Interview with a Playboy (10 page)

She headed towards it and peeked cautiously in.

Modern chandeliers blazed over a large lounge area, with white leather sofas and glass tables. But there was no sign of Marco.

Cautiously she walked further down the deck, looking for a doorway, and then suddenly as she rounded a corner there he
was—leaning against the rail of the ship, staring out to sea. She didn’t realise that he was on the phone until he spoke to someone.

‘So, you’ll need to prepare those figures for me,’ he was saying decisively. ‘And I’ll head out to New York to deal with it when I can.’

As she moved forward he turned and saw her. ‘Anyway, I’ll leave it with you, Nick, and phone you later,’ he said as he hung up.

For a second there was silence between them as his eyes swept over her, taking in everything about her from her bare feet to the way the black satin dressing gown was tightly belted at her waist.

‘Well, now, look what the tide has washed in,’ he murmured, and something about that husky tone made her senses plunge into freefall. ‘What are you doing out here, Izzy?’

What
was
she doing here? she wondered. She felt suddenly as if she had walked straight into a danger zone. ‘I…I couldn’t sleep, and then I saw you leaving the house.’ She shrugged helplessly.

‘You couldn’t sleep?’ One dark eyebrow lifted.

‘No, and I thought I’d better come after you to tell you that I’d changed my mind.’

He moved closer to her. ‘Changed your mind about what?’

Her heart seemed to bounce unsteadily against her chest. ‘About…our interview, of course.’ To her annoyance her voice came out as little more than a whisper. ‘I’ve…I’ve decided to stay.’

‘Ah.’ He smiled at that. ‘Of course you’ve decided to stay. You’re a journalist—you want your story. I never had any doubts about that. But why are you out here now?’

‘I told you…I just thought I’d better come after you in case you’d taken me literally and were going off on business somewhere.’ She tried to sound practical, but it was a bit
difficult when she was standing in front of him just wearing a dressing gown.

‘I
am
going off on business. I’ve got an early-morning meeting over in Italy. But I was planning on returning to take you down to Nice afterwards.’ His eyes narrowed on her. ‘You thought I was leaving without saying goodbye?’

‘No! Well…yes.’ Her voice shook a little. ‘As I said, I just wanted to check things were still OK between us after our conversation last night.’

‘Yes, things are still OK.’ The quiet way he said that, combined with the way his eyes were moving over her face, made her temperature sizzle.

And she realised that her interview wasn’t the main reason she’d come running after him. In fact her motivations were somehow much more personal…and for the first time in her life work was on a very low flame by comparison.

The knowledge scared her. ‘Anyway, I’ll get back on dry land now we have that sorted out…’

‘Bit late for that.’

‘How do you mean?’ Even as she waited for his answer she felt the ship swaying, and her eyes widened.

‘The crew have cast off. We are moving out to sea,’ he informed her nonchalantly.

‘You
are
joking!’ In consternation she sidestepped him and headed towards the rail.

But Marco wasn’t joking. As soon as she walked out from the sheltered section where they had been standing a warm salt breeze swept her hair around her face. And as she looked out she could see they were a few miles out from land and starting to gather pace.

‘Marco, we need to turn back!’ she wailed in agitation.

‘I haven’t got the time to go back,
cara
.’

‘But…I can’t go to Italy with you!’ She turned to face him and then wished she hadn’t—because he was standing very close to her…perhaps too close.

‘Why not?’ he asked with a smile.

‘Because…I’m just wearing a dressing gown! Because…’ She trailed off helplessly. ‘There are a million reasons why not.’

He looked at her quizzically. ‘And yet you came running out here without a second thought for any one of those million reasons.’

His gaze drifted slowly over her. She looked totally different with her dark hair loose and tousled by the sea breeze, and he couldn’t help comparing her appearance now with the buttoned-up way she usually dressed.

Her black satin dressing gown had slipped down, so that he could see the creamy line of her shoulder and the dark bruise where she had hurt herself on the flight.

He remembered how he’d felt when he’d unbuttoned her blouse. He’d suspected that underneath all that prim clothing she would be a very sexy woman, and the more he was around her the more he realised he was right. That kiss last night, for instance, had been filled with smouldering passion. But for some reason she was afraid of stepping out from behind that cool pretence and letting go.

