Undressed by the Billionaire

If he wanted her out, he was going to have to throw her out, and something told her he wouldn’t do that. Now she just had to hope she was right.

He shook his head. ‘Savannah, you are the most difficult, the most stubborn—’

‘Individual in the world aside from you?’ She held Ethan’s gaze along with her breath, and sent a plea into the ether. If there was anyone listening out there, anyone at all …

‘I was about to say, the most annoying guest I’ve ever had. You will have noted my use of the past tense, I hope?’

‘You can’t just dismiss me.’

‘Watch me. Out,’ he rapped, employing the full force of his laser stare.

‘Why are you so angry all the time?’

‘Why are you so slow to take a hint?’

‘Well, clearly my experience of men is somewhat limited, but if you’d just allow me to—’

‘To do what?’ he cut across her, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

‘Spend time with you?’ Savannah trembled as she clutched on to this last all-too-brittle straw.

Ethan’s laugh was scathing. ‘You must think I make a habit of courting trouble. Out.’ He pointed to the door.

‘Can’t we even have one last drink together?’

‘Gin and tonic?’ he mocked.

‘If you like.’

‘I don’t like. Now, go to bed.’

He closed the door with relief. Leaning back against it, he let out a groan of relief. Mentally, physically, he was in agony. He shouldn’t even be thinking this way about Savannah. And now he knew she was a virgin he had even less excuse—though how to stop erotic images of her flooding his mind was something he had no answer for. He wanted her. Wanted her? He ached for her. The urge to lose himself in her was overwhelming him, but he couldn’t feed on perfection, or drain her innocence to somehow dilute the ugliness inside him.

That was a wound of such long standing he doubted he’d ever be rid of it. It had taken seed in him the day he’d realised his mother had chosen his stepfather over her seven-year-old son, and had germinated on the day she’d seen his bruises in the bath. Instead of questioning them, she had told him she’d take his bike away if he wasn’t more careful. Had she really believed the buckle marks on his back had come from a fall? That bitterness was in full flower by the time he’d been ready to make his own way in the world, and those dark secrets had stayed with him. Would he share a legacy like that with Savannah? Not a chance. She was like a ray of light with her whole life in front of her, and he would do anything to protect her. He would do nothing to stop that little candle throwing its beam around the world.

Pulling away from the door, he thrust his hands through his hair with frustration. He wanted Savannah. He wanted to make love to her. The most important thing to him was that Savannah remembered the first time she made love for the right reasons.

He tensed, hearing her footsteps returning. That sound was shortly followed by a tap on the door. ‘Yes?’

‘Ethan, it’s me.’

‘What do you want?’ He tried to sound gruff. Had she forgotten something? He glanced round the room, already knowing it was a vain hope. He opened the door. She looked like a pale wraith beneath the lights she had insisted on, and they were blazing full in his face. He hardly cared or noticed these days when people turned away from him, but he noticed tonight that Savannah didn’t flinch. ‘What do you want?’ he said wearily.

‘You …’

Her voice was so small he couldn’t be sure he’d heard her correctly.

‘I want you,’ she repeated. ‘I want you, Ethan.’ She held his gaze as she paused, as if she needed to prepare herself for the next step, and then she whispered, ‘Will you make love to me?’

He was already closing the door. ‘Don’t be so silly.’

‘I’m not being silly.’

The door was stuck. And then he realised she put her foot in the way. He wanted to laugh at the sight of Savannah’s tiny foot in his door, but, seeing the expression on her face, he knew this was no time for laughter.

‘Please, can I come in?’ she begged him.

As she looked anxiously up and down the corridor, he knew the answer to that had to be yes. He wouldn’t let her make a fool of herself in front of the servants. ‘All right,’ he agreed, opening the door wide enough for her to slip through. He would soon sort this out. He would tell her it must never happen again and then send her on her way.

But as he closed the door she rounded on him. ‘Ethan, what do I have to do to make you see that I’m a woman?’

Noticing Savannah’s hands were balled with frustration, he reached out. She reached out too. Whether he intended to hold her off or pull her close, he wasn’t sure, he only knew they tangled and collided, and when she closed her eyes he dragged her close and kissed her.

