Kate Hardy - Once A Playboy... - Resisting the Sicilian Playboy / Her Playboy's Proposal / The Playboy's Proposal

‘Sounds very detailed. A match made in heaven, I would think.’

‘On paper, I suppose it was. I thought it was what I wanted. Thought it would make us both happy. But in the end I just didn’t tick all of the boxes.’

‘You couldn’t give him the golden retriever?’ Leo asked playfully.

Dara felt her breath catch in her throat, the memory of that day in the hospital crashing down on her.

‘I couldn’t give him children.’

Leo’s smile faded. ‘And that was a problem for him?’

She nodded. ‘I found out when we had been engaged for a little over a year. Three months before our wedding was planned. I had been feeling ill and I went into hospital for some tests. The doctors were beginning to worry that there was something sinister going on.’

Dara remembered her fear when nobody had been able to give her any answers for her strange symptoms. She’d been twenty-three. The doctors had never even considered that premature menopause might be the cause for her chronic headaches, insomnia, hot flushes. The day her doctor had sat her down and told her she was becoming infertile and there was no cure...

‘When I told Dan he was very understanding at first. The medical mind in him made him want to know all the details and consult some colleagues. We tried to salvage what few eggs I might have left, but it was too late.’

Leo laid a hand over hers and she fought the urge to pull away. He would pity her now—just as her entire family did. Poor barren Dara and her useless body. The old self-loathing threatened to overpower her.

She stood up quickly, shaking the sand off her dress in quick sharp movements.

‘What happened with your fiancé?’ Leo stood too, looking at her warily, as though afraid she would run away at any moment.

‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Dara shook her head, a harsh laugh escaping her lips. ‘He wanted a wife who could procreate. It was a pretty straightforward situation.’

‘He left you because of your condition? What a heartless bastard.’ Leo looked furious.

Dara sighed, looking out at the red-tinged sky. Leo didn’t understand how difficult things had been in the months leading up to her diagnosis. She had been ill with headaches every day, and deathly tired. And sex had been so painful they had stopped having any at all. It had felt as if every single trace of her femininity had died in the hospital that day, along with her hopes of ever being a mother.

Lying in her hospital bed, she had overheard her father speaking with Dan in hushed tones in the hallway outside. The two men who were both supposed to have loved her, talking about how she was ‘barren as the desert’ and what a shame it was as she was so beautiful—as if it had stained her in some way.

Leo looked appalled. ‘Did this Dan treat every woman like a prize mare or was it just you?’

‘He had a very clear plan for his life. We both did. I decided to offer him a chance to reconsider our relationship. It knew it wasn’t easy for him to be with me all those months. I was irritable all the time, and I had virtually no interest in sex. If he’d stayed with me he would never have fathered a child the normal way.’

‘Like I said— he was heartless,’ Leo said plainly, looking her straight in the eyes. ‘It’s not your fault that nature did this to you. You should never have been made to feel inferior.’

‘I was never very family orientated, but I suppose I always just presumed I would have children one day. Now that the choice has been taken from me I’m actually quite happy to focus on my career.’

She had her arms wrapped around herself. Leo felt the urge to embrace her, but decided against it. He now understood why she was so ambitious, so driven and serious. She had immersed herself in her career, moved to a new country—all in an effort to outrun her painful past. In a way they were quite similar.

This conversation had got far too deep for two people who had only met a few short days ago.

Dara looked at him, her expression one of quiet contemplation. ‘I’m sorry, I should never have allowed this to get so personal.’

‘Never apologise to me, Dara.’ He stepped closer. ‘Not for this. Don’t ever let anyone think that you are less of a woman because of your condition.’

‘With the way things were with Dan, I thought I was destined to live a life of celibacy. And then you came along and all of a sudden I feel...sexual again. I almost feel normal.’

‘In my experience, what we feel when we touch is far from “normal”.’ Leo felt arousal thrum in his veins as she nipped her teeth along her lower lip. ‘I want nothing more right now than to drag you up to the nearest bed and bury myself deep inside you until you can’t think.’

‘Oh...’ she breathed, her voice husky with desire. ‘I should be appalled at such a primitive statement...’

‘You’re not, though—are you?’ He stepped closer, moulding his body against her soft warmth. Holding her to him so that she could feel just how badly he wanted her.

‘No. I want you to take me right here on this beach,’ she said plainly, a smile playing on her sensual mouth.

Leo claimed her mouth in a hard kiss, any thought of gentle seduction gone from his mind. He kissed her until their breath was ragged, her lips swollen and pink.

Grabbing her by the hand, he began powering across the sand to the stone steps.

‘What happened to doing it right here?’ she asked breathlessly, colour high on her cheeks as they practically ran up the beach.

‘I think I can manage to get you to a bed at least once. I won’t have you thinking I’m a complete barbarian.’

He winked, gathering her up into his arms swiftly before she could protest.

‘Nope, not a barbarian at all.’ She laughed as he carried her up the steps two at a time.

CHAPTER SIX

LEO SET HER down in the middle of his bedroom, his breathing only slightly laboured from the exertion. ‘There will be no stopping tonight,’ he warned, as he pulled off his shirt.

She began unwrapping the tie of her dress, her hands trembling with excitement as she watched him unzip his jeans. Watching him undress, she let her hands still in their progress. Her mouth felt completely dry as she took in his smooth, muscular abs, the dusting of dark hair on his chest that trailed down his stomach in a perfect line.

‘Are you just going to watch me or take off some clothes yourself?’ he challenged.

‘Shut up and kiss me,’ she growled, throwing her hands around his neck and glorying in the feeling of having his mouth on hers again.

It wasn’t enough. She moaned, running her fingertips along his shoulders, feeling the muscles bunch under her touch.

Suddenly his hands were everywhere, caressing her neck, cupping her breasts. He pulled her tight and pressed her hard against the door behind her. She felt herself held between its hard surface and his hard body and moaned again.

He undid the tie of her dress, pulling the material down her shoulders and letting it pool on the floor. She stood there, in her plain white bra and lacy thong, and gloried in the look of appreciation on his face.

Removing her bra to free her breasts, he kissed each tip briefly before running his hands down her abdomen slowly. Without warning he sank to his knees in front of her.

Dara felt her body freeze momentarily as his lips touched against the material of her underwear. She had tried this once in the past, but hadn’t liked the sense of exposure it gave her. She debated pulling him up to kiss him again, only to feel his hands pulling the material swiftly to one side.

His mouth pressed against her sex—hard and hot. His tongue darted slowly between her folds, stroking against her in a rhythm so slow and firm she thought she might melt. The sensation of being kissed and licked so intimately by him was far removed from anything she had ever felt before. She didn’t feel exposed...she felt worshipped.