‘You don’t understand, Marco. I…I really need to go back.’ She tilted her chin and looked up at him with eyes that shone bright and clear in the moonlight.

He couldn’t help thinking there was something very touching about the picture she presented.

‘I do understand, Izzy,’ he told her softly. ‘But you’ve got to understand it’s too late to go back.’

The ship rolled and pitched suddenly, and he put a hand out to steady her, catching her around the waist.

She tried to pull away, but the touch of his hand was like fuel to the fire that was suddenly smouldering inside her.

‘There is a chemistry between us that can’t be denied, Izzy, and you can’t keep fighting it.’

‘I don’t know what you mean.’ She raised her eyes towards
his and then immediately wished she hadn’t, because he was looking at her with that teasing warmth that made her emotions stretch as if they were made of elastic and were being pulled…pulled to breaking point.

‘You know exactly what I mean.’ His gaze rested on her lips and she moistened them nervously. ‘And I don’t think these feelings are going to go away, Izzy, do you? Not unless we address them.’

The calm question rebounded inside her like some instrument of torture.

‘You know, I think you are probably
the
most arrogant person I’ve ever met—and the most infuriating.’

He smiled, liking the fire in her voice, in her eyes. He wondered if she would be as fiery in bed.

Maybe it was time he found out.
Because this swirling need that was building between them couldn’t be ignored for much longer. It was like an elephant in the room—they both knew it was there, and they both knew exactly what was going on.

And the more she tried to fight against it, the more intrigued he became.

His gaze moved slowly down over her body as he remembered how good it had felt to kiss her last night.

OK, she was a reporter and not his type, but the more he was around her the less it seemed to matter. Well…it didn’t matter now, for a few hours, he corrected himself quickly.

He had some time to pass…
why not while it away pleasurably?

‘And do you know
why
I infuriate you so much, Izzy?’ he asked softly.

Her heart-rate was starting to increase. Of all the men in the world, why did it have to be Marco who had this effect on her? Why, as soon as he got too close, as soon as he looked at her in a certain way, did she start losing her sanity? She didn’t want to lose control…she mustn’t lose control, she told herself angrily.

With difficulty she tried to focus. ‘The reasons why you annoy me are so…so many, I couldn’t possibly begin to list them.’

‘Well, let me help you,
cara
… The fact is, I drive you mad because I turn you on.’

The husky matter-of-fact words merged with the surge of the ocean and the hissing of the seaspray as it hit the ship.

She stared up at him, wide-eyed. ‘That’s…not true…’ She tried desperately to insert some fierceness into the denial, but her voice sounded as frail as she suddenly felt. She couldn’t believe he had just said that to her!

‘You want me to kiss you… And you want me to make love to you… And it scares the hell out of you,’ he continued evenly.

She shook her head. ‘You are so damn sure of yourself, aren’t you?’ Her voice trembled alarmingly.

He put one hand on her arm and pulled her closer. ‘I’m sure of this.’

Desperately she tried to resist, but he pulled her into his arms with ease, and the impact of his powerful body against hers sent her senses reeling.

She told herself that she needed to pull away, but somehow she couldn’t find the strength, and as she looked up at him she was completely terrified by the feelings that were flowing through her.

‘Please…Marco…’ She whispered the words unsteadily.

‘Please…what?’ he asked teasingly. ‘Please kiss me? Please show me what I’ve been missing?’

She could feel her heart pounding hard against her chest as he bent closer.

He said something in Italian, and then his mouth captured hers.

For a moment she tried very hard not to kiss him back, but it was like trying to hold a tidal wave at bay. The sensations that were spiralling through her just swept her away. One
instant her hands were flat against his powerful chest, and the next they were curling up and around his shoulders as she hungrily kissed him back.

She could taste the salt of the sea on his lips, and the thundering, pounding sound of the ocean seemed to match the pounding of her emotions.
She wanted him so much!

Just when she thought she couldn’t stand it any more, when she thought she would just die from need, she felt his hands untying the belt that held her robe in place.

Her eyes moved to lock with his.

