The Princess and the Rebel Billionaire Page 6

  She risked a glance back over her shoulder and found him almost right behind her. Her heart was racing—was it because of the running, or the pursuit? Or because it knew what was coming next...

  Finally, finally she reached her destination.

  Grabbing the handle of the large, sliding glass door that opened up the whole ground floor to the outside world, she yanked it open and tripped inside. Matteo’s arm was around her waist in an instant, keeping her upright, keeping her close.

  ‘Caught you,’ he murmured into her ear, and she shivered in delight.

  ‘I don’t see a bed yet,’ she whispered.

  In response, Matteo swept her up into his arms and strode purposefully towards the stairs. ‘We can fix that.’

  Isabella laughed. ‘You don’t need to carry me!’

  ‘I’m not risking you running away again.’

  But she wouldn’t, she knew. Maybe she had made a decision, after all.

  One to make the most of every moment of freedom she had this week. One to put aside her fears and The Rules and her trust issues and go with her feelings instead. Her body, even.

  Gianna had given her this week, and now Isabella was giving herself this.

  She wasn’t going to let herself back away again. Not for anything.

  They’d barely made it up the first step, though, when a sharp, ringing sound rang out through the villa.

  Matteo froze, mid step.

  ‘Alarm?’ Isabella asked.

  ‘Phone,’ Matteo corrected her.

  The noise repeated. And repeated.

  ‘Right. Of course.’ She knew what a phone sounded like. It was just that in her world, a noise like that was more likely to be a fox setting off one of the proximity alarms at the palace, or a sightseer getting a little too enthusiastic about their visit and pushing through an alarmed barrier to a room that was out of bounds. ‘Leave it.’ It was the reckless kind of thing she did this week—ignoring phone calls and alarms.

  The phone was still ringing. And Matteo was still holding her, motionless on the stairs, obviously at war within himself.

  Finally, he sighed and put her down. ‘It could be the security team,’ he said, far too reasonably for her liking. ‘If we don’t answer, someone will come up here and interrupt us anyway. And I’d rather take the call fully clothed than deal with a burly security guard bursting in when I’m buried deep inside you.’

  His voice dropped on the last part of his sentence, and Isabella felt it resonate through her body until she was throbbing with the need to feel him there, not just talking about it.

  But instead, Matteo swept across the room, picked up the receiver and barked, ‘Yes?’

  As she watched, his demeanour softened a little even as his shoulders slumped in resignation. ‘Madison. Hi. Yes, we both made it here okay.’ He looked up and caught Isabella’s gaze with his own, apology in his eyes. Then he chuckled at something the dating-agency owner had said, and he looked away. ‘Getting you to check up on me, are they? Sure, sure, you always check in on day two. Well, you can tell my management team that I am staying out of trouble. The Princess and I have been for a lovely walk through the woods this morning, and around the lake to the jetty.’

  Isabella smiled. The truth, if not the whole truth.

  She could see the strain on Matteo’s face as he tried to remain polite, to convince Madison—and presumably, by association, his team—that he was behaving. Not that she imagined they’d be complaining too much about his seducing her—or the other way around, if she was honest. After all, why send him on a dream date if they didn’t want him to, well, find a little relaxation that way?

  Still, this conversation was going on far too long for her liking. Isabella smiled. She had just the way to fix that.

  If he’d honestly believed that this was just a courtesy call from Madison Morgan to check that they’d settled in okay, Matteo would have hung up in an instant. But he knew his team, his management. He knew Gabe.

  He’d been ignoring his phone ever since Isabella had arrived, and that would have Gabe worried. So he’d found another way to check up on him. His manager had always been a little overprotective of the talent.

  No, that wasn’t fair. Gabe had always been overprotective of him. And if he’d set Madison up to make this call and Matteo didn’t answer...well, those security guards would be bursting in again any moment. And he really didn’t like being interrupted.

