The Best Of The Year - Modern Romance 2016

He then went on to explain how he and his two best friends first got into the wine-bar business, relating that one day, shortly after they’d formed the Bachelors’ Club, he and Alex had spotted a dilapidated old bar for sale not far from the Oxford campus. They’d told Jeremy about it that evening, insisting it could be turned into a good business with the right décor and the right wine to appeal to the mainly student clientele. They’d raved about its location, being situated near the university, and they’d known Jeremy had come into a substantial inheritance from his grandmother’s estate, and it wasn’t long before they made a deal with him that they would do all the physical work if he put up the money.

‘Alex and I did all the refurbishing ourselves,’ Sergio told Bella. ‘We sanded and varnished the wooden floors and painted all the walls and ceiling black.’ He laughed at this memory. ‘We’d got a great special from a local paint shop on black paint. Then we hung huge posters of grapes and vineyards on the walls and covered the bar stools in a dark purple vinyl. We got a special on that too. Oh, and we got rid of the mirrors behind the bar. We thought they were too in your face. After that, we hunted the charity shops and flea markets for lounge furniture and coffee tables at reasonable prices and in reasonable condition. We figured our patrons would like somewhere they could relax, or study on their laptops whilst drinking our very affordable wine. The lighting we kept low, mostly with lamps and a few ceiling lights over the bar area. Then we hired the prettiest girls as staff, but dressed them in simple black skirts and white blouses. Nothing too sexy.’ He grinned at Bella. ‘As I said, they were very pretty girls.’

At this point in his story Sergio realised that Bella was staring at him. No, frowning at him.

‘What?’ he said.

‘But I’ve been to a wine bar that looks just like that. And it wasn’t in Oxford. It was in New York, in a street just off Broadway. It’s not far from where I live. It’s called Wild Over Wine, but everyone calls it the—’

‘WOW bar,’ Sergio finished for her. ‘Yes. There’s a couple of them in New York now.’

Bella’s face could not have been more astonished. ‘You own them?’

‘No. The Wild Over Wine bars are now a highly successful franchise. After the success of our first bar, we bought another, then another. Always near a university at first, but in the end anywhere which had a good location. Eventually, things got too much for us to handle, despite Jeremy having finally come on board as our chief financial officer. Anyway, I got this bright idea to start up a franchise. And it took off. Soon there were WOW bars all over Great Britain and even some in Australia and New Zealand, thanks to Alex. I did tell you Alex was Australian, didn’t I?’

Bella nodded.

‘Brilliant salesman. Brilliant all round, actually. Anyway, recently the franchise started creeping into America, with considerable success, I might add.’

‘I can imagine. I loved the one I went into. It had a highly individual ambience with its black walls and comfy furniture. But I wouldn’t have said the wine was all that cheap.’

‘Yes, well, we did change our ideas on that in the end. You can still buy cheap wine at WOW bars if that’s all you can afford, but we were forced to also cater for well-heeled clients whose palates required something better. Oh, and we changed the background music to classical. No royalty paying on most classical music,’ he added laughingly.

‘Heavens!’ Bella exclaimed. ‘I would never have guessed you would become a successful businessman. I always imagined you as some kind of academic.’

Sergio tried not to be offended. He had been a bit of a nerd as a teenager, always with his head in a book.

‘Well, I was never unsure of your career path,’ he pointed out. ‘From the time you were just a kid you were destined for fame and fortune in the music world. All your many and various successes have never surprised me.’

She actually looked a little embarrassed by his compliments.

‘That’s sweet of you to say so, Sergio, but, to be honest, fame and fortune isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. When I’m doing a musical on stage, I work terribly long hours. It can be exhausting, and, quite frankly, rather lonely. I don’t always have time for a social life, or proper relationships.’ She sighed a sigh that carried a wealth of irony, her blue eyes darkening as she picked up her champagne and took a deep swallow. ‘I know you probably think I’ve had heaps of affairs. But that’s far from the truth. In the last decade I’ve only had three serious relationships, all with men best forgotten.’

