After the Storm (All I've Ever Needed) (14 page)

They sat on the sofa replete from the meal, sexual awareness simmering between them, but too full to give in to it.
 
Paul had nailed the Cadbury contract.
 
Though semi-retired and enjoying golf and his much-younger third wife, Paul was the go-to man when the agency needed a big hitter.
 
He was so eloquence, they always said that instead of kissing the Blarney Stone he’d taken a bite out of it.

Later she blamed the darkness and the wine which made her lose her customary inhibitions, but before she knew what she was doing she’d started telling Stephano about her relationship with Michael.
 
Every shameful detail tumbled out, things that she hadn’t told Nathan, things that she had worried about telling Stephano lest it changed his perception of her.

He held her as she cried, stroking her hair softly.

“I still feel sad that he had such a terrible childhood,” she sniffled and blew her nose one last time.

“Even if he had an unhappy childhood, sweetheart, that didn’t give him the right to inflict his pain on you.
 
I hope I never meet that fool,
cara mia
.
 
I will find it difficult not to deliver several punches to his face,” Stephano threatened softly.
 
“He didn’t deserve you.”

“It wasn’t that I didn’t trust you,” she apologized belatedly.
 
“I lost my confidence and when I saw you with Eva…she looked so beautiful and so…”

“And so are you,
cara mia
.”
 
He rubbed his nose against hers.
 
“You’re everything I need in a woman.
 
Beautiful, intelligent…great cook, ”

“And you’re all I’ve ever needed in a man,” she whispered back to him.
 
They were probably lines she’d read or heard sung in a corny love song, but they were appropriate.

“I’m staying the night,
teroso
.”

He didn’t ask for permission.
 
Natalie turned her head on his shoulder and snuggled her face into his neck, grateful that he’d somehow sensed that she needed companionship after stripping away the defenses she had built up over the years and allowing herself to experience the hurt and the pain she’d felt at that time.

She knew with an account as lucrative as the Cadbury’s contract, Stephano would have gone prepared for negotiations to overrun by days, if necessary.
 
He would have packed an extra set or two of fresh clothing in his overnight case.

“We can only help people who want to be helped.”
 
Stephano’s words caressed her ear as he spoke.
 
“Renata’s two previous lovers cheated on her and she couldn’t let the past go and start afresh with me.
 
Even my friends were a threat to her because her last boyfriend cheated on her with a transvestite.
 
I tried to be understanding, but her jealousy would have destroyed both of us if I hadn’t ended the relationship.”

They had more in common than she’d realized, Natalie thought, as she stroked the back of Stephano’s neck soothingly.
 
Though their experiences had been vastly dissimilar, they had both had past lovers with emotional problems.
 
And letting go of Renata hadn’t been easy for Stephano—the remembered pain was there in his voice.

***

Natalie smiled as she watched Stephano unashamedly moisturize his face as she massaged night cream into hers.
 
She’d thought that he would have been in bed, waiting impatiently as she went through her after-shower routine, but he had one of his own.
 
It was to be expected—good looks were an asset in their field of work and flawless grooming was everything.
 
No matter how tired she was, she always cleansed and moisturized before going to bed.

He finished before her, slapping on the moisturizer instead of working it in a massaging motion as she was doing, and came to stand behind her to nibble on her neck.

She had another good few years to worry about wrinkles, she decided, and turned in his arms to kiss him.

Stephano backed her up to the bed and fell onto it with her.

“I’m going to pleasure you until you scream.”
 
He placed her hands above her head and commanded, “Don’t move them!”

“Really?” she challenged his first statement with a laugh.

“Yes,” he confirmed.
 
“Don’t do a single thing.
 
Just close your eyes, lie back and let me do all the work.”

“That sounds easy.”
 
She smiled and closed her eyes obediently.

Stephano started by pressing soft kisses against her forehead and her eyelids, and along her pert nose before kissing her deeply.
 
She wrapped her arms around his neck as he plunged his tongue deep into her mouth.

Reaching up, he placed her hands back against the sheet on either side of her head.

“Leave them there,” he growled as he moved his lips along the curve of her jaw and then slowly across the slender column of her neck.
 
He’d discovered that the side of her neck was particularly vulnerable and he went in for the kill.

“Ah.”
 
Natalie clutched the sides of the pillow beneath her head and tried to stay silent as Stephano sucked on the soft skin of her neck, pulling the flesh into his mouth and teasing it with his tongue.
 
Who would have thought that someone kissing your neck could be so arousing.
 
And trust Stephano to know exactly the right amount of pressure to apply to drive her out of her mind.
 
But it was a contest now and she refused to scream as he had promised she would.
 
Her toes curled and her hips undulated as she tried to contain the sensations.

Stephano cupped her breasts as he moved down the bed, holding her gaze as he began to tweak her nipples firmly.
 