  ‘Everything has been perfect,’ he reassured Madison. Everything apart from the timing of this phone call. Because now Isabella had an excuse to overthink, to start listing all the reasons this was a bad idea. And that would lead to her changing her mind.

  He could almost see the thoughts passing over her face as the occurred to her. She took a step back up the stairs, getting ready to run.

  The attraction between them was undeniable, but even he had to admit the logistics weren’t great. If he’d actually been looking for his one true love, he’d have been pretty pissed off. But as it was, this worked perfectly for him. Although he knew his team had been hoping this week might lead to a stable girlfriend for him, one who might take over responsibility for keeping his feet on the ground and the whole of him out of hospital for a while, that wasn’t what Matteo wanted.

  He just wanted Isabella, naked, under him, on top of him, and anywhere else she wanted, for the rest of this week. And Madison Morgan, matchmaker extraordinaire, was going to ruin that for him. The irony was actually painful.

  But then, something changed, somewhere inside Isabella’s mind. He’d probably never know exactly what, but he didn’t really care.

  A wicked smile flickered across her lips. And then, her eyes wide, she reached up and untied one of the bows at her shoulders that held up her dress.

  Half of the white fabric of the bodice fell, sliding over the curve of her breast to hang under it, revealing the intricate, gossamer-thin lace of her strapless bra.

  Matteo swallowed, his whole body tense with need. God, he wanted to drop the phone, race over there and take that perfect peak in his mouth.

  But he also wanted to see what Isabella did next.

  He didn’t have long to wait. Slowly, deliberately, she reached up and untied the other bow.

  The white sundress slipped away from her skin, hanging around her hips, leaving her torso covered only by that see-through bra.

  On the other end of the line, Madison was saying something about the boat at the jetty, but he wasn’t listening. He was picturing his hands, his mouth, his body on those perfect curves. His gaze followed the gorgeous, undulating line of her, curving down over her shoulder, swelling over her breasts, dipping in for that narrow waist before flaring out again at her hips, where that damned sundress still hung, caught on the sheer generosity of her body.

  ‘Right,’ he said to Madison, with no idea what he was agreeing with.

  Isabella smirked, as if she knew exactly how distracted he was. Maybe she did. Her eyes were almost black, and even at this distance he could tell she was breathing harder than her actions warranted.

  She’s turned on by this too. Thank God.

  How had he thought, even for a moment, that this princess was buttoned up and boring?

  ‘Yeah, of course,’ he said, even though the words were meaningless. Matteo didn’t take his eyes from Isabella for a moment.

  And as he watched, she put her hands to her hips, and pushed the white cotton over them.

  The dress fell to the floor, and Matteo gripped onto the edge of the telephone table hard, just in case he suddenly passed out from wanting her. It didn’t seem completely impossible right now.

  Had he ever been this hard, this desperate for a woman before? He didn’t think so.

  And he’d barely even touched her, kissed her.

  God, he wanted to do so much more.

  He let
his gaze roam from her perfectly painted toes—her sandals abandoned by the door, he supposed—all the way up those long, shapely calves and thighs. He skirted past her wispy lace panties—because he knew there was no way he could keep control of himself if he lingered too long there—and continued along the curve of her waist, over her breasts, up to her face and met her gaze with his own.

  The desire he saw there echoed the one throbbing through his body, and he knew he couldn’t wait any longer. However exquisite the feeling of drawing out this pleasure had been, now he needed to act, not watch.

  Isabella reached behind her back, unfastened her bra, and let it fall to the ground. Her magnificent breasts bobbed in front of him, and Matteo swore he was starting to see stars.

  ‘Madison, I have to go.’ He dropped the phone back onto its receiver and raced towards the stairs.

  Definitely time to act.

  Isabella laughed as she darted up the stairs before he could reach her, heading straight for her bedroom. A striptease for a man she barely knew hadn’t exactly been on her to-do list for the week, but she had decided to go with her instincts for once...

