‘Hook your legs around my waist,’ he instructed gruffly.
She did, and immediately felt the smooth rounded head of his penis at her entrance. Totally caught up in the wonder of it, she dug her hands into the small of his back as she pulled him closer.
He hesitated and for a moment her old fear returned, her nerves tightening in anticipation of possible pain, and then he nudged her so sweetly her breath rushed out on a sob. She clasped his head and brought his mouth down to hers, tears burning the backs of her eyes as he slowly eased inside her body.
She easily accommodated him at first, but then she did feel too full. Too stretched.
‘Relax, amada,’ he crooned against her lips. ‘I’ve got you.’
He kissed her hungrily and withdrew almost all the way, before slowly pushing forward again, his tongue filling her mouth and mimicking his lower body’s movements until Aspen felt as if she was melting into the bed.
He raised his face above hers and he looked intense. Focused. ‘You feel amazing.’
He adjusted his weight and Aspen moaned, arching towards him.
‘But you’re so tight. I feel like I’m hurting you.’
‘No.’ She flexed her hips and rubbed against him, gasping as she felt him lodge deeper. ‘It feels sensational. You feel sensational.’
Cruz groaned and seemed to praise God as he started moving inside her, his strokes smooth and slow before gradually picking up pace. Every time his big body pushed into hers Aspen clung harder to his damp shoulders, her body growing tighter and tighter until with a sudden pause she felt another rush of liquid heat, right before her body convulsed into a paroxysm of pleasure.
Dimly she was aware of Cruz still moving inside her, of her pleasure being completely controlled by the powerful movements of his. And it was endless as he drove into her, over and over and over, until with a pause of his own he tilted her bottom and surged into her with controlled power. Once, twice more, until she cried out and felt him rear his head back and fall over the edge with her.
Again time seemed endless as Aspen stared at the ceiling, slowly coming back into her body. She felt wonderful. Blissfully, sinfully wonderful. Her body was a sweaty, sensual mass of completion. Her hand lifted to Cruz’s hair and she caressed the silky strands, enjoying his harsh breaths sawing in and out against her neck.
A smile curved her mouth as she recalled the moment Cruz had guided her hand between her legs so she could feel how wet she was. And she had been. Unbelievably wet—and soft. It had been like touching somebody else’s body.
Unbidden, Chad’s drunken taunts came to mind and she realised that it had been he who was unable to perform, not her. Deep down, and in moments of total confidence, she had told herself that exact thing, but believing it to be true was something else entirely. Especially when he was such a gregarious and charming person when he wasn’t drinking. He was like a Jekyll and Hyde character, she realised, but after tonight what had happened in the bedroom with him would never haunt her again. She wouldn’t let it.
* * *
Hours later Cruz woke and used the remote console beside his bed to open the curtains. The sky was pale blue outside so he knew it wasn’t much after dawn.
Slightly disturbed by the whirring sound of the drapes, Aspen snuggled deeper beneath the covers he’d pulled over them both some time during the night.
Cruz’s arm tightened around her shoulders. Last night had blown his mind. First finding out that Aspen had clearly had a poor excuse of a sex-life before him, and second, realising that he had had a poor excuse of a sex-life before her. Hell, he’d never come so hard or so often as he had last night, and he was half expecting to be rubbed raw.
He glanced at her delicate features softened by sleep. Her rosy cheeks and the dark sweep of her lashes. He grew hard just thinking about last night.
One night.
He frowned as their deal slid back into his mind like an insidious serpent. Her damned document. At the time one night had seemed like more than enough. He’d thought she was a vacuous princess type he had once lusted after and needed to get out of his system. He’d thought he’d take her to bed, slake his lust for her and move on.
Of course he’d still move on, but...
He thought about the hotel he’d planned to build on Ocean Haven. Last night he’d given up on that plan and, surprisingly, he didn’t care. Aspen had been as much a victim of Charles Carmichael’s warped ideas about what was right and wrong as he had been—maybe more so.
And the truth was he didn’t need Ocean Haven and she did. Ergo, she should have it. Which seemed to be what her uncle thought as well, because he was still obstinately refusing Lauren’s increasing offers on Cruz’s behalf. He smiled. Stubborn old goat—he might not be as sanctimonious as his old man, but he’d inherited that attribute from him, all right.