Shock at having finally admitted she loved Vince - even to herself-had Ava sucking sharply inwards. Immediately, Vince's gaze narrowed on her face and she had to struggle even harder to keep her equilibrium. Letting out her breath slowly, she was quite proud of the cool dignity of her answer.

'Perhaps I was simply tired of the way my family perceived me, Vince. But, more importantly, I was' tired of the way I perceived myself. There comes a time when one has to stop blaming others for what you have become, especially when that person is dead. Irene has no power over my life now. You and Giuseppe have given me back my confidence over my painting, but I have set out this past week to get back my confidence as a woman. What you're seeing is a brand-new Ava who wants to be everything she can be, who wants to live life to the full. Hopefully, she'll never become a b.i.t.c.h, but she won't be walked over any more either. I'm only sorry you don't seem to find her to your liking.'

Vince gave a dry chuckle, a sardonic smile lifting one corner of his mouth. 'Not to my liking. . . Oh, Ava. . . what rubbish you talk sometimes. You've always been to my liking. And you always will. Don't you know that?'

Ava was still blinking her utter astonishment when Vince took her quite firmly by the upper arms and lifted her right off her feet, earring her back inside the foyer where he kicked the door shut and lowered her back to the floor.

'Not to my liking. . He laughed again before releasing her only long enough to sweep his arms around her waist, drawing her hard against his body while his mouth bent to cover hers in a very thorough and blisteringly hungry kiss.

A low moan punched from Ava's lungs as the reality of what was happening to her took hold. This was no fantasy. This was for real. Vince's arms around her were real; his kissing her was real; his tongue, which at that moment was doing incredible things, was very real.

It only took Ava a few mind-blowing seconds to recognise that reality was far better than any fantasy, especially when that reality was Vince.

Another highly sensual moan fluttered from deep within her throat which had the wonderful effect of making Vince gather her to him even closer, if that were possible. They already seemed glued together. Ava decided dimly that she must have died and gone to heaven.

When Vince's mouth finally broke from hers, she gazed dazedly up into his flushed face, at eyes glittering with naked desire, lips still apart and panting heavily. Having never encountered rampant male pa.s.sion at close range before, she wasn't sure what to think, or do. All she knew was she wanted him to kiss her again, wanted him to keep holding her, touching her. . .

'You should never look at a man like that, Ava,' he growled.

'Like what?' she asked breathlessly.

'Like you want him to ravage you.'

'Maybe I do want you to ravage me,' she whispered shakily.

My G.o.d, had she just said that? Had she really?

Her lips fell apart in shock at her own boldness. Falling in love had made her go mad! Or was it Vince's kiss that had done that; had driven her to a place where common sense and decorum no longer mattered, only what one wanted deep within one's soul, and one's body?

He glared down at her, eyes narrowing. 'Have you been drinking?'

'No.'

'Little girls shouldn't play with fire,' he warned darkly.

His condescension sparked some healthy fire and spirit. 'You kissed me first,' she reminded him accusingly. 'And I'm not a little girl! I'm a grown woman.'

His eyes dropped to her cleavage. 'Mmm. You're certainly right there.'

Ava gasped when his fingers followed his gaze and he started undoing the top b.u.t.ton on her suit jacket.

'What. . .what are you doing?'

'Undressing you,' he muttered thickly. 'It's very hard to ravage a woman with her clothes on.'

'But. . .but you can't! I mean. . .not here. Not like this!'

He stopped, a frown momentarily clouding the intensity of his concentration. 'Why not? Aren't we alone? G.o.d, don't tell me the ogre's somewhere around!'

'No, Byron's not here.'

'That's a relief. But you're 'right,' he p.r.o.nounced, glancing around. 'We can't make love down here. Nothing but marble for miles. Such an event calls for comfort.'

Ava gasped again when he bent to slide an arm around her knees and another round her waist, scooping her firmly up into his arms. 'We shall retire to your bedroom.'

'But we can't!' she squawked, even while her pulse- rate went haywire at the thought. 'We have to go to Byron's party!'

'We will go to Byron's party,' he rea.s.sured her. 'Eventually/ And began carrying her upstairs two steps at a time without the slightest hesitation on the supposedly slippery stairs.

Panic made Ava say the one thing she thought might stop him in his tracks. 'You do realise I'm a virgin, don't you? At thirty!' she added with a lashing of self- contempt in her voice.

Vince didn't flinch an inch, or miss a single beat as he strode masterfully down the hallway. 'Is that so? Then we haven't a moment to lose, have we? Can't have this smashing new Ava ending up a dried-up old maid, can we?'

With that, he swept through her open bedroom door and over to the bed.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

AVA 'S heart began thudding madly when he laid her down o n the bed. She wanted him to make love to her. But she was so afraid. . .of everything. . .

His leaning over to snap on one of her bedside lamps had her lurching up into a sitting position, a horrified look on her face. My G.o.d, she didn't want him to be able to see her. Not without her clothes on!