  And seeing the lust in Matteo’s gaze as he’d watched her, she was glad she had. She’d felt powerful, in control of her own future for once—at least, her immediate future. The one that ended with her and Matteo in her bed. Taking control in such a way had calmed her re-emerging nerves about that part, too.

  She careened around the corner into her bedroom, squealing as he caught her at last, wrapping an arm around her waist and hauling her to him, just as he’d done down by the lake.

  ‘That was cruel,’ he rasped against her ear, the desperation clear in his voice.

  ‘I think the word you’re looking for is “inspired”,’ she corrected him.

  ‘That too.’ He pressed a kiss to the patch of skin where her neck met her shoulders and she squirmed in his arms as pleasure fired through her nerves. ‘You like that?’

  ‘Mmm,’ she agreed.

  ‘Good.’ Lifting her roughly, he dropped her down onto the bed from a just high enough height that she bounced. ‘Let’s find out what else you like.’

  She’d thought that stripping for Matteo would be a treat for him. She hadn’t anticipated how much it would turn her on, too.

  She didn’t do things like this—not least because, as a protected Princess of Augusta, she’d never had the chance.

  Now she had that chance, just for the week. And she was going to take it.

  Isabella moaned as Matteo kissed his way down her throat, over her collarbone, and further down, towards her breasts. With an appreciative noise from the back of his throat, he closed his mouth over her nipple, running his tongue around the sensitive nub until she writhed underneath him. God, that mouth wasn’t only made for talking. She could feel him smiling against her skin before he released her with a pop, and moved across to give the other nipple the same treatment.

  His hands weren’t still either. As his mouth worked on her breasts, his hands brushed up and down her sides, caressing the curve of her hip. Then suddenly, they slipped underneath her, gripping her and pressing her against him.

  Oh, she could feel him. He’d been keeping his weight off her, but now... She might be stripped down to her panties, but he was still fully clothed—and still, she could feel the hard length of him pressed against her bare skin, even through his jeans. Could imagine the size and the feel of him in her hand. In her mouth. Inside her...

  It had been so, so long. And she’d spent too long thinking that the mistakes that came out of her last venture into lovemaking were her fault, that they meant she wasn’t destined to have this in her life.

  Yet here she was.

  Matteo pressed one last kiss to her nipple then looked up, his green eyes bright as he met her gaze.

  ‘You okay?’ he asked.

  ‘I will be.’

  He smiled at that. ‘Tell me what you need.’

  You, inside me. The thought was instant, but saying the words was another matter. She bit her lip and watched his eyes darken.

  ‘I need the words,’ he said, sounding as though just talking was taking all of his self-control right now.

  Maybe it was.

  And yet, she knew if she said, No, I can’t, let’s stop, he would. Nate would have cajoled her, told her to stay with him a little longer and she’d change her mind.

  Matteo would back off the second she said the words.

  Maybe that was one of the reasons that, this time, she didn’t want to.

  ‘I want you to make love to me.’ It came out a little faster, a little more desperate than she’d intended, but Matteo didn’t seem to mind. Quite the opposite, in fact.

  With a noise in the back of his throat that was almost a growl, he lowered his head and kissed her again, deeper and deeper. Which was wonderful, but wasn’t getting him any more naked, so Isabella set about rectifying that instead, her fingers making quick work of the buttons of his shirt before she stripped it from his shoulders.

  She let herself be distracted, for a moment, by all that lovely hard muscle and tanned skin, brushed with a dusting of dark hair. Closing her eyes, she ran her hands over the planes and dips of him, just as he’d done to her, memorising his body by touch alone.

  But she couldn’t allow herself to be too distracted. Opening her eyes again to find Matteo watching her, she held his gaze as she reached determinedly down to unfasten his jeans.

  He helped her push his jeans and boxers down over those long, muscled legs, then stripped away her panties too, and suddenly there was nothing between them at all. Well, nothing that mattered right now.

