Holiday in the Heart Page 7

  Amanda turned and raised her eyes to find him watching her. He stopped and pulled her against him. Placing a finger on her chin, Marco tilted her face up, and slowly kissed her temples, searing a path across her forehead, then down her nose, before finding her lips.

  Marco’s lips burned with anticipation as he sought entrance to her warm mouth. When she opened to welcome him, he delved deep with the hunger of a starved man. He wanted to taste her sweetness, to feel her softness under his hands, and to let her scent surround him.

  Marco ran his lips along the length of her neck, nipping at tender skin at the top of her blouse leaving his mark there. Feeling like a teenager who couldn’t control his hormones, his hands sought the curve of her breast under her coat, and his breath hitched when his fingers felt her taught nipple over the silk of her blouse.

  She didn’t protest. Amanda’s fingers sprawled into his hair. Her eyes closed and her head fell back exposing more skin, and presenting the most enticing picture he’d ever seen. She arched closer, causing him to close his own eyes and pray for some physical control.

  “You have such power over me Bella. You always have. A white witch stoking the slightest ember deep inside me to a full flame with unnatural ease.” He groaned and then rearranged her clothes to their original condition.

  Pulling her coat around her, he whispered against the satiny feel of her flowing mane. “But, no matter how much I want to take you in this very place and show you what you threw… No, I won’t just yet. I have been a very patient man, and I believe you owe me an explanation, Amanda. Tonight is the night we settle the past.”

  He looked at her dark eyes and her soft parted lips quivering from his abrupt withdrawal. He wanted to say the past didn’t matter. She was with him now. But he didn’t. Instead, he asked what only she could answer.

  “Why did you do it, Amanda? Why did you choose Robert?”

  His question shot though her, sending a numbing cold up and down her spine. Suddenly she was twenty-one again, unsure of herself and overwhelmed by her love for Marco Tamburi. Her heart splayed in the corner of the street, exposed to everyone who crossed, and in danger of being trampled on and splattered through the city.

  She’d been with him less than an hour and had ridiculously offered herself to him. In the middle of a public park! Yes, it may have been remote and dark, but she was such a fool to open her body and soul to a man, leaving it vulnerable to shame and ridicule.

  In college, Amanda had fought the urge to relinquish her being and complete control to him for two years. What she’d felt for him had debilitating power. Nevertheless, she couldn’t develop the thought, Marco’s presence negated the doubts and fears she’d once used as a guide.

  “I am waiting for your answer,” he informed her and started walking again. “We have thrown away too much time and I count every minute that passes as a waste. After the way you just responded to me, I know your feelings are still there. Talk, Amanda.”

  She licked her dry lips and inhaled deeply. Closing her eyes, and trusting Marco with her next step, she found the courage to address the incidents that had determined the path she’d taken two decades ago.

  “It was the Saturday after we left our fort. You’d been angry and called me irrational and immature. I called you at the house in the Hamptons. I needed to speak with you, to hear your voice and see you.”

  His gaze fixed on the carriage as they walked toward it. His strong jaw almost masked the small tick of the muscle beside his dark brow, but she knew him too well and didn’t miss it.

  Amanda continued, “My parents were having dinner with Robert’s parents and insisted I contribute to the family by agreeing to marry him. Dad was running for office and he needed the support of voters behind Judge Jones.”

  Clearly shocked, Marco stopped and stared at her. “You left me to further your father’s political career?” Then his nostrils flared and eyes narrowed. “You? The one with the high morals and the uncompromising ideals of doing what was right, regardless of the consequences to your career. I can detail the look you gave me when I told you we must do what is necessary to get ahead in business. Disgust and idealism all on one palette. Your face.”

  Oh how right he’d been. You did do what was needed to get ahead, to protect those you loved, and to shield yourself from being hurt.

  “I called the house and your mother answered. You know, the woman your father’s family never accepted because she wasn’t born into aristocracy like your father?” Amanda’s old fears gave her the strength to explain her thoughts.