She was trembling like a leaf by the time Ethan pulled away to cup her face and stare into her eyes. This was everything she had ever dreamed of and more. Ethan was everything she had ever dreamed of and more, and his kiss sealed the meeting of two lovers who had to have known each other for longer than one lifetime, and who needed the immediate reassurance of pressing every fragment of their flesh against each other. As she gazed up at Ethan, with all the love she felt for him shining in her eyes, she could have sworn he asked her, ‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes, I’m sure,’ she whispered back.

CHAPTER TEN

HE TASTED heaven when he kissed her. Dipping his head, he kissed her again, deepening the kiss, always acutely conscious that she was so much smaller than he was, and vulnerable—the very thing that held him back.

‘Why did you wait so long?’ she murmured when he released her.

Because keeping her safe had been paramount. Because he had feared the dark forces inside him might express themselves in contemptuous energy. He should have known Savannah’s joyful innocence would defeat them. And now he felt nothing but the desire to cherish her, and to have one night; a night in which he would bring her the ultimate pleasure.

‘Ethan?’ she prompted, sensing his abstraction.

‘I haven’t forgotten you,’ he murmured, sweeping her into his arms.

Her clothes slipped away in sighs and smothered laughter, and Ethan’s kisses drove her remaining fears away as she clung to him, hidden from the world by the spread of his shoulders and the width of his chest. She wasn’t even sure how she’d come to be naked, only that she was. And she wasn’t embarrassed by that, because Ethan was there to take care of her, and everything he did or said made her strong. He hadn’t even touched her intimately, and yet every part of her was singing with awareness, and she only knew how it felt to soften and melt against him. She clung to him, asking—for what, she hardly knew. She had so much to discover. She had everything to learn.

Ethan carried her across the room to the bed and laid her down on it, where she rested with one arm above her head on a stack of pillows in an attitude of innocent seduction. The linen felt cool and crisp against her raging skin, and she was lost in an erotic haze when she noticed Ethan moving away. ‘You’re not leaving me?’ She sat up.

‘This is wrong.’

‘What do you mean, “wrong”?’ She was blissfully unaware of how nakedly provocative she was to him. ‘What’s wrong about it?’ Now her cheeks were on fire. ‘Do you still think I’m too young for you?’

‘Correct.’ Ethan sounded relieved that she had given him an out. ‘Get dressed, Savannah.’

Grabbing his arm, she pushed her face in front of his. ‘I won’t let you do this.’

‘You have no choice.’

‘No choice but to be humiliated?’ Her voice broke, but Ethan still shook himself free. As he stood looking down at her she thought he had never seemed more magnificent. Or more distant. ‘Why?’ She opened her arms. ‘Why?’ she repeated softly. ‘Why are you doing this to me, Ethan? Why bring me here at all?’

Because he had thought mistakenly that for one short night he could forget. But the seeds of doubt had been planted deep inside him when his stepfather had assured him in hospital that no one would ever want to look at him again. That message had been driven home when his mother had recoiled from her own child. Was he going to inflict that same horror on Savannah when she saw his others scars? Knowing they were the answer to finishing this, he turned his back so she could see them. The scars on his face were bad enough, but those on his back were truly horrific.

‘What are you doing?’ she demanded. ‘If you expect me to exclaim in horror, you’ll be disappointed. These scars make no difference to the way I feel about you.’

‘No difference?’

‘They don’t change what I feel about you in here.’

Savannah’s hand rested over her heart. He tried dismissing that with a shrug, but she called him back.

‘The damage might be all that others see—but I see you, Ethan.’

‘Me?’ he mocked unkindly.

‘Your scars don’t change a thing for me, except that—’

‘Yes?’ he cut across her, certain now that he must have destroyed her argument.

‘They keep us apart,’ she finished softly.

Just when Ethan needed her to be strong, she was crying for him, and for what he had lost.

‘Dry your face and leave me, Savannah,’ he said harshly.

‘I’m not going anywhere. Your scars don’t frighten me.’

‘Then you haven’t looked at them properly,’ he assured her.

‘Oh, but I have,’ she argued, seeing inside him more clearly than she ever had before.

