His Unexpected Legacy Read online

  Her heart leapt when he teased her lips apart with his tongue and when he kissed her, slow and sweet, as if he had missed her as much as she had missed him, she responded to him helplessly, her misgivings swept away by the tidal wave of desire that obliterated all rational thought.

  Their previous encounter at the hotel had been fast and frantic, but now Sergio took his time to explore her body and rediscover the pleasure points that made her tremble and gasp when he caressed her.

  ‘I love that your breasts are so sensitive,’ he murmured as he flicked his tongue over one rosy peak and then its twin until they hardened. He closed his mouth around her nipple and sucked until she whimpered with pleasure.

  Sergio still knew her body so well, even though it was so long since they had been in a relationship. Kristen felt a sharp stab of jealousy that he must have made love to other women in the last four years. Don’t think, her brain urged, just feel. She was no longer the naïve girl who had fallen in love with him. She understood that her desire for him was just sexual chemistry, and after four years of celibacy it was not surprising that she was impatient to experience the pleasure of his possession.

  Her stomach muscles contracted when he trailed his fingertips over her abdomen and explored the dip of her navel, before moving lower. He eased his hand beneath her knickers and slowly, so slowly that she wanted to scream, he inched towards the place where she was desperate for him to touch her. She was embarrassingly wet so that when he gently parted her and slid his fingers between her silken folds her body accepted him willingly and her excitement increased as he teased her clitoris until she gasped and tensed.

  ‘Not yet, cara,’ he murmured against her mouth before he kissed her deeply. ‘This time I promised we would take things slowly.’ This time Sergio wanted her to be reassured that he was not seeking quick satisfaction. She had accused him of withholding himself from her during their affair, and he acknowledged the truth of that. His habit of keeping his emotions locked away was too deeply ingrained, but at least he could show her how much he desired her.

  His heart kicked in his chest as he pulled her panties off and she spread her legs invitingly. He found her eagerness touching and the realisation that she wanted him as badly as he wanted her gave him hope that he had not lost her. It took all his willpower not to plunge his painfully hard erection into her slick heat, but he resisted the ache in his gut and lowered his head to inhale the sweet scent of her arousal.

  Kristen gave a startled gasp when Sergio ran his tongue up and down her moist opening, parting her so that he could bestow the most intimate caress of all. She knew he was fiercely aroused and she had assumed he was impatient to satisfy his own needs, but he was showing her with his clever fingers and wickedly invasive tongue that he was focused entirely on giving her pleasure.

  He had a magician’s skill, she thought dazedly. Her limbs trembled as he took her to the edge and held her there. The dedication he applied to arousing her made her feel cherished, and when he claimed her mouth once more and kissed her with tenderness as well as passion she knew with an ache in her heart that she was slipping under his spell and there was nothing she could do about it.

  Her breath caught in her throat as he positioned himself over her and deftly donned a protective sheath. His golden-skinned body gleamed like satin and the faint abrasion of his chest hairs against her breasts was intensely erotic. Memories of the many times he had made love to her in this room, in this bed, danced through her mind and it seemed the most natural thing in the world to lift her hips towards him as he plunged forward and drove his powerful arousal deep inside her.

  ‘Krissie...’ His voice shook, as if he recognised that the connection between them was more than the physical joining of their bodies. But as he began to move, thrusting into her with strong, measured strokes, Kristen stopped thinking and her sensory perception took over. She could hear her blood thundering in her ears, echoing the ragged sound of his quickened breathing. Faster, faster, every devastating thrust increased her excitement. She clung to his sweat-slicked shoulders while he rode her, possessed her, and just when she was sure she could not take any more, he tipped her over the edge and into the most intense orgasm of her life.

  ‘Open your eyes.’ Sergio’s voice was rough and when Kristen obeyed his command she was startled by the blazing intensity of his gaze. ‘I want you to know that it’s me you’re making love with, me who is giving you pleasure—not some other lover.’ Jealousy was a new emotion to him and it burned like acid in his gut.

