Chapter 218

• WHAT followed next was beyond anything Ally had ever imagined could exist between two people. Vittorio was not in a hurry, which totally surprised her. She had expected a man with his sexual experience to zone in on his needs with perhaps just a cursory regard for hers, but if anything he held back to an almost torturous pace as her body blossomed and swelled under his expert touch, leaving her breathless and close to begging in his arms.
• He uncovered what little there was to uncover, since she was still wearing her damp bikini, exploring each curve and indentation of her body as if it were a priceless work of art. After some exquisite minutes of this she became impatient to conduct her own exploration. She wanted to feel him, hot and hard and heavy in her hands. She wanted to taste him, to stroke her tongue over his length, to bring him to the point where he begged for the release she could feel building inside her like a volcano about to erupt after years of lying dormant.
• She decided there was no point in shyness—not now, when they were lying on a coolly sheeted bed, the door locked and the film of sheer curtains fluttering at the windows, bringing in a late-afternoon jasmine-scented breeze that did little to reduce the heat of their writhing bodies as they moved together on the bed in an increasingly urgent mission to come together in the most intimate way possible.