not so much out of modesty, but out of fear of what
they might reveal to him. Now, as she felt her nipples
hardening when his fingers stroked and kneaded her
aching flesh, she was very glad that she had done so.
As his fingers drew the pain out of her flesh their
touch replaced it with a very different kind of ache,
beginning deep inside her with a small fluttering pulse
that quickly grew stronger until the desire it generated
was spreading outwards into every nerve-ending.
Uncomfortably she pulled away, and moved to sit up,
fearing that somehow Lorenzo might guess what she
was experiencing.
'what’s the matter?' he demanded. 'Are you worried
that I might try to seduce you?'
He was mocking her, she knew that. 'No, of course
not. Why would I think that? After all, I already know
that you Don’t desire me.'
She had rolled over now, and was sitting up. But
she couldn’t get off the bed because Lorenzo was
standing immediately in front of her.
'And you want me to desire you?'
'No!' she said fiercely.
'You’re lying.' Lorenzo accused her, shocking her
as he suddenly drew her up to stand virtually body-
to-body with him. 'But then, lying is second nature
to your sex, isn’t it?'
Yes, she was lying, Jodie admitted. Because she
had no other alternative, no other way to protect herself.
Why was he behaving like this towards her?
she’d realised from what Caterina had told her that
his childhood experiences with his mother and her
unfaithfulness to his father had given him a low opinion
of her sex, and a need to protect himself from
emotional pain, but that was no reason for him to
punish her. Just as she had no real reason to brand all
men as faithless, shallow cheats because of the way
John had behaved towards her? She swallowed uncomfortably,
unable to ignore her own inner critical
voice.
'You’re lying,' Lorenzo repeated. 'Admit it.'
'Admit what?' Jodie challenged him recklessly.
'That I want you? Why? What purpose or benefit is
there in my doing that? You Don’t want me. All you
want is for me to give you an excuse to go on telling
yourself that all women are like your mother and
Caterina. Well, we aren’t. You want me to lie to you
because that way you can keep on telling yourself that
all women are the same. Because You’re afraid of
wanting—'
'Enough!'
Jodie tried to protest, but it was too late. His mouth
was already covering hers, his hands almost bruising
the tender flesh of her upper arms as he held her to
him so hard that she could feel the buttons on his
shirt pressing into her skin.
'I am afraid of nothing,' Lorenzo whispered
fiercely against her mouth. 'Least of all of wanting
you. And to prove it…'
Before she could evade him he was kissing her,
deeply and intimately, whilst his hands stroked over
her body to cup her breasts.
She should stop him. She knew that. But her own
desire was stronger than her will-power. The anger
that had flared up between them had unleashed a passion
in Lorenzo that ignited her own and overwhelmed
her careful restraint. He lifted one hand to
her head, sliding his fingers into her hair and exposing
the slender vulnerability of her neck to the sensual
assault of his lips.
Shudders of hot, illicit pleasure that began where
his mouth caressed her skin and ended deep inside
the female heart of hers seized her, took her to a place
where reality didn’t exist and all that mattered was
following the lure of the primitive surge of her own
desire for him.
He had captured her nipple between the long lean
finger and thumb of his free hand and was playing
softly with it, then less softly when both it and its
partner stiffened with excitement. The erotic sensation
of him tugging sensually on it was relayed to her
through what felt like a million tiny nerve-endings,
magnifying the pleasure so much that she was racked
helplessly by its domination as it took her and filled
her, weakening her will-power along with her bones,
and focusing all of her straining concentration not on
the urgent warnings of her defences, but instead on
the wet heat between her legs, and the desire-swollen
flesh she ached for Lorenzo to touch.
Had she actually verbally said what she wanted?
She had communicated it to him somehow, Jodie realised
dizzily, as his fingers untangled from her hair and
his hand stroked down her body, moulding her hipbone,
his fingers pressing into the curves of her bottom
as he held her with both hands and pulled her
into his own body so that she could feel how hard
and aroused he was. He kissed her with shockingly
deliberate intimacy as he caressed the quivering flesh
of her stomach, then stroked his fingers along the hip-
hugging line of her silky knickers, teasing her eager
