Wife By Contract, Mistress By Demand

That had to have been hard on Holly.

Gabriella could only hope that the little girl wouldn’t consider her the equivalent of a wicked stepmother. Although, according to Rufus, Holly was to be involved in this bogus marriage as little as possible.

‘Okay,’ she sighed, not in any particular hurry to return to Gresham House, where the housekeeper and the rest of the staff were no doubt preparing for the arrival of the new Mr and Mrs Gresham!

‘Try and sound a little more enthusiastic, Gabriella,’ Rufus taunted softly. ‘After all, this is our wedding day.’

‘Don’t remind me!’ she came back tartly.

Rufus gave a derisive smile. He didn’t need any reminding of the fact she was now his wife, either.

Gabriella looked a little alarmed when he parked the car and guided her over to a tall apartment building. ‘Where are you taking me?’

‘I keep an apartment here for whenever I’m delayed in town on business,’ he dismissed lightly, nodding to the security man on the desk before stepping into the lift and pressing the numbered security code for the top floor.

Whenever he was delayed in town on business, Gabriella echoed silently with a frown. What did that mean?

That he kept an apartment in town for when he wanted to spend the night with one of his women?

He couldn’t exactly take a stream of women back to the house he shared with Holly, now could he? He’d have to have somewhere more private for those—relationships.

And he was taking her there…

‘I don’t think this is a good idea, Rufus—’ But she didn’t get any further with her protest as Rufus pulled her close against his body, his head lowering as his mouth claimed hers.

Yes, she definitely tasted good, Rufus acknowledged distractedly as his mouth captured and plundered hers. And no doubt the rest of her was going to taste just as delectable, too.

At this moment he wanted Gabriella with a driving need he had no intention of keeping under control. Gabriella was now his wife and he intended touching and tasting every glorious inch of her.

What was Rufus doing? Gabriella barely had time to wonder before she became lost in the pleasure of the hunger of his mouth moving searchingly against hers, his tongue now caressing lightly along her bottom lip before surging into her mouth, setting a sensuous rhythm that caused a fire between her sensitive thighs.

She groaned a low murmur of capitulation as his hands moved up to capture the proud tilt of her breasts, his thumbs caressing the already hardened nipples, stroking the sensitive tips until she pressed closer against him, wanting, wanting—

She gasped as she felt her breasts released from her dress. She hadn’t even been aware of Rufus undoing the tiny buttons down the front, and there was only the thin silk of her camisole now between her thrusting breasts and the warm caress of his hands.

He dragged his mouth from hers, trailing fire down the column of her throat, holding her hands against her waist as he bent his head to claim one aching nipple through the silky material, sucking gently as his tongue moved over it in sensual demand.

She should stop him, knew in her maturity exactly where this was going, but there was no way, absolutely no way, even with that knowledge, that she could fight the emotions Rufus was arousing in her, and her back arched impulsively as his tongue flicked against her.

Gabriella clung to him weakly, completely lost at this unexpected assault on her senses, the unaccustomed ache between her thighs building to an unbearable pitch.

The lift doors opened straight into the penthouse apartment with a gentle swish, cool air washing over them, Gabriella quivering slightly as that air brushed the damp material of her camisole.

She opened pleasure-drugged eyes as Rufus raised his head to look at her, the last five years swept away in that single moment of mutual desire.

Gabriella simply didn’t want this pleasure to stop! She couldn’t stop it!

Rufus stood her beside the bed, slipping the dress down her arms and letting it fall to the floor before sitting her on the side of the bed and standing back to look at her dressed only in the cream camisole and matching silk panties.

‘Take off your top,’ he instructed huskily as he took off his jacket and dropped it to the carpeted floor beside her dress.

She wasn’t eighteen any more, but a mature woman of twenty-three, and, although she was still not experienced like Rufus, she was more than a match for Rufus’s overt sensuality.

Gabriella held his gaze with hers as she moved a shaking hand to slide first one silky strap of her camisole down her arms and then the other, the material falling down to her waist, her dark-tipped breasts thrusting proudly forward, begging for his touch.

