Redemption of a Ruthless Billionaire

‘Is that a question?’ His breath brushed her ear tip.

‘Just looking for a time line.’ Her skin felt hot; her words sounded so bold and sure.

‘You think I brought you here to take another look at your beautiful lingerie?’

Sybella’s heart skipped a beat. ‘I didn’t think men noticed those sorts of things.’

‘I notice everything about you.’

Sybella swore she could feel his hand at her lower back through the boning of her gown. Impossible, and yet…

‘I want you now,’ he said against her ear. ‘Is that a problem?’

Sybella moved her smooth cheek against his rough jaw. ‘No, not at all.’

‘But possibly not at a party,’ he observed.

Sybella, a little weak with longing, couldn’t at this moment see exactly why.

‘Surely there’s a guest room somewhere?’ Then she sighed, because she would never do something like that. ‘Oh, Nik, it’s a long drive home.’

‘It’s been a long week,’ he said, his mouth warm against her ear. ‘I think we can withstand another half-hour in a car.’

She looked into his eyes and saw everything a woman could possibly want to make her feel like the only female in his universe.

His arm came away from her waist but he held onto her other hand and wordlessly he began to lead her across the dance floor towards the exit.

People parted ways to allow them passage. There was nothing subtle about what they were doing, leaving early, and Sybella was thrilled.

* * *

An hour later Nik didn’t want to move. Sybella was draped across him. She stroked his chest, nuzzled him.

‘I missed this,’ she said.

‘Six years,’ he murmured against her sweet-smelling hair. ‘It’s a long time.’

‘No, you.’ She raised her pleasure-dazed eyes to his. ‘I missed this with you.’

Nik experienced a surge of something he couldn’t control. It was a wave of feeling that had him holding onto her. She didn’t seem inclined to let him go either.

Every time he touched her it was like a conflagration of the senses. Every time it felt like the best thing that had ever happened to him.

Why were they denying themselves?

Then he remembered a small person who would arrive home in the morning.

He sat up, banging the back of his head on the frame of the backseat of the SUV.

Sybella winced for him and tried to sit up, but she was hampered by the space. He chuckled and she dissolved into helpless giggles. They had got as far as the Linton Way Forest when Nik had pulled the car off the road and into this clearing. It was private, but they could hear any cars going past on the road.

Nik was certain from the outside they would be invisible; the steamed up windows helped with that. Sybella, still in her dress but wondrously dishevelled, her hair falling down and the hem of her dress so high it hinted at the shadowy mystery between her thighs, gazed up at him. He, with his shirt hanging open and his trousers unbuttoned, was trying to make sense of what this woman did to him. They hadn’t even made it into Edbury.

He drove them to the cottage and carried her inside. Put her in the shower and then crowded her against the splash back until the water ran cold. Then he wrapped his bigger, warmer body around hers in the new bed.

‘I’ve got a boat moored at a place I own off the coast of South Africa,’ he said. ‘Come there with me for a few days, just you and me.’

Sybella looked at him with those clear hazel eyes. He waited for her to say, No, I won’t leave my daughter but she surprised him with a simple, ‘I’d like that.’

No hesitation, no questions. Instead she asked, ‘Can we do it soon?’

‘I’ll make the arrangements.’

She rubbed her cheek against his arm. ‘I’ve never travelled outside the United Kingdom. Does that make me parochial?’

‘No, dushka, just busy.’ His hand stroked her damp hair and she was whisked back to that evening last week when he’d dried her hair with a towel and she’d first begun to let down her guard with him. He’d also just acknowledged how hard she worked.

There was nothing sexier.

Deep inside her a feeling Sybella had never had before began to stir.