A Prize Beyond Jewels

Rafe gave a slow shake of his head. ‘I don’t want you to.’ And he didn’t.

In fact, Rafe could never remember wanting anything as much as he now wanted Nina to stay, here with him, in this apartment, in his bed.

He reached out and gently took the brandy glass from Nina’s unresisting fingers before placing that glass beside his own on the coffee table. Turning back to her and taking both of her hands into his, his gaze seeking and capturing hers as he looked down at her intently. ‘Don’t go, Nina,’ he encouraged gruffly. ‘Stay here with me tonight.’

Nina’s breath caught in her throat, her heart beating loudly, erratically, in her chest, both at the words Rafe had just spoken, and the intensity of the desire she could see burning in the depths of those glittering golden eyes that looked so intently into hers. ‘You’ll be disappointed.’

‘What?’ Rafe stared at her incredulously, obviously startled by her reply.

Heat coloured Nina’s cheeks as she avoided meeting that shocked gaze. ‘I—’ She moistened suddenly dry lips with a sweep of her tongue. ‘I’m not experienced, Rafe. I’m not a virgin either,’ she hastened to add, so there should be no misunderstandings. ‘But I’m not experienced, not like the other women you’ve—’ She ceased speaking as he pressed his fingertips gently against her lips.

‘Nina, all that matters here and now is the two of us,’ he assured gruffly. ‘No one else, and certainly not the past, but what we both want now. And I want you very much,’ he added huskily. ‘Do you want me?’

Too much!

Nina had wanted Rafe from the moment she had looked at him that first day, as he stood in the doorway of the gallery in the east wing of Archangel.

It had been so obvious that day that Rafe had assumed she was just another one of her father’s workmen, and she had very much enjoyed taking off her baseball cap to release her fiery red hair down her back, in order to shatter that illusion.

Because looking at Rafe had awoken dormant feelings inside her, a physical awareness, a desire that had caused her body to hum with the need for him to see her as a desirable woman.

Exactly the way Rafe was looking at her now. His golden eyes warm with the same desire that coursed through her own veins, an aroused flush to the sharp blade of his cheekbones, those chiselled lips parted, as if he was just waiting for her to say yes so that he could kiss her.

And God knew Nina wanted him to kiss her. Wanted Rafe in a way she had never wanted any other man. To kiss him. To touch him. To make love with him.

And why shouldn’t she do just that? Why shouldn’t she take this one night with him? Lose herself in that desire, that arousal, and enjoy Rafe in the way she would never be able to do again?

Because Nina already knew that had to be the ultimate outcome of this evening. That Rafe was far too intelligent, too intensely curious about the past, her past, for her to ever risk incriminating her father by answering any of Rafe’s questions.

She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue before answering, her gaze remaining unwavering on his.

‘Yes, I want you, Rafe,’ she answered softly, steadily, allowing no room for doubts in her mind. She would take this one night of pleasure, enjoy it, revel in it, with no expectations of anything other than tonight. Men did it all the time, Rafe did it all the time, so why shouldn’t she?

‘Right now,’ she added determinedly.

‘Good girl.’ It wasn’t triumph, but satisfaction, that flared in those golden eyes as he straightened beside her before holding out one of his hands to her invitingly.

Nina placed her own hand unhesitatingly into his as she rose to her feet in front of him. Rafe kept possession of that hand as they turned and walked out of the room together and down the hallway to his bedroom.

Nina felt no reservations, no doubts, as Rafe maintained that hold on her hand as he switched on one of the bedside lamps before turning to cup either side of her face, gazing down searchingly into her eyes before his head lowered towards hers.

‘You are so beautiful,’ he murmured huskily.

‘Kiss me, Rafe,’ she encouraged.

‘Your mouth has been driving me insane since the first moment I looked at you,’ he acknowledged gruffly.

She blinked. ‘My mouth?’

‘You have the most delicious, lusciously pouting lips, and I’ve been imagining kissing them, and having them kiss me, since the moment I first met you. Everywhere,’ he groaned.

Her cheeks warmed with colour. ‘How can that possibly be true, when you went out with, made love to, another woman that same evening?’

‘I didn’t,’ he drawled. ‘Oh, I went out to dinner with her, but bedding her was a different matter, when the woman I wanted was a tall and fiery redhead who enjoys challenging me.’