Mistress of Deception

deep. Still, it needs looking after...'

A lump formed in her throat while she watched him gently tend the cut, first stopping the bleeding with pressure, then disinfecting it and covering it with a large patch plaster.

'All done,' he said at last, though he continued to hold her foot, continued to touch it and stroke it in ways he knew stimulated rather than relaxed her.

The soles of her feet had always been highly sensitive in an erotic way, something which Alan had discovered and often used to his advantage. He was doing so now, narrowed blue eyes watching her reactions carefully, showing satisfaction each time she quivered. But the coup de grace came when he lifted her foot to his mouth, kissing and sucking each toe in succession, his heavy- lidded eyes holding hers as he did so. By the time he finally lowered her foot back down on to the bed, she was wide-eyed and breathless.

'I'm sorry,' he murmured, continuing to stroke her feet and ankles with seductive softness. 'I shouldn't have said the things I said earlier. I know how awful they must have sounded. I don't know what possessed me. This past week has been a big strain and I was beside myself with wanting you. Say you'll forgive me, my darling. Say you still love me...'

Ebony blinked and swallowed. Alan had never called her his darling before. Yet some instinctive intuition at the back of her mind was whispering to her that this was a very sudden about-face and too good to be true. But to deny what he was saying was to throw away everything she'd ever dreamt about and hoped for. It was much easier to lie back and accept both Alan's assurances and caresses. Much, much easier.

She sighed when his hands began moving further up her legs, parting the quilt as he did so. His endearments were as intoxicating as his touch.

'Let me make it up to you, my darling,' he murmured thickly. 'Let me love you properly...'

Now he'd reached the area between her thighs and she moaned. Her mind hazed over and her legs parted on a sigh of bliss.

'God, but you're incredible,' he groaned. 'Any man would do anything to keep you... Anything at all...'

And he bent his mouth to her flesh.

Ebony sighed again. This was what she'd wanted; this was making love. His lips were a delight and a torment, but a very addictive torment. When he eventually moved further up her body to lick sweetly at her nipples, she felt as if she were drowning in sensations hitherto unknown to her. Her love swelled in her breast till it wasn't enough to lie there and let him make love to her. She wanted to make love back, to show him all that he meant to her.

She reached to run trembling hands over his back, lifting her head to kiss his shoulders and neck, to nibble his earlobe and run her tongue-tip around his ear. 'Take off your shorts,' she whispered shakily.

When he was naked, she reached for him, pulling him down beside her, making him lie still while she started kissing and touching him all over. Oh, but it was heaven to feel him tremble beneath her hands, to hear his sharply indrawn breath each time her lips moved tantalisingly close to his desire. She knew he ached to have her draw him deep into her mouth, but there was excitement in making him wait, in seeing how far she could extend his need.

She pushed him as far as she could, running her tongue-tip down the sides, then over his thighs and loins till he was quivering with expectation and tension. Only when he gave a raw, tortured groan of pain did she finally do what he so desperately wanted.

'Oh, God,' he moaned as the heat of her mouth engulfed him.

Alan stared down at the stunningly erotic picture of a naked Ebony pleasuring him that way and shuddered in sheer ecstasy. He'd had other women do this to him and had always found it arousing. But nothing could compare with the physical and emotional satisfaction he gained from having Ebony do it. Surely she must love him to make love to him so uninhibitedly. Surely she reserved this intimacy for him and him alone.

Doubts besieged him and he reached down to touch her, only to knock the towel from her head when her eyes snapped upwards. Her hair spilled around her face and she smiled at him through the damp strands. 'You want me to stop?' she teased.

'God, no...'

Now he stroked her head, telling her how much he loved her, his hips lifting and falling in a ragged rhythm of delight as she brought him closer and closer to the edge. She would have selflessly taken him all the way, he knew, but that was not either his plan or his wish. When he could bear it no more, he stopped her, pulling her up and under him so that he could sink deep inside