that she was held prisoner, her skin against his, the feel of his arousal between her legs, reminding her that this could only end one way.
She pressed her hands against his chest, trying to push him away, but the attempt was feeble. Her will was divided, and he must have known that, for he didn’t yield an inch.
‘Too late,’ he whispered. ‘You shouldn’t have dared me to try you if you didn’t mean it. Challenge given and accepted.’
Only a few moments ago fear had undermined her desire, but anger had mysteriously brought it flooding back, and now it was stronger than herself. Her breathing came heavily, so that her breasts with their peaked nipples rose and fell against him, telling him everything she would have gladly denied.
‘Why are you angry with me, Helena?’ he murmured. ‘We’re playing your game, your way, your rules.’
‘My rules,’ she managed to say. ‘Then I can change them whenever I like. You’ll never keep up with me.’
‘Try me.’ He echoed her own words back to her.
He was moving as he spoke, drawing closer to the bed. She braced herself, expecting him to toss her onto her back and hold her down. Instead he lay full length and pulled her on top of him in a way that took her by surprise, giving the illusion of freedom, but only the freedom to writhe against him.
‘What do the rules say now?’ he asked.
She answered him, not in words but by fastening her mouth over his. Now all thoughts of the role she was playing fell away and she was driven by blind instinct. He was a man with a demonic power to seduce a woman, and that power was enticing her along unfamiliar paths to a new destination. It might not be wise to follow the lure but she was beyond rational thought, obeying the demands of her body.
For so long she had fought those demands, pretended they no longer existed, fooled herself that they were conquered for ever. Now that delusion was crumbling in flames. She wanted this man and no other, wanted what he could do to her and for her, and she wouldn’t settle for less.
She moved a hand over him, reaching down until she could feel him, fierce and rock-hard between her fingers. There was might and power there, and the need to have him inside her was intolerable.
He touched her breast, pushing her slightly away so that he could see her face as though there was something he needed to know, then increasing the pressure until she was on her back.
As his knee came between hers, separating her legs, she had a last look at his face, and what she saw there surprised her. The hard look was gone, replaced by something that might almost have been confusion: no triumph, just a searching gaze as though he too was in an unknown land.
Then he was completely over her, urging her legs further apart until she could feel him seeking entry, finding her, driving into her with a ruthless power that sent her spinning into space. She groaned with the strangeness of it, but that was followed at once by the certainty that this was right. This had been inevitable since the dawn of time.
He was moving inside her, slowly, prolonging pleasure with infinite control, taking her deeply, then more deeply until there seemed no corner of her that he couldn’t claim. She was burning up, going out of her mind with pleasure so intense that it was unbearable.
She clasped her legs behind him, then her arms, taking him prisoner and crying out to him to make this last for ever. She had a terrible feeling that it would soon be over and she couldn’t bear that. She thrust herself back at him with all her strength, seeking more and then more, until the moment came and it was like annihilation.
She returned to the world to find that her heart was thundering wildly, and nothing was as it had been before. Nothing would ever be the same again.
She was lying on her back, one arm flung over her eyes, which she kept closed. She could sense Salvatore near her but for a while she needed to be alone with herself, free from his gaze that saw too much. What had happened inside her was as alarming as it had been glorious, and he was the last person in the world who could be allowed to suspect.
She took a few slow breaths to calm herself and slip into the character she wanted to present. Then she opened her eyes to find him sitting on the bed, watching her.
‘Well?’ he asked wryly. ‘Are you going to deny that I won?’
‘You won nothing,’ she said quickly. ‘In here-’ she tapped her breast ‘-nothing. Because there’s nothing there to win.’
He placed his hand over her breast where her heart was still pounding.
‘A machine,’ she told him defiantly. ‘Nothing else. Ever.’
‘That isn’t true,’ he said slowly. ‘Why are you pretending?’
‘I’m not pretending, Salvatore. A machine.’ She managed a little scornful laugh. ‘Don’t scowl. Think how useful a machine will be to you. No inconvenient emotions, no tears when it’s over, a woman who knows the rules and doesn’t ask for more. No different from a man, really.’
‘You’re already planning for the end?’ he queried lightly.
She shrugged. ‘Everything ends, although not too soon, I hope.’
He inclined his head. ‘You’re too kind.’
She yawned and stretched, the very picture of a woman luxuriating in sensual delight. ‘We have nothing to do but please ourselves.’
‘I take it you have no complaints?’
Her lips twitched. ‘None that I can think of. If I do, I’ll let you know.’
He laughed outright at that.
‘Perhaps I should be going now,’ he said. ‘I’d be reluctant to cause a scandal.’
He waited for her to ask him to stay, but she said nothing. Her eyes were blank and he realised, with a sense of shock, that she was simply waiting for him to leave.
He switched on a bedside light so that he could hunt for his discarded clothes, then dressed quickly, meaning to head out of the door, but at the last minute something held him back to ask in sudden concern, ‘Are you all right?’
The life returned to her eyes. ‘Never better,’ she assured him brightly. ‘But now I really must get some sleep. Close the door quietly.’
‘I will.’ But still he didn’t move. ‘Helena-’
She yawned. ‘Oh, dear, excuse me, I’m so sleepy.’
‘Goodnight,’ he said, and departed.
When he’d gone she didn’t move but lay staring at the ceiling trying to come to terms with what had happened. Her flesh was still thrumming with pleasure and satiation. Part of her ached to have him back, to pull him down into bed with her and let him bring her body the ecstasy that had come as a revelation.
The other part of her wanted to flee Venice, flee Salvatore, flee the joyous prospect that had opened up before her, because she was no longer sure she had the courage to confront its dangers. She was lonely, but to be lonely was to be free. To get closer to Salvatore was to risk loving him, and that would be the greatest disaster of all.
High above on the ceiling nymphs chased each other, laughing as they darted here and there, exchanging looks that were meant to tease and allure, until the moment would come when the chase ended in delight.