Modern Romance November Books 1-4

And then he fell asleep.

CHAPTER FOUR

IT WAS STILL dark when Salvio awoke next morning—the illuminated dial of his wristwatch informing him it was just past six. He waited a moment until his eyes became adjusted to the shadows in the bedroom. In the heat of that frantic sexual encounter which had taken him almost by surprise last night, he hadn’t bothered to close the drapes and outside it was still dark—but then, sunrise came late to this part of the world in the depths of an English winter.

He glanced across at the sleeping woman beside him, sucking in a slow lungful of air as he tried to get his head around what had happened. Trying to justify the fact that he’d had sex with the innocent housekeeper, when deep down he knew there could be no justification. Yet she had wanted it, he reminded himself grimly. She had wanted it as much as him.

They had been intimate again during the night—several times, as it happened. His stretching leg had encountered the voluptuous softness of her warm flesh, making him instantly aroused. There had been a stack of questions he’d been meaning to ask, but somehow her touch had wiped them from his mind. The second time had been amazing—and so had the third. She was so easy to please. So grateful for the pleasure he gave her. He’d expected her to start bringing up tricky topics after orgasm number five, but his expectations hadn’t materialised. She hadn’t demanded to know if he had changed his mind about seeing her again, which was fortunate really, because he hadn’t. His eyes narrowed. He couldn’t. She was too sweet. Too naïve. She wouldn’t last a minute in his world and his own cynical nature would destroy all that naïve enthusiasm of hers in an instant.

Leaning over, he shook her bare shoulder—resisting the desire to slip his hand beneath the duvet and begin massaging one of those magnificent breasts.

‘Molly,’ he murmured. ‘Wake up. It’s morning.’

It was a shock for Molly to open her eyes and realise she was staring up at the magnificent chandelier which hung from the ceiling of the guest bedroom. In this faint light it twinkled like the fading stars outside the window and she forced herself to remember that in several hours’ time she would be attacking it with her feather duster, not lying beneath the priceless shards of crystal, with the warm body of a naked man beside her.

A shiver ran through her as she turned her head to look at Salvio, her heart punching out a violent beat as she realised what she’d done. She swallowed. What hadn’t she done? She had let him undress her and explore every inch of her body, with his tongue and his fingers and a whole lot more beside. When he’d been deep inside her body, she had choked out his name over and over again as he had awoken an appetite she hadn’t realised she possessed. Somehow he had waved a magic wand and turned her into someone she didn’t really recognise and she had gone from being inexperienced Molly Miller, to an eager woman who couldn’t get enough of him. Briefly she closed her eyes.

And she wasn’t going to regret a single second of it. Because you couldn’t turn the clock back—and even if you could, who would want to?

She yawned, stretching her arms above her head and registering the unfamiliar aching of her body. How many times had he made love to her? she wondered dazedly, as she recalled his seemingly insatiable appetite and her own eager response.

She forced herself to ask the question she didn’t really want to ask. ‘What time is it?’

‘Just after six.’ There was a pause. His eyes became hooded. ‘Molly—’

‘Well, you’d better get going, hadn’t you?’ Her breezy interjection forestalled him because she’d guessed what he was about to say—the heaviness of his tone warning her that this was the Big Goodbye. And he didn’t need to. He had to go and she was okay with that. Why ruin everything by demanding more than he’d ever intended to give? She pinned an efficient smile to her lips. ‘You did say you wanted to get away early.’

He frowned, as if her response wasn’t what he’d been expecting, but Molly knew there was only one way to deal with a situation like this, and that was by being sensible, the way she’d been all her life. She had to face facts, not mould them to suit her fantasies. She knew there could be no future between her and the billionaire tycoon because their lives were too different. Last night the boundaries had become blurred—but one night of bliss didn’t change the fundamentals, did it? She was employed as a housekeeper—and lying in an honoured guest’s bed was the very last place she should be.

‘You’re sure you’re okay?’ he growled.

She wondered where the rogue thought came from. The one which made her want to say, Not really, no. I wish you could take me with you wherever you’re going and make love to me the way you did last night.

But fortunately, the practical side of her character was the dominant one. As if Salvio De Gennaro would want to take her away with him! She tried to imagine cramming herself into that low-slung sports car—why, her weight would probably disable the suspension! ‘Why wouldn’t I be okay?’ she questioned breezily. ‘It was great. At least, I think it was.’ For the first time, a trace of insecurity crept into her voice as she looked at him with a question in her eyes.

