‘Hell, no, don’t.’ Feverish, she raked her hands down his back, urging him closer.
‘Contraception,’ he cursed. ‘I don’t want to screw up this situation even more.’
‘I’m covered.’ She nipped his mouth angrily. ‘I’m never having an unplanned pregnancy. Get on with it.’
Still he paused. ‘I’ve never want—’
‘Me, either.’
Passion spiralled higher. Never had she wanted a man to be inside her the way she wanted him. She worked fast, desperate to get her hands on his bare skin. Feral, crazed. Fabric tore and buttons burst.
Her fingers curled into his hard muscles, not just testing their strength, but provoking a forceful response with her sharp little nails. She wanted him—his body, his strength, his absolute attention.
Now.
Alex had never had such animal sex, ever. Usually he was courteous, making sure his partner was well satisfied before allowing his own release. It was frivolous, frisky, carefree. This was anything but. This felt like a battle to the death. He seized her round the waist as he had that day, pleasure rippling through his muscles as they exerted, lifting her up and pinning her back against the wall. Now he could press against her. Now he could have her.
She was still fighting like a wildcat—wanting him with an aggression that matched his. Tearing his shirt free of his trousers, she pulled at the buttons. Busy fighting for what she wanted while he was fighting to get what he wanted—her naked.
It was a mess. She was wearing tights and neither of them could get them off her. In the end he got them as far down as her calves and then stepped over the stretchy Lycra so she could loop her legs around his waist. Her skirt was hitched up, her torn blouse hanging half open. He spared a half-second to suck a nipple into his mouth, bra and all. Her gasp felled him. He simply shredded her knickers. Oh, she was wet, and smelled so good and moved even better against the fingers he used to test her—clamping on them, promising insane pleasure.
Ready. So ready.
He moved. Suddenly, finally, thrust into her.
His heart seized.
The world fell away as he looked into her eyes, unable to move, unable to think, unable to believe how good he felt. How good she felt.
She too was frozen, her lips parted. In jagged bursts she released the breath she’d been holding. The moans that came with it were the sound of pure bliss.
It surged into him. Like a burst dam, emotion flooded him. Her fingers curled into his hair at the same moment. Wide eyed, shaking, she put her lips to his. Kissing him—the kind of soul-searing kiss that would have had him on his knees if he weren’t suddenly imbued with the ability to handle superhuman sensations. Sensations so raw he thought he’d die silently screaming with the pleasure.
At last their movements matched. They worked together, locking into the dance so deeply now. She met his hard thrusts with forceful ones of her own. Taking him further, her legs curled tighter around him. Her mouth was open, lips full and swollen as she panted, and then moaned with delight. Her sounds matched the rhythm of their bucking hips. He too was grunting in time with each pound, half crazed with the way she made his body sing. Trying harder and harder to get closer—to her, and to the blinding peak that was just out of reach.
He saw her bite down on her lips, her face screw tighter in agony as ecstasy approached. She was flushed with pleasure and that curling lock of hair flopped on the side of her face.
She was beautiful. Born for this. As was he. Her neck arched as she threw her head back and he couldn’t resist the vulnerability of the soft skin.
Her scream sliced through his skin and bone, piercing right into his marrow. And instinct took over, driving his body. Surging harder, faster, seeing her ride the whole of the crest before he lost it entirely. A guttural shout ripped from him—hurting his throat, echoing relentlessly in the small room.
He kept his eyes closed. He felt the trickles down his face, his back. How the hell had they got so sweaty in what had surely been only a few minutes? He didn’t think he’d ever catch his breath. With one hand he gripped the edge of the shelf behind her, trying to keep control, keep his mind conscious as the blackness threatened to trap him completely. The overwhelming feeling, that post-orgasmic relief, had him trembling.
Trembling?
Intense didn’t cover it. His lungs burned as he strove to get more air in. At last he looked down at her. She looked shocked and she couldn’t wipe her expression in time to hide it from him. But as he watched she shut it down; he saw the defensiveness veil her from him. All it did was make his body stir—made him want to hold her close and do all kinds of things with his hands and mouth. Because then she couldn’t hide from him—not when it was like this between them. And what she hadn’t been able to hide just then had satisfied him even more.
Out of control. She’d been as out of control as him.
Thank goodness for that.
Dani summoned her last crumb of energy and pushed him away. She stumbled in the attempt to untangle her legs from his and he hopped free, pulling up his boxers and trousers, wiping the sweat from his brow with a broad palm.
Dani’s limbs shook. She needed to get out of here. Not because she was stuck in a small space, hell, she hadn’t known where she was for the last few minutes—couldn’t have cared less. But she was in a far more scary zone now. All that mattered was getting away from him—quickly, so she could pull herself together again. Else she was going to launch herself back into his arms and beg for more—beg for everything.
Sex was sex? Fun? Meaningless?
That hadn’t been either.
That had been the most intense experience of her life. So wild. So wonderful. So scarily insane.
He grabbed her by the wrist as she made it to the doorway. ‘We should talk, Dani.’
Um. Why? She didn’t want a post-mortem on that moment. She wanted to wrap it up in tissue and put it pride of place in her memory chest.
‘Not necessary.’ She aimed for casual, struggled to walk in a dignified way given the remnants of her knickers and tights were down round her ankles and her shoes were still on. ‘I have a job to get to,’ she said shakily. ‘So do you.’ She yanked off one shoe and freed her foot from the tights.
‘Work can wait.’
‘I’m not walking in an hour late because I slept with the boss.’ Actually she really ought to forget it. Go to a hypnoti
st and have the memory erased or something.
‘I’m not your boss.’
‘Semantics.’ She raced to her room. ‘I’ll be ten minutes.’
She took twenty and that was still nowhere near long enough for her to recover. She was going to need a few centuries for that. Wow oh wow oh wow.
Who ever knew it could be like that? No wonder the man was so popular—and so confident.
He was ready and waiting downstairs, hair still drying from its obvious dunking in the shower. She looked away, heat flooding her. She didn’t want to think about him naked in the shower.
‘Dani—’
‘Let’s not, Alex,’ she almost pleaded as she clipped down the stairs to the garage. ‘You were right, it was inevitable. But we’ve done it now.’
‘You think that’s done?’ He laughed. ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’
Not at all. Not doing it again would be the most sensible thing by far. She was too inexperienced to play with a champ like him. ‘Can we get going? It’s only my second day on the job.’
He slammed the door and fired the engine. ‘We’re not done.’
‘I’m not going to argue with you, Alex.’
‘Good, because I’m right and you know it.’
She reached forward and turned the volume of the radio up and made a point of staring out of the side window.
Stupid, so completely stupid.
She’d known it, hadn’t she? Her instincts had been bang on. Now her body was screaming chaos—wanting to cling but wanting to run just as much. Getting close to him was like volunteering to abseil into a live volcano—an adrenalin rush like no other, but with a high chance of incineration.
‘Why are you in New Zealand, Dani? Are you looking for someone—your brother?’
Dani whipped round to look at him—how did he know that?
‘I heard you on the phone last night,’ he said bluntly.
The stitches holding the hurt in her heart ripped. That was her most private business, her greatest treasure, and she didn’t want anyone—not even him—invading the preciousness of it. ‘You shouldn’t eavesdrop on private conversations.’