  ‘I haven’t had any other lovers.’ She knew as she said the words that she had revealed too much of herself, but strangely she did not care that she had made herself even more vulnerable. She could not lie, and she was glad she had been truthful when he breathed her name like a prayer and kissed her mouth with aching sweetness.

  ‘Tesoro...’ Sergio’s iron control finally snapped and he climaxed violently, his head thrown back and his throat moving convulsively as he pumped his seed into her and his big body shuddered.

  In the aftermath of their passion he lay on top of her, his dark head resting on her breasts. Kristen’s heartbeat gradually slowed and she became conscious of her surroundings once more. The bright sunlight streaming through the slatted blinds made her realise that she had no idea of the time. Her frantic journey to Sicily and the hours that she had spent taking care of Nico while he had been ill had played havoc with her body clock.

  The strident peal of the phone was an unwelcome intrusion, and as Sergio rolled off her and answered it she was hit by a cold blast of reality. Nothing had changed. They had had mind-blowing sex, but now it was business as usual. His commitment to the Castellano Group was total, and he had probably already forgotten her and was focused on the next big deal.

  To her surprise, he cut the call after a brief conversation in Italian. ‘That was Luisa, to say that Nico is awake.’

  Nico! Guilt swept through Kristen that she had forgotten about him while she had been in Sergio’s bed. It was ridiculous to feel shy with Sergio after she had made love with him but she couldn’t meet his gaze as she slid out of bed and quickly pulled on the shirt he had lent her, wincing as the material grazed her sensitised nipples.

  ‘I must go to him,’ she muttered. ‘I hope he hasn’t been sick again.’

  ‘Luisa assured me that he woke up full of beans, ate all his breakfast and now he’s playing with his train set. But I agree we ought to get up. We’re due to have lunch with my father in an hour, which means, regrettably, that we can’t spend the rest of the day in bed like we used to do.’ Sergio studied her pink cheeks speculatively. ‘Do you remember, cara, how sometimes we would make love for hours and only leave the bedroom when we needed food?’

  ‘Four years is a long time, and I don’t remember much about our affair,’ Kristen lied. Anxious to change the subject, she asked, ‘Do you know what happened to my clothes?’

  ‘The maid took them to be washed after Nico was sick over you. But in the wardrobe you will find a few outfits that I ordered for you from a friend who owns a boutique in Palermo.’

  ‘A few outfits’ turned out to be a whole range of clothes, from formal evening dresses to casual-wear that bore designer labels, which Kristen knew were completely out of her price range. ‘I don’t need all these clothes, and I can’t afford them,’ she said as she flicked through the rail. ‘You suggested that Nico and I should stay here for a couple of weeks so that he can have a holiday, but I’ll have to go back to my job in London...and I’ll be taking him with me.’

  ‘We have a lot to discuss,’ Sergio said non-committally. ‘Perhaps you can solve a puzzle for me. I sent a member of my staff to your house in Camden to bring back some of your clothes, but all Marco could find were a few items that look frankly as though they belong in a charity shop.’

  Kristen shrugged. ‘That’s where I buy most of my clothes. You can f
ind some real bargains if you look carefully.’

  ‘I’ll take your word for it. But if you buy second-hand clothes, why do you have thousands of pounds’ worth of credit card debts and bills for designer goods?’

  Realising that she had no option but to tell him the truth, she sighed heavily. ‘I’m not in debt...but Mum owed a fortune when she died. The letters you saw from debt collecting agencies are trying to claim money from her estate. But Mum only had a few hundred pounds in savings, and that has already gone to her creditors.

  ‘Don’t think badly of her,’ she told Sergio fiercely, even though he’d not said a word. ‘I had no idea that she was so unhappy being married to my stepfather. She admitted that she only stayed with Alan because he was my gymnastics coach and she didn’t want to ruin my chances of success. But he was a very controlling man and he destroyed her confidence. She used to go shopping to make herself feel better, but it became a compulsion. It was a form of depression. She never even wore the things she bought; she just hid them at the back of the wardrobe.

