Who knew a kiss could be so careful? It began as little more than a soft slide of his lips over hers. His fingers weaved into her hair at the nape of her neck as he held her loose but close. But then his other hand lifted to her waist, pulling her against his body, and the pressure of his mouth on hers increased, the intimacy intensified as he teased her with his tongue. With slow, devastating skill he inexorably pulled a deep response. Not just acquiescence and acceptance but action in return. He unsealed a vast yearning within her and something in her soul leapt—reaching for connection, commanding her to slide her hands up his firm chest to his broad shoulders...to hold him to her every bit as much as he was holding her.
But he stirred more than the heated blood and the sudden slick restlessness of her hips.
A burst of emotion burned careful right the way down to ruthless. Raw hunger was unleashed within—forced into revealing itself by the increasingly demanding counterpart within him. This wasn’t just want, this was craving. She arched, opening for him—seeking more with her own touch, her own tongue and hands and press of her body. And he more than let her. His feet spread as he braced to take more of her in his hold and kissed her thoroughly—his str
okes designed to soothe and torment at the same time. She knew it was crazy—that it didn’t make sense—but there was something more than this delicious, uncontrollable lust between them. And it was this something more that made this undeniable.
She shook, violently trembling from head to foot, as sensation rampaged through her like a river released from a decades-locked dam.
At her shudder he ripped his mouth from hers. ‘What do you think?’ His breathing was so roughened his speech sounded slightly slurred.
Thought had very little to do with it. She gazed up, relieved he’d not released his hold on her because she felt dizzy. She drank in the light flush on his skin and the glittering depths of his eyes—basking in the possessive focus he bestowed on her. Still pressed tightly against him, she felt not only his physical desire, but his restraint. She knew he’d walk away from her if she wished.
But that other ache welded her to him, that hidden, true, tender need. His reasons were no doubt different from hers, but she felt his loneliness ran as deep. For the first time she was compelled to both give and take of something unequivocally intimate.
Her answer was so simple, so easy. She couldn’t let this rare moment go. She couldn’t let him go.
‘I think I’m coming with you.’
CHAPTER TWO
HIS SMILE WAS a blazing mix of triumph and sensual determination and barely hidden relief. She realised he was as delighted and as dazed as she was and somehow that multiplied the myriad want and need and hot mess of yes within her.
‘I can’t leave without saying goodbye to Zoe,’ she muttered.
‘Of course.’ He escorted her through the crowd, stepping back when they came up to her friend.
‘Sorry, Zoe.’ Leah caught her attention. ‘I’m going to call it a night—’
‘Since when do you know Theo Savas?’ Zoe interrupted her, managing to screech and whisper at the same time. ‘Since when does Theo Savas kiss anyone in public like that?’
‘You saw...just then?’ Leah’s body smoked with embarrassment.
‘OMG, yes, go.’ Zoe laughed and pulled her into a quick, tight hug. ‘You must, just, go. Do everything I would and more,’ her friend whispered in her ear. ‘For heaven’s sake, have some fun for once!’
Leah’s pulse hammered as Theo firmly grasped her hand and led her through the crowded function room and into the sudden silence of the hotel corridor. She was floating, not walking, right? In the elevator he glanced down at her and smiled but she saw the question in his eyes and tension in his body.
She felt the question too—since when did she wander off with a complete stranger? Before tonight she’d never considered it, would never have thought she would... Yet he didn’t feel like a stranger, more of a kindred spirit—as complicated and careful, those layers of responsibility and obligation hiding other needs and wants. She’d do all she could for someone she cared about; that he did too struck a chord—as if they were vibrating in harmony even though there could be nothing more than this one night between them. And then there was that sheer physical response that she just couldn’t release herself from.
She’d never done anything adventurous, nothing reckless or fun either. She’d spent so long trying to please her parents and fit in with their impossible standards and it was past time to have one night just for her. She wanted to share it only with him.
He unlocked the door of his hotel suite and she stepped inside. The drapes didn’t cover the tinted windows and the London skyline was like fairy lights. She turned and took in the rich interior—pure luxurious space and decadence. But then Theo stood in the centre of it and the sumptuous background faded away. He was like a sun god—casting everything else in shadow.
She couldn’t be the first woman to fall completely beneath his spell but she was quite calm about that. She felt too pleased to have seen him again and realise that he was—amazingly—attracted to her too.
‘Do you do this all the time?’ she asked, too fascinated to think before asking.
‘Not as often as you’re thinking.’
She wasn’t sure she was thinking any more—she was still floating on that gravitational pull right towards him. ‘I don’t do this, ever.’
‘Never ever?’