  She swallowed, as her gaze roamed down the length of him. It really had been a long time...but now she was here, she was almost dizzy with the need for him.

  ‘Condom?’ she asked breathily, as a reminder to herself that she hadn’t completely lost her mind.

  Matteo reached across to the small table beside the bed and pulled a strip of them from the drawer. Excellent.

  ‘You’re sure?’ he asked again as he ripped open the packet.

  ‘Very.’ She took the condom from him and reached out to roll it securely in place. She wasn’t taking any chances.

  His breathing ragged, Matteo reached for her again, and Isabella went willingly into his arms, ready to embrace her freedom.

  Making love to a princess, Matteo had decided, was probably the same as making love to any other woman.

  But making love to Isabella? That was something new. Something special. Something totally unexpected—and a little unsettling. He’d thought this would be something else to tick off his list of adventures, another risk to take, even.

  So why did it feel like something else?

  The way she’d affected him since the moment he saw her should have been his first clue. He’d never wanted a woman the way he’d wanted Isabella. Wanted to touch her, to feel her in his arms, to smell her hair and taste her skin, to get as close to her as it was possible for two people to be.

  And now that he was...he couldn’t remember why he’d ever wanted to be anywhere else.

  Holding himself up on his elbows, he let her guide him inside her, taking things at her pace, not his. Slowly, slowly he filled her, giving her time to adjust to him before he moved any more, watching her face carefully for every reaction.

  Isabella’s eyes were closed, her face clear and smooth, and for a brief, horrible moment it occurred to Matteo that she might not have done this before. That, as a princess, she might have been kept pure and chaste and...oh, God, what if he was her first?

  Then her eyes flashed open and she gave him that wicked grin he’d seem when she was beating him at Monopoly. ‘What are you waiting for, superstar? Move.’

  And he did.

  What had started slow and sweet and careful soon became more frantic,
more desperate as they moved together, in perfect synchronicity. Isabella’s hands clutched at his back, pulling her to him, driving him deeper with every thrust. Matteo had a feeling this would be over in an embarrassingly short space of time...but at least they had the rest of the week to make up for it.

  Tugging her round, he flipped them so he was on his back, letting her ride him to her own pleasure. Long, loose dark curls hung down over her breasts as she moved, more languidly than he’d be capable of right now. Her chin tilted up, that aristocratic neck long and elegant, she bit down on her plump lower lip and Matteo thought he might be done for. Reaching up, he brushed the hair away from her breasts to cup them with his hands, and ran his fingers across her nipples, making her shiver above him.

  Good. He needed to know this was affecting her the same way it was him.

  ‘Isabella.’ Her name came out as more of a moan than he’d intended, but it worked. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked down at him, her hips not losing their sanity-depriving rhythm for a moment.

  The lust he saw in her eyes was the same one he felt coursing through his blood. And that was all it took for his baser instincts to take over.

  Grabbing tight hold of her hips, he thrust up into her, gratified when she upped the speed of her own movements to match him. Not losing pace for a moment, he shifted one hand towards her core, teasing her with his fingers and driving her further and further to where he needed her to go.

  And just when he thought he might lose his mind, she gasped and tightened around him, again and again as she cried out, her hips stuttering to a stop as he thrust once, twice, three times more...and felt his world explode.

  ‘Oh, God.’ Isabella slumped against his chest, sweaty and sated and salty sweet under his kisses. ‘That was a good idea.’

  ‘Glad you agree,’ Matteo murmured against her skin. Although, ‘good idea’ weren’t exactly the words he’d have chosen.

  Transcendental, perhaps. Life-changing. Magical.

  He blinked, and forced the thoughts away. It was just sex, same as any other sex he’d had with many other women. Sure, he was more attracted to Isabella than any of the other women he’d met lately—maybe ever. But that was just chemistry. Physical lust didn’t mean anything more than an incredible time between the sheets.