Androletti's Mistress

‘You are taking a long time to answer.’ Massimo sent her a rueful look. ‘I have made a fool of myself, yes?’

‘No,’ she said, shivering all over again as he brought her hand up to his mouth. ‘I’m not sure about love at first sight, but I definitely feel something I’ve never felt before.’

He pulled her to her feet, bringing her to stand in front of him. ‘We have the next six days to explore and get to know each other,’ he said. ‘I do not want to rush you, but I cannot bear the thought of finding someone so special and wasting time in case we do not get this chance again.’

Nikki drew in a wobbly breath and did her best to smile. ‘If it’s meant to be, then we will get our chance,’ she said as his mouth came down to hers.

CHAPTER THREE

NIKKI spent the happiest six days of her life in Massimo’s company. She stalwartly refused to think about her wedding on Saturday. It was as if by not thinking about it she could really be the person Massimo believed her to be. She was a young carefree woman in love for the first time, relishing every moment of being truly adored and treated like a princess.

She knew it would have to end when the week was up, but she tried not to dwell on it too much. She comforted herself that Massimo was a man of the world. He would forget about her as soon as he boarded the plane back to Italy; his brief fling with the tall, blonde Australian girl would no doubt be a distant memory as soon as the first drink was served on the flight back home.

They explored the sights of Melbourne together, walking through the Bourke Street Mall to window shop, dining at some of the restaurants along the Southbank complex, and even spending some time at the world-famous Crown Casino where Nikki watched in awe as Massimo won a small fortune at one of the black-jack tables.

Later in the week they hired a car and visited the beautiful Yarra Valley, notorious for its picturesque vineyards, where the rolling green hills and valleys they passed prompted Massimo to say how much it reminded him of Sicily.

‘I would love to show you my homeland,’ he said as they drove back after spending a wonderful afternoon at Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary. ‘We do not have koalas and kangaroos and wombats, of course, but there are many wonderful historic buildings and artifacts.’

‘I would love to travel the world one day,’ Nikki said dreamily, looking out of the window as the verdant fields went by. ‘I’ve only ever been to…’ She stopped, her heart thumping at how close she had been to revealing how she had lied about where she had originally come from.

‘You were saying?’

‘Er…I’ve only ever lived in Australia,’ she said. ‘I know it’s a big and diverse continent, but I haven’t seen much of it really…’

He sent her a smile. ‘You have no need to be ashamed, cara,’ he said. ‘You are young. You have plenty of time to see the world.’

On the last day Massimo arranged to meet her after he had his meeting in the city. As soon as she saw him walking towards her outside the art gallery, where she had spent the morning filling in time, she knew things had not gone well for him. His handsome face looked pinched and his mouth tight.

‘Are you OK?’ she asked, touching him on the arm.

He placed his hand over hers and gave it a tiny squeeze. ‘I do not want to spoil our last afternoon and evening together talking about my business. Suffice to say things did not go according to plan.’

‘I’m so sorry.’

He gave her a strained smile. ‘I will just have to wait a little longer to achieve what I want, but then the best things in life are worth waiting for, no?’

‘I guess…’ she answered, looking down at their linked hands.

They walked past the Shrine of Remembrance through to the Botanic Gardens, stopping to have afternoon tea at the café overlooking the lake, where ducks waddled in search of crumbs and cheeky sparrows darted in amongst the chairs and tables in spite of the shooing actions of the staff.

Massimo smiled indulgently as she surreptitiously bent down to scatter some crumbs from the coconut cake he’d bought her. ‘You are not supposed to encourage them,’ he said, indicating the DO NOT FEED THE BIRDS sign nearby.

‘I know, but I can’t help feeling sorry for them,’ she said, a fleeting shadow of sadness moving across her face. ‘They’ve probably got little babies to feed.’

He reached across the table for her hand and brought it up to his mouth, kissing each fingertip in turn, his intense gaze holding hers. ‘You have such a kind and tender heart,’ he said in a deep, gravelly tone. ‘I have waited a long time to meet someone as sensitive to the needs of others as you are.’

