The Sicilian's Defiant Virgin by Susan Stephens

Author:Susan Stephens [Stephens, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780263924084
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2017-02-01T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

JEN WAS STILL lying in Luca’s arms when she remembered Maria would be waiting for her in the town. ‘I should go back. Maria might be worried about me. Luca? Luca...?’

He was lying with his arm over his eyes, not trusting himself to look at Jen. He had thought that making love to her would ease the ache inside him, but instead it had only grown. He wanted her, and for more than just sex. He’d been starved of feelings—had starved himself of feelings—for far too long, and now he was overwhelmed by them.

Emotions hadn’t troubled him since he was a boy. He’d learned to live without them after his mother died, and he had never let them in again. Why would he? His father didn’t want them, and Raoul had decided to align himself with his father. Wanting Jen like this had never been part of his plan. It certainly wasn’t part of his father’s plan, and, however tenuous their relationship, Luca had never broken a promise to his father yet.

‘I’ll come with you,’ he said as Jen reached for her clothes. ‘There are dangers in town during this special holiday.’

‘Worse than you?’ she said. ‘Seriously. I need to go. I don’t want Maria to be worried about me.’

He reached for her and held her wrist. ‘You’ll stay with me tonight.’

‘Will I?’ she said. A smile crept onto her mouth as if she had tried to keep it away, but couldn’t. ‘You must be feeling very confident,’ she said as she fastened her bra.

‘I am,’ he confirmed.

She laughed as he grabbed his clothes and tugged them on. He adjusted the straps on her sundress. She looked so beautiful. Flushed from their lovemaking with her hair in disarray and her lips red and swollen from his kisses, she somehow managed to look younger and more vulnerable than ever.

‘So I’m to stay in the big house?’ she said.

‘That’s the plan,’ he confirmed.

Her cheeks pinked up like a child given a special treat.

‘How old are you, Jen?’

‘Old enough,’ she said. ‘Anyway, you should know—you must have studied my CV.’

‘I have, but it didn’t tell me how experienced you are.’

‘Experienced enough,’ she teased him.

‘There were quite a few gaps in your résumé,’ he recalled as questions started to grind away in his head.

‘I’m twenty-four,’ she said. ‘Does that reassure you?’

Not really. She was very young.

‘How old are you?’ she demanded.

‘Thirty-two.’

‘Old Father Time.’ She laughed as she ran her fingers through her hair to comb the grass strands out of it. ‘But you’re not married, and you don’t have any children—so, seeing as we’re playing the truth game, why’s that, Luca?’

Could anything tempt him to bring a wife and children into the complicated world he inhabited? ‘Don’t let your imagination run riot,’ he warned without answering her question.

‘Why not?’ she demanded, bundling her hair back up again. ‘I’m sure you speculate about me.’

She was shrewd and covered her question in more smiles. Putting his hands on her shoulders, he turned her in the direction of the town.

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