‘Probably not. And what Anderson told you isn’t true either.’ When her eyes fell to the side Cruz tipped her chin up. ‘Aspen, you’re a beautiful, sensual woman and I want to prove that to you if you’ll let me.’
She frowned. ‘I don’t see how.’
He cupped her face in his hands, halting her words. ‘I want you, Aspen. I want to kiss you and touch you and make love to you until all you can think about is how good you feel. The question is, do you want that to happen?’
The question might also be what the hell was he talking about? It was one thing to make a woman feel good in bed. It was quite another to want to slay her demons for her.
Ignoring the fact that he had never donned the white knight suit before, and what that meant, Cruz waited for her answer.
And waited.
Finally, still clutching her dress to her chest, her eyes wide and luminous in the over-bright room, she nodded. ‘I think so.’
‘Then relax and let me take care of you. And, Aspen...?’ He waited for her to look at him from beneath the fringe of her dark lashes. ‘If you want me to stop at any time, then we’ll stop. Understand?’
She paused and her green eyes opened a little wider. ‘You’d really do that, wouldn’t you?’
For a brief moment Cruz savoured all the ways he would break every bone in Chad Anderson’s body, starting with his pompous head and working his way down.
‘In a heartbeat, mi chiquita. No questions asked.’
CHAPTER NINE
ASPEN BREATHED IN Cruz’s warm, musky scent as he carried her to his bedroom and told herself to relax. But it was impossible. She was too embarrassed. Her old panic had returned full force when she’d felt Cruz’s warm hand slide between her thighs and now she clung to his neck like a spider monkey as he laid her on the bed.
‘Aspen?’
The bedcover was cool at her back and his naked chest was hot at her front as he tried to prise her hands from around his neck. In her earlier fantasies about sex it was romantic and sensual. Dreamy and wonderful. Hot and desperate. This felt awkward and tense.
She didn’t look at him as he turned onto his side, visualising how gauche she must appear, with her hair spread out around her and her body partially exposed, with the bodice of her dress undone and metres of silk twisted up around her waist. Keeping her eyes scrunched tight, she adjusted the skirt down her legs.
‘Can you turn out the light?’ She could feel it burning holes in her retinas even though her eyes were clamped shut.
‘I will if it makes you more comfortable, but I won’t be able to see you if I do that.’
‘That would be the general idea.’
‘Open your eyes, gatita.’
‘Is it a prerequisite?’
His low chuckle had her squinting up at him. He looked lazy and indolent with his head propped in his hands, his gaze extremely male and hot as it met hers. Well, clearly only one of them was feeling awkward and tense.
‘You’re very comfortable with this, aren’t you?’
‘You will be too, very soon,’ he promised. ‘More than comfortable.’
He brought his hand up to her face and started drawing lazy patterns with his finger over her cheeks and nose and down the side of her neck to her collarbone. It wasn’t easy for her to give him control, but Aspen lay as still as a stone, slowly recognising that her skin was tingling with a pleasant sensation and that goosebumps had risen up along her upper arms.
‘How much pleasure have you actually had during sex, mi chiquita?’
She swallowed and would have turned from him then, but his magical finger edged along the loose side of her dress and feathered across her nipple. She sucked in a shallow breath, letting it out on a rush. ‘Not much,’ she answered honestly. None seemed too big an admission to make.
‘Mmm...’ Cruz ducked his head to her shoulder and trailed a line of kisses to the sensitive curve of her neck. ‘Then we’ll have to change all that. I am now taking it as my personal mission to teach you about pleasure.’
He shifted closer so that she could feel the heat of his body burn into the side of hers.
‘Nothing but pleasure.’
He looked at her as if he wanted to devour her. As if he couldn’t think of anything else but her. The thought frightened her, because her desire for him had grown exponentially over the course of a couple of days and she didn’t know how that had happened.