'Vince, I. . .'

'Hush,' he whispered, sitting down on the side of the bed and cradling her face with his large strong hands. 'I'm not going to hurt you.'

'But the light,' she groaned.

'You want it off?'

'Please. . .'

'Your wish is my command.' He leant over and switched it off again. A gentle light was still filtering in through the open doorway but the room was large and her bed was against the far wall.

His hands refound her face in the semi-darkness, his palms gentle around her throat while his thumbs caressed the corners of her mouth. 'I've been thinking about doing this all week,' he murmured, his thumbs moving to stroke her cheeks while he kissed her.

Ava's thoughts tumbled into turmoil. He'd been thinking about doing this all week ? That would mean he'd been wanting to make love to the Ava she had been, not just the Ava she was tonight.

'No!' she cried, and wrenched away from his mouth.

'No,' he echoed, disbelief in his voice.

'You. . .you couldn't have wanted to make love to her ,' she insisted shakily. 'You couldn't!

'Who?' He sounded totally perplexed.

'Me. A week ago. No man could have.'

His fingers had frozen on her face and she could feel his eyes boring into her. His sigh, when it came, was full of exasperation. 'Oh, Ava. . .Ava. . .what nonsense you talk sometimes. How many times do I have to tell you that a few pounds here and there doesn't make a woman unattractive? I was attracted to you the first moment I laid eyes on you. I had the devil of a job keeping my hands off you that day.'

'You did? Honestly?' Ava could hardly believe what she was hearing. Yet why would he lie?

'h.e.l.l, yes. There I was with you in my arms all the time and wanting to kiss you like crazy. I only held back 'because I'd vowed not to get involved with a woman again till I didn't have so much work on my plate. My last relationship broke up because of my lack of leisure time. On top of that, you seemed to be the sort of woman a man has to marry, not have a convenient affair with.'

This last remark had Ava coming down to earth with a thud. 'And now you think I'm the sort of woman a man can have a convenient affair with?'

'I think you answered that question downstairs. You're a grown woman who wants to be all she can be, who wants to live life to the full. I, for one, have never subscribed to the theory that a woman should remain a virgin till she marries, however unltalian that might sound. It's unnatural. You want me to make love to you, Ava. No, you need me to make love to you. Don't deny it.'

Her blush betrayed her shyness, as well as her arousal. Vince bent to kiss her till she was clutching at him and moaning softly in her throat.

'G.o.d knows how you reached the ripe old age of thirty without being whisked off to bed,' he rasped, drawing back to run a tantalising finger over her softly swollen lips. 'Surely there must have been some man along the line. . .'

'There. . .there was a young man named James,' she confessed breathlessly, 'when I was twenty. He said he wanted me, but we. . .we split up before anything could come of it.'

'What happened?'

Ava shrank back at the memory. 'He only wanted me because of my money. He was poor, you see, and I inherit quite a fortune if and when I ever marry. Irene always said that -'

'Enough said!' Vince cut in savagely. 'I don't want to hear another word if you're going to tell me you let that b.i.t.c.h Irene convince you no man would ever want you for anything other than your money. Do you think I'm here because I want your money? Good G.o.d, woman, I'm not at all interested in your d.a.m.ned money. I have an adequate amount of my own, thank you very much. All I'm interested in is your body!'

While Ava gaped, Vince groaned, smacking himself on the forehead. 'G.o.d, that sounded dreadful, and it's not strictly true either. I like you very much, Ava. You must know that. I think you're a lovely person and I adore just being with you. But I have no time for anything other than a part-time relationship with any woman. Neither am I emotionally equipped at the moment for anything more. What with my family responsibilities and my workload, sometimes I haven't time to scratch myself. There, that's cold hard honesty for you. I'm offering you nothing but a night here and a night there. If that's not acceptable, you'd better say so now before we go any further!'

'You mean you'd stop if I asked you to?'

'Are you asking me to?'

'G.o.d, no.'

He laughed and bent to kiss her startled mouth. 'You're delightful, do you know that?' He kissed her again. 'And delicious. . .' Another kiss. 'And desirable. . .' He pushed her back on to the pillows. 'And dangerous. . .'

A m.u.f.fled but very pa.s.sionate groan rumbled in his throat, his hands no longer holding her face but busy on her clothes. Not that he stopped kissing her. Only once did his mouth leave hers and that was when he sat her up to take her jacket right off. Lord knew where he put it. Ava didn't know and she didn't care. By then she was drunk on his kisses, the blood in her veins as intoxicated as though she'd consumed a whole bottle of wine on her own. She'd even stopped worrying what he thought of her body.

A second abandonment of her mouth was accompanied by the ridding her of her skirt and shoes, which left her lying on top of her bed in nothing but her cream satin corset and stockings. When he returned to her side, he didn't kiss her on the mouth. Instead, he pressed heated lips to the base of her throat while he pushed the shoestring straps off her shoulders. When he began to peel the satin garment downwards, his mouth followed, trailing a damp path of kisses over her skin.

