Page 19 (1/1)

"I--I don't know"

His hand reached out and a single finger moved softly, back and forth, over her collarbone as he spoke "There will be a car waiting for you at ten in the o buy whatever you need It's only a se, et whatever you want--spend whatever you want Call Joy before you leave--she's eo"

Her heart hale brain cell left inside her head was focused entirely on the finger that was stroking her Her tongue reached out and dampened her dry lips and she felt his eyes drop to her ood idea, Marco--"

"It's just a s that the bank supports You'll be fine" His hand reached out and lifted her chin and his eyes tangled with hers "How could you not be? You're beautiful" His thumb swiped her botto toward hi flooded with desire "So pretty" His eyes left hers, running over her hair, down her body, all the way to her toes and then back to her face again "So very, very pretty," he whispered

Marco reined in the lust that clawed through his guts when Natalie gripped his shoulders with hands that tre herself with had slipped and fallen between theainst his sto her and not being able to touch her was almost too much to bear He should have ended it with Tanya the ht as well have done it; he hadn't slept with her since he'd set eyes on Natalie

Natalie disturbed hinized that er He had to have her, and soon He didn'ther into his bed had becooal in hiselse in his life at the moment; he wouldn't be able to concentrate on the bank or anything else for that o slow There was so al hie--kneould be alirl shaking in his ar from him since the first day they'd met--there was no way she could be very experienced

She was like a fine wine, delicate and silky, going to his head at once andhis brain spin He desperately wanted to touch her breasts, wanted to feel their soft weight in the palms of his hands He wanted to taste theed hiive her ive her more until the ache he felt all the way to his soul went away It had slowly been building since the day he'd roorse with each passing day Seeing her, s her

It didn't escape his notice that in all his thirty-two years, he'd never wanted another woet close to hirandfather's horandfather's na woinity at fifteen--to a woman fifteen years his senior who had walked into his bedroo a party She'd been beautiful and worldly and he'd fallen under her spell that night--for a few hours

He'd found out later that she hadn't come alone to the party--she'd left her escort downstairs when she'd wandered off to find him The experience had left a sour taste in his ht him a lesson Sex was sex It was a bodily function--a need that had to be quenched The wo as well--every one of them out for the money He'dsomeone wanted him--just for him But then he'd overheard a conversation that had hardened his heart forever It was the sa woman And since then, he'd never let anyone co his et close to him

He wasn't proud to say that he'd walked on the dark side when it cas that, if he let himself think about theo, not to think of sex when it was over He always tried to find partners ere as--hungry--as he was Nothing was off-limits to him--except for otherhe'd seen all around him that even matrimony wasn't an institution he respected anyo after experienced woaairlfriends; he had sexual partners, and sometimes, more than one There had been women in the past, woirlfriend, even though he'd told the what his requireht of any of them as his Not Tanya, not any of them He'd never had a woht for even half a second that if she'd belonged to him, that he would share her? Soon after they'd ed to shock him--cold and cynical as he was It had become obvious to him immediately that the event was an excuse to switch sexual partners He'd known right ahat his choices were He could leave--or he could stay and go with the flow If he stayed his heart would become even blacker But by that time, he'd already damned himself in his ownreason to leave He cared nothing for Tanya, and after that night and all the nights like that since then, saw her and theainst pregnancy and disease as well as he could He used a condoular blood work done--had hiotten a clean bill of health in the last feeeks

And now Natalie had entered his life and he was feeling things for her that he'd never thought possible Had he ever wanted a woman this badly? He couldn't re asable to touch her--God