me to be your wife and I accepted. You cannot hide things from me now. I want to share everything, Raphael, the good and the bad, with you.
I want to be here when you need me, just as you were there for me when I needed you.”
She had no idea if she had gotten across to him. But when he raised his head and looked down at her, there was a dark glitter in his eyes. “There is something I need from you tonight. Will you give it to me?”
“Si. Anything.”
“Undo my cuffs.”
Taking his left wrist in her hands she undid the cuff links. And then repeated the same with the other hand. He unbuttoned his shirt and threw it off those broad shoulders. The sight of his lean chest with all his skin stretched taut over it made Pia tremble.
“Take off your clothes for me.”
Instantly, Pia froze. “Here?”
“Here. Now.”
“You did say anything,” the devil said, taunting her.
She tilted her head. “Bene.”
If this was what he wanted, then he would get it. She held his gaze, letting the slumbering heat in it drive her. She trusted Raphael with everything she had in her, so her shyness, her insecurity about her body, was nothing but a small barrier to cross.
She moved her hand to the zipper hiding on the side of her dress and pulled it down. The quiet rasp of it was loud in the silence.
Her movements were clumsy when she pulled the straps down. Dark eyes watched her the whole time and flared when the silky material fell to her hips and her breasts were bared. Pia shivered, less from the breeze that flew over her heated skin and more from the dark hunger in his eyes.
Her breasts felt heavier, the nipples turning into aching points as his gaze lingered there with barely hidden fascination.
“Push it down all the way. And step out of it.”
Pia did as he bid, the last of her shyness leaving her at his quicksilver reaction. He was right. She had just as much power as he did in this situation. Her dress whispered to the floor, and still in her heels, she kicked it away.
She lifted her chin, daring him to go on, even as a thousand butterflies danced in her belly. His gaze moved from her breasts to her midriff and then lower. The flimsy white underwear she wore did nothing to hide her from him.
“Are you wet for me?”
Heat burst inside of her like a hot geyser, spreading to every nerve ending. “Raphael, per favore...”
“I wish to know, bella.”
“I’m ready for you. I was ready for you when I saw you leaning against that pillar. When the Duke mercilessly seduced Gilda. When Rigoletto hired that assassin. When Gilda sacrificed herself for her unscrupulous lover. There, are you satisfied? Can you please take me to bed now?”
“Not yet.” A silky smile curved his mouth. It seemed he was bent on pushing her to the edge now. “Come here and undress me.”
She blinked.
He raised his brows. “I would like to be naked now, Pia.”
She would not admit defeat tonight.
She walked toward him, stopped when the scent of him coiled through her veins. His trousers did nothing to hide his need for her. Swallowing, she set her fingers to work undoing his fly and then sliding them under the elastic band of his boxers pushing both of them down.
The turgid length of his erection sprang free, the soft head flicking her palm. Her sex clenched, and a gasp emanated from the depths of her.
It was all she could do to pull her gaze away from it and lift it to his face. He stepped out of his trousers and flicked them to the side with his feet, bold and utterly masculine. “Remember what you offered that night in the study? Is it still on, Pia?”
Just the thought of it made her skin tighten over her muscles. “Yes, the offer is still on.”
Holding his dark eyes, she sank to her knees. His erection lengthened even before she touched it, sending a surge of power through her. Whatever it was that he thought she was not equal to, she would prove him wrong.
She was more than enough woman for Raphael Mastrantino.
“I want to make every fantasy of yours come true, Raphael. So you have to tell me if I do this right or wrong, si?”
Raphael’s heart pounded in his chest as Pia obediently sank to her knees. Dio mio, he’d been angry at Allegra’s latest trick to get custody of Alyssa.
After all her affairs, to claim that he was not a suitable father... His mood had instantly darkened. And when Pia so innocently offered to share his worries, he had worked himself to a dangerous edge.
He had only issued his command as a dare. As a way for him to fight the all-encompassing emotion he was beginning to recognize in her gaze. To bring this thing between them back into his control. Because, sometime between beginning the evening with Gio’s ring in his pocket and ending it with Pia telling him that she wanted just him, something had changed.
Even with Allegra’s ridiculous claim, he still had everything he had ever wanted. So where was this dread in his heart coming from?
Any further thought on the matter shredded into nothingness when Pia took him in her hands and closed her calloused fingers around his shaft. His breath left him in a sibilant hiss when she stroked his rigid length in slow, cautious, almost-feathery movements.
Hair like a golden cloud around her face, the line of her spine a sensuous path, she had never looked more beautiful.
His nerve endings fired at her inexperienced, innocent touch, more than with any practiced lover’s caress.
He looked down, hoping that the wide-eyed innocence of her face would smash his dark mood. But instead he found her opening that pink mouth wide and dipping it toward his erection.
His heart thumped against his rib cage.
Her small breasts with their pink-tipped nipples. Her toned thighs tensing at her stance.
It was an image that made him far readier than he wanted to be, after a month of deprivation.
At the first slide of the welcoming wet warmth of her mouth over his length, his hips thrust forward. A thrill ran up the back of his thighs pooling in his groin. He cursed hard and long, sweat beading along his skin.
The sound of her soft sucks sizzled amidst his harsh breaths.
Dio mio, had she any idea how she was destroying him?
A soft gasp fell from her mouth as he thickened a little more. Fingers delicately wrapped at the base of the shaft, she looked up at him, liquid desire making her eyes look like warm inviting pools.
“Am I pleasing you, Raphael?” Christo, even her question was artless. She did really want to please him. Not as a challenge, not for a dare. Not to prove to herself or to him that she had power over him.
But for the simple reason that his pleasure mattered to her. This intimacy between them meant something to her.
More turned on than he had ever been in his life, he sank his hands into her hair and guided her mouth the way he wanted it. Told her how much pressure he wanted and where he wanted it. Told her to use the slide of her silky tongue against his length.
As if she was one of her dedicated pupils that she often talked about, Pia followed his instructions to the letter. Soon, he was reaching the edge and the last thing he wanted to do was terrify her by pushing this into something else. He knew what it had taken her to accept his challenge. What she’d had to overcome because she wanted to please him more.
And that blunted the edge of his desire more than anything else. Wrapping his fingers around her wrists, he pulled her up roughly, lifted her in his arms and