Goose-b.u.mps erupted on her arms, Ava shivering with nervous antic.i.p.ation as his mouth got closer and closer to her nipples. At last the pained peaks were released from their satin imprisonment, bursting upwards in ripe supplication for his waiting lips.

'Oh,' Ava moaned softly when Vince licked over each one in turn, running his tongue around and over them till they were like little river pebbles, all hard and slippery.

'Oh, G.o.d,' she whimpered when he started a twin torment, sucking one nipple deep into his mouth while rolling the other between thumb and forefinger. His tugging mouth set up another tugging deep inside her, bringing with it a tension that was both exciting and excruciating.

When he stopped briefly to peel the undergarment right down to her waist, then to undo the snap fasteners between her legs, Ava's eyes flung open. She gasped when his mouth returned to capture a still wet nipple, but her gasp was not in response to this, but to the hand that had stayed between her thighs and was busy showing her that nipples ran a poor second when it came to instruments of erotic torture.

She squirmed beneath his ministrations, panting her excitement as he took her closer and closer to she knew not what. Everything was chaos in her mind. All she knew was that she wanted his fingers to stay inside her, to keep doing what they were doing. When her flesh started pulsating against him, he abruptly withdrew, making her cry out in dismay.

'It'll be all right,' he soothed, pressing a brief kiss to her anguished mouth. 'I'll just be a few moments.' The mattress squeaked a little as he swung his legs over the side and stood up.

He didn't take all that long. But it felt like an eternity. She trembled when he pressed-his stunningly naked body against the full length of her, then eased her legs wide to accommodate his own. When his hips dug sharply into her thighs she found her knees automatically lifting, her legs finding a natural comfort wrapped high around his waist. His groan of pleasure was music to her ears. She had done something right: without being told, without being shown.

'Are you sure you haven't done this before?' he rasped, propping himself up on his elbows.

'Not even in my dreams,' she whispered.

She could feel his eyes upon her even though she couldn't see them properly. 'I shouldn't be this glad about that, Ava. It goes against everything I told you earlier. But I am. Hopelessly. G.o.d, I hope I'm doing the right thing here.'

'Yes, you are,' she insisted wildly, and pressed impa.s.sioned lips to his shoulder. 'G.o.d, I love you. I. . .oh, please, Vince. . .don't stop!'

'I don't think I could at this point, but for pity's sake, don't start confusing this with love, Ava. This isn't love. It's s.e.x, and it's been bringing men and women together like this for centuries.'

Ava's heart contracted in rejection of this till he started rubbing his body against hers and everything inside her went haywire. Maybe he was right. She'd had little enough experience with love, after all. Maybe it was just s.e.x that was making her head spin and her body explode with pleasure.

'I don't care if it is only s.e.x,' she rasped. 'It feels fantastic and I w ant it. I want you.'

'And I want you, sweet Ava.'

'Then just do it. Don't be gentle. Just do it!' And she arched her back, pressing the moistened valley of her flesh against his throbbing desire.

'G.o.d, yes,' he groaned and drove that same desire home, Ava's eyes flinging wide as any momentary pain was far surpa.s.sed by the most incredibly strong wave of emotional and personal satisfaction. At last, she was a real woman with a real lover, not a fantasy one. At last. . .

Ava murmured Vince's name, her hands sliding down his back to splay across his taut b.u.t.tocks. When she pulled him ever deeper inside her, a tortured gasp punched from his lungs.

'Did. . .did I hurt you?' she whispered.

'Did you hurt me? he rasped disbelievingly. 'Haven't you got that th e wrong way round?'

'No.' She made a sensuous little circle with her hips. 'I feel fine.'

'You certainly do,' he growled. 'G.o.d knows what's in store for me once you get the hang of this, Ava.'

'Do you like your women to move, Vince?'

'I like it when you move, Ava. Let's forget my other women for tonight , shall we?'

'Whatever you say.' She smiled in the darkness, happy that she compared well with his previous lovers. Certainly, all her usual clumsiness seemed to have disappeared now she was lying down. She aimed to adopt this position as often as possible, smiling her satisfaction as she arched voluptuously into him.

'I think you should leave most of the moving up tome this first time,' he muttered. 'You're too d.a.m.ned good at it and I'm only human.'

Ava was starkly reminded just how much man Vince was when he did move, each powerful thrust making the breath leave her lungs in gasp after gasp of startled pleasure.

'I'm not hurting you, am I?' he asked thickly.

'No. . .'

'Good,' he said, and actually picked up what was already a powerful rhythm. 'G.o.d, I could get addicted to this,' he muttered thickly. 'I can almost understand why virgins are so prized. At least. . .ones like you are. . . Oh, G.o.d. . .'