Sergio didn’t know what to say, her revelation bringing a mixture of surprise and scepticism. Which were the three? The French actor had to be one. And definitely that Russian fellow. Which left a toss-up between the Brazilian polo player and the American rock star. If she was to be believed, that was. Yet why would she lie to him? What motive could she possibly have?

‘I did read about your dating Chuck Richards at one stage,’ he said at last, trying to sound offhand and not accusatory.

‘Good God, no. I never dated that creep. Unfortunately, my publicist at the time thought it was good for my career for my name to be connected in the media with high-profile celebrities. At the time Chuck was all the rage. I was talked into accompanying him to the Aria awards that year, oblivious of the fact that he was a cocaine addict. I had to fight him off in the limo all the way back to my hotel. The guy was an octopus. I told him what I thought of him when I could finally get out, but of course it was reported in the papers as a lovers’ spat. Something Chuck didn’t deny. He made it sound like we’d been secretly seeing each other for weeks. I fired that publicist, but the next one I hired wasn’t much better.’

‘Why have one, then?’ Sergio asked.

Bella shrugged. ‘It’s the way the world works in America. You aren’t anyone in show business if you don’t have a manager and a publicist and a stylist. I even have a Hollywood agent.’

‘You’re going into movies next?’ Was she mad? She was already suffering from burnout.

‘Maybe. If the right movie comes along.’

‘It’s a mistake to have too many fingers in too many pies, Bella,’ Sergio advised, feeling genuinely worried for her. ‘I found that out myself this last year. With my father gone, I felt I should come back to Milan to try to rescue the family business, which was close to bankruptcy. Not out of some silly male pride, but because lots of families rely on that business for their living. Times are just as tough economically in Italy as they are all over the world. Anyway, I knew I couldn’t do that and manage the franchise as well. One of them had to go. I couldn’t do both.’

‘So what did you do?’

‘I talked it over with Alex and Jeremy and, with their approval, I sold the franchise, along with the wine bars we actually owned.’

‘I hope you got a good price.’

He grinned. ‘Let’s just say the main goal of the Bachelors’ Club was instantly achieved.’

‘You all became billionaires?’

‘We did indeed.’ No point in hiding the fact. After all, he didn’t need to use money as a lever to seduce her. She was already well and truly seduced.

‘But that’s marvellous! Oh, you are a clever boy. Now all you have to do is save the family business.’

‘Yes,’ he said, doing his best not to look smug. ‘Unfortunately, that’s going to be a tall order. But I’ll give it my best shot.’

‘I’m sure you will. So you’re going to be living here in future?’

‘Only at weekends. The family owns a town house in Milan where I’ll stay during the week.’

‘I see.’ She took the last bite of her pizza, her expression thoughtful. ‘You say family, Sergio, but there’s only you now. Hardly a family. Don’t you want to get married and have children one day? Surely you don’t intend to stay a bachelor for ever!’

Sergio could see that he’d backed himself into a corner with his earlier lie. But he really didn’t want her to know about his plan to look for a wife soon. It would make their affair seem...callous. Which, of course, it was.

Any guilt he felt was quickly dismissed, however. Why should he feel guilty? She was having a good time, wasn’t she? And he was getting what he’d always wanted.

‘I’m rather obsessive when I am faced with a challenge,’ he confessed. ‘I won’t have time for a wife and children till the family business is making a profit, which could take years. Besides, I’m only thirty-four. I have plenty of time yet to get married.’

Bella pulled a face. ‘Wish I could say the same. Women don’t have all the time in the world if they want children. I turned thirty last month. My biological clock is ticking.’

Sergio suppressed the crazy urge to suggest he would give her a child, if she desperately wanted one. ‘Come now, Bella,’ he said, ‘from the sounds of things you hardly have time to have sex, let alone children.’

‘True,’ she said, then laughed, her eyes sparkling as she looked over the table at him. ‘Till today, that is. I still can’t believe how great it was between us. I mean...it was amazing!’

Sergio could not believe how swiftly his mind switched from having a simple chat with Bella to wanting to have sex with her again, his desire as strong as ever. He’d been right in his original assessment that it would take at least a month of having her before he could move on with his life. She was like a disease, one that he had no antibiotics for. Only time would make him immune to this power she had over him.

