He brought his head down and heard the sharp intake of her breath as his mouth came down to hover above hers. Their breaths mingled. Her pulse raced beneath his fingers. His skyrocketed. ‘You know I want you,’ he said.
‘So?’ Her voice lacked its usual sassy edge. It sounded thready. Uncertain. As if she had somehow drifted out of her depth and wasn’t sure how to get back to safety. But even so her body swayed towards his like a fragment of metal being pulled by a magnet.
He brushed his bottom lip against her top one, a teasing nudge. A come-and-play-with-me invitation. ‘So maybe it’s time I did something about it.’
‘Enter a monastery.’
He smiled against her lower lip. ‘There’s a thought.’
‘If you kiss me you’re a dead man.’
‘So shoot me,’ he said, and covered her mouth with his.
CHAPTER SIX
OF COURSE AIESHA didn’t kill him. She didn’t even pull away. She opened her mouth to the first hot commanding probe of his tongue and let the lust that smouldered between them run free. It was like the flare of a struck match following a trail of fuel. It licked along at breakneck speed, consuming everything along its way. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t in control any more. She needed this—needed him—like she needed air to breathe.
His mouth plundered hers, deeply, erotically, thoroughly. His tongue tangled with hers, playfully and then purposefully. Demanding hers to submit to his. She whimpered at his masterful command; he had taken control of her mouth and there was nothing she could do but respond. The thrill of his kiss made her body shiver with delight. Her senses went into a tailspin. Her heart jumped and leapt and sprinted. Her breathing became laboured as she tried to keep up with the madcap pace of his untrammelled passion.
His hands weren’t content to hold her by the hips this time. This time they were everywhere. Her hair, the small of her back to press her close against his erection, then cupping her breasts, then tugging at her clothes as she tugged and pulled at his.
She gasped as his hand uncovered her breast. His hand was still cold from being outdoors, but it didn’t matter as her body was sizzling hot. She was burning up with molten heat. She could feel it coursing through her body like a red-hot tide.
His thumb rolled over her nipple, back and forth, round and round, making her flesh pucker and tighten and every nerve wriggle and leap in rapture. So few men knew how to handle a woman’s breast. He did. Not too hard. Not too soft. He seemed to read her body, gauging its needs like a maestro did a temperamental instrument. The strings of her desire buried deep in her body tightened, hummed and sang.
His mouth left hers to suckle on her breast, drawing her nipple deep into his mouth, his tongue rolling and circling, rolling and circling while her legs all but folded beneath her. He switched to her other breast, lavishing it with the same wickedly arousing attention.
He moved to the underside of her breast where the skin was supersensitive. No one had ever kissed her there before. No one had ever moved their lips on her with such careful and gentle attention. His lips moved over her skin like a fine sable brush moving over a priceless work of art.
He came back to her mouth, sweeping her away again on a hot, drugging kiss. That was why he was so bewitching. He could be so gentle and yet so passionate. Her body responded with deep clamouring longing, her insides squeezing and contracting with pleasure at the thought of him finally giving in to his desire for her. He was not trying to disguise it. He was not trying to deny it. He was giving it full rein and it was exactly like a bolting horse—fast, furious and unstoppable.
But she wasn’t letting him have it all his own way. She got his belt out of his trouser lugs and unzipped him in a matter of seconds, taking the hot, hard, pulsing heat of him in her hands, stroking him, caressing every inch of his potent length until he was oozing with pre-ejaculatory fluid.
He gave an agonised groan. ‘You’re killing me.’
She sent him a sultry smile. ‘Told you you’re a dead man.’
He sucked in a harsh-sounding breath and pulled her hands away, holding them in a steely grip that made her insides contort with restless need at the latent strength he possessed. ‘No. Wait. Not like this.’
Was he having second thoughts? Pulling away from her intellectually as well as physically? Rejecting her? Aiesha kept her tone light and teasing even though disappointment stalked her. ‘You’re not frightened of a little carpet burn, are you?’
His dark blue eyes searched hers for a moment. ‘I want you so badly I’d lie on a bed of sizzling hot coals or nails. Or both.’