Nikki gently pulled her hand out of his, her whole body tingling with awareness. As each day had passed, she’d found it harder and harder to resist him. He had not pressured her to sleep with him, which surprised her. She had assumed, like many men with his jet-setting lifestyle, that he would have leaped at the chance of a one-week fling with a woman he had singled out for his attention. His kisses had been passionate and tender, enthralling and tantalising, and yet each time their mouths had touched he seemed to be keeping himself in check.

‘You are feeling nervous and uncertain, cara?’ he asked into the little silence.

‘W-what do you mean?’

He reached for her hand again and began stroking the sensitive skin on the underside of her wrist in slow, sensual movements that sent a riot of sensation to her toes and back. ‘I want you,’ he stated bluntly. ‘I have wanted you from the first moment I saw you but something about you made me realise you are not a one-night stand sort of girl. I deeply respect that about you.’

Somehow she found her voice in time to croak out, ‘T-thank you.’

‘I have a bit of a reputation for working hard and playing harder,’ he confessed. ‘I can assure you, it is highly unusual for me to have spent more than three dates with a woman before bedding her.’

Nikki swallowed.

He smiled at the twin flags of colour on her cheeks. ‘You are a virgin, yes?’

Her eyes fell away from his. ‘No,’ she said in a small voice. ‘I wish I still was. My first and only time was horrible…’

He frowned, and his hand encircling her wrist tightened protectively. ‘You were…’ he paused over the word ‘…raped?’

Her eyes came back to his, her colour still high. ‘No, I just didn’t realise it would be so…so one-sided, if you know what I mean.’

His fingers began their sensual magic against the satin surface of her skin. ‘You did not experience pleasure, Nikki?’

‘Not really.’ She gave a little wry grimace and added, ‘Not at all, actually.’

His eyes darkened with tenderness as he pulled her to her feet. ‘We have one night left, cara,’ he said, linking her arm through his. ‘I want to make it as memorable as possible.’

Nikki had not dreamt how truly memorable it would be. They went back to the hotel hand in hand, the silence that hung between them heavy and pulsing with promise.

She felt it all through their last dinner together in the hotel restaurant. Each time his eyes caught and held hers, she sensed the sexual tension building in him. She could feel it thrumming in her own body, a deep and low pulse that begged to be assuaged.

She felt it in the lift as they silently climbed the floors to his room, each number showing above their heads like a countdown to paradise.

And she felt it in the thudding pulse in his fingers as they tilted her face to receive his kiss, the self-control he had been reining in all week finally slipping as the door of his room closed behind them.

‘I should not be doing this,’ he said, pressing hot kisses to the side of her neck as he lifted her hair out of the way. ‘I told myself I would wait until I return from Sicily, but I want you so much I am burning inside and out with it.’

Nikki raised her face for more of his drugging kisses. ‘I want you too,’ she whispered against his lips. ‘I want you to make love to me. I want to feel pleasure…Your pleasure as well as mine.’

He held her from him, looking deeply into her eyes. ‘Are you absolutely sure, cara? I can wait for you. I will make myself wait for you if you do not feel ready to take this step.’

She pulled his mouth back down to hers. ‘Don’t make me wait,’ she pleaded desperately. ‘I don’t want to wait another minute.’

He undressed her, the slow movements of his hands belying the true state of his arousal. She felt it against her, the hard surge of his body and how he fought to control it in order to prepare her properly for his passionate possession. His mouth was on hers, and then on each of her breasts, sucking gently at first, and then harder until her back arched with intense longing.

He laid her carefully on the king-sized bed, trailing a hot blaze of kisses all over her body, her mouth, her neck, her breasts and the tiny cave of her belly button before moving lower. She totally melted under the sweep and stroke of his tongue as it separated her feminine folds, the sensation of such an intimate caress sending her pulse skyrocketing. Her body began to convulse, the earth-shattering release beyond anything she had ever imagined.

He waited until she was calm once more before reaching for a condom. She watched with wide eyes as he came back to her, taking his time again in kissing and caressing her, until she was begging him to fill her. ‘Oh, please…oh please…’

‘You are getting impatient, Nikki,’ he said playfully, kissing her lingeringly, the sexy saltiness of her own body on his lips inciting her to grab at him greedily, her pelvis rising to meet the downward thrust of his.