Gianni's Pride by Kim Lawrence Page A

always been conscious of around this man but had tried to ignore could no longer be ignored.
    ‘Let me look after you, Miranda. I’ll chase away the bogey men.’
    ‘You are the bogey man.’
    She heard his soft laugh, then felt his hand on her cheek. She flinched, but did not move away as he traced a path down her cheek and left his finger there by her mouth.
    He was offering her sex.
    Even more shocking than this was the discovery that she was tempted. He was so gorgeous and where was the harm? He wanted nothing from her, but her body was sending some unmistakable signals that it wanted what he was offering.
    Why intellectualise this?
    Why pretend the fact he had ‘dominant male’ stamped through him like a stick of rock didn’t turn her on? She wasn’t looking for a life partner, a soul mate; to put it crudely—and for once she did—she wanted sex.
    There was no shame in acknowledging she had needs that, after years of lying dormant, had chosen to surface big time.
    Hadn’t that always been her problem? She thought too much.
    She had spent years living a nunlike existence, saving herself for Oliver, and now here was a man offering her what she’d been missing out on—no strings.
    She might not be able to have love, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have pleasure, and if she was going to choose someone who knew how to give pleasure—if Gianni was half as good as he thought he was—it would be difficult to find someone more qualified.
    ‘What about your rule?’
    ‘Rules are made to be broken.’
    ‘I don’t have casual sex with strangers.’ She made the statement as much for her own benefit as his.
    ‘Then tell me to go away and I will.’
    The silence stretched while Miranda struggled to think through the haze of desire in her head … Then she gave up fighting.
    ‘I … I can’t,’ she admitted in a throaty whisper. ‘I don’t want you to go away.’
    He was so close now she felt the sigh of his warm breath as it left his lips. Her nostrils flared as she breathed in the musky male scent of his warm body. He was so close now she was panting … Oh, God, panting!
    What had happened to her?
    She shook her head and thought,
I don’t know or care but I’m damned well going to enjoy it
.
    ‘Then I won’t.’
    Gianni lowered his head and in the darkness found her lips. They were soft and trembling. Without encouragement they parted and with a groan he deepened the kiss. Miranda met his tongue with her own in an instinctively sensuous stabbing movement.
    The intimate exploration was so overwhelming she struggled to cling to any sense of self. She could feel and taste him everywhere. Then with a sigh she stopped trying and impossibly it felt even better.
    Her body felt soft and pliant as he dragged her up hard against him, reaching with one hand to the neck of her top and sliding his hand down over one smooth, high breast, pushing his fingers under the thin lacy covering of her bra to find her nipple hard and erect.
    She gasped, a quiver running through her body as he ran his thumb across the tight bud.
    Gianni bent his head, pushing her hair away and whispering in her ear. ‘You like that?’
    ‘Yes, don’t stop …’ She reached up to touch his skin. It felt scalding hot and damp as she spread her fingers and moved her hands up over his ridged stomach towards his chest.
    He tangled his fingers in her curls and dragged her face up to his. ‘I won’t.’ He couldn’t. There was a fever in his blood that Gianni had never in his life experienced. Her hands on the bare skin of his chest left trails of fire.
    ‘Your skin feels incredible,’ she said, her throaty voice raw with wonder. He was hard, his skin the texture of warm satin. ‘You feel—oh, God!’ she moaned, unable to press herself close enough. ‘So good.’
    He pressed a kiss to the base of her throat, pushing her slightly away. Her protest died as his fingers tugged at the buttons of her blouse, clumsy in his urgency to expose