‘Are you all right? Do you want to use the safe word?’ His voice was gently teasing but the glitter in his eyes and the tension in his jaw told her he was nowhere near as relaxed as he pretended to be.
In the grip of such intolerable excitement she was incapable of responding, Lily simply shook her head and then moaned as he withdrew slightly and surged into her again, every movement of his body escalating the wickedly agonising pleasure.
She slid her hands over the silken width of his shoulders, down his back, her fingers clamping over the thrusting power of his body as he rocked against her. His hand was splayed on her bottom, his gaze locked on hers as he drove into her with ruthlessly controlled strength and a raw, primitive rhythm. She wrapped her legs around him as he brought pleasure raining down on both of them. She cried out his name and he took her mouth, kissing her deeply, intimately, as the first ripple of orgasm took hold of her body. They didn’t stop kissing, mouths locked, eyes locked as her body contracted around his and dragged him over the edge of control. She’d never experienced anything like it, the whole experience a shattering revelation about her capacity for sensuality.
It was several minutes before she was capable of speaking and longer than that before she could persuade her body to move.
As she tried to roll away from him, his arms locked around her. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’
‘I’m sticking to the rules. I thought this was a one-night thing.’
‘It is.’ He hauled her back against him. ‘And the night isn’t over yet.’
CHAPTER FIVE
NIK SPENT TEN MINUTES under a cold shower, trying to wake himself up after a night that had consisted of the worst sleep of his life and the best sex. He couldn’t remember the last time he hadn’t wanted to leave the bed in the morning.
A ton of work waited for him in the office, but for the first time ever he was contemplating working from home so that he could spend a few more hours with Lily. After her initial shyness she’d proved to be adventurous and insatiable, qualities that had kept both of them awake until the rising sun had sent the first flickers of light across the darkened bedroom.
Eventually she’d fallen into an exhausted sleep, her body tangled around his as dawn had bathed the bedroom in a golden glow.
It had proved impossible to extract himself without waking her so Nik, whose least favourite bedroom a
ctivity was hugging, had remained there, his senses bathed in the soft floral scent of her skin and hair, trapped by those long limbs wrapped trustingly around him.
And he had no one to blame but himself.
She’d offered to leave and he’d stopped her.
He frowned, surprised by his own actions. He had no need for displays of affection or any of the other meaningless rituals that seemed to inhabit other people’s relationships. To him, sex was a physical need, no different from hunger and thirst. Once satisfied he moved on. He had no desire for anything deeper. He didn’t believe anything deeper existed.
When he was younger, women had tried to persuade him differently. There had been a substantial number who had believed they had what it took to penetrate whatever steely coating made his heart so inaccessible. When they’d had no more success than their predecessors they’d withdrawn, bruised and broken, but not before they’d delivered their own personal diagnosis on his sorry condition.
He’d heard it all. That he didn’t have a heart, that he was selfish, single minded, driven, too focused on his work. He accepted those accusations without argument, but knew that none explained his perpetually single status. Quite simply, he didn’t believe in love. He’d learned at an early age that love could be withdrawn as easily as it was given, that promises could be made and broken in the same breath, that a wedding ring was no more than a piece of jewellery, and wedding vows no more binding than one plant twisted loosely around another.
He had no need for the friendship and affection that punctuated other people’s lives.
He’d taught himself to live without it, so to find himself wrapped in the tight embrace of a woman who smiled even when she was asleep was as alien to him as it was unsettling.
For a while, he’d slept, too, and then woken to find her locked against him. Telling himself that she was the one holding him and not the other way round, he’d managed to extract himself without waking her and escaped to the bathroom where he contemplated his options.
He needed to find a tactful way of ejecting her.
He showered, shaved and returned to the bedroom. Expecting to find her still asleep, he was thrown to find her dressed. She’d stolen one of his white shirts and it fell to mid-thigh, the sleeves flapping over her small hands as she talked on the phone.
‘Of course he’ll be there.’ Her voice was as soothing as warm honey. ‘I’m sure it’s a simple misunderstanding...well, no I agree with you, but he’s very busy...’
She lay on her stomach on the bed, her hair hanging in a blonde curtain over one shoulder, the sheets tangled around her bare thighs.
Nik took one look at her and decided that there was no reason to rush her out of the villa.
They’d have breakfast on the terrace. Maybe enjoy a swim.
Then he’d find a position they hadn’t yet tried before sending her home in his car.
Absorbed in her conversation, she hadn’t noticed him and he strolled round in front of her and slowly released the towel from his waist.
He saw her eyes go wide. Then she gave him a smile that hovered somewhere between cheeky and innocent and he found himself resenting the person on the end of the phone who was taking up so much of her time.