Work in Progress Wednesday-An Unedited Excerpt from: When in Rome

I don't think I posted this one before...I can't actually post what I worked on for the last week, because...I can't dammit. Not til after it comes out on Goodreads.

So here's some more Carol and Alessandro:

Once the bags were stowed in the trunk and Marcello had very sheepishly ensconced them in the rear of the limousine Carol considered what she wanted to do with her new found knowledge.

The gorgeous Mr. Alessandro Feliano wants me…me, ordinary little Carol Caruso! Holy shit Batman, this caper is getting very tricky!

Alessandro shot her a look up from under his lashes as he lounged elegantly back against the leather seats of the limo. His nostrils flared again, and he swallowed hard before he spoke.

“Well piccolina, you are assured now, si? I think you need still to set your brother’s mind at ease though, do you not? Will you call him from your phone or would you prefer to use the car phone?”

Alessandro shifted in his seat as he spoke, stretching his legs until they nearly touched the opposite seat and twisting his torso to face Carol. The motion brought him close enough that once again she could smell that scent which was so uniquely him.

Like the bite of wind through a winter forest…

She was wrapped in the cool green scent, completely enmeshed in snow and pine and freedom. It took a moment to register that Alessandro was still speaking to her. It was even longer before she remembered that she should answer. By the time all this filtered through Carol’s deliciously overloaded senses and processed through her brain Alessandro was watching her with a bemused smile sitting crookedly on his face.

“I’ll just call him from my phone…he, sometimes B doesn’t answer strange numbers.”

As she dialed Brendan’s number and explained that her alarm had been patently a false one she felt Alessandro’s eyes moving across her face, and down along her throat to her shoulders. They lingered on her breasts like caressing hands before sliding sinuously along her belly. By the time she finished talking with Brendan it felt as if Alessandro had carefully and slowly stripped each piece of clothing she wore from her flushed and trembling body. She raised her eyes to Alessandro’s to find him watching her with an expression of such intense hunger she flinched back against the side of the car furthest from him. His pupils narrowed, and he leaned toward her with deliberation. His voice came with the same measured pace, all bass delight rolled in the hard candy coating of his lovely accent.

“Forgive me, cara. I cannot…perdonatemi, ah, forgive…you understand, si? I find I cannot help myself.”

As he spoke his big hands were reaching out and laying hold of Carol, pulling her across the seat and into his lap. The rasp of the leather against her soft cotton lounging pants sensitized the skin of the backs of her thighs and ass. He gripped on hip, his thumb resting along the crest of her hipbone while his broad palm curled warmly over the firm rounded flesh at the side of her hip. His long fingers lay on the upper curve of her ass pressing inward as he sought to pull her closer. Alessandro’s other arm was braced diagonally along the length of her back with his remaining hand fisted in her hair. He was careful to tug gently as he positioned her head with that handful of hair.  

Carol meant to give him a piece of her mind. She did. What came out instead when she opened her mouth was a hungry moan. She meant to brace her hands on his shoulders and briskly push herself off his lap while she told him exactly how unprofessional he was being. She did. In contrast, her arms somehow ended up curled over the tops of his broad shoulders, twining around his neck as she carded her fingers through the rough silk of his midnight black hair.

He nibbled at her lips like they were the first rare and succulent fruits available after a decade of winter. Carol moaned, pressing herself more fully against his firm, thickly muscled body. Alessandro released her hip, sliding that hand up along her side until his hand reached her face. With his long fingers cradling her cheek he pressed lightly down on her chin with the pad of his thumb easing Carol’s mouth open in slow increments. Alessandro made a low pleased sound at the back of his throat as he pushed past her lips, exploring the shape of her teeth and testing the warmth inside her mouth.

Carol lost all sense of time as she suckled his tongue. Learning the taste of him was wintergreen and something indefinable, Carol tightened her arms around his neck. She bit at his lips, wiggling around until she was straddling his lap, gripping his hips with her thighs. Wintergreen was her new favorite flavor.

I have to have more…

*Whir, shush, whir*

The sound of the privacy partition being lowered between the driver and the back of the limo didn’t register until Alessandro lifted her carefully away and set her back in her own seat.  Marcello’s voice came quietly through the half open window space.

“Mi scusi Signore Feliano…we have arrived.”

Alessandro nodded, turning his eyes back to Carol as the privacy partition slid shut. His crooked smile appeared again. His eyes were briefly screened from her perusal as the thick black lashes above them meshed with those below. Then his dark gaze was on her again.

“Come, piccolina, we must hurry to catch our flight.”

*****