‘Look at me again,’ he suggested in a voice that broke her heart.

There was only one way past this. Kneeling up on the bed, she reached out while Ethan stood tensely, like a hostile stranger. But little by little the conviction in her eyes drew him to look at her, and she traced his scars with her fingertips, traced the tramlines that criss-crossed his back and which looked as if they had been carved by a serrated knife. She traced each one of them with her eyes and with her fingertips, until she reached his beloved face.

‘I revolt you,’ he said confidently. ‘You don’t need to pretend.’

‘I don’t need to be here at all,’ she pointed out. ‘Oh, Ethan, you couldn’t possibly revolt me. You amaze me.’ Ethan’s scars would always be a hideous reminder of the cruelty one human being could inflict on another, but they didn’t make one jot of difference to the way she felt about him.

‘How can I make love to you?’ Ethan demanded. ‘How?’ he repeated with the same passion Savannah had shown him, and when she didn’t reply he cupped her chin to make her look at him.

‘The usual way?’ she suggested softly, and because she loved him so much she risked the ghost of a smile. ‘Just don’t look to me for any pointers.’

Ethan thought her so cosseted and protected she couldn’t tolerate anything that wasn’t perfect, when nothing could be further from the truth, Savannah realised as he stripped off his clothes. ‘You think my world is all concerts and evening dresses, lace and perfume?’ She reached for his hand and laid her cheek against it. ‘I was brought up on a farm with straw in my hair, wearing dungarees, and that’s where I’ve always been happiest. I can take reality, Ethan, in rather large doses.’

‘So reality like this doesn’t trouble you?’ Ethan wiped one hand roughly down the scars on his chest.

‘Please don’t insult me.’ As she turned her face up she was aching with the need to wrench the demons out of him. Placing her palms against his chest, she kissed her way slowly across it.

‘Don’t,’ Ethan said, tensing, but she wouldn’t stop, and finally he dragged her to him.

Those scars, terrible though they were, didn’t even begin to scratch the edges of his power. Ethan was like a gladiator in some ancient etching, wounded but triumphant, and she was hard pressed to think of anything with more sex appeal than that. But inside his heart there was nothing, Savannah’s tender inner-self warned her. Yes, she answered back, Ethan’s heart was cold, but she had to hope that in time her love would warm him. ‘I want you,’ she murmured, staring up at him.

‘I want you too … more than you know.’ And that was true, Ethan realised as he teased Savannah with almost-kisses. She was tender and precious, young and vulnerable, and he would never hurt her. And maybe her innocence was the last hope he had to heal those scars he couldn’t reach.

‘So, are you coming to bed?’ she whispered. Holding his hand, she sank back on the pillows and threw back the covers. ‘Don’t be shy.’

He laughed. She was so funny and sweet. She had stripped herself bare for him in every way, proving she trusted him, and he would never betray that trust.

As Savannah snuggled lower in the bed, waiting for Ethan, knowing he might change his mind again at any moment, she started having fears on a more practical level. His size alone filled her with apprehension. He must have sensed it, for as he stretched out on the bed at her side he said, ‘I think you’re nervous.’

‘A little,’ she admitted, in a shaking voice that betrayed her true feelings.

‘There’s no need.’ He stroked her arm into quivering anticipation, and as she looked into his eyes he promised, ‘I would never hurt you, Savannah.’

How could he not? Ethan was so much bigger than the average man—bigger than most men—plus he possessed the power and the stamina of a natural athlete. She’d been around a farm long enough to know that nature allowed for this sort of unlikely coupling, but she wondered now if in some extreme instances such things weren’t possible. This was without doubt an extreme instance. She might be plumper than she wanted to be, but she was small and soft compared to Ethan. There was nothing soft about him. He was huge and hard.

Expecting to be soothed and reassured, she was surprised when Ethan moved so quickly to pin her beneath him. And now he was straddling her with his powerful thighs, and she was completely at his mercy while he murmured erotic, outrageous suggestions in her ear that made her squirm with excitement.

‘Better?’ His lips were curving with amusement as he stared into her eyes.

