What? A bet? Somewhere in the recesses of his mind Theo was aware that little bombshell needed processing, but there was no way it was happening now. Not when all his blood was rushing from his brain to a different part of his anatomy entirely.
‘Doesn’t matter.’ Kate frowned and bit her lower lip. ‘This isn’t working,’ she said with a little growl of frustration that had him leaning away to tug on the back of his shirt and pull it over his head and off.
He let it drop on top of his jacket and a moment later her clothes and his trousers had joined the growing heap on the floor. He ran his gaze over her, taking in every incredible inch of her, her skin golden and glowing in the setting sun and, aha, there it was. The tattoo. What looked like an upside-down bird the size of a two-pound coin at her hipbone. He’d wondered. Now he knew. He did not need to know what it represented. That was not what this was about. Instead he focused on the expensive cream lace of her bra and knickers and the intriguing contrast it made with the shapeless navy suit she’d been wearing.
‘This is sexy,’ he said gruffly, touching her hip and tracing the lace there with his fingertips.
He heard and saw her breath hitch in her throat and the knowledge that she was turned on so easily had the blood thundering in his ears.
‘Underwear is about the only thing that fits me properly,’ she said raggedly. ‘I like to buy the good stuff.’
She had excellent taste, but—‘Lose it.’
‘Help me,’ she breathed. ‘I’m all fingers and thumbs.’
Gritting his teeth against the pounding desire, Theo put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around. He unclipped her bra and he slid it off her, then swept her hair to one side and pressed his mouth to the spot where her neck met her shoulder. She shivered. Dropped her head against his shoulder and leaned back, and the sigh she let out hit him right in the chest.
He closed his eyes, the scent of her filling his head, and almost of their own accord his hands moved slowly down her back and then round, beneath her arms, to cup her breasts. As he took the heavy weight in his palms, she gasped softly and arched her back, which pushed her breasts further into his hands and her bottom into the hard, aching length of his erection, and it took everything he had to stay where he was instead of where he wanted to be.
He swore, low and guttural, the word smothered by her skin, as desire surged to an almost agonising level. While he continued to tease her breast and nipple with one hand, he stroked the other down the smooth silky planes of her torso, her abdomen, until he slipped it beneath the lace of her knickers and reached the soft curls at the juncture of her thighs. At the intimacy of his touch she tensed for a second, and he stilled.
‘Want me to stop?’ he murmured, hoping to God she didn’t.
‘Don’t you dare,’ she breathed, backing up her words by opening her legs and gripping his forearm.
He parted her with his fingers and stroked, and she was so wet, so hot, it nearly unravelled him. But she hadn’t done this before, at least not with anyone else. He had to go slowly, be gentle and give her time to adjust, however much it killed him. He would not be that man who lost control and shoved her up against a door.
Abandoning her breast, he took her chin and turned her head slightly and kissed her, while lower he slipped first one finger into her slippery heat and then another. Slowly he rubbed and stroked, feeling her tremble, hearing her sigh and gasp, and automatically registered her responses. When she moaned into his mouth, then whimpered, however, the sound of it blitzed his brain and he couldn’t help moving his fingers that little bit faster, that little bit harder.
One of her hands shot up to the back of his head and her kisses grew frantic. Her other hand covered his, urging him on, moving him exactly where she wanted him. Her hips twisted, minutely at first, then more frenziedly and suddenly she was wrenching her mouth from his, crying out and clenching around his fingers and it was so sexy, so intense, that Theo nearly came right along with her.
CHAPTER FOUR
KATE WAS STILL tumbling down from her first orgasm given to her by someone else when her legs were whipped from beneath her and she was picked up as if she weighed nothing. Her head was still spinning. Her entire body was still quivering, and little darts of ebbing pleasure kept shooting through her, and they hadn’t even got round to the actual virginity-taking part of the evening yet.
But as Theo deposited her on the bed and then turned his attention to the drawer of the bedside table, the heat dissipated and the fireworks faded. With every second that ticked by she became aware that she was lying there naked and exposed and vulnerable, and the insecurities that had been nowhere to be seen moments ago kicked in.
It wasn’t that she was ashamed of the wild, desperate abandon with which she’d responded to him. She wasn’t. At least, not much. It was more that she’d been so caught up in the way he’d made her feel she hadn’t given her body a moment’s thought beyond the pleasure it was experiencing. And then there was the fact that from the moment she’d started shedding her clothing at no point had Theo been able to look at her properly. To judge.
But with her sprawled across his bed like this, he could now, and she couldn’t help wonder what he would think. There was just so much of her. She might have the height of a supermodel but she did not have the frame. She had padding. Wh
at if there was too much? Best not to let him see, she decided, scooting beneath the sheets and clutching them to her chest, then watching him take a foil packet out of the drawer and rip it open.
Of course, in terms of surface area there was way more of Theo, but in his case that wasn’t a negative because he was quite the sight for sore eyes. She’d been right in her assessment of how hard he’d be. He had muscles everywhere. They rippled across the breadth of his shoulders and flexed in his strong powerful thighs. And she didn’t have to wonder about where else he might have a smattering of hair any longer. She could see it sprinkled across the lean planes of his chest, then narrowing down to the erection onto which he was now rolling the condom with what looked like impressive efficiency although what did she know?
Moments ago, all that hardness and strength had been rubbing up against her back, the friction driving her wild. With any luck it would be soon rubbing up against her front, driving her even wilder. Assuming he didn’t change his mind about the whole virginity-taking thing, of course. Which was a possibility because really he was out of her league in every single way. He might well take one proper look at her, wonder what on earth he was doing and leave her there feeling like a fool. And quite honestly, she wouldn’t blame him.
‘Stop it,’ Theo muttered, his voice low and rough.
Jerked out of her madly oscillating thoughts, Kate lifted her gaze to his and saw that he was looking at her, his eyes dark and his face tense. ‘Stop what?’
‘Whatever it is you’re thinking.’
Flushing, she bit her lip and glanced across at the curtainless windows. ‘Is there some way of shutting out the light?’
‘No.’
Right. ‘Would you mind closing your eyes, then?’