  ‘When Alan found out that she had run up huge debts he refused to help her sort things out. The worry of it made her ill, and so I took charge of her finances and I’ve been trying to repay the money she owed. Even after Mum died, the debt agencies have still been hounding me.’

  She glanced at Sergio, wishing she knew what he was thinking, but his expression gave nothing away.

  ‘Your mother was lucky to have such a loyal daughter,’ he said gently.

  Kristen bit her lip. ‘She sacrificed her happiness for me and my gymnastics career. My stepfather always demanded his own way. Who does that remind me of?’ she said sarcastically. ‘You snatched Nico and brought him to Sicily because it was what you wanted.’

  ‘I acted in his best interests.’ Even though he had been wrong to think that Kristen had been responsible for the bruises on Nico, Sergio still believed it was better for the little boy to be in Sicily rather than living in a tiny, shabby house in Camden and spending all day at nursery. Somehow he had to convince Kristen of that.

  He threw back the sheet and gave her a sardonic look when she blushed at the sight of his naked body. ‘If you keep staring at me like you’re doing, we definitely won’t make it to lunch,’ he drawled.

  But, although her flush deepened at his taunt, she kept her eyes fixed on him as he strolled across the room. Her desire for him was his secret weapon and he had no compunction about using it mercilessly, Sergio thought. Sex was the one way he could connect with her and he slid his hand beneath her chin and slanted his mouth over hers to kiss her with passion and a possessiveness that he had never felt for any other woman.

  Her response tested his resolve and he felt a pang of regret when he eventually ended the kiss and traced his thumb over her swollen bottom lip. ‘My father is looking forward to meeting his grandson,’ he said roughly, ‘so I’d better leave you to get dressed.’

  CHAPTER NINE

  NICO WAS WEARING a new pair of jeans and a T-shirt and looked the picture of health when Sergio lifted him into the car. Kristen was relieved that he had completely recovered from the vomiting virus. He seemed to have settled into his new surroundings at Casa Camelia, but she was not sure whether it was a good thing. She didn’t want him to be upset when she took him back home to London. Sergio had said that Sicily was Nico’s home and perhaps a judge would agree and award custody of him to his father, she thought worriedly.

  With Nico safely strapped into the child seat in the rear of the car, Sergio slid into the driver’s seat and Kristen felt her stomach dip as her eyes were drawn to his darkly tanned hands on the steering wheel, remembering how he had explored every inch of her body when he had made love to her.

  He turned his head towards her. ‘You look beautiful. The dress is a perfect fit and the colour suits you.’

  Kristen tore her gaze from the glint of sexual awareness in his. She had chosen to wear a sky-blue silk jersey wrap dress to lunch with Sergio’s father. Teamed with nude-coloured stiletto heels and matching bag, the outfit was elegant and yet the feel of the silk against her skin was incredibly sensual. ‘It was kind of you to order the clothes,’ she said stiltedly. ‘When I go back to London I will, of course, reimburse you for them.’ It would be another debt to add to the bureau where she kept her mother’s outstanding bills, she thought ruefully.

  Sergio put the car into gear and drove away from the villa. ‘You don’t owe me anything. It was my fault that you left London in a rush and didn’t have time to pack your own clothes.’

  It was the first reference he had made to the way he had taken Nico while Kristen had been asleep, and she thought she heard a faint apology in his voice.

  ‘Will anyone else be at lunch besides your father?’

  ‘Salvatore will be there with his daughter.’

  ‘Rosa was only a few months old when I last saw her.’ Kristen recalled his brother’s pretty baby girl and beautiful wife, Adriana. ‘What about Rosa’s mother? Is Adriana away? I know she often went to Rome for modelling assignments.’

  Sergio shot her a glance. ‘Adriana is dead. She was killed in a car accident when Rosa was a year old.’

