She jerked her arm, but he did not let go. “Am I seeing the real Piero De Luca? Is this what I am going to expect when I go to your home? You ordering me around and pulling my string, the string you tie around my neck?”
“Are you implying that you are some sort of puppet?”
“Who is implying? Let go of me.”
He took a deep breath to settle his ire. He was not accustomed to this kind of theatrics and he certainly did not welcome it. He was used to women bending over backwards to please him and the fact that the woman he had taken as his wife was doing anything but that was putting him in a very bad mood.
“Why don’t we forget this argument and go to bed?” He suggested in a reasonable tone of voice.
“Make love and forget that we are having this fight?”
He nodded. “It is a silly argument and one that should not have started in the first place.” He started to guide her into the bedroom, stopping to look at her with a frown because she would not budge. “What now?”
“A silly argument? You think I am being unreasonable?”
With an impatient sigh, he simply bent at the waist and lifted her into his arms, bearing her towards the bed where he deposited her none too gently.
“Stop fighting!” He muttered curses in his language as he took off his robe and pressed her back against the pillows. The moan was dragged from her lips, something she could not help as she stared at the lean, muscular body in front of her. He made her weak, literally, and her body’s response to him could not be helped. He was magnificent! That much was obvious, and she had a feeling that he knew it!
“Let me up!” she demanded.
“You asked me if the honeymoon is over.”
“I am sure it is.”
Lauren struggled against him, but it was a pitiful gesture and not one that was going to yield results and they were both aware of that.
“It is not.” He climbed over her, trapping her effectively, the round tip of his penis touching her middle. “It will never be over. When I see you, when I touch you…” He started to peel the dress off her, a groan escaping him at the skimpy champagne colored wisps of underwear she had on.
“So beautiful.” His eyes skimmed her body - the flawless complexion, the nipples that he fed on as if he was starving. She made him weak with need and that was something he had not been able to come to grips with and doubt that he ever will. He was not used to someone having this much power over him and it scared him. He finished undressing her hastily, his fingers exploring her body, dark eyes lifted to hers.
“I want you - Cristo! How I want you.”
*****
Lauren waited until she was sure he was sleeping before she eased herself out of his arms and got off the bed. He had made love to her twice, breaking through her resistance – albeit a token one! Easily. It had been that easy for him to make her forget what they had been arguing about as soon as she looked at him and it was frustrating to her. She had been lost in a sea of emotions, so much so that she had been unable to think of anything else but him.
Reaching for the robe, she put it on and went into the elegant sitting room to curl up on the love seat by the window, staring out at the brilliance of the night, the stars and full moon bathing everything in sight. An idea had been germinating inside her head and had taken full flight when they had been at the restaurant earlier today. She was supposed to cancel the lease on her apartment and get rid of her stuff, but she was going to tell him that she was not going with him. He was going to hit the roof, and knowing how he operated, she knew that he was not going to get all heated and rail at her. He was going to tell her in his cool unflappable tone of voice that she must stop the nonsense – that she was his wife and she belonged at his side. She was also aware of how bad it was going to look to see him going off without her, but she needed the space and time to think. She had sat there and listened to that woman and had to hear every word she said about the intimacy she had shared with her husband! And Piero had denied anything she had said. He had not told her that he was not in love with Sophia, had not reassured her that there was nothing to the things she had told Lauren. But how could he deny it when it had all been there in print? It bothered her that he had been on the verge of marriage with that woman, had been in love with her! And on top of that, he had never uttered those words to her. How could she go to his home, knowing that right there was a woman who knew her husband and had shared so many intimate moments with him? A woman who had not been afraid to let her know that she was coming after him and nothing will stop her, not even her own marriage, not even Piero’s marriage! She clenched her fingers, her nails biting into the softness of her palms as she looked towards the bedroom. He was aloof and unflappable, and she was so in love with him that it defied description! But she had to do this, and she was going to phrase it in a way that he could not help but accept, even if he did not want to.
*****
In the elegant Chateau De Luca, thousands of miles away, Bettina De Luca was seated in her silk cushioned sofa, a complicated novel she had been reading placed onto her lap, the pages open to the section where she had stopped. She was an insomniac and often spent the time when she could not sleep either reading or watching something on television. She slept in her own suite most of the time and was happy to be away from her husband during those times. Adolfo De Luca was forceful and dynamic. He was also charismatic and handsome, which meant that women threw themselves at him. He was discriminate and discreet, but Bettina knew that he had mistresses all over Rome. He made sure that she was not disrespected, but she knew that he went to other women. At first, during the early years of the marriage, she had been disturbed about it and had wondered what she had done to make her husband stray. She had even gone as far as to ask him the question, pleading with him to tell her how to fix it. He had given her a gentle smile and taken her into his arms, his expression sober.
“It is not you Tesoro. I require from those other women, something I would not dream of asking you for. It is my animalistic passion, something I cannot control, and I would not debase our marriage by asking it of you. I love you, that much I want you to know and I would never flaunt my affairs before you. I promise that I will always be discreet and never allow that side of my life to affect what we have with each other. Those women mean nothing to me. You are my wife, and no one will ever come between us.”
She had accepted to a point, but had spent her time watching for signs that his outside activities had become more than something for him to blow off steam. He came home every night, no matter how late it was, and she had learned not to stop asking him where he had been. She had to acknowledge that some of it was on her. She did not like sex and had suggested that he let her know two days before whenever he was going to be with her that way so she could prepare herself psychologically and emotionally. She had been a virgin when they got married, and even though he had taken that into account and had breached her with absolute care, that care had disintegrated as soon as he was deep inside her. He had lost control, gripping her hips, and driving into her with a force that had had her sobbing in his arms. He had exploded inside her, carried away, and it was not until he was finished that he noticed how terrified she had been. It was then he realized that it was not something she wanted. His unleashed passion was not something she would ever be able to deal with and he had told her that he would find a suitable outlet.