Unlocking Her Innocence Part 4

'Just make it Ava,' Ava urged, her cheeks ushed with intense self-consciousness. 'How have you been?'

'It's been quiet here since your last visit,' the older woman remarked on her e cient pa.s.sage up the sweeping staircase. 'We're al very pleased that the Christmas party is to be held again.'

A xed smile on her taut face as she made determined smal talk, Ava found herself standing in the princ.i.p.al guest room without quite knowing how she had arrived there. It was a ma.s.sive room with a charming en suite bathroom in the turret complete with window seat. A re burned in the grate of the marble replace, ickering shadows across warm brocaded wal s and antique mahogany furniture. She stared in astonishment at the imposing four-poster bed draped in embroidered gold silk.

gold silk.

'Why have you brought me in here?' Ava whispered.

'Mr Barbieri asked me to prepare this room for you,'

Eleanor advanced.

Ava froze. 'Where is Mr Barbieri?' she asked tightly.

'I believe he's in his bedroom.'

The housekeeper departed and Ava expel ed her pent-up breath in a hiss while she scanned the opulence of the room. Total y unsuitable, she re ected incredulously.

Vito could not put her in the main bedroom reserved for only the most honoured VIPs. My goodness, there was even a re burning in the grate! Harvey, no slowcoach at spot ing the most warm and comfy place in the room, set led down on the rug and lowered his s.h.a.ggy head down on his paws.

'Don't bother get ing comfortable,' Ava warned him rueful y. 'We're not staying in the ve-star accommodation!'

Leaving Harvey, she crossed the landing at a smart pace to knock on Vito's bedroom door while she waited outside with folded arms. When there was no answer she knocked again and waited with mounting impatience.

Final y she just opened the door and went in, only to stop dead on the threshold at the sight of Vito emerging from his en suite clad in only a pair of black briefs.

For a split second she simply stared, eyes wide, mouth dropping open in shock and awkwardness. He had an incredible body because he worked out and swam incredible body because he worked out and swam regularly in the bas.e.m.e.nt tness suite. Vibrant skin the colour of honey glowed in the lamplight, drawing at ention to his powerful shoulders, truly remarkable abs and a stomach as at as a washboard. Short black curls accentuated his pectorals while a silky dark furrow of hair ran down over his concave bel y and disappeared below the waistband of his briefs. With her at ention lingering in that most private area, embarra.s.sment bit deep into Ava and she spun around, rejecting the view and presenting him with her back. 'I'm so sorry ... I didn't mean to interrupt you-'

'At least close the door,' Vito said drily.

She shoved the door shut, her face so hot she thought eggs could have fried on it. What on earth had she been doing staring at him like that? As if she'd never seen a half-naked man before-she hadn't, though, apart from on the beach. Her lack of experience at almost twenty-two years of age a ronted her pride. She was a case of arrested development, imposed by her years locked away in prison. Obsessed with Vito before she lost her freedom she had missed out entirely on the phase of youthful experimentation.

'Che cosa a successo ... what has happened?' Vito drawled, cool as ice water with an edge of mockery.

Ava spun back to him, catching the sardonic hint of amus.e.m.e.nt writ en on his face as though on some level he relished her discom ture. 'I came straight to nd you he relished her discom ture. 'I came straight to nd you because you simply can't plonk me in the main guest room!' she shot at him. 'It's a very bad idea.'

Engaged in drawing up the zip on a pair of close-t ing designer chinos, his magni cent torso providing a stunning display as his hips arched back and the ropes of muscle across his abdomen flexed, Vito had never looked more a.s.sured or calm. Being half naked in her presence clearly did not trouble him in the slightest. 'Let me decide what is appropriate,' he advised.

'Wel , that's just it, isn't it?' Ava snapped back at him heatedly, in amed by his refusal to take the subject seriously. 'Obviously I can't trust you to do what is appropriate!'

His black brows were level above his spectacular dark deep-set eyes. 'This is my house and I am the best judge of that. What I say goes here.'