Thankfully, she didn’t know she possessed such power; didn’t know how much he wanted her.

He was just a friend with benefits.

‘I agree,’ he said. ‘So now that you’ve had some decent food, do you fancy trying another of Mother Nature’s sleeping pills?’

Her eyes rounded a little but he could see she was as eager as he was. ‘You’re not too tired?’ she asked.

He had to smile. ‘Not yet,’ he said, then swallowed the last of his wine. She had no idea, did she? Which was exactly what he wanted. ‘Shall we try your room this time?’ he suggested casually. ‘That way you won’t have to answer any awkward questions when Maria finds your bed unused tomorrow.’

‘Oh, God,’ she said, perplexing him with a sudden blush. ‘I’d forgotten about what Maria might think.’

Sergio shook his head at her. Women, he’d found over the years, were often complex, contradictory creatures. They often said one thing and meant another. He didn’t want to even try to understand Bella at this moment. He just wanted to have sex with her. Over and over and over.

‘Let me worry about Maria,’ he said as he stood up and held out his hand towards her. ‘All you have to do tonight is enjoy the benefits of our friendship.’

He loved the way her eyes dilated as she put her hand in his; loved the evidence of her own desire. This time, he thought rather ruthlessly as he drew her to her feet, he would insist she be on top, but only after she’d pleasured him with that luscious mouth of hers. Tonight, he wanted to watch her face as she came; wanted to feel her coming apart whilst he was buried deep inside her; wanted to witness her totally losing control.

Only then would he let himself go. Only then.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

BELLA SOMEHOW GOT her legs to carry her into the cream and gold bedroom where Sergio finally dropped her hand from his. Not that this afforded her much relief, since he immediately started to undo the buttons on her top. Her body swayed slightly as her mind reeled. She wanted him even more desperately this time. Wanted him so much that she felt almost ill. Her heart was racing and her stomach churning. She was tempted to reach up and rip the top off herself, so impatient was she to be naked before him. When he finally peeled the top back off her shoulders, her belly tightened alarmingly, making her fiercely aware of her full bladder. Too much of that champagne, she realised with some dismay.

‘I...I need to go to the bathroom,’ she said shakily.

His dark eyes narrowed. ‘You’re not going cold on me, are you?’ he asked.

‘God, no,’ she choked out. She was so hot she was on the verge of combustion!

‘Come back naked, then. I like my women naked.’

Bella sucked in sharply at the sudden harshness in his voice, and in his statement.

He seemed to sense her hurt for he immediately reached out to run a softly seductive finger down her cheek and around her mouth. ‘But only when they’re as lovely as you, beautiful Bella,’ he murmured.

Her chin still lifted, her pride stung by being lumped together with all his other women. And there would have been plenty. She could see that. Perversely, she didn’t like that thought. ‘I would imagine you don’t go to bed with any other kind,’ she snapped, stupidly letting her jealousy show.

He smiled a knowing smile, his provocative finger dropping away. ‘You could be right. But it’s a common failing in bachelors. And beautiful women. I can’t see you going to bed with an ugly man.’

She could not find an answer to that. Despite their flaws, her lovers had all been tall, dark and handsome. Like Sergio. But there’d only been three of them whereas she suspected he’d had girlfriends galore. Who would have guessed that the reserved boy she’d come to know and like enormously would one day become a playboy? And a billionaire as well!

‘Let’s not have a lovers’ tiff,’ he went on, still smiling. ‘Now go do what you have to do. I need to get some condoms from my room, anyway. We’ll meet back on this bed sans clothes in a couple of minutes, okay?’

Bella tried to hold on to her resentment at his high-handed attitude but it was futile. Already she was a slave to the exquisite pleasure that going to bed with Sergio promised. As much as she didn’t like the idea of his being a playboy, his wealth of experience did have some compensations. He certainly knew what he was doing in bed. Which was more than could be said for her. But she was learning.

