Free The Sicilian's Wife by Kate Walker Page A

Lookingfor love anywhere, with anyone, and thinking she had found it with quite the wrong man entirely.
    And so she couldn’t hold back now, but melted against him, letting him plunder her mouth, gentleness changing to demand in the space of a heartbeat. From there demand became heated passion, a passion that she met and welcomed, her mouth opening under his to return the kiss with all the burning urgency that her yearning emotions, the emptiness in her soul clamoured for. Just for a second she felt Cesare’s momentary check, the tiny hesitation that told her how her reaction was unexpected, but then he too was kissing her back with that same need, that same hunger, that couldn’t be controlled.
    And at last his arms closed round her, urgent hands moving over her body, stroking, caressing, teasing, tantalising. Unerringly his knowing fingers found tiny pleasure spots that made her sigh or move convulsively against him. When the strength of those hands slid under the white cotton of her T-shirt and pushed their way up to close over the curves of her breasts which had been aching for just such a touch, she moaned aloud against his tormenting mouth. Her own hands went up, closing over the hard strength of his shoulders, clinging on for support for fear her legs might actually give way and she would fall in a weak, swooning heap at his feet.
    But then, just when she thought she could take no more. When she thought she must faint, or cry, or give in to the feelings that were boiling up inside her, and actually put her need for him into words. Just when she had opened her mouth to tell him of her need, of the longing she felt, to beg him to take her, to make love to her right here and now, to make her his, he lifted his proud head and looked long and hard into her clouded eyes.
    â€˜ That is what I wanted,’ he said, and she felt a sort ofprimal satisfaction at hearing the way that his voice had a rough and ragged edge to it, telling her that for all his outward composure, inwardly he was as deeply affected as she had been.
    â€˜That is how I always wanted things to be,’ he went on. ‘How I always knew they could be. That’s why I never asked anyone else—never even thought of asking them. I knew that’s how it would be with you and me, and I knew you’d be worth waiting for. You asked what I would get out of this arrangement—this marriage. The answer is that I get you. And I want you. I want you more than life itself. I always have and I always will.’

CHAPTER FIVE
    â€˜I NOW pronounce you husband and wife.’
    Behind them, the organ music swelled up into the rafters of the church. The collection of family and friends—as many as could be collected together in the very short space of time that there had been between the announcement of the impending wedding and the actual event—turned to each other and smiled at the sound of the familiar words. And Cesare could almost hear the collected sigh of satisfaction that the moment for which they had been waiting had finally arrived.
    But it was the woman beside him who held his attention.
    Megan Ellis, now Megan Santorino, stood at his side, tall, slender and elegant in the simple sleeveless ivory silk dress, her bright hair caught up at the sides and decorated with a couple of soft cream rosebuds that were just beginning to unfurl in the heat and release their perfume into the air.
    From this moment on, the scent of roses would always mean his wedding day, the beginning of his married life. But what future was there in store for that marriage? He had rushed into it impetuously, making up his mind in a second, in a way that none of his friends or business associates would recognise.
    Cesare Santorino never rushed into anything. His reputation was that he took his time, collected all the facts, learned everything there was to learn about the contract or the situation before he committed himself to anything. Onlywhen he was