When he had imagined her begging for him he had envisaged feeling a sense of triumph. If he did feel triumphant now, it was lost in the power of his answering emotion, a mixture of hunger, need and uncontrollable craving.
He was beginning to get an idea of what people meant when they said that they just couldn’t help themselves. In the past, he had always been contemptuous of any such notion, figuring that when excuses were in short supply that was the inevitable lame fallback. Now he wasn’t so sure. He might be in the driving seat but he wasn’t too sure if he was steering the car.
‘I want you,’ Heather breathed huskily. ‘And I can’t wait.’
‘Music to my ears.’
Heather watched with indrawn breath as he kissed his way down and finally paused at her heaving breast where he began ministering to one stiffened nipple, first teasing it with the tip of his tongue until she could bear it no longer, then pressing his head down so that he could take the engorged disc into his mouth, suckling on it while he continued to caress her other breast, leaving her breathless and whimpering and arching up under him so that she could feel the hardness of his erection against her.
It was exquisite torment. He had promised not to rush, and he was true to his word. When she could contain herself no longer, and made to touch the honeyed dampness between her legs that was driving her crazy, he caught her straying hand and responded by hauling himself up into a kneeling position, all the better for her to taste him and feel his big body shudder as she licked and caressed his rigid length.
It was a massive turn on to raise her eyes and see this powerful, unbearably sexy man shorn of his control, his head flung back as she lavished all her attention on pleasuring him.
When he curled his fingers into her hair and pulled her away from him, she knew it was because he was only a whisper away from losing control completely and she stilled as his raspy breathing steadied.
‘Bad girl.’ He grinned wolfishly down at her. ‘Now I’m going to have to punish you…’
The punishment was tactile and verbal as he explored every inch of her restless body, murmuring smouldering, sexy endearments that made her turn to liquid. No one had ever talked dirty to her before, and it was amazing how primitive and erotic it could be. By the time he trailed his tongue along the flat planes of her stomach, Heather felt that the merest whisper of a breath could send her spiralling out of control.
He gave her a few seconds for her body to reach some semblance of calm, before nudging her thighs open with his hand and lowering his head between her legs so that he could breathe in the essence of her.
Heather felt a flare of panic at this shocking act of intimacy. Her experience when it came to men was strictly limited to her ex-husband, who had never had a great deal of interest in the concept of foreplay. She squirmed away from Leo’s inquisitive mouth, but he was having none of that.
‘I’ve never…’ She stumbled anxiously over her words and he soothingly ran his hand along her thigh. He was incredulous that there were such huge gaps in her sexual knowledge. To have been married and not explored the glory of making love seemed to him a crime, and an indictment of the kind of man she had chosen to hitch her carriage to. If she had been married to him…
Closing his mind to a concept that had become totally alien to him after his own bad experience, and disconcerted that he had even been thinking along those lines, Leo resolved to show her just what she had been missing.
She quivered uncontrollably as he parted her womanhood so that he could run the tip of his tongue along her, gently honing in on her most sensitive bud. He felt her draw her breath in sharply as he began teasing it.
It felt unbelievably good to be pleasuring her in this way, giving her the first of what he wanted to be many new experiences. Even this brief flash of life with a woman planned ahead was something to be shoved away. He concentrated on driving her wild, lost himself in her body as she bucked and arched against him, her hands clutching at the duvet as his tongue continued to pleasure her.
He had told her to lie back and enjoy. But at the moment, with his dark head burrowing between her legs and his tongue sending her into rapturous response, lying back was the last thing Heather was capable of doing. Her body was seized by spasms of sheer, sensuous, wanton pleasure. She could hear the blood coursing hotly through her veins, and she had zero control over her own charged limbs as she raised her pelvis to his mouth.
She moaned when she was rocked to an explosive orgasm, and she hadn’t even surfaced from that earth shattering experience when Leo drove into her with a grunt of satisfaction, picking up a grinding rhythm that sent her hurtling back to climax for a second time.
