Rags To Riches Collection. Rebecca Winters

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      ‘You wear your honesty like a badge,’ he said roughly. ‘Your emotions are transparent—your love for Sophie, your kindness to an injured animal. I don’t think you are capable of lying either by word or action.’

      His voice deepened, and the seductive huskiness in his tone sent a quiver through Beth. He was watching her through half-closed lids and the searing intensity of his gaze made her catch her breath.

      ‘Your body did not lie when I kissed you. I felt the sweet urgency of your response.’ He framed her face with his hands and gently stroked her hair behind her ears before he traced the fragile line of her jaw. ‘You are as much a prisoner of this damnable desire that burns between us as I am, mia bella.’

      She could not deny it—not when his mouth was so close to hers that his warm breath whispered across her lips. She wanted him to kiss her so desperately that her whole body trembled, and when he closed the few inches that separated his mouth from hers a soft sigh escaped her and she parted her lips with an innocent eagerness that caused Cesario’s gut to clench.

      It was different from when he had kissed her in the rain. He was different…gentler; his hands shook a little as he slid them from her face to her throat and then traced the delicate line of her collarbone. He brushed his mouth over hers in a sensual tasting with an underlying tenderness that she found utterly beguiling. Slowly, like a flower unfurling in response to sunlight, she began to kiss him back, tentatively at first. But at his low groan of approval she grew bolder and parted her mouth so that he could explore her with his tongue.

      ‘Beth,’ he said in a low, urgent voice, as his restraint cracked and he pulled her up against his hard body. His arms tightened around her, one hand tangling in her hair as he angled her head and plundered her mouth with feverish passion.

      She responded to him mindlessly, straining her slender body against him and lifting her hands to his face to ensure that he kept his lips on hers. The dark stubble shading his jaw felt abrasive beneath her fingertips. She gently traced the scar that sliced down his cheek and felt him stiffen, but after a moment the tension seemed to drain from him and he deepened the kiss, taking it to another level so that it became a flagrant ravishment of her senses.

      Her heart-rate quickened when he slid his hand down from her shoulder to her breast and cupped the small mound in his palm. She could feel the warmth of his skin through her blouse and felt an intense longing for him to undo the buttons and slip his hand inside her bra to touch her bare flesh.

      An image flashed into her mind of his darkly tanned fingers curled possessively around her pale breasts, and she shivered with a mixture of anticipation and faint trepidation. No man had ever seen her unclothed before, or caressed her naked body. But Cesario must have made love to dozens of women, perhaps hundreds, she thought, remembering how Mel had described him as a womaniser.

      From the cot came a tiny murmur, little more than a sigh as Sophie changed position in her sleep. But the sound shattered the sensual spell that had held Beth enthralled and she tore her mouth from Cesario’s, shaking like a leaf blown in a storm as she snatched air into her lungs.

      ‘No…I can’t do this,’ she told him in a panicky voice.

      What was she doing? her brain demanded. How could she contemplate giving her body to a man who had had a one-night stand with her best friend and who was very possibly the father of Mel’s baby?

      Cesario’s eyes narrowed, but he dropped his hands to his sides and frowned when she immediately jerked back from him.

      ‘What’s the matter?’ His nostrils flared as he fought to control his frustration. His body throbbed with sexual anticipation and the only thought in his head was how desperately he wanted to carry Beth to his room, remove her clothes and position himself between her slim thighs. But the wariness in her eyes forced him to exert formidable will-power over his rampant desire.

      He recalled how she had told him that her previous employer had tried to sexually assault her and he felt sick to his stomach. ‘Are you afraid of me?’ he grated.

      ‘No.’ Beth shook her head. Cesario sounded appalled, and she instinctively wanted to reassure him. ‘Not of you.’ She swallowed. ‘But of myself…of this.’

      His assessment of her character had been correct. She could not lie even to protect her pride.

      She gave a helpless shrug, unable to put into words how much he overwhelmed her. ‘We are little more than strangers,’ she said shakily. ‘If it wasn’t for Sophie we would never have met.’ She held his gaze and continued quietly. ‘You say you desire me, but perhaps you simply want a woman—any woman—to temporarily share your bed. And I am convenient, like Mel was.’

      Cesario fought a strong urge to snatch her back into his arms and shake some sense into her, then kiss her senseless to prove beyond doubt that he desired her more than any woman he had ever met. But essentially she was right in her guess that he would only ever want a brief affair, he acknowledged. He doubted his hunger for her would be satisfied by taking her to bed for one night, but he did not want a long-term relationship, and his interest in his mistresses invariably waned after a few weeks.

      And then there was Sophie to consider—the child who might be his, even though he had no memory of her mother. It was little wonder that Beth was regarding him with deep mistrust in her expressive green eyes.

      Another whimper came from the cot. Beth tensed. ‘You should go,’ she whispered. ‘We’re disturbing her.’

      Cesario’s mouth twisted as he envisaged the long night ahead of him. It promised to be hell when he was burning up for this pale English rose who could arouse him with one look or one glimpse of her shy smile. But she was right, of course. Sophie must come before any other consideration.

      He nodded tersely and forced himself to move away from her. ‘Sleep well, then, Beth—if you can,’ he said sardonically, before he turned and strode out of the nursery.

CHAPTER SEVEN

      THE sky was a cloudless azure blue when Beth opened the curtains the following morning, and despite her tiredness after another sleepless night when her thoughts had been dominated by Cesario she felt her spirits lift.

      ‘Look,’ she murmured to Sophie, holding the baby up to the window. ‘The mountains are so clear it’s as if you could reach out and touch them.’

      Sophie gurgled happily at the sound of her voice and continued to investigate Beth’s ear with her finger.

      ‘You are adorable—do you know that?’ A wave of intense love swept through Beth as she rested her cheek against the baby’s silky-soft hair. Sophie had inherited her mother’s dark brown eyes, and Beth felt a sudden rush of tears as she was swamped with memories of Mel.

      ‘One day I’ll tell you all about your mummy,’ she murmured. ‘She was the best friend anyone could have. She wanted you so much, and she would have loved you with all her heart—just as I do.’

      She changed Sophie’s nappy, and was just fastening the buttons on one of the pretty little dresses that her neighbour Maureen in England had passed on, after her granddaughter had outgrown it, when the maid came into СКАЧАТЬ