Mills & Boon Stars Collection: Sinful Proposals: Seduced into Her Boss's Service / Wearing the De Angelis Ring / The Surprise De Angelis Baby

Sunny laughed and then looked at him with narrowed, amused, speculative eyes. ‘You’re really arrogant, aren’t you...?’

Stefano frowned, taken aback by her blunt criticism. It was rare for him to meet a woman who wasn’t either intimidated by him or else desperate to impress him. With the exception of his mother.

‘I don’t mean to be offensive,’ Sunny hurriedly expanded, ‘but there’s no way I could ever get involved with someone as rich and powerful and driven as you...’

‘Since when are money and ambition turn-offs?’ he asked incredulously.

‘When I was thirteen,’ she mused, looking back into the past, ‘I got a scholarship to go to one of the top boarding schools in the country. I met lots of girls there who...came from gilded circles, probably just like you. They talked very loudly in cut-glass accents and laughed a lot and flirted like mad with all the boys. What they would have wanted to end up with would have been someone rich and powerful and driven. If I ever find my soulmate, he probably won’t have much money and he’ll be kind and thoughtful and measured...’ And he’ll have to be able to do what you’re doing now...he’ll have to be able to fire me up until I feel like I can’t breathe for the excitement...

‘Forgive me while I stifle a yawn.’

Sunny wanted to be angry at the casual way he had dismissed her heartfelt dreams but when she caught those dark, amused eyes she felt her lips twitch.

‘Thoughtful and kind can be very sexy traits.’ She lowered her eyes, while the heat of their mutual chemistry sizzled around them.

‘Maybe,’ Stefano murmured. ‘But in the meanwhile...’ He tugged her to her feet and she bumped against his hard, muscular body.

She knew this was what it must feel like when swooning women said that they went up in flames.

Her whole body was burning, on fire. Her nipples, scraping against her bra, felt insanely sensitive and the dampness between her legs was hot and slick, making her want to reach beneath her underwear so that she could rub herself out of her wet discomfort.

‘Yes?’ she squeaked, as far removed from the efficient and sexless professional she assumed herself to be as was possible.

‘Let me show you what someone raw and elemental can do for you...’

CHAPTER SEVEN (#ubfc19862-7ed4-570d-b85c-1f1a70f41a77)

‘WHAT ABOUT FLORA?’ It sounded like a last-ditch chance to back off and Stefano looked at her with a shuttered expression, as though he could read straight into her mind and pull the thoughts from her head.

‘Cold feet?’ he asked, without bothering to beat around the bush.

‘No!’

‘Sure about that?’

‘One hundred per cent sure.’

‘Even though I’m not the sort of person you should get involved with?’

‘This isn’t about involvement, is it?’ Sunny could scarcely believe she was saying this stuff. She’d done a complete U-turn in the space of a heartbeat. She would never have imagined for a second that lust could be this powerful—powerful enough to bring all her well-laid plans crashing to the ground.

But she was safe emotionally and for that she was grateful. Her body might be clamouring for adventure but her heart was still switched on enough to know that the real guy for her would not be Stefano Gunn or anyone like him.

‘It’s just...a one-night stand...’ She thought of her fumbling, embarrassing forays into sex, when she had been going out with John. If she’d had the slightest amount of experience she would have known that the missing link had been...this. The missing link had been the wild beating of her heart, the aching of her body, the searing excitement at the thought of being touched...

If she’d had the slightest amount of experience, she would have realised that what made perfect sense on paper didn’t necessarily translate into perfect sense in practice.

She was here, barely able to breathe for the excitement, and she knew that this would have to be part of the equation when she met any man she felt she could have a long-term relationship with.

It wasn’t just about personality but it was about this as well, without which the personality on its own didn’t stand much of a chance.

They were heading up the staircase, softly and quickly, her hand in his. At the top of the staircase, the broad, airy corridor went right for the wing of rooms in which Flora had her bedroom suite and left where Stefano had his rooms.

In her mind’s eye, she could picture his huge super-king-size bed and her heart skipped a beat.

She knew that Flora would be sound asleep. Once her head hit the pillow, she slept the deep sleep of a child but on the one occasion when she had had a broken night and Sunny had asked her, the following evening, what she had done, Flora had simply said that she had read until she had fallen asleep again.

His room was in darkness but, instead of switching on the overhead light, he turned on the lamp by the bay window, leaving the curtains open so that weak moonlight filtered into the room.

In the grip of nervous tension, Sunny hovered by the door, which he had quietly shut behind them.

She thought that she might have forgotten how to have sex. Was that possible? A bubble of hysterical laughter threatened...

Looking at her, Stefano could see that she was as nervous as a kitten. She wasn’t the sort of girl who moved from one guy to another with seamless ease and he got a disproportionate kick from knowing that she had been unable to resist him. It evened the scales because he hadn’t been able to resist her. Two controlled people losing it.

‘You’re beautiful,’ he said softly, beginning to unbutton his shirt, taking his time, exposing his chest sliver by glorious sliver.

Sunny bit back the temptation to tell him that he was as well. That was something he would know, something countless women had probably told him over the years. How could they not? When he was physically...so perfect?

She couldn’t stop staring. She didn’t care that he was looking at her staring at him, a smile tugging the corners of his beautiful mouth.

He shrugged off the shirt and she drank in the broad shoulders, the six-pack stomach, the ripple of muscle, the small flat brown nipples that she itched to tease with her fingers...

Her mouth went dry when he rested his hand on the zip of his trousers. Even from across the room, she could see the unmistakable bulge of his erection, pulsing under the trousers.

‘Having fun?’ Stefano shot her a wolfish smile that made her toes curl.

Sunny nodded.

‘Care to join me in the striptease or would you rather I took your clothes off for you...? I’m frankly not sure which would turn me on more so...your choice...’

Sunny slipped her fingers under the edge of her stretchy top, feeling as debauched as a stripper in a nightclub, and began slowly tugging it over her breasts and over her head to then toss it onto the ground so that she was now only in her bra and the short controversial skirt.

Stefano walked slowly towards her. There was an innocence in the way she was standing there, hands at her sides, chin at a defiant angle, as though she was fighting against folding her arms across her breasts. And her body was...as spectacular as he had envisaged, long and graceful, with the supple sleekness of a ballet dancer.

His erection was painful, throbbing and pulsing.

‘I’m not very experienced at...this sort of thing...’ Sunny whispered.

Stefano was now standing directly in front of her and he placed his hands on her shoulders and gently massaged them, relaxing her. ‘Me neither...’

Sunny grinned and stole a shy glance at his darkly amused face. But the little teasing joke and the way he was ever so gently massaging her shoulders were doing what they were supposed to do; they were relaxing her. She could feel her whole body thawing out and her breathing slowing.

She sighed softly as she felt him reach behind her to unclasp the bra and her small, high breasts popped out, the rose-pink nipples stiff and pointed.

His low, husky growl of appreciation sent violent ripples of pleasure racing through her.

After a lifetime of playing down her body, it felt incredible to be standing here showing it off and thrilling in his delight.