He knelt down between her legs as he moved forward to lick her nipples into harder arousal, deliberately teasing first one, and then the other. Gabriella leant into him as she silently asked for what would drive her completely over the edge.

Rufus had no doubts that this time he would go with her, would take his fill, would keep her here with him until he had taken her in every way, given her every pleasure he could think of.

His lips parted and he took the hardened tip of her breast fiercely into his mouth, instantly feeling the shudders that convulsed Gabriella’s body. His hand moved to push her panties aside and touch the centre of those pleasurable convulsions, increasing the pleasure as he sought and found the sensitive nub, stroking her to a deeper and stronger climax.

When her shuddering release came to an end he moved slightly so that he could draw that last silken garment from her body before lowering his head to capture the sweet taste of her.

Gabriella was completely lost, floating in a sea of sensual pleasure, her eyes dazed as Rufus stood up to look down at her, completely and unashamedly naked, knowing she wanted him, all of him, inside her.

‘Help me undress, Gabriella,’ he encouraged throatily.

She felt a nervous fluttering in her stomach, a nervousness she instantly dismissed. She was a woman now, no longer a besotted teenager, and she expected nothing more from Rufus than the physical pleasure he could, and did, give her. A physical pleasure she intended returning.

She held his gaze with hers as she slowly unbuttoned and slipped the silk shirt from his shoulders, and then trailed her hands down the length of his chest and across his stomach. She heard his slight catch of breath as one of her hands settled on the fastening of his trousers, that breath released in a sharp hiss as she slowly slid the zip down before moving her hand against his hardness, pure instinct governing her actions now as she began to pleasure him as he had pleasured her.

His hands became entangled in her hair. ‘No, Gabriella!’ he gasped. ‘I want to be inside you. Deep inside you,’ he grated before dropping to the carpeted floor and taking her with him.

Beneath her. Pulling her on top of him. His eyes were dark as he looked up at her, arching into her as he slowly lowered her onto the long length of him, his hands reaching up to caress her aching breasts as she began to move in rhythm to his thrusts.

Gabriella ignored the initial stinging pain as Rufus entered her, and leant forward so that he could capture one hardened nipple in his mouth. She felt her own pleasure deepening, and spiralling out of control once again as Rufus kissed first one breast and then the other, all the time moving his body into hers, with his hands on her hips helping to guide her movements.

Rufus’s hands closed tightly against her when he could hold back no longer and his release began, taking her with him as they both reached a shuddering climax that seemed to rip them asunder before joining them again, making them one.

Gabriella lay collapsed on Rufus’s chest in the aftermath, their bodies slick with sweat, but soon she could feel herself tensing as she waited for the words of scorn, the mockery that was sure to come for her uninhibited response to him.

Instead there was only the sound of their ragged breathing in the otherwise silent room, steadying to a rasp, before settling into normality.

Why didn’t Rufus say something? Gabriella wondered.

Where were the accusations?

The recriminations?

Even though he had been the one to start all this, kissing and touching her in the lift on the way up here, knowing Rufus as she did she was sure he’d twist this around somehow so that she was the one who had seduced him.

As far as Rufus was concerned she had always been the one responsible for their physical encounters.

Except that this time they were married to each other…

‘It looks, Gabriella, as if when the time is up we’ll have to get a divorce rather than an annulment.’ He suddenly spoke derisively, his own thoughts obviously on their recent marriage, too.

She raised her head slowly to look at him, the tangled length of her silky hair falling over her shoulders down onto his chest. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked.

He smiled up at her, a hard, almost wolfish grin. ‘Merely that now I have such a sexy little hell-cat for a wife I won’t need to use this apartment again for six months.’ He flexed his shoulder where the marks of her teeth could still be seen. ‘Unless, of course, you want to come here occasionally, for a bit of variety?’

In other words, now that they were married, Rufus intended to use her in the same way he did his mistresses—purely for recreational sex…

Gabriella didn’t think so!