She bit her bottom lip and remained stoic.
 
Stephano smiled as he bent his head and captured her right nipple between his teeth.
 
She lost the battle, gasping as she pressed her head deeper into the pillow, her neck arching.

Forgetting that her hands were supposed to remain where he’d placed them, she cupped his head instinctively as he moved to her other breast.
 
He suckled her gently as his fingers plucked the nipple his lips had abandoned, the moisture making it seem like it was still covered by his lips.

Again her hips undulated instinctively as the emptiness between her thighs begged to be filled.
 
Ignoring her silent plead, Stephano moved further down the bed, wedging his broad shoulder between her thighs and exposing her fully to his gaze, Natalie realized in horror.
 
Instinctively she tried to close her legs.

“Don’t be shy,
mia bella
.” Stephano kept them open effortlessly.
 
“You’re beautiful to me in every way.”

Blushing with embarrassment, Natalie closed her eyes as he dipped his head and kissed the soft skin of her inner thigh.
 
He seemed in no hurry to get to where she wanted him most, turning his head to nibble on the sensitive skin of her other thigh.

“Please,” she begged.
 
He was driving her out of her mind.
 

Stephano obeyed her request but did so slowly, pausing fractions of an inch away from her quivering flesh and breathing her unique perfume before letting his exhaled breath waft teasingly over her.

“Stop!
 
Stop!” she pleaded.

“I haven’t yet started,
cara
,” he told her and repeated the action, holding her in place as she wriggle to escape.

“Aaaah!,” she faked a scream and tried to pull him upwards.
 
“There I’ve screamed.
 
You’ve won.”

“Not…until…you’ve…come,” he replied, punctuating each word with a flick of his tongue before getting down to the serious business of pleasuring her.

“Stephano,” she gasped seconds later as the sensations quickly built to beyond bearing, grasping his head and trying to pull him away.

“Do I tie those hands together, or to the bed,
cara
?” he demanded, looking up at her sternly.

The twinkle in his eyes ruined the effect of the growling threat and instead of fear she felt a thrill of anticipation.

“I’ll behave,” she promised meekly.

But as he lowered his head again, she cupped his head and guided his movements.

Stephano let her direct him, slowing or quickening the caressing movement of his tongue as she indicated with the lessening or increase of pressure of her hand.
 
She made barely audible hissing sounds as her hips circled rhythmically against his mouth.
 
He slid a teasing finger inside her moist heat and far quicker than he had planned, she stiffened and came.

“The next time, I will tie those hand,
cara mia
,” he warned as he moved up to bed and held her close.
 
“And tease you for at least an hour.”

She shivered at his diabolic promise—surely she would die of pleasure.

His erection pressed against her hip,
 
heavy and hard and bursting with unfulfilled need.
 
Suddenly she made a decision—Stephano didn’t deserve to pay for Michael’s sins.
 
She had to give herself to him freely, or not at all.

He deserved to be loved unreservedly, totally.

She pressed against his shoulder as he reached over to grab the box of condoms on the bedside table.
 
His eyes were questioning as she got off the bed and headed to the door.

“Are you…?”
 
His words trailed off as she adjusted the dimmer switch to soften the light in the room.

She held out a hand to him as she approached the bed and he sat up and took it, swinging his legs off the bed and getting to his feet as she stepped backwards.

She heard the sound of the air leaving his lungs sharply as she knelt in front of him and took his erection into her hand.

“You don’t have to do this,
cara
.”
 
His voice was filled with anticipation and excitement, and with the worry that she wasn’t ready for the step she was about to take.

“I know I don’t have to…I want to.”

She could have chosen to do it on the bed or in a different position to the one Michael had forced her into, but this was about confronting the last of her fears—about making it her choice and not someone else’s twisted idea of control.

She closed her eyes, took him into her mouth and heard him gasp.
 
The salty drop that coated her tongue evoked a brief reminiscence of another time, but there was no merciless hand in her hair or cruel voice calling her foul names.
 
There was no feeling of humiliation—only the need to give him pleasure as he had given her.

As it had done earlier in the evening, the darkness cocooned her, taking her outside herself and her inhibitions, and yet keeping her in the moment.
 
She was doing it as much for herself as she was for Stephano.
 
Lovemaking had to be free and joyous, with both parties giving pleasure in any form as long as it didn’t cause harm, or lasting physical or psychological damage.

“This is pure torture, my sweet.”
 
Stephano finally groaned and pulled her gently to her feet.
 
He cupped her face and kissed her softly, his smile a little rueful.
 
“I can’t wait another minute to be inside you.”

She knew what it had cost him to let her fumble her way and it made her heart expand with love for him.

“If you think that was torture,
mio amore
.”
 
She taunted as he tore a condom open and quickly sheathed himself.
 
“Just wait and see.”