She was breathless when they eventually came down from their passionate heights, and was suddenly overcome by a wave of shyness so that she rummaged to draw the duvet around her.
‘Bit late for modesty,’ Leo murmured wryly. He propped himself up on one elbow and tilted her face so that she was looking at him. What he wanted to ask her was was that the best sex you’ve ever had? And this surprised him, because Leo didn’t do insecurity, not on any front and certainly not on the physical front.
‘And don’t even think of telling me that it was all a mistake and you’re never going to come near me again.’ He reached over to plant a delicate kiss on her thoroughly ravished lips. ‘And don’t drape that duvet over you.’ He yanked it off and let his eyes boldly roam over her flushed body. ‘You have a fantastic body. Curves in all the right places.’ He trailed one long finger along her waist and then over her breasts, circling her nipples and laughing softly as the tiny buds tightened under the feathery caress.
‘Since when are curves fashionable?’
‘You don’t really believe that, do you?’
‘I guess not.’ Heather laughed and then looked at him seriously. She wanted to touch him so badly that it hurt, but she had to have the big ‘what happens next?’ question answered. ‘Although I came pretty close to it when I found out that my beloved husband had been having affairs behind my back. Affairs with very skinny women who didn’t embarrass him by doing something so uncool as eating.’
‘Remind me never to bump into that creep,’ Leo said. ‘I might be tempted to send him on a one-way trip to Mars courtesy of my fists.’
‘That’s very gentlemanly of you,’ Heather said, astonished, and Leo flushed darkly and shrugged.
‘I have no time for married men who fool around. I might play the field, but I have certain codes of conduct, believe it or not.’ He rolled over onto his back and stared up at the ceiling.
‘Does your code of conduct permit one-night stands?’ Heather asked lightly.
Leo turned to look at her. ‘Is that your way of asking me whether I want more of you?’
‘Maybe you should be asking me whether I want more of you.’
‘You’re kidding, right?’
Which was a sharp reminder of just how he saw her, Heather thought. He might wax lyrical about her body, but to him she was an amusing interlude, a break from his normal routine, someone who should be happy and grateful that he had found her attractive. She wasn’t going to feel sorry for herself, though. She had made her choice—which didn’t mean that she was going to jettison her pride.
‘No, I’m not kidding.’
Leo tensed. Had he been thinking long term? No. That wasn’t his style. Been there, done that. But he had been thinking longer than a night. Having been put in a position where he wasn’t calling the shots, he was uneasily aware of a feeling of impotence and he didn’t care for it.
‘Don’t think,’ Heather said carefully, ‘that because I’ve slept with you, that I’ve dumped all my principles about waiting for the right guy…’ Some primitive instinct for survival kicked in, making her realise that the last thing she should do was hand over all control to him. ‘I haven’t, because you were right about not confusing sex with love.’
Leo knew that he should have been relieved at that, but why was his relief taking the form of irritation? Why was he thinking that that just wasn’t what he was in the mood to hear?
‘Are you trying to tell me that you’re just using me for my body?’ He could hear the dark edge to the lightly spoken statement.
‘It’s a very nice body.’
‘But you’re still waiting for Mr Right.’
‘And he’s going to show up one day.’
‘But, meanwhile, why not give in to a little temptation?’ This was all good, he told himself. In fact, it couldn’t have been better. ‘Suits me.’ He cupped her face possessively, stirring into response as her breasts brushed his arm. ‘Now, why don’t I show you what a long way a little temptation can get a girl?’
CHAPTER EIGHT
HEATHER had had no real idea where she imagined their relationship heading. She had given in to wild impulse, to a driving desire to fling herself into the maelstrom of living with her emotions and not just with her head. That had been two weeks ago and now, as she sat in the quietude of her studio—which Leo had had transported to Katherine’s house with breathtaking speed and efficiency—she allowed herself a little time to contemplate the ramifications of her well-intentioned lapse of judgement.