It did cross Bella’s mind that her past lovers had all been playboys as well, with lots of bedroom experience. But she’d never had an orgasm with them. Never wanted them the way she wanted Sergio. It was a puzzle all right, she thought as she stripped off her clothes and stared at herself in the large vanity mirror, taking in her pink cheeks and erect nipples. But not a puzzle she cared to think about for long. All she wanted was to get back out there and be waiting for Sergio, naked, the way he liked his women.

He was there before her, stretched out on top of the cream cotton sheets, as naked as she was. More naked this time, she noted, no condom covering the awesome length of his erection.

When she stared, then hesitated to join him on the bed, Sergio rolled over onto his side and pointed to the pile of condoms sitting on the bedside table right next to her. ‘I will use one when it’s strictly necessary,’ he told her. ‘But till then, I thought it might be more pleasurable without protection.’

Bella found his casual manner exasperating yet perversely exciting. Could it be that his taking all the emotion out of the situation made her relax and actually enjoy the sex? It seemed a possible solution to the puzzle. Certainly, when she was with Sergio, she wasn’t wondering if he really loved her or not. Because she knew he didn’t!

Shaking her head at him, she climbed onto the bed, determined to act as casually as he was. But it was just an act. Suddenly, her earlier eagerness to take him in her mouth faded in the face of actually doing it. Her mouth dried at the thought.

Time for some of that new boldness, Bella. Time to take the reins, perhaps. Something you’re not used to doing, but you’re not an idiot, or ignorant. You know what men like.

‘Right,’ she said briskly. ‘Just lie back, Sergio, and I’ll see if I can help you out with your sleeping problem.’

Oddly enough, her deciding to take control of the situation did wonders for her own sudden lack of confidence. As she sat up and bent her head towards Sergio’s impatient flesh, Bella experienced the same rush of adrenalin that always swept through her once she actually stepped out onto a stage and began to sing. Performing for an audience always thrilled her. She was never nervous at all, not once the show actually started. Of course, it did help that she always practised her role and her songs till she was note perfect.

The role she was about to play was not one she’d overly practised, or even remotely perfected.

She should have experienced a crisis of confidence but she didn’t.

I can do this, she told herself as her lips hovered above him. I am a quick study. And observant. I will soon know what pleases him most.

Bella sucked in a deep breath, her lips falling apart in a last moment of panic.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

SERGIO SHUDDERED WHEN her lips brushed over the straining tip of his erection.

Dear God, what an idiot am I to think I could stand this for more than a few seconds.

His teeth clenched down hard in his jaw when she did it again, his gut tightening as he braced himself for more torment. And she gave him more, doing everything that he’d ever dreamt of her doing. Licking him. Kissing him. Sucking him. Then taking him into her mouth, slowly, inch by inch, till he couldn’t bear it any more.

‘No,’ he grunted out when he was right on the verge of coming.

Her head immediately lifted, her eyes glazed, her lips looking swollen yet soft and luscious and deliciously wet.

‘No?’ she queried, sounding totally confused. And of course she would be. The men she’d been with would have let her go all the way; would have demanded it. But that was not what he wanted. Not this time. He wanted to come inside her. Wanted her to make love to him with her whole body, not just her mouth.

‘No,’ he repeated, his voice rough and raw. ‘That’s enough of that. I want the real thing, after all.’

She didn’t say a word, just stared down at him for a long moment. But then she gave herself a little shake of her shoulders and reached for a condom.

‘I think you’d better put this on,’ she said, her hand trembling in a way that almost got to him.

So she was turned on to the max. That was good, wasn’t it? It didn’t mean anything special.

He tore the packet open with his teeth and sheathed himself without a fumble.

‘What’s so funny?’ he said when he noticed her small smile.

‘Just thinking how practice makes perfect.’

He almost retorted that he’d been thinking exactly the same thing about her. But he had enough common sense left to know how easily women could be put off by the wrong comment.

So he just smiled and rolled over on top of her, his erection pressed between them.

‘I want to kiss that delicious mouth of yours whilst it still tastes of me.’

His mouth hovered over hers. ‘You are seriously sexy. Now kiss me, Bella.’

A wave of dark triumph rushed through him when she obeyed him. Though she did close her eyes, as if by doing that she was lessening his power over her. But it only strengthened his resolve to seduce her further, to make her do things that perhaps she hadn’t done before, make her want him to dominate her totally.