There was passion in his eyes as well as humour, and she was reassured to a point beyond fear. ‘Much better,’ she admitted. With Ethan’s thighs pressed close against her sides, there was nowhere else on earth she’d rather be. But still she asked for one last reassurance. ‘You won’t hurt me, will you?’

His answer was to kiss her tenderly until she relaxed, and then he deepened the kiss, which made her want to do anything but relax. Lacing her fingers through Ethan’s hair, she tried telling him by her eagerness alone that her nerve endings were screaming for his attention.

‘There’s a lot more to you than meets the eye, Ms Ross,’ Ethan murmured, smiling against her lips.

Savannah stared boldly at Ethan’s mouth, shivering with sensation as his kisses migrated down her neck. ‘What are you doing?’ she asked, writhing with pleasure when he reached the most sensitive hollow above her shoulders.

‘Exploring,’ Ethan murmured.

The feeling when he teased her nipples was beyond description, and while he suckled and teased the sensation travelled through to the core of her being, until it was impossible to remain still. Ethan could have done whatever he wanted with her, and yet he never once made her feel vulnerable, other than to put her at risk of overdosing on pleasure. Bucking against him, seeking contact, she moved restlessly on the pillows as she assured him, ‘I can’t take any more of this.’

‘So, shall I stop?’

‘Just you dare,’ she warned him, seeing the laughter in his eyes.

‘What’s your hurry?’ he demanded when she pressed against him.

‘You,’ Savannah complained fiercely. ‘You’re my hurry.’

‘Then it’s time for you to learn a little patience.’

‘I don’t want to learn patience.’ She shivered with delight as he ran his hands down her naked body. ‘But, if I do,’ she proposed, ‘can we do this again?’

‘If you’re good.’

‘I’ll be very good,’ she assured him. And as he pulled away to look at her she pulled him back. She didn’t have sufficient strength to compel Ethan to do anything, but for now the pleasure machine was at her command. ‘No more teasing,’ she warned him.

‘What, then?’ His lips were tugging with amusement.

‘Make love to me …’ And she was deadly serious.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

HE PROTECTED them both, and then touched her in a way he knew she would like. As she moaned beneath him, inviting more of these touches, he feathered kisses down her neck.

He hadn’t guessed he could be quite so gentle, or Savannah half so passionate. She brought out the best in him, more than he’d ever known he had, and as she clung to him, crying out his name, moving against him and driving him half-crazy with desire, he held back, knowing he had found someone who could reach him at a level no one else could.

That it should be a young girl like Savannah both surprised him and stirred his conscience. This was the start of a new chapter in Savannah’s life as a woman, but when tonight was over he would have to end their relationship. But for now …

Listening to her beating time with her voice to the music of their pleasure, he knew he had never known such extremes of sensation. Gathering her into his arms to stare into her eyes, he brought her to the brink and tipped her over, staying with her through the ecstasy as she enjoyed the release she had been searching for. When she quietened and snuggled in to him, he felt sure as he gazed into her drowsy face that time was playing tricks on them and that they had known each other much longer than one night. It was a short step from there to knowing Savannah should be with someone who could give her the kind of life she deserved.

‘Ethan, where are you?’ she murmured, reaching up to touch his face.

‘I’m still with you,’ he murmured.

‘No, you’re not,’ she argued softly, with barely the strength to open her eyes.

She was right. He was in a dark place he wouldn’t take her. Dipping his head, he kissed her deeply, and before she had a chance to question him further he made love to her again.

Savannah lay awake for the rest of the night, pretending to be asleep in the early hours when Ethan left her. She didn’t know him well enough to call him back. That struck her as funny and a little embarrassing, because she might not know him but she loved him. And loving him meant she understood his need for space. What had happened between them, what they’d shared, had been so much more than either of them could have expected. Of course, Ethan would need space to consider the changes this must make to his world. The changes to her world were immeasurable. Ethan was her man and her mate, and she had welcomed him inside her body with triumph and excitement. Ethan knew everything about bringing her pleasure, and they had been as one until pleasure had consumed them.