  “What does that have to do with us? I told you, I would never allow that where you were concerned. I chose you above everything and you walked away from me.” He tightened his hold on her hand as he helped her back into the carriage.

  “Your mother said you were out with Gabriella, and that you’d be out all day.” Amanda rattled off the words in a quick whisper and diverted her gaze to the carriage floor. Biting her lower lip she added, “I was jealous.”

  “But you had nothing to be jealous of. I remember that day. I had driven Gabriella to take her SATs. That is why I went home that weekend. That, and the fact you refused to speak to me.” He ran his fingers in his hair, a habit Amanda had found so sexy in college. “Gabriella was the little sister I never had. There was nothing romantic between us.” He sounded annoyed that she’d not accepted his explanation.

  “Obviously there was more than you admitted. You ended up marrying her!” she retorted with a sharp, hurt voice. “You spent your weekends with her, not with me. We were together only at school. Our relationship was hidden like a dirty secret in the depths of the dorms.”

  Disconcerted, he shifted in his seat, appearing flustered with her words. Amanda watched the park’s bare trees wave goodbye as they exited into the lights of the city. She wanted to forget the pain of feeling alone and hollow. Embracing the distraction the busy streets of New York offered, she focused on the festive holiday storefronts and the clickety-clack of the horse’s hooves, wondering why she’d never told him before.

  Marco wouldn’t let the past rest. “You were the one who did not want me away from school. I stayed in the dorms every time you left. I didn’t leave. You are the one who went home without me. Not once did you invite me to your house, and when I finally convinced you to let me take you home, you said your parents would not appreciate me coming in. You turned me away on your front step.”

  Every word he said was true. She sighed with reluctance. “They didn’t like it when I spoke of Italy. I was learning Italian and discussed you too much around them.”

  “They never met me!”

  “No,” she agreed. “But they knew you came from a wealthy and influential family, and you planned to return to Italy to take over your family’s enterprises when you finished your studies.”

  “What was wrong—”

  “If I was emotionally attached to you, I’d go with you. Their little girl would live across the ocean, submersed in a culture they didn’t understand. I didn’t want to leave my family and simultaneously risk rejection by yours. The pressure and stress would have torn us apart. It would have made me bitter...as unhappy as it made your mother.”

  “You are not a little girl, nor are you my mother. Amanda Law is one of the smartest and most stubborn women I know.”

  “You’re not hearing me. I was frightened and weak. I was terrified to choose you because I loved you too much.”

  There! She’d told him in two minutes what she hadn’t been able to say in countless hours years ago. She’d been terrified of what she’d felt for him, scared she would have lost herself to him, and frightened of turning into a lonely woman surrounded by people. Much, she realized, like the woman she was today.

  “You never told me you felt that way.” His voice was softer now and a bit uncertain. “We could have changed our plans if I had known.”

  “Why? Would you have stayed in the States with me?”

  “Yes,” he answered quickl
y. “I would have done anything to make you happy.”

  Her chin rose in a determined stance. She wasn’t willing to hear the words she once craved. “Be real, Marco. That wasn’t what you wanted.”

  “What I wanted was you,” he snapped. “Instead of trusting me, you came back from a long weekend at home engaged to Robert Jones. You refused to speak to me, and I camped outside your door for a whole night before my pride got the better of me.”

  Not knowing what to say, she stared at the floor of the carriage, which had come to a stop. From the corner of her eye, she saw him running his hand through his hair in frustration. However, it wasn’t fair. He hadn’t come after her, he’d walked away and later married Gabriella.

  “We are at the hotel. Please, let us talk inside.” He offered her his arm.

  ~*~

  They were in the elevator when she spoke again. “I never mentioned the hotel on my blog. How did you know I’d be staying here?”

  “The same way I knew you would be at the Empire State Building at sunset. That is your favorite time of day to look at the city.” He squeezed her hand. “My suite is here as well. I remembered you wanted to spend New Year’s Eve in Times Square. I guessed you would pick this place because it is near. Your room must overlook the Square.”