She was naked beneath, and she knew she should reach out and stop him, but she couldn’t make herself. Because she wanted him to touch her more intimately—wanted to give herself to him completely.

At first his hands just rested at her waist as he brought her even closer against him, then they smoothed down over her slender hips.

‘So, was I right,’ he murmured provocatively against her ear. ‘You want me so badly it hurts, doesn’t it?’

Under ordinary circumstances the words would have infuriated her. She would have slapped him, she would have pulled back, she would have told him to go to hell. But she couldn’t do anything rational because a devil seemed to have possessed her senses. She was totally incapable of anything except kissing him, luxuriating in his caresses.

His hand moved from her hips to between her legs. There was nothing tentative about his caress. It was boldly assertive…and the contact of his fingers against such a sensitive area shocked her so much she gasped.

But she liked it…
And as he started to caress her
she liked it too much
. She shuddered with need as his mouth captured hers again, his tongue mimicking his fingers, invading her senses and taking over her mind, until she couldn’t think about anything except here and now and wanting him.

Then suddenly he pulled away from her. Her breathing was
ragged and uneven and she couldn’t get it under control—just as she couldn’t stop the pounding need that was still flowing through her body.

‘I think we should take this somewhere a little more comfortable, don’t you?’ he said softly.

She felt dizzy as she looked up at him, and she wasn’t sure if that was due to the need he had stirred up in her, or if it was the tilt and flow of the ship as the vessel skimmed through the darkness.

From somewhere a little voice of reason tried to tell her to say no, to walk away. But it was like a voice trying to whisper down a tropical storm—a voice drowned out by the fierce elements of Mother Nature.

He bent and kissed her again, and hunger lanced through her. OK, this was madness, but maybe if she slept with him these feelings would leave her…maybe she would be free of needing him for evermore?

Marco didn’t even wait for her acquiescence. He swept her up into his arms and carried her along the deck.

Her heart was thundering out of control as he opened the door into a cabin and placed her down.

She stared up at him, her eyes wide, her silky hair dishevelled around her shoulders, and Marco thought that he had never seen a woman as lovely.

Shyly her eyes moved away from him and around their luxurious surroundings, to linger on the massive double bed.

How many other women had Marco seduced in here? The thought flicked through her mind in a moment of sanity, like a glimpse of clear sky in the midst of a storm. It wasn’t too late to say no—to tell him that this wasn’t what she wanted.

Except that it was what she wanted. Had been from almost the first moment she’d seen him. He was right.

Marco had taken his jacket off and was unbuttoning his shirt now. He had the most incredible body, she thought hazily.
Powerful, wide shoulders, a hard flat stomach and lean hips. The body of an athlete.

He looked over and caught her watching him, and smiled. ‘Come here,’ he demanded.

For a moment she hesitated and stood where she was by the door.

‘Come.’ He stretched over and playfully pulled her closer. Then he sat down on the end of the bed and slid the robe she was wearing down from her shoulders, so that it crumpled to the floor by their feet and she stood before him naked.

‘I’ve been wanting to do that from the first moment I saw you out there on the deck,’ he told her huskily.

She felt her body burn as his eyes moved slowly and provocatively over her figure, assessing her with a passionate intensity that made her shyly discomfited whilst at the same time alive with desire.

‘Now, wasn’t this a good idea?’ He whispered the words as he pulled her down onto his knee.

‘I don’t know…I think I’ve taken leave of my senses,’ she murmured softly as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She loved the feel of her breasts pressing against his chest, naked skin against naked skin… ‘But I suppose you are used to that…I suppose that is the effect you have on every woman you take to bed…’

He laughed. ‘A gentleman doesn’t talk about his previous conquests…you should know that.’

‘Hmm… Yes, I should know that…’ She raked her hands through the thick darkness of his hair and then drew her breath in on a gasp as he kissed her neck, then moved lower to kiss her breasts. ‘I also know that you are no gentleman.’ She breathed the words out in a wave of pleasure as his lips nuzzled against her nipple. She’d never experienced such breathtaking sensations; she wanted more—was greedy for more. How come no one had ever made her feel like this before? It was as if she were coming alive for the first time.