good for him after being confined indoors for so long.'
Another silence slipped past.
In spite of the darkness Emma could feel the slow burn of his gaze as it held hers. 'What are you thinking about, Emma?' he asked.
She self-consciously tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. 'I was thinking how we're probably going to be eaten alive by mosquitoes,' she said with a rueful tilt of her mouth.
The white slash of his smile cut across his shadowed face. 'Or what about gnats?'
She screwed up her mouth at him. 'Do gnats bite?'
'I am not sure,' he said as he set his glass to one side before turning back to face her.
Emma sat very still as he lifted his hand to her face, his index finger tracing over the curve of her top lip. She couldn't breathe; she couldn't even speak, so mesmerising was his feather-light touch. She watched as in slow motion his head came down, his mouth so close she could feel the warmth of his breath skating over her lips. She sucked in a sharp little breath as his lips pressed against hers, once, twice, and then the third time with increasing pressure.
His mouth was like a brand, searing her lips with the imprint of his, stirring her senses into a frenzy of heady excitement. The first slow and yet determined stroke of his tongue against the seam of her lips sent her pulse skyrocketing, the rasp of his masculine jaw with its stubbly growth against the tender skin of her face making her feel utterly feminine in a way she had never felt before.
He explored every corner of her mouth in a leisurely fashion, the drugging movements of his mouth on hers making her forget all about her reasons for not getting involved with him. Desire began to pulse hot and strong in her veins with each thrust of his tongue against hers, the erotic promise in his kiss unmistakable.
His teeth nibbled at the fullness of her bottom lip in tiny, tantalising tug-and-release bites that made her legs turn to water. Her feminine core melted, she could feel the dew of desire anointing her intimately, her breasts swollen and aching for the attention of his hands and lips and tongue.
He pulled her to her feet, her legs hardly able to keep her upright as his mouth lifted off hers to blaze a fiery trail of kisses along the sensitive skin of her neck, each hot blast of his breath inciting her need of him to fever pitch. She was melting in his arms, discovering a passionate facet to her personality she would never have believed had existed until now. Where was her self-control? Where was her level-headedness and cool composure? They seemed to have been swept up in the conflagration of her senses under the sensual mastery of his touch.
His lower body ground against hers, leaving her in no doubt of his arousal. It was thick and hard against her, making her body tremble all over with a clawing need for fulfilment.
His mouth came back to hers with renewed fervour, the pressure of his kiss increasing as his erection burned with insistent force against her traitorous flesh. She could feel the hollow ache of her body, the tight walls of her womanhood preparing for the onslaught of his thickened presence. She felt as if she would die if he didn't bring to completion what he had started. Her body was crying out for release from this sensual torment. There was no part of her that wasn't sizzling from the heat of his touch. He was like a fire in her blood; somehow he had circumvented her firewall of common sense and turned her into a desperate wanton, a slave to the passion he had awakened.
Rafaele lifted his mouth off hers to look down at her with eyes dark with desire. 'Let's take this inside - or shall we get it over with right here on the floor?'
Emma flinched as her conscience gave her an unwelcome but timely nudge. No wonder he thought she was his for the asking. She had practically melted in his arms. Shame flooded her cheeks and to disguise it she stepped out of his hold, her expression full of cold disdain. 'You might not have liked him much, but at least your father had much more class than you,' she said with a cutting edge to her tone. 'He would never have dreamed of insulting me the way you have done.'
His eyes