  “Yes.” The elevator stopped and the doors opened.

  He guided her toward his suite. “You see, I paid attention, too, and remember the desires you related to me. I know your dreams, your desires, and your goals.”

  She wouldn’t look at him. Conflicting emotions dueled in her mind and she couldn’t think straight. One moment she wanted to throw herself into his arms and yell, We can be together now. I love you. The next moment she questioned why he’d not fought harder for her and why he’d married Gabriella.

  With lowered eyes, she watched him fit the card into the key slot. Opening the door, he continued speaking. “You wanted to travel the world and get paid for it. Today you are the most loved travel writer in America. The Amanda I knew loved the Big Apple and wanted to experience all the special moments it offered, including the notorious New Year’s Eve celebration. Have you done that yet?”

  “No, this is my chance.” She entered the room. “You’re correct about the reason I picked this hotel. It’s close enough to avoid the security hassle, and if I couldn’t make it physically on the street, I could watch from my room.”

  She walked toward the full-length window and gestured towards the magnificent view of Times Square. The colorful lights, the people on the pavement, the intricate advertising, all buzzing with life and transmitting energy found nowhere else on earth.

  He glided her coat off her shoulders and threw it on an overstuffed chair. Excitement ran over her skin as he lifted her hair and brought his lips to the curve of her neck. She leaned her head back against his chest and closed her eyes.

  Suddenly an image of Marco with Gabriella flashed in her mind and she pulled away from him.

  “Stop, Marco. This is wrong.”

  Turning, she gathered all her strength to walk away from the man she’d loved since the first moment she’d seen him, and strode behind a desk erecting a physical barrier between them. She sat in the chair, facing him, and scooted her knees under the heavy wooden structure, negating the weak feeling in her legs.

  Marco leaned over the desk and slammed his fist. “Why is this wrong?”

  “You married Gabriella.”

  His eyes grew wide and he shook his head. He dropped into a chair in front of the desk and placed his elbows on the hard surface. Fingers massaging his scalp, and his gaze set on the dark mahogany, he spoke.

  “I am sorry. I have been aggravated with you not telling me the truth, yet I am guilty of the same.”

  Amanda watched the veins at his temples bulge. His face was a slight shade of red and his Adam’s apple was very pronounced.

  “I did marry Gabriella. Years after you’d married Robert, and Jason was born. What you don’t want to understand is that I never had romantic feelings for her.”

  Frustrated with his words, she pushed away from the desk, jumped up from the chair and strode to the window. She crossed her arms in front of her chest. How could he continue to claim he had no romantic feelings for his wife?

  “Gabriella became sick. She had no family, and she was living off the remainder of her inheritance. A rare form of Leukemia attacked her body and she needed the best medical help in the world to fight it. The truth was she would get more attention as a Tamburi than as a Callone.”

  He crossed the room and stood behind her. Amanda welcomed his heat and comfort as he wrapped his arms around her, gently peeling her white fingers away from her upper arms.

  “As I have always told you, I loved Gabriella like the sister I never had. I would do anything to help her. We married, but it was a marriage of necessity. She needed the support and money to get the best care possible. Unfortunately, the best was not enough. The disease claimed her, grazie a Dio, in her sleep...seven years ago.”

  Amanda shuddered, and Marco turned her in his embrace. Looking into bleary eyes, his thumb caressed her tear stricken cheeks.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  “Thank you.” He contemplated telling her Gabriella wouldn’t initially accept his proposal. She’d said he should have gone after Amanda and told her how much he loved and wanted her. Gabriella had been a believer of true love and had claimed it would always prevail.

  “The only woman I have ever loved romantically is you.”

  Amanda, unable to stifle the sobbing sounds deep in her throat, nestled as close as physically possible. She’d never fallen apart like this before. Not even after losing her parents.

