His Ultimate Prize

Raven stopped thinking.

And gave herself over to sensation. Rafael’s pelvic bone might have been broken and pieced back together but there was nothing wrong with his arms. He lifted her above him and held her in place while he feasted on her breasts. When he was done, he lifted even higher. ‘Take off your panties for me.’

With shaky fingers she drew them off, experienced a momentary stab of self-consciousness, which was promptly washed away when he positioned her legs on either side of him and looked up at her.

‘You might want to hold onto something,’ he murmured huskily, taking a sharp bite of the tender skin of her inner thigh.

The statement wasn’t a casual boast. At the first brush of his tongue on her sex, her whole body arched and shook. She would’ve catapulted off him had he not been holding her hips in an iron grip.

Pain shot through fingers which had grasped the wooden headboard at his warning. He licked, sucked and tortured her with a skill that left her reeling and hanging on for dear life.

When she tumbled headlong into another firestorm, he caught her in his arms and caressed her body until she could breathe again. Then he left her for a moment.

The sound of foil ripping drew her hazy gaze to him. The sight of his erection in his fist made her sex swell all over again.

He caught her stare and sent her a lethal smile. ‘Next time, you get to do it.’

Raven didn’t know what to do with that. Nor did she know how to find the correct words to tell him she’d never done it before. In the end, they just spilled out.

‘Rafael, I’m a virgin.’

He stilled, shock darkening his eyes. A look flitted through his eyes a second before he shut them. The hand he raked through his hair was decidedly shaky.

He sucked in a long harsh breath, then opened his eyes. The raw hunger hadn’t abated but the fisted, white-knuckled hand on his thigh showed he was making an inhuman effort to contain it. ‘Do you want to stop?’ he rasped, jaw clenched as he fought for control.

The thought of stopping made her insides scream in rejection. ‘No. I don’t. But I wanted you to know before...before it happened.’

He exhaled slowly. His hand unclenched, then clenched again as his gaze slid hungrily over her. ‘I can guess your reasons for remaining celibate. What happened to you would make anyone swear off sex. I know the chemistry between us is insane, but you need to be sure you want to do this now, with me.’

‘Would you rather I do it with someone else?’ she quipped lightly, although the very thought of anyone but Rafael touching her made her shudder in rejection.

He lunged for her, firm hands grasping her shoulders in a rigid hold before she could take another breath.

‘Not unless that someone else wishes to get his throat ripped out,’ he bit out. He pinned her to the bed and devoured her with an anger-tinged, lethally aroused intensity that made fire roar through her body.

By the time he parted her legs and looked deep into her eyes, she was almost lost.

‘I’d planned for you to be on top our first time. But I think this will be easier on you.’

His bent arms caged her as he probed her entrance, his gaze searching hers with every inch he slid inside her. The momentary tightening that made her breath catch stilled his forward momentum.

‘Raven?’ he croaked, tension screaming through his body as he framed her face in gentle hands.

‘I’m okay.’

‘That makes one of us.’

Her fingers tried to smooth back his hair but the silky strands refused to stay in place. ‘I...can I do anything?’

His laugh was tinged with pain. ‘Sí, you could stop being so damned sexy.’ He pushed another fraction and her breath hitched again. ‘Dios, I’m sorry,’ he murmured, bending to place a reverent kiss on her lips.

Raven didn’t know what was in store for her but she knew her body was screaming with the need to find out. With a deep breath—because, hell, no pain no gain—she pushed her hip upward. His cursed groan met her hiss of pain, which quickly disappeared to be replaced by a feeling so phenomenal words failed her.

‘Raven!’ Rafael’s response was half praise, half reproach.

Tentatively, she moved again.

He growled. ‘Damn it, woman. Stay still.’

‘Why?’

‘Because this will be over sooner than you’d like if you don’t.’

Heart hammering, she inhaled and gasped when the tips of her breasts brushed his sweat-filmed chest. ‘But at least we know the equipment is working, right?’

He pushed the last few inches until he was firmly seated inside her. Sensation as she’d never known flooded her. At her cry of delight, he pulled out slowly and repeated the thrust. Her head slammed back against the pillow, her fingers clenching hard in his hair as she held on for mercy.