  ‘Oh...how terrible! No wonder Salvatore looks so haggard.’ What a cruel twist of fate that both the brothers’ wives had died tragically young, Kristen mused. ‘I noticed that he walks with a limp. Was he in the car when the accident happened?’

  ‘Salvatore was driving them home from a dinner party. No one knows why he lost control of the car but it plunged over the edge of the mountain road they were travelling on. Adriana died instantly and Salvatore was seriously injured. My brother has no memory of the accident.’ Sergio hesitated. ‘He is wracked with guilt that it was his fault Adriana died, but I can’t help wondering if his amnesia is an emotional response to the accident and the events leading up to it.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Kristen asked curiously.

  Sergio shrugged. ‘I suspect that Salvatore’s marriage was not as happy as everyone believed. He did not confide in me, but I sensed tension between him and Adriana, mainly over her decision to return to modelling and the fact that she left Rosa behind when she went to Rome for work. Perhaps they argued in the car that night and Salvatore was distracted. He is usually a careful driver. But he can’t remember what happened and he blames himself that because of him his daughter is growing up without her mother.

  ‘To make matters worse, it was confirmed when Rosa was eighteen months old that she is profoundly deaf.’ Sergio sighed. ‘I know Salvatore loves his little girl, but he seems unable to connect with Rosa, and I fear that she is becoming more and more introverted.’

  He glanced over his shoulder to Nico, who was loudly singing one of his nursery songs. ‘It will be good for Rosa to play with Nico. Salvatore rarely leaves his castle, and Rosa has few chances to meet other children.’

  * * *

  When they arrived at La Casa Bianca, a butler escorted them to the dining room where Tito was waiting. Kristen was shocked when she met Sergio’s father, although she managed to hide her reaction. Four years ago Tito Castellano had been a formidable man, but a series of strokes had left him looking older and frail. His black eyes were still sharply assessing, though, and Kristen let out her pent-up breath when he finally turned his gaze from her to his son.

  ‘Sergio, I cannot deny I was shocked when Salvatore told me I have a grandson. I understand that the boy is three years old, so why did I not learn about him until today?’

  ‘It is a private matter between me and Kristen,’ Sergio explained in a cool voice.

  The slight frostiness between the two men that Kristen had noticed four years ago was still there, she realised. There was no expression in Sergio’s eyes, but she was so attuned to him that she could sense his tension. Perhaps the fact that he had spent most of his childhood in America with his mothe
r had made it hard for him to bond with his father. The thought made her wonder if the reason Sergio was determined to keep Nico in Sicily was so that he would have a closer relationship with his son than he had with Tito.

  Tito’s frown cleared as Nico stepped out from behind Kristen. ‘So this is the boy. There is no doubt he is your son, Sergio—he is the image of you.’ The old man’s eyes gleamed. ‘I had almost given up hope that you would do your duty to the family and the company—but finally you have pleased me by providing the next Castellano heir.’ His gaze darted to Kristen. ‘Now, all that is to be done is to organise the wedding.’

  Struggling to hide her shock, Kristen waited for Sergio to tell his father that they had absolutely no plans to marry, but to her confusion he made no response to Tito’s statement and instead held out a chair for her to sit down at the dining table.

  Anger flared inside her. Well, if he wouldn’t say something, she would! Sergio had lifted Nico onto a chair that had been fitted with an additional cushion so that the little boy could reach the table. Now, as Sergio sat down next to Kristen, she glared at him.

  ‘I think you should make it clear that we...’ she began, but the rest of her words were lost as Sergio’s head swooped towards her and he dropped a hard kiss on her lips that stole her breath.

  ‘I agree we should reassure my father that although there were problems in our relationship which led to you and Nico living in England, we are now both committed to putting our son’s interests first and doing what is best for him. Isn’t that so, cara?’

  ‘Yes...but...’ She broke off as, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nico reach for the water jug. ‘Wait, Nico, let me help you...’ She spoke too late and watched resignedly as he knocked the jug over and water quickly soaked through the tablecloth.