His arrogant unconcern infuriated Ava. 'How can you completely ignore how other people wil feel about me staying here?'

An ebony brow lifted. 'It's none of their business.'

'You have a hel of an at itude problem, Vito!' Ava hurled.

'Agreed,' Vito elded softly as he reached for the s.h.i.+rt draped over the back of a chair. 'I never could stand being told what to do.'

The crack was not lost on Ava. She reddened, her lush mouth compressing. 'I'm not trying to tel you what to mouth compressing. 'I'm not trying to tel you what to do-'

Vito studied her with interest, noting that she had chosen to travel in her o ce skirt and s.h.i.+rt, the violin curves above and below her tiny waist p.r.o.nounced in the out t. He wanted to rip the restrained garments o her, clothe her in excessively feminine silk and lace lingerie so that he could picture her lying on his bed without even stretching his imagination. Seeing her in his bedroom, he decided, was a disturbingly intimate experience.

'S, you are. You're a real lit le bossy-boots-you always were,' he riposted, watching her succulent lips part in surprise at the comeback, recognising the are in her bright blue eyes with wicked antic.i.p.ation.

Ava threw her head high, thick silky hair s.h.i.+mmering like a fal of molten copper round her cheekbones, eyes huge and fiery with defiance. 'I am not a bossy-boots!'

'Ol y always did as he was told,' Vito murmured silkily. 'But be warned-I don't. You're in the main guest room purely because it was my decision to put you there.'

'Then put me somewhere a lit le more humble!' Ava cut in angrily.

In the strained silence that stretched in the wake of her demand, the atmosphere hissed and buzzed like a crackling fire.

'No,' Vito responded, sliding a long arm smoothly into 'No,' Vito responded, sliding a long arm smoothly into his s.h.i.+rt, his mind stil engaged in imagining her on his bed seductively clad in lit le fril y bits of nothing. The pulse of urgency at his groin made him clench his teeth together. Desire, he recognised in exasperation, level ed al boundaries and defences.

'But I'm not an honoured guest here, I'm an employee!' Ava pointed out furiously. 'I should be staying in the staf quarters-'

'No,' Vito said again very quietly. 'I stand by my decision.'

'But it looks bad-'

Vito pul ed on the s.h.i.+rt. 'You're a bright girl, Ava.

Work it out for yourself.'

'Work what out?' Ava ung back at him in frustration.

'It's obvious that you can't treat me like a special guest without causing talk.'

Vito moved forward, the open s.h.i.+rt ut ering back from his strong muscled torso. 'Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't you spend three years in prison in punishment for your crime?'

Ava lost colour and her gaze dropped uneasily from his. 'Obviously I did.'

'So, you were tried and sentenced and you paid the price society demands. Where does it say that you have to go on paying?' he enquired impatiently. 'I put you in the princ.i.p.al guest room because if I treat you with respect everyone else wil take their lead from me and respect everyone else wil take their lead from me and award you the same level of respect.'

'It's not that simple,' she protested in a gru undertone.

'It is,' Vito contradicted with serene con dence. 'Don't al ow your insecurities to make it seem more complicated.'

A tempest of rage roared through Ava like a dam breaking its banks and she ung her head back, coppery hair dancing round her slim shoulders. 'I don't have insecurities!' she slammed back at him, defending the pride that was al she had left.

'Ava,' Vito countered very drily, 'you've always been a seething ma.s.s of insecurities.'

'That is not true ... that is so total y untrue!' Ava hurled back at him tempestuously.

'Madonna diavolo ... tel the truth and shame the devil,' Vito urged, lifting a hand and trailing a long nger mesmerical y slowly along the length of her ful lower lip.

Ava jerked her head back, startled by the tingle of awareness his touch ignited, which was already travel ing straight to the heart of her body. 'Don't touch me ...'

'You don't mean it,' Vito husked, s.h.i.+fting closer stil to angle his handsome dark head down and lower his mouth to hers. 'You and I both know you don't mean it.'

