His hand clutched the nape of her neck briefly, strongly, a display of his power, there and gone in a moment, as he pressed the pad of his thumb to the top of her spine and traced the outline to where the material of her dress barely covered the curve of her hips. She arched into the touch, pressing her breast into his other hand, and nearly cried out as he ran a knuckle over her hardened nipple.
His hands covered her, worshipped her, slipping beneath the material that barely covered her breast and causing her to lean back against him, against the hard ridge of his arousal. Her head drew back to rest against his shoulder, her breathing harsh and her cries of pleasure falling about them, discarded in the air.
‘So glorious. So magnificent...’ Roman’s words were a continuation of the seduction his body was performing.
His hand swept around her neck, cupping her chin in his palm, and she couldn’t help but bend into it, taking his finger into her mouth where his tongue had been, sucking on him, consuming him in any way she could.
She felt him tremble behind her, the action sending fierce satisfaction through her to have this man as weak with need as she was. And then he turned her in his arms once again, to face him, a raised eyebrow taking in that power she felt, appreciating her own power, encouraging it even. The harsh slash of red across his cheeks speaking of his arousal, the ferocity of his gaze speaking of his need.
‘Will you let me give you this, Ella? For just this one night?’
She knew what he was asking. That, no matter how much of a villain she had painted him in her mind, he would not give what she would not willingly take.
And she did want to take it. She wanted to take him. All of him.
‘This will be the end of your thoughts and plans of revenge. I will grant you the divorce you wish for.’
Something deep within her rent apart. She knew, with more certainty than she had ever thought he’d loved her, that this was not a condition but a gift of sorts upon parting. It was this that would symbolise the removal of Roman from her life. Not a signature on a piece of paper, but one indelibly written on her body.
‘Yes.’
* * *
As if the leash had been loosened on the last threads of his restraint, Roman claimed her once again. His lips crashed against hers, his tongue, glorying in its freedom, pressed into the warm wet heat of her mouth.
If he’d known what she would be like beneath his touch, his kiss, he would not have been able to leave her untouched previously. Every inch of
him was drenched with a need he’d never before experienced. He sought not to disguise the way his body trembled but to relish it as he realised that it fed her own desire, her own want. He had not lied when he’d promised to prostrate himself before her. Nor had he lied when he’d proclaimed he’d die a happy man.
His hands went to where his fingers had tripped over the zip as he’d caressed her body, pulling at the tab at the side of the dress and sliding it downward.
She stood before his gaze, unwavering. Only the pulse beating erratically at her throat, her cornflower-blue eyes almost black with desire, the flush across her cheeks speaking of how desperately she was clinging to her own control. And, bastard that he was, he wanted it gone, he wanted her completely at the mercy of her own desire. For if this was to be it, if this was to be their one and only night together before he signed the divorce papers severing their connection, he would give her everything she’d ever wanted in the way that her fiancé had never been able to.
‘Take it off,’ he commanded.
He saw the flash of defiance spark in her eyes, saw her internal war as she battled with his demand, battled with what she wanted and what she thought she should want.
He hadn’t lied when he’d told her that seduction was the giving and taking of power. And if Ella had even an ounce of an idea of how much power she wielded in that moment she would have used it to destroy him completely.
Her hands swept up to the straps on her shoulders and brushed aside the scarlet material. His gaze locked on to the acres of smooth pale skin it revealed as it fell from her body and she kicked it aside with feet still encased in the highest of red leather heels. Her perfect breasts were bare to him, nipples taut and deliciously teasing, as she breathed in deeply beneath his gaze. Her narrow waist flared at her hips, where the smallest of thongs remained to hide the last vestiges of her modesty.
Red. He would always see her in red. And suddenly the memory of the red cape he had bought to replace the one damaged on their first meeting flashed into his mind. But now was not the time for thoughts or fantasies of the past. Now was the time for taking.
He stalked towards her in one powerful stride and halted the moment she placed a hand between them, stopping him in his tracks.
‘Now you,’ she commanded with the power he thought she did not realise she could wield.
He inhaled quickly, sharply, impossibly aroused by her self-possession.
His hands went to the tie around his neck and levered it free, pulling at the silk and casting it aside carelessly. The more she watched, the more her gaze consumed his actions, the more want and desire raged within him. Slowly and deliberately he freed the buttons of his shirt one by one, pulling the cotton from his chest and toeing off his shoes.
When his hands grasped the buckle of his belt, he almost halted his actions, torturously delaying the moment, testing the limits of his self-control. For, no matter how self-possessed Ella appeared to be, he could not forget that she was innocent. That this would be her first time. But he would make sure that this night would be everything he could never give her in the cold light of day. Or any day from here on in. Because this was the last time he would see his wife.
A wife who, for all his protestations, he had manipulated, had coerced into doing his bidding. Well, now he would willingly do hers.
He drew aside the leather belt with a snap, slipping it through the loops holding it in place and tossing it aside. As he drew down the fastenings of his trousers, Ella turned away, once again halting his progress in an instant.
‘If you have changed your mind—?’