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Emma woke to tempting warmth and a teasing tickle against her cheek. Half asleep, she tried to smooth away whatever was causing it and encountered a wall of hard muscle and crisp chest hair. She groaned and screwed her eyes shut as memories of the night before pummeled her brain.
“You okay?” Carlo said and his deep voice rumbled through her, awakening other parts of her body.
“I am so so sorry,” she said and met his amused gaze.
“I have to confess that in all the dreams I had about our first night together –”
“You dreamed about us being together?” she asked, and her heart pounded, rushing blood to all those already alert parts.
With a half grin that awakened that enticing dimple she had noticed the night before, he shifted so they were face-to-face on the pillow and covered the hand she had splayed on his chest. “I never imagined our first night together or the morning after would be quite like this.”
There was no mistaking the look in his eyes and what he had expected, but that didn’t keep her from saying, “What did you imagine?”
“Something more like this,” he said, cradled her cheek, and whispered a soft kiss across her lips.
“And like this,” he continued and shifted to the sensitive spot right below her ear where he dropped another kiss before leaving a trail down to where her neck met her shoulder. The lick of his tongue had her shuddering a second before his tender love bite rocked her world.
She moaned and arched up. The bedspread that had been separating them and covering her slipped down a dangerous inch. Enough that he bent and kissed his way across the swell of her breasts before returning to her lips.
Her nipples were tight, sensitive against the fabric, but she wanted to feel his skin against hers. She jerked the bedspread down as he hauled her close and skin met skin.
They both shook and broke away from the kiss, breathing heavily.
“Is this how you pictured it?” she asked and shifted even closer. The long hard ridge of his morning erection pressed against her belly and damp heat flooded between her legs at the thought of him making love to her. Filling her with his incredible length. Covering her with his big beautiful body.
“Maybe,” he said softly earning her puzzlement as he gently drew up the bedspread to cover her breasts.
“Just maybe?” she asked and stroked her hand across the hard sweep of his collarbone.
“I always imagined I’d take you somewhere nice. Maybe the Lighthouse Inn. We’d have dinner. A little wine. Not too much because when I make love to you, I want to know it’s you responding, and not the liquor.”
Warmth bathed her cheeks at the recollection of the night before and how that hadn’t been the case, but he was gentleman enough not to mention it as he continued.
“We’d walk back. Maybe stop for ice cream on the corner or some pastries at the bakery because we were going to have coffee and dessert back here.”
“Just coffee and dessert?” she teased and reached up to smooth away a dark lock of hair that had fallen onto his forehead. His hair was silky and thick. Alive beneath her fingers as she tangled them into the ever-tousled waves of his hair.
With a shrug of broad powerful shoulders, he said, “Maybe more, but only if you wanted more.”
He waited, obviously expectant. “Maybe I’d want more,” she said, still caught in that seesaw of emotions that lately had her opening herself to more with him.
He smiled and cupped her cheek. “Do you realize we’ve never been on a real date?”
She hadn’t realized because they had spent so much time together over the years. And then there had been all her friends’ weddings where he’d been her plus one. Not really a date, but close to one considering she’d not had a date with anyone else in all that time.
At her silence, he said, “I’d like to go on a real date with you. I’d like to take you to dinner, walk you home, and see where it might go.”
She wanted to say that they were exactly where it might go and that she wished he’d touch her. Kiss her again until she was breathless. Make love to her until she was writhing on the sheets beneath his hard, powerful body. Instead she let common sense reign and said, “I’d like that. Are you free tonight?”
He grinned and nodded. “For you I’d cancel any plans.”
***
CARLO STOOD AT THE door as he had countless times before. Only this time he was as nervous as shit, all done up in the blue suit he’d worn just a couple of days earlier at the press event, holding a bouquet of pink carnations and a bottle of red wine which he’d spent more on than he’d ever had before in his entire life.
He wanted to make a good first impression for their first ever date. Silly considering he’d known Emma for over eight years, but it was their first date because he wasn’t counting the night at his friend’s restaurant as a date. He hadn’t picked her up, paid for the meal or taken her home. That night didn’t count, but tonight definitely did. Tonight was an official “maybe we should be more than just friends and business colleagues” date. He hoped it wouldn’t be the last one.
The door popped open about five seconds after he knocked and he recalled Emma’s mantras to brides who were too eager to rush down the aisle. Count to five.
Had she been waiting expectantly on the other side of the door and used her own suggestion to keep control? he wondered.
“Come on in,” she said and he stepped into the warmth of her cottage. Warm not just because of the radiators with the slight hiss from their steam, but because of the bright colors and comfortable looking couches and chairs arranged before a fireplace with logs that looked ready to be lit.
Warm, dare he even say hot, because of the woman standing before him in an emerald green velvet dress that smoothed across her slender curves, making him itch to touch them. The color deepened the green of her eyes, reminding him of the most secret parts of a forest at night.
“You look beautiful,” he said and thrust the flowers and bottle of wine at her.
She smiled hesitantly and skimmed her hand down her midsection. “Thank you. You look so handsome in your suit.”
Trying to ease the tension vibrating between them, he mimicked her actions and ran his hand down the front of his suit jacket. “This old thing? I wanted to look nice for you.”
She laughed as he intended, and the uneasiness evaporated like morning dew beneath the rising sun. “That’s my line,” she said and gestured toward the kitchen. “Let me get a vase for these and then we can go. Where are we going by the way?”
“The Dunes. Mac and Meghan do such a fabulous job with the menu and I wanted to support our locals,” he said.
Emma nodded and walked toward the kitchen. He heard the clink of glassware and running water as she called out, “I love that place. It’s so romantic.”
He’d been going for romantic because he wanted to romance Emma like she’d hopefully never been romanced before. He only wished he could have seen her face as she said that to figure out if Emma thought romantic was a good thing. But as she strolled out of the kitchen smiling, the bright pink carnations tucked into a vase, he supposed that she thought romantic was a good thing.
“I love carnations. The scent is so spicy,” she said and buried her face into the blooms to take a big sniff.
“I know. You have bunches of them in your garden every year.”
She appeared a little taken aback by that and set the vase on the coffee table in front of the couch. “I didn’t realize you’d noticed.”
He stepped closer, took hold of her hand and said, “I’ve noticed a lot about you, Emma. Like how your hands get cold when you’re nervous.” Like they were now, and he rubbed them to bring them warmth.
“How your nose sometimes crinkles when you’re really really thinking about something,” he said and tapped the tip of her nose.
He closed the last little distance between them and cradled her waist with his hand. Bending slightly, he whispered a kiss across her cheek. “And that your lips are so soft and sweet, it’s all I can do not to kiss you senseless right now.”
She turned her face just enough that her breath spilled across his lips as she said, “Sounds good to me.”
He kissed her with all the pent up need he’d been holding back, the kiss hard and demanding. She answered back just as greedily, opening her mouth beneath his to accept the slide of his tongue. Grabbing hold of his lapels to hold him close, she pressed herself against him. Over and over they kissed until they were both shaking and breathless and finally broke apart.
“I think we better go eat,” he said roughly, his body shaking with need. His brain sure of only one thing: if they didn’t leave soon, he wouldn’t be able to keep from making love to her right then and there.
She nodded and said, “I think that’s a good idea.”