‘Oh, it was more than “great”,’ he affirmed, reaching out to trace the tip of his finger over the quiver of her bottom lip. ‘In fact, it was so good that I want to do it all over again.’

Once again Molly felt her stomach clench with desire and a rush of heat tugged deep inside her. ‘But...’ she whispered as he moved closer.

‘But what, mia bedda?’

‘There isn’t...’ She swallowed. ‘There isn’t time.’

‘Says who?’

He slipped his hand between her legs. Molly wondered what had happened to the sensible part of her now. Forgotten, that was what. Banished by the first lazy stroke of his finger over her slick heat. ‘Salvio,’ she moaned, as his dark head moved down and his tongue found her nipple.

He lifted his head from her breast, dark eyes gleaming in the half-light. ‘You want me to stop?’

‘You know I don’t,’ she gasped.

‘So why don’t you show me what you would like?’

Maybe it was the knowledge that this was the last time which made her so adventurous, because Molly suddenly found her hand drifting over his taut belly to capture the rocky erection which was pressing so insistently against her thigh. ‘This,’ she said shakily. ‘This is what I want.’

‘And where do you want it?’

‘In me,’ she breathed boldly. ‘Inside me.’

‘Me, too,’ he purred, reaching out to grab a condom from the sadly diminished pile on the bedside cabinet.

Molly was aware of being warm and sticky as he moved over her. Of her hair all mussed and her teeth unbrushed—but somehow none of that seemed to matter because Salvio was touching her as if she were some kind of goddess. His fingers were sure and seeking and goosebumps rippled over her skin in response as he smoothed his hand over her belly. She felt as if she were soaring as she wrapped her thighs around his hips and gave herself up to the exquisite sensation of that first sweet thrust and then the deepening movements which followed.

She loved the way they moved in time. The way she felt as if she were on a fast shuttle to paradise when another orgasm took her over the top. And she loved his almost helpless expression as his face darkened and he pumped his seed inside her. The way his tousled head collapsed onto her shoulder afterwards as he uttered something intently in what she presumed was more Neapolitan dialect. His breathing was warm and even against her neck and, terrified he would fall asleep and delay his departure, she shook him. ‘Salvio,’ she whispered. ‘Don’t go to sleep. You’d better go. Before anyone wakes up.’

‘Then you’d better get out of here, too,’ he instructed, pushing aside the rumpled duvet. ‘Right now. Before anyone sees you.’

For some reason his remark dispirited her and brought her crashing back to earth, allowing reality to puncture her little bubble of happiness. But despite the insecurities which were bubbling up inside her, Molly managed to retain her cheery smile, enjoying the sight of Salvio pulling on his jeans and sweater and quietly opening the door as he headed for the bathroom.

Once he’d gone she got out of bed and pulled on her discarded underclothes—pulling a face as she smoothed her crumpled work dress over her hips and rolled her black tights into a little ball, which she gripped in her hand. She’d be able to do something with her appearance once Salvio had left, she reasoned—glancing up as the door opened as he came back into the bedroom, his dark hair glittering with tiny drops of water from the shower.

In silence he dressed before snapping his overnight case closed, his expression very serious as he walked towards her. For a moment he just stood in front of her, his gaze sweeping over her like a dark spotlight, as if he were seeing her for the first time.

‘So why?’ he questioned simply. ‘Why me?

Molly expelled a shuddered breath, because in a way she’d been waiting for this question. He hadn’t asked her last night and she’d been glad, because she hadn’t wanted the mundane to spoil what had been the most fantastic night of her life. In a way, she would have preferred it if he hadn’t brought it up now—but he had, and she needed to answer in a way designed to keep it light. Because she didn’t want a single thing to tarnish the memory of how glorious it had been. She shrugged. She even managed a smile. ‘I don’t meet many men in this line of work,’ she said. ‘And certainly none like you. And you’re...you’re a very attractive man, Salvio—as I expect you’ve been told on many occasions.’

He frowned, as if her honesty troubled him. ‘I want you to know that I didn’t invite you in here in order to seduce you,’ he said slowly. ‘I’m not saying the thought hadn’t crossed my mind earlier, but that wasn’t my intention.’

She nodded. ‘I know it wasn’t. You were being kind, that’s all. Maybe that’s why I agreed to have a drink with you.’

He gave an odd kind of laugh. ‘You had a very profound effect on me, Molly.’

There was an expression in his dark eyes which Molly couldn’t work out but maybe it was best that way. She didn’t want him telling her it had been an inexplicable thing he’d done. She wanted to hang onto what had happened between them—to treat it as you would one of those precious baubles you hung on the tree at Christmas. She didn’t want to let the memory slip from her fingers and see it shatter into a million pieces.