She shrugged as embarrassment heated her skin. She wasn’t going to tell him he was with a woman no other man had ever chased. A woman crippled by an inferiority complex bigger than Jupiter. What did it matter what she’d done or not done before? Right now there was this and it was too powerful to ignore. She wanted more of his touch—of that connection and elation when he’d kissed her. More than seduction, more than madness, it was an ache unlike anything she’d known burning low in her belly. Its searing intensity rapidly escalating until it seemed to singe her inside and out, leaving her breathless because of this urgent, unstoppable need to touch.
‘I should offer you a drink or something.’ He ran his hand through his hair and huffed out a breath as if he too were struggling to recover.
It seemed imperative to feel again that need that mirrored her own. ‘I’m happy with just the “or something”,’ she mumbled shyly.
He looked startled for a second, then smiled. He moved towards her—graceful, powerful, careful. ‘I wanted this from the moment I saw you.’
She jerked her head, negating the compliment because she was unable to believe him. ‘You don’t have to tell me...nice things.’
Something flickered in his expression. ‘You’re not used to people telling you the truth? You’re beautiful, Leah. Robbed me of my self-control in seconds.’
She closed her eyes. She didn’t want to listen—didn’t want words to destroy her belief in this moment. But then she sensed he was close. She could feel his heat and his tension.
‘If I don’t have to tell you,’ he whispered softly right in her ear, ‘then I’ll show you.’
A paralysing desire took hold at the sound of his determined promise. She half expected a furious onslaught of passion—she would have welcomed that too. But it wasn’t.
It was slow, delicious torture. Another slow kiss—easing her back into his arms. Every touch not only a tease, but a celebration of her. Making her breathless, making her move closer, making her want something she couldn’t articulate. As she trembled, he picked her up and carried her through to the bedroom and set her down on the big bed.
She shrugged out of the cardigan and then he took over, unbuttoning then peeling the blouse from her body. He paused to gaze at the white bra beneath, then undid it, pulling away the little lace cups that covered her small breasts, and he groaned. Not judging her but enjoying her. Not disappointed, but delighted. There was nothing to be had here but pleasure. She felt a reckless safety in his arms. No one had kissed her like this. His touch silenced anxious thought and she let herself be carried away by the basic instinct of her body—caving in to the demand to shift closer, to move with him and torment him back. He unzipped her trousers and slid them down, lifting her feet to slip her shoes from them at the same time.
‘Scarlet silk.’ His hot laugh tickled against her skin as he roved back up her body, lingering over her hips. ‘That I didn’t expect.’
‘What did you expect? White cotton granny pants and a chastity belt or something?’
He laughed again and bent to kiss her upper thigh, nibbling on the edge of the silk as he went.
Leah moaned. Truth was, this was the first pair of sexy undies she’d bought herself. Even then she couldn’t get it right and wear a matching bra. But she hadn’t wanted her bra to be visible beneath her blouse, so she’d gone with white.
‘It confirms a theory I’ve been developing about you,’ he murmured.
‘And what’s that?’ She could hardly string the words together.
‘That you’re more sensual than you appear...you’ve been hiding your true scarlet self.’
‘You’re
reading too much into it—they were the first I grabbed from the drawer.’
‘Because you have a drawer full of scarlet silk?’
She couldn’t reply. Where was he kissing her...slowly inching along the waistband of those scarlet panties? Secrets and desire swamped her and she was shy about the fact that he’d discovered something she’d barely recognised within herself. She’d bought the one pair because it had been all she could afford. It had taken so long to choose which one; she’d wanted them all. Her secret enjoyment of them wasn’t so secret now. She shivered.
‘You “don’t do this, ever”, Leah?’ He paused and looked back up to her eyes.
She didn’t want to lie to him. She didn’t want to hold anything back, but it was hard to push the answer past the lump in her throat. ‘No.’
As he nodded it occurred to her that he already knew the answer. He’d been able to tell?
A slither of mortification chilled her skin. ‘Does that bother you?’
‘No.’ He lifted himself up to lie beside her and searched her features. ‘But are you sure you want me to be your first one-night stand?’
The reminder that that was all he was offering didn’t bother her. But his blunt question revealed he hadn’t realised the entire truth about her. Where he meant one night, she meant ever at all.
She nodded, her voice stolen by shyness and the fear that if she told the truth he’d stop. The last thing she wanted was for him to stop.
He kissed her mouth. His hand teased one breast, then the other, then rubbed firmly down her stomach, slipping beneath the waistband of those scarlet panties. At her shocked gasp, his kisses deepened. But he didn’t stop his hot exploration—his fingers delving lower, stroking where she was most sensitive, discovering for himself her most secret place.
With every lash of his tongue, of his fingertips, the last of those knots holding her in reserve loosened until she was totally undone. Reduced to nothing but heat and light, pliable in his hands, she didn’t just let him touch all he liked, she hungered for it—writhing like an animal. She arched, seeking more caresses, parting her lips to invite another deep kiss—her tongue tangling with his, her hand clawing his shoulder in an aching invitation to come closer.