He sent his tongue in deep before setting up a rhythm that echoed what he ached to do to her. In and out, in and out, till she was gasping for breath. Only then did he stop, withdrawing totally, then rolling over onto his back, taking her with him.

‘Sit up, Bella,’ he commanded, and she did so, staring dazedly down at him as she sat up and straddled him.

‘Now take down your hair.’

God, but he adored the way her hands shook as they lifted to do his bidding. Seeing her so turned on didn’t make up for all the years he’d suffered because of his unrequited passion for her, but it was something.

He watched in awe as her glorious hair tumbled in erotic disarray around her shoulders. It was her crowning glory, her hair; soft and silky with a slight wave when dry and lots of curls when wet. He glanced down at where only the narrowest strip of fair curls guarded her sex. Some chose to totally denude their bodies but he’d always preferred a little mystery.

Bella still remained a mystery to him in some ways. But not in the bedroom. She obviously liked being in control sometimes. But mostly she preferred playing the submissive role. That was fine by him. He liked being the boss in the bedroom.

‘You can take over now,’ he said, appealing to both sides of her nature.

She looked startled for a split second, but then smiled, a rather enigmatic smile that he could not read. Without saying a word, she rose up onto her knees, her eyes dropping to his freed erection. A groan hovered on his lips when she grasped it with both hands, directing it carefully but inexorably to the entrance to her body. Both their eyes remained glued to that spot, Sergio’s heartbeat ceasing as his flesh began to slowly disappear within hers.

Dear God...it felt incredible. She was incredible. And so hot.

He didn’t start breathing again till he was fully inside her. He might have stayed relatively sane if she hadn’t started to move, rising up high then sinking back down upon him with her eyes shut, her head thrown back in an attitude of blissful rapture. Her own breathing grew more rapid, a harsh panting escaping from her parted lips. She was off in another world, a world where it didn’t seem to matter what male body was underneath her. And did he care? Hell, no. He was too far gone to care about anything but being released from the agony that was gripping his sex.

Her first contraction sent him over the edge, his hips jerking up from the bed as he ejaculated into her with the violence of an erupting volcano. Reaching blindly for her shoulders, he dragged her down on top of him, holding her tightly whilst their bodies throbbed and shuddered together, wallowing in the fact that she was as crazy in lust as he was.

If only she hadn’t nestled into his neck with her face. If only she hadn’t pressed her mouth against his skin, murmuring his name at the same time.

His heart immediately squeezed tight, then flowered open, emotion flooding in.

His groan was the groan of defeat. Or was it resignation?

He could keep telling himself it was just lust dictating his actions with Bella; and this was true to a degree. But Sergio could no longer pretend that his emotions hadn’t become involved as well. Was it love yet? He hoped not. He’d never actually fallen in love before so he had nothing to guide him. But he could not deny that she was getting under his skin in more ways than just sexual. Which was most unfortunate. Bella didn’t want him to fall in love with her, and he sure as hell didn’t want to fall in love with her. Once their holiday fling was over, she would return to her life on the other side of the world, with this interlude just a pleasant memory. Their friendship—even with benefits—would not survive. She’d get sucked back into her career and that would be that. She wouldn’t give him a second thought, the way she hadn’t when their parents had divorced all those years ago. It had been bad enough lusting after her from afar. He didn’t want to love her from afar as well.

Sergio decided then and there to make sure that didn’t happen.

So get your butt out of this bed, Sergio, he told himself firmly. And cut back on the sex from now on. She’s too damned good at it, that’s the trouble. All these fabulous climaxes are scrambling your brains, and messing with your emotions. The plan to get her out of your system was seriously flawed from the start. Logic should have told you that once you had Bella in your bed, you’d be in danger of becoming even more obsessed with her.

It took a supreme effort of will for Sergio to extricate himself from under her body, especially when she moaned and tried to cling to him. Thankfully, her limbs were weak, though her eyelids fluttered open when he pulled the sheet up over her.

‘Don’t leave me,’ she begged softly.