'Do you like that, Christy?' His voice had a slurred, almost drunken quality to it now as his tongue caressed her nipple a little more roughly.
'And this, do you like this?' The words were almost lost as he pressed his open mouth against her aching flesh and then sucked fiercely on it. Spasms of pleasure arced through her, bringing soft cries of delight to her lips as she pushed herself eagerly against the hot demand of his mouth, abandoning herself to the sensuality of her own nature.
Over and over again Dominic caressed the aching peaks of her breasts until she was shivering with a surfeit of pleasure.
'I should take you upstairs to bed,' he told her hoarsely as he lifted her down to lie beside him in front of the fire, 'but I can't wait that long for you.'
She was the one in shadow now, while the firelight revealed the taut impatience of his body to her. She shivered, her eyes and hands drawn to the male perfection of his body, wanting to touch him, but almost afraid to do so.
'God, yes, Christy… yes,' he groaned against her mouth, seeing the desire in her eyes and taking her hand to place it against his body.
Beneath her fingers she could feel the fierce throb of male desire, and she gave herself up to letting him show her how he liked her to touch him.
'I can't stand much more of this. I want you too badly.' His voice sounded hoarse and thick as though it had difficulty in escaping from his taut throat.
Her body welcomed the heavy weight of his as he moved her so that he could lie between her thighs. Her pulses hammered against her skin. She wanted him so much. She moved her hips, writhing impatiently against him, and heard him catch his breath. His hands moved over her body touching her… even in his extremity of need making sure that she really was ready for him, Christy recognised intuitively.
No one had ever touched her so intimately, but her body felt no shyness or self-conscious hesitancy, impatient for more than the delicate caress of his fingers against her eager flesh.
'Dominic' She moaned his name, without being aware that she had done so, and felt him surge against her.
'Yes,' he said fiercely against her mouth. 'Yes.'
And he moved and she felt the awesome matching of their bodies; hers untutored but eager to accommodate and welcome the powerful thrust of his, his knowledgeable but held in check by a mind that cared enough about her sex to want to give as well as take pleasure.
All these things Christy di
mly recognised somewhere beneath the flood of desire swelling inside her, just as she also recognised and registered the instinctive tightening of muscles unused to such intimate pressure.
Immediately her body registered Dominic's faint hesitation, but reality had long ago been left behind and her hips lifted and moved, enticing him, her legs wrapping round him, holding him within her, so that he was forced to respond and carry her with him though the sharply searing pain that faded as quickly as it had started and upwards to a place far beyond any mortal boundaries where they could both share the explosive delight that ran like quicksilver through their bodies, contorting them in delirious spasms of pleasure that went on and on into infinity before finally leaving them both exhausted and spent.
From a great distance away Christy heard Dominic call her name. She could feel tears of happiness gathering in her eyes as she opened them to look at him.
'For God's sake, it's too late for tears now,' she heard him saying roughly, but already the world was slipping away from her and she was sliding into a deep, warm, black abyss.
She came round almost immediately to find that Dominic had propped her up against some cushions he had taken from the settee and covered her with his shirt.
She could smell the scent of him on it and she wanted to curl into it and wrap it round her, but he was standing in front of her, zipping up his trousers, frowning down at her.
'Christy, for goodness' sake, why didn't you tell me you were a virgin?' She heard the censure in his voice and recoiled from it, watching his mouth tighten.
'Oh, God… don't be even more stupid than you already have. Why, if you wanted a man that badly…'
It was as though he had driven a sword straight through her heart.
'You were the one who made the first move,' she reminded him shakily. She felt at a disadvantage lying here at his feet covered in nothing more than a cotton shirt. 'Please pass me my clothes.'
He obeyed her, almost throwing them at her. The front of her dress was ripped almost to the waist. How on earth was she going to explain that to the hirers?
'I'm sorry about your gown.'
He sounded more indifferent than sorry, and self-defence made her snap at him,
'You were wrong you know—David didn't buy it for me. I hired it.'
'Then, of course, I'll pay for the damage.'
She couldn't believe that not ten minutes ago they had been sharing the ultimate human experience. It was like stepping into a surrealistic nightmare.