She moaned softly as he deepened the kiss, her fingernails digging into his shoulders.
‘Sam.’ His name was a sensual plea on her lips as she met him kiss for kiss, her hands forking into his hair to drag him closer. The pleasure of having her body plastered up against his was exquisite, the taste of her explosive. He wanted to put his mouth all over her, sucking and licking her, particularly between her soft, golden thighs. He told her as much and the sexy little noise she made nearly undid him.
‘Yes, angel, kiss me like that.’ Ravenous for more, Sam urged her legs to part, pulling her astride his lap, his hands moving lower to slide along her outer thighs, pushing her dress up over the curve of her bottom. A low groan was ripped from his throat as she moved against him in wanton abandon.
‘Christ, Ruby.’ His lips attacked her neck, his hands fisted in her hair to lock her in place, his blood pumping thickly through his veins. This was exactly how it had been last Friday night. Wild. Uninhibited. Insatiable.
‘A man could get addicted to this mouth,’ he said, taking her bottom lip between his teeth and urging her closer.
She moaned, her lips tracking over his jaw and his chin, her little teeth nipping at his skin.
It felt as if they were both cocooned in a warm, dark room. Just the two of them. Man and woman at their most elemental. No past or future to come between them. No masks and no running.
Just total surrender and a sexual chemistry that blew his mind. His fingers stroked along the edge of her lace panties, his sex-induced brain trying to warn him that he was going too far again. That he needed to stop this madness because—
‘Mr Ventura, sir, we have arrived at our destination.’
Because they were in the back of a limousine.
Sam knew Ruby hadn’t heard the driver because her fingers were still fumbling with the buttons on his shirt. For a second he nearly closed the partition between them and the driver and let her continue. Then sanity asserted itself. ‘Ruby, sweetheart.’ He took her hands in his. ‘We have to stop.’
‘Stop?’
She blinked up at him, her slumberous gaze turning from glazed to glaring in a heartbeat.
‘Oh, God.’ She pushed off his lap and fell awkwardly onto the opposite seat, smoothing her skirt down her legs, regret written all over her beautiful face. ‘Of course we have to stop.’
‘Like we should have stopped last Friday night?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘And I suppose you want to forget about this incident just like you’ve forgotten the last one.’
‘Absolutely.’
For some reason her ready agreement only fuelled his irritation. So did that regal, untouchable air she cloaked herself in. Something that might have been a little more effective if her lips weren’t still swollen and moist from his kisses. ‘Only you haven’t forgotten last Friday night any more than I have. Isn’t that the truth, Ruby?’
‘The truth is we work together, and Chester is probably spreading salacious stories about us right now.’
‘In this case he’d be right.’
He knew it wasn’t fair to goad her like that but, dammit, she was making him feel as if he was fully responsible for that kiss and she’d been as into it as he had been.
‘He would not be right,’ she snapped, scowling at him.
‘He would. But it’s late. If you want to argue some more about it you’ll have to invite me up for coffee.’
Clearly embarrassed to find that they were parked outside her apartment building, Ruby threw open the car door, nearly catching their circumspect chauffeur in the chest. ‘That,’ she said loftily, ‘will never happen again. I learn from my mistakes. I don’t repeat them.’
‘Pity.’ Sam’s eyes narrowed, his fingers manacling her wrist before she could toss her hair over her shoulder and exit the car. ‘Because this time I would have said yes. But fair warning, sweetheart—the next time my mouth is on yours we’ll be horizontal and I’ll be taking my time. That is,’ he paused, his thumb stroking lightly over the pulse pounding in her wrist ‘after you’ve asked me nicely.’
Ruby pulled her wrist out from under his hold and shot him a fulminating glare. ‘You cannot possibly imagine how much I dislike you right now.’