CHAPTER FIVE.

VITO set led a hand on the shal ow indentation at the base of Ava's spine and tilted her forward into potent contact with his lean, powerful body. The heat and the ferociously physical feel of him against her shrivel ed her defences, even before the hungry urgency of his mouth on hers blew them away completely. Locked to him, she swayed, knowing she had never dreamt that a kiss could make her feel so much. His pure pa.s.sion cal ed out to her and awakened a desperate craving for more.

She kissed him back eagerly, too worked up even to worry that her kissing might be of the amateur variety, too afraid that he might back o again as he had done twice before. As that subconscious fear penetrated she closed her arms round him, inviting, encouraging, no rational thought involved in the action. The piercing invasion of his tongue inside her mouth sent the blood racing like crazy through her veins and accelerated her heartbeat. Nothing had ever felt that necessary to her, nothing had ever felt that right.

'Per l'amor di Dio, Ava,' Vito growled against her mouth. 'You drive me crazy.'

'Is that bad?' Ava queried, stretching up on legs that suddenly felt too short to plant a kiss against the unsmiling corner of his handsome mouth.

Vito twisted his head to capture her lips again with a deep groan that vibrated inside his powerful chest, big deep groan that vibrated inside his powerful chest, big hands cupping her hips to force her closer so that she was sensual y aware of his arousal. Involuntarily she rejoiced in his a rmation of her feminine power. The musky designer scent of him ared her nostrils and she s.h.i.+vered as he suckled her lower lip and the moist sweep of his tongue tangled with her own, other sensations that were yet more seductive taking charge of her as she pressed the tingling heaviness of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s into the hard wal of his chest.

She didn't feel the zip of her skirt going down, only registered its fal round her ankles a split second before he lifted her clear of its folds and brought her down on the bed. Boy, was that a smooth move, she thought helplessly, just a lit le unnerved by such active proof of his experience and the fact that she was already on the bed without having decided to let him take her there. So, stop this now, stop acting like you can't control this, a dry lit le voice p.r.o.nounced inside her confused head. A few kisses were one thing, more than that something else entirely. And although when she was younger she had often fantasised about occupying a bed with Vito in it, reality was a great deal more daunting. She could not forget Ol y cal ing his big brother a predator with women. As Vito ipped o her shoes she sat up against the pil ows and drew her knees up in a nervous gesture.

Discarding his s.h.i.+rt, he came down on the foot of the bed and that fast, her troubled eyes drawn to his gleaming honey-coloured torso, she was lost to al common sense.

honey-coloured torso, she was lost to al common sense.

Her fingers spread across his warm flesh but he had his own ideas. He smoothed her slim legs at and embarked on her s.h.i.+rt but ons, kissing her every time he released one. Air rushed in and out of her lungs and caught in her throat. She braced her hands on his satin-smooth shoulders. Her s.h.i.+rt vanished and with it her sensible cot on bra. He caressed the soft ripe swel of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s with appreciative hands, long ngers expertly teasing the throbbing peaks until a lit le moan escaped low in her throat. He took that as an invitation to dip his dark head and continue the delicious torment with his tongue. As he caressed her the tide of sensations rippled down her body and she felt an urgent heat building between her thighs.

'Don't stop touching me, gioia mia,' Vito urged, golden eyes smouldering with hungry appreciation as he looked down at her.

Colour ushed her cheeks and her ngers slid down over the tense muscles of his stomach and over the smooth cot on of his trousers to the hard bulge below.

With a roughened exclamation, Vito released the but on on his chinos and ran the zip down, his eagerness exciting her. Skimming the briefs out of her way with an unsteady hand, she ran an exploratory ngertip over his erection. He was velvet on steel, smooth and hard. While he lifted his hips every time she touched him it did not seem the right moment to consider the fact that there was a good deal more of him in that department than was a good deal more of him in that department than she had dimly expected. Ignorance pushed aside, because she was ready to learn from discovery, she bent her coppery head to take him in her mouth.

