She sucked in a deep startled breath as her eyes flew to his face. The heat and unvarnished desire in his made her gasp.
Luiz’s eyes did not leave hers as he inclined his head towards the big bed visible through the open bedroom door and added in a throaty purr, ‘In that bed.’
Nell’s eyes slid towards the bed and back to Luiz, then back to the bed. She swallowed. Her heart was beating so hard he had to be able to hear it.
‘I will not lie and say I feel things I do not, do you understand, Nell?’
Nell tore her eyes from the bed. She tried to push her hair from her eyes, but her hand didn’t obey her command; a strange enervating weakness held her. She drew a fractured sigh. ‘I understand.’ She understood he didn’t love her.
‘And your choice?’ While his attitude and shrug had a take-it-or-leave-it quality, there was nothing casual about the tension twitching the fine muscles around his mouth, or the febrile shudders she could see running through his greyhoundlean frame.
‘I would like to spend the night here with you, in a bed.’
Nell, frustrated at not being able to see his expression because of the hand he lifted to his face, waited tensely for his response to her admission.
‘Thank God!’
Nell’s shoulders slumped in relief.
When his hand fell away the gleam of predatory male satisfaction in his eyes made her stomach muscles quiver violently. She watched her breath coming in uneven shallow gasps as he walked the remaining distance towards her looking big and dark and deliciously dangerous.
Nell was suddenly gripped by panic.
What have I done?
What am I doing?
He was standing so close now she could see the fine lines radiating from his incredible eyes. All she had to do was stretch out her hand to touch him, touch all that marvellous male hardness. Her fingers curled into a fist—God, but she wanted to touch him.
‘Our bargain—’
‘Having sex was not part of our bargain. Madre de Dios!’ he growled. ‘I am tired of the bargain. I suggest we throw the damned thing out of the window and start from scratch.’
‘Yes, please.’
He looked at the hands that Nell held out, then, with a strangled cry, folded his long brown fingers over them and hauled her towards him until their bodies collided.
‘You have not the faintest idea how glad I am you said yes to this option.’ His lips brushed her eyelids and cheeks, moved over the curve of her throat before claiming her mouth in a hard, hungry kiss that left Nell breathless, dizzy and craving more.
‘Show me?’ she whispered, sliding her hands around his neck and pressing her body to his. ‘Show me how glad you are, Luiz. Please…?’
The request drew a long shuddering sigh from Luiz. He curled his fingers around her chin and tilted her face up to his. Nell could feel he was shaking; she could feel the erotic imprint of his rock-hard erection against her belly.
‘I will show you how it should be this time,’ he promised thickly as he stroked her hair. ‘Last time…’ A spasm of regret contorted his lean features.
Nell tugged at the corner of his mouth gently with her teeth, their breaths mingling as she raised herself on tiptoe and whispered back fiercely, ‘You have nothing to make up for, Luiz. You were perfect. It was perfect.’ She pressed her lips to his and kissed him hard.
With a groan Luiz scooped her up into his arms and carried her through to the bedroom. Together they fell onto the bed in a sprawl of tangled limbs. With soft grunts, desperate moans and whispered endearments they tugged at each other’s clothes with a clumsiness born of sheer desperation until they lay naked facing one another.
They both lay there breathing hard.
Nell’s eyes, dark with desire, glittered like jewels as she ran her fingers along the abrasive, hard, angular curve of his cheek towards his mouth. She luxuriated in everything that made him male and hard and so utterly perfect.
‘Your mouth is a sheer miracle.’ A shaky little laugh left her aching throat as she conceded, ‘The rest of you is not half bad either.’
Luiz didn’t laugh back. His eyes were hypnotically dark and so hot she could almost see the flames dancing deep in the velvety depths as he took her fingertips and drew them into his mouth and sucked.
The erotic thrill shot down to her toes as she squeezed her eyes tight shut. Nell heard the low, almost feral moan and didn’t actually connect it with herself, she wasn’t herself, she was floating, and everything below her waist had melted.
He took her fingers from his mouth, kissed the tip of each one slowly before fitting his mouth to hers, catching the soft flesh of her pink inner lip between his teeth.
‘I have been thinking about doing this all day,’ he confided thickly.