A Prize Beyond Jewels

The words had barely left her lips when she heard the delicate sound of lace and silk ripping as Rafe caught the side of her panties and pulled, a rustle of movement telling her that he had disposed of the ripped panties.

‘You’re so beautiful here,’ Rafe murmured gruffly as he parted and then stroked the silky bareness of the flesh between her thighs, his face buried against her perfumed throat. ‘So, so beautiful,’ he groaned.

He began a gentle, teasing stroking, able to feel the way those swollen folds parted greedily with each measured caress. Nina’s clitoris pulsing, swelling, as he pressed harder, caressed faster, before thrusting one, and then two fingers inside the heat of her, his fingers curling as he found that sensitive spot inside her. His thumb continued that sweet caress as she began to buck into those thrusts. Rafe’s other arm tightened about Nina’s waist as he felt those inner contractions deepen, lengthen, as her legs began to tremble and threatened to buckle beneath her.

‘Yes, Nina,’ Rafe encouraged hoarsely as he felt her climax hit with the force of a tsunami. ‘I want it all, damn it. Give me every last measure of your pleasure,’ he pressured fiercely.

Nina cried out as that pleasure ripped through her body in ever-increasing waves, her nipples hard and aching pebbles, her core tightening, grasping greedily at those thrusting fingers as they filled her time and time again. She felt completely boneless, incapable of standing, by the time the last wave of her climax had rippled through her. She would have collapsed down onto the floor if Rafe hadn’t continued to hold her up with his arm about her waist.

Nina groaned, another wave of pleasure rippling through her as Rafe slowly eased his fingers out from the heat of her.

‘Mmm, delicious,’ he murmured appreciatively seconds later.

‘What?’

‘You taste like honey, Nina.’

‘God...!’ She rested the dampness of her forehead against the shoulder of his jacket, her cheeks burning at the thought of the intimacy of having Rafe licking his fingers, of his tasting her.

‘The name’s Rafe,’ he came back with teasing softness as both his arms moved about her now.

‘Egotist!’ She gave his other shoulder a half-hearted punch. She simply didn’t have the strength left to do any more than that. Her body was one big pleasurable ache. ‘No doubt you’re feeling almighty and powerful now.’

He chuckled huskily. ‘No doubt.’

‘You could try a little harder for modesty, Rafe,’ she admonished ruefully.

‘Not while I’m holding my very satisfied woman in my arms, I couldn’t,’ he drawled lightly.

His satisfied woman?

What did that even mean? Rafe had made it obvious that relationships weren’t for him, that fun was his only aim, and that when the fun was over it was time to say goodbye.

Nina’s life was too complicated to ever be thought of as fun.

She knew she should be feeling indignant at this further display of Rafe’s arrogance, knew that she should pull out of his arms and tell him that this changed nothing between them. That she was determined to keep to her decision not to become any more involved with him. That she would never be any man’s woman.

Except she couldn’t do it. She didn’t have the strength right now to stand up unaided, let alone walk away from Rafe for a second time in as many days.

Later, she told herself. She would make him understand later.

‘Come to my apartment tonight,’ Rafe instructed gruffly—seeming to have picked up on some of her thoughts, at least. ‘This should all be over by eleven o’clock. Spend the night with me, Nina, please,’ he urged.

‘What about Michael?’ she questioned huskily.

‘Michael can get his own woman.’

‘I meant—’

‘I know what you meant, darling Nina,’ Rafe drawled indulgently. ‘And the apartment is big enough that he doesn’t even have to know you’re there.’

Could she do that? Was it possible? Could she take, steal, another night in Rafe’s arms, in his bed?

How could she refuse when he had given her such pleasure just now and taken nothing for himself? Her past experiences might not have been good ones, but she had never been a selfish lover.

‘Because you want to, Nina, not because you feel obligated to give something back to me because of what happened just now.’ This time Rafe seemed to pick up on all of her thoughts.

At the same time as he had managed to strip away all of the arguments Nina had been giving in order to justify to herself going to his apartment later tonight.

She moistened her lips before speaking. ‘I think the more immediate problem is how are we going to walk out of this closet and go back into the gallery, having left together so abruptly a few minutes ago, without everyone knowing exactly what we’ve been doing?’