His Royal Love-Child (6 page)

She’d come to Marcello a virgin and she knew that was as important to him as it was to her.

Part of her, deep down, wished she would just get pregnant and then neither of them would have a choice about secrecy or the rest of it anymore.
But
part of her was frightened by the prospect of pregnancy, and a much bigger part needed him to come to terms with his feelings for her on his own. She wanted him to acknowledge he cared about her and she needed to know that for sure, too. Not just hope and guess at it.

Maybe telling him that she loved him would open another chink in the wall around his heart…the most important one.

She hoped so, because if it didn’t, she didn’t know what she would do.

Later that day when he came into her office to ask for her report on the Cordoba project, when he could have requested the information through his assistant, that hope blossomed.

M
ARCELLO
walked into
Danette’s
office and felt like he’d been hit in the chest with a polo mallet when she gave him that smile she reserved especially for him.

Her amber eyes glowed golden with welcome and his body reacted as if it had been months, not hours, since he had last buried himself inside her. He became instantly hard—to the point of pain. He found himself pushing the door shut behind him, though that was probably the last thing he should do.

“I have the report for you right here.” She tucked her light brown hair behind her ear with a flirtatious wink. “That is what you came for, isn’t it?”

The significant look she gave the shut door belied the innocence of her words and he grinned in response. He couldn’t help it. Like all of his reactions to her from the moment he had first seen her, it was beyond his usually formidable control. He had never looked to one of his employees for
friendship,
much less an affair and he had fought his feelings for her for four months.
But
in the end…he had lost.

He hadn’t been able to dismiss the cravings for her body and that particular sweet smile he’d never seen her give anyone else. It was a craving that grew when fed, he’d discovered, rather than diminishing.
Which put it in the realm of an addiction he could not kick.
As much as he hated the vulnerability such an addiction spawned, he had learned that to give into it brought its own reward. The more time he spent with her, the more at peace he felt, and after making love was the best of all.

Even though he knew he should be opening that door and getting down to business, not putting the anonymity of their affair at risk, he was powerless to do so. His gaze skimmed her slight figure as his libido heated to volcanic levels and he acknowledged there was a big difference between knowing what he should do and being able to do it.

“That is the excuse I gave my assistant, yes.”

“Perhaps there was something else you wanted from me?” she asked in a come-hither voice that went straight to his already throbbing groin.

That overtly flirtatious manner and her American frankness had fooled him into believing she was a much more experienced woman than she was for the first months of their association. Right up until he’d touched her with intent for the first time and found out she was a virgin, and an incredibly innocent one at that. She’d known almost nothing of passion.

He’d seen too late that for all her appearance of outgoing friendliness, she was actually rather shy. She knew even less of men than she did of physical desire.
And
he had shamelessly taken advantage of her willingness to learn with him.

He’d been careful to spell out the parameters of their affair, though. She’d deserved to know where they were headed—to bed—and where they were not going—down the aisle toward matrimony. He’d been very clear. No commitments. No permanent ties.
Absolute secrecy.

And
she had still welcomed him with an innocent but generous passion that left him shaking.

She’d never brought up the other parameters of their affair and he had to assume she understood their relationship was not a permanent one, but she had become unhappy with the need for secrecy. She’d been hurt by that picture in the tabloid and he hated knowing that, but if the media became aware of her existence in his life, she would be at risk of a lot more hurt and continuous harassment.

Although he understood her current feelings, he could not give into them. It was imperative he remain strong for both of their sakes. He hated having his real private life the focus of public cynosure. He’d had enough of that with his marriage. The press had hounded him and Bianca from the very first. No doubt contributing to what came later. They’d married young and that alone had been newsworthy…to some. Many had assumed she was pregnant, but she hadn’t been.

Then, when two years went by and no pregnancy showed on the horizon, speculation started. It was a mere reflection of the concerns he and Bianca shared in the privacy of their bedroom.
Because they’d done nothing to prevent pregnancy from their wedding night onward.
She had been the first one to undergo tests, but her reproductive system was functioning normally.

He’d offered to have the tests taken as
well,
never dreaming the doctor would discover a really low sperm count. He would never forget the chilling humiliation when one of the scandal rags had gotten wind of his near sterility. They had run the story and others had picked it up until he and his wife could not go out in public without being asked if they planned to adopt, try IVF or worse.

Bianca had said it didn’t matter, but Marcello had seen her pain when her friends fell pregnant and she did not. He had seen the longing in her eyes when she held her cousins’ babies, and he’d listened to her cry at night in their bathroom when she thought he was sleeping.

He felt like his manhood had been stripped away from him. Having it happen in the public eye had been ten times worse. He would never willingly go through that again.

“Marcello?”
Danette
asked, her expression concerned.

He forced the bleak thoughts from his mind and focused on the situation at hand. “There is definitely something else you can give me.” It was more than her body and her desire that he was talking about. Making love to
Danette
banished the ghosts of the past…for a little while.

“Something more important than the report?” she asked with a vulnerability he wished he couldn’t see.

She wanted confirmation that she was more important to him than the work she did for him, but if he gave it to her, then he would be implying a depth to their relationship he had been careful to refrain from establishing. He couldn’t do that. It wouldn’t be fair.
But
from the look in her lovely amber eyes, he knew not to do so wasn’t being fair to her, either.

She deserved better than what he could give her. She deserved a man who could and would date her openly, one who could give her a future with a complete family. Not a playboy prince who could offer her great sex and companionship only when it was out of the public eye—and no future.

Knowing what she deserved didn’t change his need for her, though. Marcello was not about to give her up. Not yet.