'No, I want you now,' Vito protested, drawing her up to his level again to crush her generous mouth under his with erotic force. 'Is this what you want?'

Ava blinked, languorous blue eyes momentarily bemused. What she wanted? No problem answering that question and no hesitation for she su ered not a shade of doubt: him, absolutely only him. 'Yes ...'

His ngers drifted down the long line of her slim thigh and she trembled, wanting, needing almost more than she could bear, wondering wildly if everyone felt every tiny caress so strongly and craved as much as she did. Or had the years she had spent shut away from the world made her rather more desperate? The thought shamed her, somehow forcing her to think of the caution she was abandoning. But then just once she wanted to go with the ow, experience rather than pre-plan. She gazed up at him, outwardly tranquil until she col ided with the hot glit er of desire in his eyes. He was gorgeous. He was everything she wanted. How could she ght or deny what she was feeling?

'I love your body, cara mia,' he told her huskily.

'You're beautiful.'

In that moment he truly made her feel beautiful and she smiled dreamily, not believing but wil ing to credit she smiled dreamily, not believing but wil ing to credit that in the heat of pa.s.sion she had magical y acquired a special l.u.s.tre in his eyes. As she watched him wrench o his chinos her heart began to beat very fast again. She didn't want to think and she tuned out her anxious thoughts but they broke through to the surface of her mind regardless, insisting on being heard. This was s.e.x, nothing more to Vito, she reasoned reluctantly. She knew that, had to accept it. It never was anything more to him and she wasn't naive enough to think that anything more than intimacy might come from it. The exhilarating spark of at raction that had always leapt between them was nal y nding expression and it felt inevitable, something that would have happened no mat er what she did.

Her panties seemed to melt away during another bout of heated kissing. She loved the taste and re and strength of him. He stroked her soft, needy esh below and she trembled as he slid a nger into her, while his thumb rubbed the madly sensitive lit le bead of her c.l.i.toris, making her tremble with delight.

'You're so wet ...' he told her fiercely.

Shame engulfed Ava but she quivered as sensation drowned out everything in sweet waves she could hardly withstand in silence. Lit le whimpers escaped her throat in spite of her at empt to hold them back. She twisted as if she were in a fever, al control wrenched from her by the pleasure and the tormenting antic.i.p.ation. He s.h.i.+fted away from her, leaving her body throbbing and pulsing away from her, leaving her body throbbing and pulsing with need and impatience. She heard the sound of foil tearing, knew he was donning protection and then he returned to her, rearranging her limbs with indisputable expertise. In one sure deep thrust he entered her and a choked cry of pain parted her lips, the sharp jab of discomfort unexpected and unwelcome.

Vito froze above her in shock, shaken dark golden eyes clinging to her hectical y ushed face. 'I am the rst?' he demanded in disbelief.

'Don't make a production out of it,' Ava urged, so embarra.s.sed that she could not even meet his eyes. It hadn't occurred to her that it might hurt the rst time.

She hadn't thought about that aspect, had just lain back and expected nature to take its course, but possibly he was a lit le too pa.s.sionate and wel endowed for so relaxed an approach.

'How did you expect me to react?' Vito bit out, wildly disconcerted by what he had just learned about her. Ava, the teenager he had once deemed to be a seasoned lit le s.e.xual temptress, was actual y a virgin? That prospect had never crossed his mind once and he was not a man who liked surprises. Indeed he had an engrained distrust of surprises that came in a feminine package, life having taught him far too much about their hidden agendas.

'Wel , it's done now,' Ava said baldly, refusing to cringe in morti cation and mustering every ounce of her pride to her rescue. Evidently she wasn't the veteran of pride to her rescue. Evidently she wasn't the veteran of the sheets that he had a.s.sumed that she was and if he was disappointed he would just have to live with it.

'But why ... me?' Vito growled suspiciously.

