Heat, passion, desire. This he could deal with. Two people using one another for pleasure and release. His sex-starved body seemed to have gone into overdrive, wanting all of her at once. That was the only explanation for the overwhelming feelings coursing through him with each touch.
If he wasn’t careful this would all be over before he’d even begun, and he wanted to make this good for her. For both of them. She wanted him just as badly as he wanted her—he could feel it in the gentle flex of her thigh muscles around his shoulders as he moved lower.
Letting go of her wrists, he looked up at her from the valley of her thighs. ‘Take off your dress.’
She slid the material over one shoulder, then the other, drawing it down to her waist. Duarte pulled it the rest of the way, biting down on his lower lip as her perfect porcelain skin was revealed to him inch by inch. Her small firm breasts were tipped with rose, the skin leading down to the lush curves of her waist and hips flawless, with only the lightest silver streaks on her hips to give any hint that she’d been swollen with a child six weeks before.
His eyes fell to the thin pink scar at the bottom of her stomach, his fingers reaching out to caress it. She froze, her hands covering her stomach with a grimace. Duarte frowned, lowering his lips to kiss her navel through her fingers, distracting her and easing the tension away until she was molten beneath him once more.
The idea that she might want her to hide her body from him was ridiculous. Did she not see what he saw? She was beautiful. More than beautiful—she was intoxicating.
He remembered that once, a long time ago, he had believed himself to be an accomplished lover, but right now he felt as if he was drunk on her beauty, his senses overwhelmed and uncoordinated.
Using her responses as his map, he slowly found his rhythm again, leaning down to kiss the inside of one knee and moving slowly upwards. His hands held her hips in place and she gyrated against his grip, begging him to move faster. To take her where she wanted to go.
‘Please, Duarte,’ she breathed, her hands moving down to tangle in his hair once more.
Her words seemed to echo in his mind, and there was something so familiar in them, something so right. He felt as if he had been waiting a lifetime to claim her this way, as if something deep within him craved having her body under his command.
He focused on the slow torture of removing the delicate white silk that was the only barrier left between them. His lips moved slowly along her soft flesh to where a silken thatch of red curls was the last barrier to the heart of her. He knew exactly what she wanted, what she needed, as he set about stroking and kissing her exactly where she needed him most.
Her low, drawn-out moan of pleasure was almost enough to send him over the edge himself. He focused on her, on the erotic breathless sounds she made as she crested towards the release she needed, and prayed that he wouldn’t lose himself in such torture.
She looked down at him, meeting his eyes just as she neared the peak.
‘Come for me, Nora,’ he growled against her, feeling heat pulse in his groin as she followed his command with a brutal arching of her back and a sound that sent him wild.
He was over her in seconds, readying himself at her entrance.
Nora took him into the cradle of her thighs, her heart on the verge of bursting open with pleasure and emotion sweeping through her body. The way he looked down at her as he braced his powerful arms either side of her head... She almost came all over again.
Neither of them spoke as he pressed the tip of himself against her, but his eyes remained focused on her face as he slowly joined them, inch by glorious inch.
She felt a delicious stretch that almost bordered on pain at his more than sizeable girth. She looked away, embarrassed that she was not used to the sensation, and her body seemed to clench momentarily against the invasion.
He frowned, one hand cupping her cheek, forcing her to look up and see the silent question in his golden eyes. She covered his hand with her own, moving slowly against him, testing the sensation and feeling her inner muscles relax and pulse against the heat of him. He followed her lead, withdrawing slowly, then angling himself to move back inside in a slow stroke.
The sudden pulse of electricity that tightened inside her made her gasp, then smile up at him. That was all the encouragement he needed and he slowly moved against her, closing his eyes and letting out a low growl of pure animal pleasure. She moved too, her nails digging into his shoulders as he kept his rhythm slow but firm.
Her body remembered what to do, her hips seeming to arch against him of their own volition, her legs winding around him and pulling him closer. His thrusts became a delicious brutal force against her core, sending her towards a second release.
She didn’t think her body could withstand any more pleasure, but she was wrong. This climax felt completely different from the first, so intense she felt a knot in her throat as he looked down at her and twined his fingers through hers. She had the strongest urge to close her eyes against the intimacy of the moment, fearing she might ruin everything by crying. But if this was the last time he would look at her this way, she didn’t want to hide.
She watched him move, feeling him grind the pleasure between them higher than she’d even thought possible. Just as her pleasure broke, and she heard an earth-shattering moan escape her own lips, he kissed her. His mouth captured the sound as he shuddered, growling into the kiss as he finally gave in and found his own release.
Nora wished they could have stayed lying side by side on the beautiful antique yacht for hours. The gentle sway of the water beneath them made it feel even more like a dream, but like all fairy-tales the magic had a time limit.
When she reluctantly announced that it was time to get back to the house and relieve Inés of her duties, Duarte agreed, helping her to dress. But his attempts at help quickly turned into another frantic lovemaking session, with her pressed against the stern of the ship, looking out at the lights of the town glittering across the black glass of the Atlantic.
Breathless, and drunk on passion, she smiled for the entire drive back to the house.
Inés was waiting in the kitchen and chuckled knowingly at Nora’s rumpled dress, before quickly updating her on Liam’s thoroughly uneventful sleep and leaving them alone.
Nora went upstairs, checking on her son and tucking his covers around him. When she turned around, Duarte was in the doorway of the balcony watching her.
She bit her lower lip, feeling the weight of the moment pressing down on her. She walked towards him, and once more the words she knew she needed to say stuck in her throat, choking her. When she finally reached his side, his fingers came up to her lips.
‘I see that serious look creeping back in,’ he whispered. ‘But the night isn’t over yet.’