A Prize Beyond Jewels

Nina felt warmed inside just knowing that Rafe hadn’t been intimate with Jennifer Nichols two nights ago. Because it was her that he wanted. Her. Nina Palitov. ‘In that case, I think I would very much enjoy being kissed and kissing you. Everywhere...’

So would Rafe.

To hell with his rules and the complications of being involved with a woman like Nina; he wanted her. And those complications if that was the only way he could have her!

He continued to cradle the warmth of Nina’s cheeks as he kissed her slowly, lingering for long heart-pounding minutes as he sipped and tasted those luscious lips that had taunted and tempted him these past three days. Nina returned the warmth, the heat of those kisses, as her hands glided up his shirt-covered chest beneath his jacket.

Rafe hadn’t thought, hadn’t dared to hope, that the evening would end like this. End? Damn it, this wasn’t the end of him and Nina, but the beginning.

He continued to kiss her, those kisses becoming hungrier, wilder, more heated, as he reached up and took the clip from her hair, allowing those fiery red curls to cascade down the length of her spine. He shrugged out of his dinner jacket and let it fall to the floor. Nina groaned softly in her throat as her body now curved intimately into and against his, her hands now roaming restlessly over his muscled back.

Not close enough. They weren’t nearly close enough for Rafe’s liking. The barrier of their clothes had to go. He needed to see, to feel the heat of Nina’s delicious curves, ached to taste those succulent breasts again, to hear Nina’s soft cries of pleasure as he laved those breasts with his tongue and nibbled them with his teeth, before suckling deeply.

His lips raked down her throat in a heated caress as he slid the zip to her gown down the length of her spine, tasting her creamy flesh as he slipped the straps of her gown down her arms before letting it fall to the floor.

‘Amazing.’ Rafe breathed raggedly as Nina stood before him wearing only a pair of minuscule black lace panties and her high-heeled black shoes, her hair a wild fiery red tumble over her shoulders and breasts.

‘You like?’ Nina prompted shyly.

That heated gaze roamed over her hungrily. ‘Oh, I definitely like!’ Rafe assured gruffly. ‘Take off the rest, Nina,’ he encouraged gruffly.

‘I was thinking of you when I wore these,’ she revealed huskily as she stepped out of the high-heeled shoes before sliding the black panties down her thighs and dropping them on the carpet beside her gown. She was totally exposed to Rafe now, but not in the least self-conscious as she saw the desire for her burning in those glittering golden eyes. ‘Because I wanted this to happen.’

His gaze flicked up to her face, studying her for long timeless moments before he nodded his satisfaction with whatever he saw in her expression. ‘In that case, I think it only fair I should be naked too, don’t you?’ he murmured as he stepped back, arms held slightly away from his body in invitation.

Nina had never undressed a man before. Those two previous encounters had been hurried and unsatisfying, when neither she nor either of those two men had even been completely undressed. Her fingers shook slightly as she removed Rafe’s bow tie before unfastening the buttons of his shirt, pushing the white silk down his arms as she gazed her fill of the bareness of Rafe’s wide shoulders and muscled chest. His skin there the same olive tone as his face and hands, with a sprinkling of dark hair that covered the flat bronze coins of his nipples, and formed a vee as it tapered down the muscled flatness of his abdomen before disappearing beneath the waistband of his trousers.

‘All of it, Nina,’ he groaned achingly as he stepped out of his shoes.

Her hands shook even more as she unfastened his trousers before sliding down the zip and allowing them to fall to the floor, gasping as she saw the long bulge of his shaft pressing impatiently against his black boxers. She glanced up at Rafe, before quickly looking away again as she saw the increased heat of the desire burning in those golden eyes.

She could do this. She needed to do this. Needed to be with Rafe, to touch and caress him.

She dropped smoothly to her knees in front of him, Rafe’s skin warm to the touch as she hooked her fingers into the waistband of those black boxers, before easing them down and off, baring his arousal.

Rafe was so utterly beautiful, his body as perfect as a huge bronzed statue.

Nina placed one of her hands on Rafe’s thigh, the other about the thickness of his shaft as she lowered her head, her tongue flicking out to lap, to taste the salty sweetness of the moisture coating the engorged tip. Encouraged by his low groans of pleasure as his hands moved out to grasp her shoulders, she parted her lips and took him completely into her mouth.