Ava angled up her hips to distract him and his broad shoulders tautened as he at empted to withdraw from the hot, tight embrace of her body. A second such movement from her became his undoing. He sank back into her enticing honeyed heat with a splintering groan of tortured desire and rage burned like a banked-down fire in his accusing gaze.

Ava evaded that look and shut her eyes. She had signed up for the whole experience, hadn't she? She wasn't about to al ow him to wreck everything. Although did she real y have any in uence over Vito? Given the chance, it seemed he would have stopped, rejected her.

Was virginity such a turn-o ? Or was he afraid that her inexperience would prompt her to demand more from him than he was prepared to give? She had heard the old cliche that suggested virgins were more likely to become too at ached to their lovers, seeking ties that went beyond the physical. That, she immediately sensed, was most likely what he feared. Wel , he would soon discover that she cherished no such il usions where he was concerned.

'This isn't what I wanted,' Vito ground out.

'We don't always get what we want,' Ava p.r.o.nounced woodenly, s.h.i.+fting her hips as a wonderful lit le tremor woodenly, s.h.i.+fting her hips as a wonderful lit le tremor of devouring hunger and excitement s.h.i.+mmied up from her pelvis again like a storm warning. 'Don't spoil this ...

?.'Torn between wanting to strangle her and wanting to keep her in bed for a week, Vito swore in his own language even as the natural promptings of his powerful libido took over. He had never wanted a woman as much as he wanted her at that moment but she felt like a guilty forbidden pleasure again. He didn't screw virgins, he didn't take advantage of inexperienced or vulnerable women.

Ava gave herself up to the pleasure, arching up in welcome to the enthral ing glide of his body into hers.

The ravenous excitement grew and grew as he thrust with simmering heat and strength and her body clenched and tightened round him, sending waves of exquisite sensation rol ing through her body. His insistent rhythm quickened and her heart slammed inside her chest, the driving force of desire control ing her until at last she reached a quivering peak of spel binding joy that spil ed through her like an injection of happiness. Spasms of ecstasy were stil rocking her when he shuddered over her in his own climax and she held him close, knowing she never wanted to let him go again but that she had to hide the fact.

'That was ... di erent, mia bel a,' Vito p.r.o.nounced raggedly, pressing a slow measured kiss to her brow and then vaulting out of the bed to stride into the bathroom.

then vaulting out of the bed to stride into the bathroom.

Ava breathed in slow and deep. She had revel ed in that brief moment of togetherness but he had instantly s.h.i.+ed away from that cosiness and she was not surprised; she was forewarned. Dif erent? Not exactly a compliment she would queue up to receive, she acknowledged unhappily. As Vito reappeared she sat up, the sheet tucked beneath her arms, and said with deliberate carelessness, 'Di erent? It was just a bit of fun.'

An arrested expression froze his features, drawing her at ention to the black shadow of stubble outlining his chisel ed jaw and strong sensual lips. His eyes were as hard and bright as black diamonds between his screening lashes. 'Come ha det o? ... I beg your pardon?' he said level y.

'The s.e.x,' Ava murmured glibly. 'It was just a bit of fun, nothing you need to get worked up about.'

'You were a virgin!' Vito slammed back at her censoriously.

'And next week I'l be twenty-two-years old,' Ava informed him. 'How many twenty-two-year-old virgins do you know? It was past time I took the plunge.'

Already struggling with the turbulence of his emotions and a savage sense of guilt, Vito was in amed by her reckless de ant at itude. Had he real y believed her to be vulnerable? She talked as though she were coated in armour and she made it sound as though she had armour and she made it sound as though she had deliberately chosen him to de ower her. Furthermore she had reduced what they had shared to a basic meeting of bodies and, although on one level he accepted that that was what it had been, he could not subdue his angry sense of resentment. He had not meant to injure her in any way but he had made the crucial mistake of let ing his high-voltage s.e.x drive override his intel igence.

'I didn't look for the honour of becoming your rst lover,' Vito spelt out with grim forbearance. 'In fact if I'd known I would never have touched you. I a.s.sumed you were experienced.'