  “Oh, bella, my Amanda. Finally, you show me true emotion that exposes your beautiful heart. Do not hide from me anymore. Promise me that.”

  Amanda nodded into his shoulder, determined to gain a millimeter of composure.

  “One more request,” he said. “Make one of my dreams come true.”

  “Tell me how, caro.”

  Knowing she cared didn’t make it any easier for Marco to ask. What if she refused? Studying her face, he leaned toward her and feathered her lips with his own. Then taking a deep breath, he brought her hand to his lips and planted a kiss in the center of her palm.

  “Christmas is tomorrow,” he began. “I have always wanted to share Christmas morning with you. Please stay. Just think about our wants and desires this time around. Give us this holiday week, time for you and me, cara mia.”

  “Okay,” she whispered.

  Marco raised a triumphant hand before cupping her heart shaped face and sealing his mouth over hers. His heart pounded against his ribcage and his eyes couldn’t stop devouring the most beautiful woman in the world. No closed eye kisses for him. He needed to see her completely.

  “I am going to take full advantage of every moment with you,” he told Amanda. She’d agreed to share Christmas with him. Now all he needed to do was convince her to stay with him forever.

  She leaned into him, tilting her face toward his, smiling and radiant. Marco threw back his head and laughed. Finally, she would be his. He then encircled her waist and crushed her body against him, lifting her off her feet as he turned them around like the lovers they were, meeting after a long time apart.

  “Ti amo, Amanda. Ti amo.” He brought his lips to her soft mouth, drinking in her essence. He didn’t want the moment to ever end. He showered kisses around her lips, along her jaw, and down her long neck, feasting on the taste of her skin.

  Rejoicing in the feel of her fingers digging into the flesh on his back, he lifted her effortlessly and carried her into the bedroom with a few long strides. Cradling her close, he smiled at his Christmas present.

  “After years of playing this scenario in my mind, I am about to burst with the anticipation. You are mine, Amanda, sempre—forever. You are never leaving again.”

  “I want to stay. I need to be yours.” She kissed the side of hi
s neck. “I need you to be mine.”

  Placing her feet on the floor, Marco sat on the edge of the bed in front of her. Savoring every second, he painstakingly unbuttoned each tiny pearl on her blouse and then pushed it off her shoulders.

  Running trembling fingers over the smooth lace trimmed material covering her peaked nipples, Marco brought his lips to it. The barrier teased his tongue and he removed it to taste her alone.

  “Sweet, beautiful, intoxicating woman.”

  His hands and mouth explored the soft curves of her chest, her waist, and her hips. Marco reached behind her and unzipped her skirt. It fell to the floor, exposing a matching silk pair of panties and cream silken stockings held up by a lace garter.

  His eyes moved over her as if in a trance. His hands followed and couldn’t resist the temptation to lower the beautiful garment to her heels and lift her feet out of it. He didn’t breathe as he felt the soft moist curls outlining the slick line of heat ready for him.

  Heaven, she was his heaven.

  “Bella,” he sighed and buried his face between her breasts. Amanda responded, arching towards him and running her fingers over every inch of his body she could reach. When her fingers pulled at his belt, he stood and undressed, letting his clothes drop beside her skirt.

  Her hot mouth burned his chest and as she scraped her teeth over his nipple, his control disappeared.

  Instantly he laid Amanda on her back, covered her body with his, sinking into her with primitive possessiveness. A guttural sound escaped his throat as he moved within her warmth. He was home.

  Amanda moaned aloud with pure pleasure as the passion and love they shared completed her. Captured by the heat of his intense dark gaze, she abandoned herself to the whirl of sensation he instilled.

  “I love you, Marco.” The words left her lips, and she fell into an abyss of ecstasy with Marco exploding deep within her.

  ~*~

  They were sprawled on the bed as they looked out of the large window, their bodies naked and still moist from their lovemaking. The sun started to illuminate the pale sky and reflect the snow drifting in the air.