Free The Bride's Awakening by Kate Hewitt

Vittorio’s little inhalation of shock and smiled against his lips. He moaned into her mouth.
    His mouth remained on hers, exploring the contours of her tongue and teeth, nipping and sliding, the intimate invasion making Ana’s head spin and her breath shorten. She’d never known kissing could be like this. The few chaste pecks and stolen smacks at the end of a date didn’t compare, didn’t even count—
    And then it was over. Vittorio released her and Ana took a stumbling step backwards, her fingers flying to her swollen lips.
    ‘Well…’ she managed. Her mind was still fuzzy, her senses still consumed by what had just occurred. Then she looked at Vittorio and saw how smug he seemed. He was smiling as if he’d just proved something, and Ana supposed he had.
    ‘I think that quite settles the matter, wouldn’t you say?’
    ‘Nothing’s settled,’ Ana retorted sharply. She wouldn’t have her future decided by a simple kiss—even if there hadn’t been anything simple about it at all. It had been amazing and affirming and even transforming, the evidence of Vittorio’s desire changing everything—or at least it could change everything. ‘You said I should have a few days to consider.’
    ‘At least you want to consider it now,’ Vittorio replied, and Ana knew nothing she said could take away his smug sense of superiority that he’d been able to kiss her senseless. He looked completely recovered, if he had been shaken by that kiss, which Ana suspected he had not. Not like she had. All right, he’d desired her—for a moment—but perhaps any man would react the same way when a woman threw herself at him, which was essentially what Ana had done.
    Except Roberto hadn’t. When she’d thrown herself at him , desperate to prove herself desirable, he’d remained as still and cold as a statue, as unmoved and emotionless as a block of cold marble. And when she’d finished—pressing herself against him, kissing those slack lips, he’d actually stepped back and said in a voice filled with affront, ‘Ana, I never thought of you that way.’ A pause, horrible, endless, and then the most damning words of all: ‘How could I?’
    Still, Ana thought, gazing at Vittorio with barely disguised hunger, was that brief stab of desire—that amazing kiss—enough to base a marriage on? Along with the respect and affection and everything else Vittorio had promised?
    ‘I’ll consider it,’ she said at last. ‘I didn’t say I would say yes.’
    ‘Of course.’
    Ana touched her lips again, then dropped her hand, knowing how revealing that little gesture was. ‘I should go home.’
    ‘I’ll have my driver take you.’ Vittorio smiled wryly. ‘I’m afraid I’ve drunk a bit too much whisky to handle a car myself, and of course I would never jeopardise your safety.’
    Ana nodded in acceptance, and Vittorio pressed the button by the door again. Within seconds a servant appeared. He issued some quick instructions, and then turned back to Ana. ‘I’ll see you to the door.’
    They didn’t speak as he led her through several stone corridors back to the huge entryway of the castle. The doors were already open and a driver—in uniform, even at this hour—waited on the front step.
    ‘So this is goodbye,’ Ana said a bit unevenly.
    Vittorio tucked a tendril of hair behind her ear, his fingers trailing her cheek. That smugness had left his eyes and he looked softer now, if only for a moment. ‘For now.’
    Ana tried not to react to the touch of his hand. She felt incredibly unsettled, uncertain, unable to believe that the kiss theyhad just shared was real, that it could possibly mean something. At least to her. She had a horrible sick feeling that Vittorio, inflamed by a bit of whisky, had been acting on his baser instincts, trying to prove that this marriage bargain could actually work.
    And he’d almost convinced her that it could.
    Too tired to think any more, Ana slipped into the interior of the limo—the Porsche,