Only one worrying incident had tarnished the night. Ethan had drifted off to sleep after they’d made love, but after a few minutes he had thrown up his hands, as if to ward off a blow. It was some buried memory he couldn’t bring himself to share, she guessed, and it hurt her to think of him locked in a nightmare where she couldn’t reach him. She had to believe there was a key to breaking that destructive cycle, and that she held that key.

Turning her face into the pillows, Savannah inhaled Ethan’s scent. Exhaling softly in the darkness, she turned on her back as contentment consumed her. Her whole being was drenched in a warm, happy glow. She had expected to feel different when she gave herself to a man, but she hadn’t expected to feel quite so complete. She couldn’t wait to see the same look of happiness in Ethan’s eyes, and, as the lilac light of dawn was stealing through the heavy curtains, there was no reason why she shouldn’t go and find him.

Stretching her arms, Savannah welcomed the new day with a heart full of joy. It was a new and better world with Ethan in it. She had never believed in love at first sight, but now she did. She’d heard that opposites attracted, and she’d proved that to be right. She was deeply in love, of that there was no doubt, and after last night it couldn’t be long before Ethan told her that he loved her too.

He had left Savannah sleeping, and now he was avoiding her at breakfast, choosing instead to start the day with a dawn jog around the extensive grounds surrounding the palazzo. But even after that he craved more exercise to clear his mind. He moved on to the gym and after taking an icy shower he swam. As he powered down the Olympic-sized swimming pool there was one thing on his mind: Savannah. He could not get her out of his head.

Did he love her?

The thought was too fantastic to contemplate. He wasn’t entitled to love anyone. His stepfather had drummed that into him from the start, and over the years he had come to see that it was the one thing the man had said to him that made sense.

CHAPTER TWELVE

HE DRESSED in the changing rooms just off the swimming pool rather than return to his private suite of rooms where Savannah would still be sleeping. Snapping his watch into position, he prepared to face the day. Heading out of the leisure facility, he made straight for his office. This wasn’t a relaxing room where he could watch sport in comfort, but a cold, flickering world where he kept a handle on his business empire. He had this same facility in all his houses. No one was welcome to join him, because this was his techno-version of an ivory tower. He sat in the swivel chair absorbing a blizzard of information, and realised immediately he’d been away too long. He had to go to Savannah now and update her on the current situation. Of course he’d take legal measures to protect her from the braying paparazzi, but the sooner she could leave Italy the sooner she could break free of his shadow and get on with her life.

Savannah ran down the magnificent staircase, consumed by excitement at the thought of seeing Ethan. She could see his servants bustling about in the hallway, and knew that one of them would be able to tell her where he was. She didn’t even try to hide her beaming smile, and was half-afraid everyone would guess she was in love with their gran signore, and half-afraid they wouldn’t. She approached the first young man who smiled back at her to ask him where she could find Signore Alexander.

Signore Alexander was in his office as usual, the young man told her, adding that if she would like to wait out on the terrace he would make sure breakfast was served there, and that Signore Alexander would be told she was asking for him.

‘Thank you!’ Savannah exclaimed happily. She must look such a sight, she realised as the young man smiled back at her, but she hadn’t wanted to waste a single moment on make-up or drying her hair. After her shower she had quickly thrown on her jeans and a casual top, and left her hair hanging loose and damp down her back. This was a whole new world to her. Catching sight of the housekeeper, she waved, and when the older woman came over to see if Savannah needed anything she took the chance to ask a few discreet questions about the paintings on Ethan’s walls. As she expected, the housekeeper told her that Ethan had indeed painted them, but they had never been exhibited as far as the housekeeper could remember.

She’d expected that too, and asked if it would be possible to open more windows. ‘And I’d like to pick some flowers, if that’s all right. I’d love to fill the palazzo with flowers—if I’m allowed to.’

‘ Signorina, we have a hothouse full of flowers—and that’s before you even start on the garden—but no one ever picks them.’

‘Oh, perhaps I shouldn’t.’ It wasn’t her house, after all, and she’d made enough changes.

‘Perhaps you should,’ the housekeeper encouraged. ‘Why don’t I show you where the vases are kept?’

‘Are you sure Signore Alexander won’t mind?’

‘I’m sure the palazzo can only benefit from your attentions, signorina.’