Claiming His Secret Love-Child: The Marciano Love-Child / The Italian Billionaire's Secret Love-Child / The Rich Man's Love-Child

‘I am saying I want to see you tomorrow night when I get back from Melbourne.’

She flattened her lips together, stalling as she tried to withstand the temptation.

‘I will come to your house, if you like,’ he offered. ‘My flight back to Sydney is not a late one.’

Her hand tightened on the receiver. She wanted more time to prepare Matthew for a visit from his father. She wanted Alessandro to know for certain he was Matthew’s father when they met for the first time. She had been lucky before, as Matthew had been fast asleep in bed and Alessandro hadn’t seemed to notice the photos on the wall unit, but if he came around for any length of time…

‘Umm…I don’t think that’s such a great idea,’ she said, knowing it sounded pathetically lame. ‘I’d rather meet on neutral ground.’

‘I will book a hotel room and then no one will disturb us.’

‘No! That’s sound so…so terribly tacky,’ she said and releasing a breath of resignation, added, ‘I’ll come to your house…after I’ve put my son to bed. But I insist on making my own way there.’

‘All right,’ he said. ‘If you insist.’

‘What about Velika Vanovic?’ she asked after a tiny but tense pause.

‘What about her?’ His tone was impersonal and cool.

‘She’s your current mistress, isn’t she?’

‘She is not relevant to us, Scarlett.’

‘Are you still seeing her and sleeping with her?’

‘Why are you so interested?’ he asked.

‘I don’t like sharing.’

He laughed again. ‘You are so delightfully transparent. I like that about you. I like it a lot.’

‘And yet you think I lied to you about our son.’

The silence this time was taut as a wire strained to its limits.

‘I will see you tomorrow evening, Scarlett,’ he said in a curt tone.

‘I might not be here,’ she said with reckless abandon. ‘I might change my mind at the last minute.’

‘You will be there,’ he said, and ended the call before she could contradict him.

Roxanne came over to Scarlett’s desk. ‘Let me guess, you want me to babysit again, right?’

Scarlett bit her lip and nodded.

Roxanne gave her shoulder a tiny squeeze. ‘You’re doing the right thing, honey,’ she said. ‘You have to sort this out one way or the other, and now’s the time to do it.’

The following evening Scarlett stood on the doorstep of Alessandro’s house with legs that trembled as she heard his footsteps approach the front door to answer her summons.

She clutched her folder to her chest and forced her eyes to meet his as he opened the door. ‘I have some preliminary mock-ups for you to look over,’ she said, nervously moistening her mouth.

‘Come and show me what you have been up to,’ he said with an unfathomable smile.

Scarlett followed him to where he had drinks and nibbles set out and, pushing her reservations to one side, took a glass of white wine and sat next to him on one of the sumptuous leather sofas. She took a tiny sip, trying not to notice how close his thigh was to hers. She could see the bunching of his muscles as he leaned forward for the bowl of crisps, her stomach beginning to prickle with desire at the thought of those long, strong legs entrapping hers, the way they had done in the past.

‘Do you want some?’

Scarlett blinked at him vacuously.

He smiled as he held the bowl under her nose. ‘You have gone all glassy-eyed on me, cara,’ he said. ‘What is going on in that beautiful blonde head of yours, mmm?’

Scarlett wondered he couldn’t see what was going on for himself. She felt as if her need for him was written all over her skin, every fine pore ached to feel the glide of his hands on her flesh. Her cheeks felt hot, indeed her whole body felt as if it was smouldering, and she knew one touch from him would send her into flames.

She put her glass on the coffee table and began to get to her feet. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have come here tonights…’

One of his hands came down over hers and held her fast. ‘No, Scarlett,’ he insisted. ‘Do not leave.’

Scarlett looked at their joined hands and felt a feathery sensation run up her spine. Her breasts began to tighten beneath the soft lace of her bra as his thumb began to stroke her wrist, her pulse going like a threshing machine as he pulled her closer to bring his mouth into contact with hers.

She tasted wine and salt and sex, a devastating combination that left her with no hope of resisting. It was as if her body was specifically programmed to respond to him and him alone. She kissed him back without reserve, her tongue tangling with his in a sensual dance of dangerous desires finally unleashed. She felt the increasing urgency in him as he pushed her back to the cushioned comfort of the sofa, his weight coming over her, his erection nudging at her intimately as his hands went to her breasts.

She drew in a sharp little breath as he shaped her through the thin fabric of her dress—but her breathing stalled altogether when he deftly unzipped her and unclipped her bra, so he could have his mouth on her bare skin. His lips closed over one tight nipple, making her back arch, and her toes curl so much her shoes fell to the carpeted floor with two soft little thuds.

He took her other nipple and suckled hard, the drawing of his mouth on her flesh making her whole body writhe in response.

‘I want you, Scarlett,’ he said as he removed the rest of her clothes before starting on his own. ‘I want you so badly I cannot think of anything else.’

She looked down and touched him, almost reverently. He was so hard, so fully aroused. She wanted to reach down and taste him, to feel him move within the moistness of her mouth, to feel his control straining at the leash as she subjected him to one of the most intimate acts of all between lovers.

‘If you want me to stop then you had better tell me now,’ he said, even as he separated her tender folds in preparation for his entry.

She answered by kissing him on the mouth, her tongue meeting his in a dance of mutual desire that left words totally unnecessary. She felt him surge fully into her warmth, the thickness of him after so long making her wince slightly as her slim body accommodated him.

He pulled back and looked down at her in concern. ‘Am I hurting you?’

‘No…’

‘Am I going too fast for you?’

She shook her head, unable to speak for the emotion clogging her throat. It felt so good to have him so deep and warm and hard inside her. Her body had missed him so much; for nearly four years she had lain awake at night, aching for exactly this, feeling his flesh on her flesh, his skin on hers.

He brushed her mouth with his in a kiss that was as light as air but as hot as fire. ‘I have been going mad with the need to do this,’ he groaned, easing himself inside her gently. ‘You feel so perfect.’

Scarlett let out a breathless gasp of pleasure as he filled her completely, his slow, gently rocking motion making her want him harder and faster. She clutched at his buttocks with her fingers, and he responded by upping his pace until she was writhing against him uninhibitedly, her legs like jelly as she felt each hard thrust bring her closer and closer to the release she craved with all her being.

Suddenly she was there, her body exploding with an orgasm so intense she felt as if she had momentarily lost consciousness. Wave after wave of pleasure swamped her being, her nerves twitching and jumping with the aftershocks of such a cataclysmic response to his love-making.

She felt him prepare for his final plunge into oblivion, the tension in his muscles building and building, before he thrust forward with a groan of pure ecstasy.