She added too much to his life.

One day, she would move on, but until then, he would give her all that he could and take all she was willing to offer.

“It certainly feels more urgent,” he compromised.

It appeased her and she smiled again, this time her eyes going dark with a familiar fire. “What could it be then?”

He leaned back against the door, his legs spread slightly,
his
body telling her he wasn’t going anywhere. “Come here and I’ll show you.”

“I don’t think so.” She cocked her head to one side and looked at him. “You look dangerous.”

“And you feel safe with the desk between us?”

She shrugged, but the look she gave him from between her lashes was pure provocation.
“Maybe.
I guess that all depends on how much energy you’re willing to expend.”

He pushed away from the door and stalked over to her, his body thrumming with the incredible sexual excitement only she generated in him. When he reached her, she scooted back in her chair, but the primal man inside him was not about to let his prize retreat.

Marcello reached out with lightning quick movements to grab
Danette’s
shoulders and prevent her withdrawal. Suddenly their playful banter was overshadowed by a dark, perilous desire he had never unleashed in the office before.

She gasped. “Marcello, what are you
doing
?”

She’d been playing. Flirting in a way she knew drove him crazy, but never in a million years had she expected him to take her up on it within the hallowed walls of
Scorsolini
Shipping.

He pulled her from the chair. “I want you,
Danette
.
Now.”

“
Wh
—”

His mouth slammed down on hers with primitive passion, his intent unmistakable.

The urbane and sophisticated playboy everyone else saw when
they
looked at him was gone. In his place was a man of earthy passion and raw masculinity that only she ever saw and she found totally irresistible.

The kiss went
incendiary
immediately. His lips sucked on hers, his tongue demanded entrance into her mouth, and his teeth nipped at her bottom lip. She gave back as good as she got, her tongue tangling with his in delicious, erotic abandon. She couldn’t get enough. Her brain was barely functioning when he moved his mouth along her jaw to wreak havoc on the sensitive areas he knew so well.

“
Here
?” she whispered with her last grasp at rational thought. “You want to make love here?”

His answer was to growl like some primitive animal, slide his hand possessively down over the curve of her breast and squeeze. She moaned.

“
Shh
…
amante
, you must be silent.”

“I can’t…”

“You can and you will,” he promised in a shadowy drawl and then challenged that assumption with sensual caresses that made her body swell with pleasure.

She tugged at his tie, undoing it and the buttons of his shirt with impatient fingers. She peeled the fabric away to reveal the hair-roughened contours of his chest and abdomen. She curled her fingers in it reflexively and the breath stilled in her chest at the sight of her fingers on his skin.

He was such a beautiful, beautiful man.

He made a harsh sound and then whispered, “Yes, just like that,
Danette
mia
. Give me your passion,
amante
.”

She leaned forward and took his small, rigid nipple between her teeth and nipped, then licked it to soothe the sting before sucking it into her
mouth
as she knew he liked.

His body jerked and he made a muted sound of passion before yanking her blouse up to expose her
bra clad
breasts. One flick of his fingers and the front clasp came apart and then his hands were on her, tormenting her with the kind of caresses that would bring her to the brink of climax before he ever touched her most intimate flesh.

His hands went everywhere, rubbing her back, kneading her bottom and sliding under her skirt with a lack of finesse that said better than anything else could have how out of control he really was. His big frame shuddered when she attacked his belt buckle and then the zipper on his slacks.

She slid it down with agonizing slowness, not wanting to hurt the flesh straining against it and reveling in the anticipation of what she would reveal. She pushed his waistband down, carefully pulling the elastic of his shorts over his pulsing, erect flesh. His rigid length sprang out to greet her. Curling her fingers around his satin hardness, she squeezed possessively.

“Yes, yours,” he said, showing he knew exactly what she was thinking.

Then he picked her up by the waist and sat her on the edge of her desk, moving between her legs boldly
so that her thighs were parted wide and left open to him
. She’d worn stockings
like
she always did and the fragile silk of her panties proved no barrier to his touch. He tore them from her body with primitive violence that sent a burst of humid warmth through her secret place.

He cupped her, one long finger sliding inside. “Mine.”

“
Yesss
…” she hissed.

Then he was there, exactly where she most needed him to be, and she whimpered with the exquisite pleasure of it. He was big and she spread her legs wider to accommodate him, wrapping her calves around his lean waist. He grabbed her hips and pressed inexorably forward, his hardness stretching her almost unbearably, but feeling so right and so good that tears of intense desire burned her eyes.

“You fit me so perfectly,” he whispered roughly into her hair, and thrust in to the hilt.

She couldn’t reply. Her throat was too tight with the need to cry out her pleasure and the effort it took to suppress those cries.

She buried her face in his neck, biting her lips together to hold back the sounds as he thrust against her with powerful movements that shook her whole body. The pleasure spun tight and high inside of her instantly and she exploded in rapturous bliss after only a few body-racking thrusts. Her flesh convulsed around him, her entire being shuddering with her culmination.

His grip on her hips tightened
bruisingly
and he bit back a growl as his body went stiff against hers and he released his pleasure inside of her. They remained locked in primal ecstasy for what could have been mere seconds or much longer. Time meant nothing on that plane of existence. Only sensation mattered and it was so overwhelming, her head spun in a dizzy black void.

Even when the pleasure waned, he did not move and neither did she. She was in too much shock. She couldn’t believe they had made love
in her office
. Her door didn’t even have a lock, for goodness’ sake. It went against everything he preached about keeping their private association private. The risk of exposure was huge and yet, he had not even hesitated.