‘I’m glad,’ she said, holding onto her composure only by a thread, her heart pounding frantically beneath her breast. ‘But time’s getting on. You’d better go.’

He nodded, as if being encouraged to leave a bedroom was a novel experience for him, but suddenly he turned and walked towards the bedroom door without another word, and Molly’s heart twisted painfully as he closed it quietly behind him. She stood there framed in the window, watching as he emerged from the house, his dark figure silhouetted against the crashing ocean, and for a second he looked up, his black gaze capturing hers. She waited for him to smile, or wave, or something—and she told herself it was best he didn’t, for who knew who else might be watching?

Throwing his bag inside, he slipped into the driver’s seat, the closing door blotting out her last sight of him. His powerful car started up in a small cloud of gravel before sweeping down towards the coastal road and she watched until it was just a faint black dot in the distance. As sunrise touched the dark clouds with the first hint of red, Molly wondered if Salvio’s life was a series of exits, with women gazing longingly out of windows as they watched him go.

Her cheeks were hot as she whipped the bottom sheet from the bed and removed the duvet cover. She would come back later to collect the linen and clean the room from top to bottom. But first she needed a hot shower. The Averys had plenty of events coming up and Molly had a long list of things to do today. Perhaps it was good that the weeks ahead were busy during the run-up to Christmas. It would certainly stop her from dwelling on the fact she would never see Salvio again. Never feel his lips on hers or his powerful arms holding her tight. Because this was what happened in the grown-up world, she told herself fiercely. People had fun with each other. Fun without expectations, or commitment. They had sex and then they just walked away.

Quietly, she closed the guest-room door behind her and was creeping along the corridor with the exaggerated care of a cartoon thief, when she became aware of someone watching her. Her heart lurched with fear. A shadowed figure was standing perfectly still at the far end of the guest corridor.

Not just anyone.

Lady Avery.

Molly’s footsteps slowed, her heart crashing frantically against her ribcage as she met the accusing look in her boss’s pale eyes.

‘So, Molly,’ Lady Avery said, in a voice she’d never heard her use before. ‘Did you sleep well?’

There was a terrible pause and Molly’s throat constricted, because what could she say? It would be adding insult to injury if she made some lame excuse about why she was creeping out of Salvio’s room at this time in the morning, carrying a balled-up pair of tights. And now she would be sacked. She’d be jobless and homeless at the worst possible time of year. She swallowed. There was only one thing she could say. ‘I’m sorry, Lady Avery.’

Her aristocratic employer shook her head in disbelief. ‘I can’t believe it!’ she said. ‘Why someone like him could have been interested in someone like you, when he could have had...’

Her words trailed away and Molly didn’t dare fill the awkward silence which followed. Because how could Lady Avery possibly finish her own sentence without losing face or dignity? How could she possibly admit that she had been hoping to end up in Salvio’s bed, when she was a married woman and her husband was in the house?

Molly’s cheeks grew hot as she acknowledged the shameful progression of her thoughts. Behaving as if the Neapolitan tycoon were some kind of prize they’d both been competing over! Had the loneliness of her job made her completely indiscriminate, so that she had been prepared to leap into bed with the first man who had ever shown her any real affection? ‘I can only apologise,’ she repeated woodenly.

Once again, Lady Avery shook her head. ‘Just get back to work, will you?’ she ordered sharply.

‘Work?’ echoed Molly cautiously.

‘Well, what else did you think you’d be doing? We have ten people coming for dinner tonight, in case you’d forgotten. And since this time I’m assuming you won’t be obsessing about one of the guests, at least the meat won’t arrive at the table cremated.’ She gave Molly an arch look. ‘Unless no man is now safe from your clutches. I must say you’re the most unlikely candidate to be a femme fatale. Just get back to work, will you, Molly, before I change my mind?’

‘Y-yes, Lady Avery.’

Unable to believe she hadn’t been fired on the spot, Molly spent the next few weeks working harder than she’d ever worked before. She went above and beyond the call of duty as Christmas approached and she tried to make amends for her unprofessional behaviour. She attempted ambitious culinary experiments, which thankfully all turned out brilliantly. She baked, prodded, steamed and whipped—to the fervent admiration of the stream of guests which passed through the mistletoe-festooned hallway of the house. And if Lady Avery made a few sarcastic digs about Molly hanging around hopefully beneath the sprigs of white berries, Molly was mature enough not to respond. Maybe her boss’s anger was justified, she reasoned. Maybe she would have said the same if the situation had been reversed.