* * *
Cesar’s brain was in meltdown. Even now he could still feel the ripples of Lexie’s orgasm keeping his body hard, not letting him come down completely from the most intense climax he’d ever experienced.
It was the most difficult thing in the world to break the connection between their bodies, but Cesar gritted his jaw and moved, releasing them both. Lexie winced minutely. Her eyes were wide, cheeks flushed, hair in disarray around her head.
He moved so that he didn’t crush her and came onto his side, pulling her into him so that they were face to face. Normally when Cesar made love to a woman he felt the overwhelming need to get away. Right now it was the last thing on his mind. She fitted him. One leg was still looped over his thigh. The centre of her body was still flush with his, doing little to help his arousal subside.
He could only look at her. The expression on her face was as stunned as he felt. A lock of hair was across one hot cheek, damp with her sweat. He raised a hand, noted vaguely that it was trembling, and tucked her hair behind her ear.
As his normal faculties returned Cesar was aware of feeling more and more vulnerable. But still he couldn’t seem to move, to be able to unweld his arms from around her.
Then he saw a brightness in her gaze in the dim light. Her mouth wobbling even as she bit into her lower lip to disguise it. Cesar’s belly dropped as if from a great height as something very cold lanced him. He’d just assumed...been so focused on how intense it had been for him... Even though he’d believed it had been the same for her, but she was so small...
He could feel tremors in Lexie’s body now—as if she was experiencing a delayed reaction. Cesar moved and came up on one arm, cold terror trickling through him. ‘Did I hurt you?’
Rapidly she shook her head and Cesar saw her eyes fill in earnest now, felt the tremors in her body getting stronger. Her cheeks paled. Was she going into some kind of shock?
Her body, which had felt so warm and languorous seconds before, now felt cold. Galvanised by increasing panic, Cesar gathered Lexie into his arms and stood up from the bed, taking her with him. She curled up against his chest, making something like bile fill him at the thought that he’d hurt her. She said nothing.
He walked into the bathroom and straight into the shower, where he turned on the powerful spray of hot water and stood them both under it. He felt Lexie gasp, her body curl even tighter into him, and he also felt those tremors increase as she started crying in earnest.
Her face was buried in his chest and her slim back was heaving with the force of her sobs as her hands pressed against him.
Cesar felt as if his chest was being ripped apart by bare hands. ‘Lexie...Dios...please tell me...did I hurt you?’
She shook her head against him. The slimmest sliver of relief went through him. Cesar rested his back against the wall and wasn’t even sure how long he stayed like that, under the powerful spray, while Lexie sobbed in his arms. He could still feel the power of the emotion running through her slim body.
Eventually the storm passed and she became still. They were surrounded in hot steam. She started to move, and then he heard a husky, rough-sounding, ‘You can put me down. I’m okay.’
Reluctantly, even though his arms were stiff, Cesar let her down until she stood. She wouldn’t look at him and he had to tip her chin up. When he saw those huge bruised eyes and her swollen mouth he had to curb his almost instantaneous reaction. Again. Already...
‘Lexie...what...?’
She shook her head, came close, put her hands on his chest. ‘You didn’t hurt me...’ Her voice sounded raw. ‘The opposite. I promise.’
Cesar frowned as water ran in rivulets down their bodies, plastering their hair to their skulls. ‘But...why?’
Lexie ducked her head, resting her forehead against him for a moment and making something incredibly alien flood through Cesar. Then she looked up again, ‘I just... It’s never been like that. That’s all.’
Cesar had the distinct feeling that that wasn’t all, but something held him back from forcing her to explain. He hadn’t hurt her. The relief was almost overwhelming.
‘Come on,’ he said gruffly. ‘Let’s get out.’
He turned off the water and stepped out, reaching back for Lexie. She emerged from the steam, taking his hand, and he couldn’t stop his gaze from devouring those naked curves greedily. She was looking at him too, and Cesar had to stop himself from pressing her up against the shower wall and taking her there and then.
Instead he wrapped a towel around her and her hair. She stood as mute as a child and let him dry her off, and after he’d dried himself roughly he took her back into the bedroom.
He dropped his towel and gently took hers off and led her back to the bed. Her hair was damp but she didn’t look inclined to dry it. He could see her eyes heavy with the need to sleep. Heavy after the outpouring of emotion that had left tentacles of panic inside him at the thought that he’d hurt her.
She crawled into the bed and lay down, and Cesar looked at her before getting in beside her. This was anathema to him—sharing a bed after lovemaking. But it was something he wasn’t in a position to question right now.
Lexie burrowed straight into his arms, wrapping her legs around him, resting her head on his chest. Those soft abundant curves melted into him. His heart thudding unevenly, it was only when he could feel her body relax into sleep and her hold on him loosen that he was able to relax himself.
* * *
When Lexie woke up she opened her eyes and blinked at the dawn light coming in through long grand windows. She felt completely disorientated. Her body felt...different. Heavy. Lethargic. Sated. Hers...
She became aware of something moving steadily under her cheek. Cesar’s chest. She lifted her head and looked up to see him asleep. Dark stubble lined his jaw. And then her eye caught something else and she let out a small gasp of dismay.