He looked into her eyes, his own black and burning like living coals of fire. ‘You’re a virgin.’
‘Was…’ she murmured distractedly, the acute stab of pain easing and the promise of exquisite pleasure returning as her body adjusted to the rigid fullness of him. She wriggled her hips and clasped her arms a little tighter around his neck.
‘What are you doing?’ Zac demanded, about to pull back, but she wrapped her legs even tighter around his waist.
‘I don’t know—I thought you did.’ She gave him a wicked smile.
Zac grinned, then grimaced in an effort to still his raging body. He looked into her incredible eyes, the pupils big and dark with sensual hunger, and yet humour lurked.
Something squeezed in his chest at the same time as her inner muscles clenched around him. He had never felt anything like it in his life. He caught her husky moans of pleasure in his mouth and began to move slowly. She was so tight he was afraid of hurting her, and, hanging on to his control by a thread, he pushed inch by inch into her sleek silken sheath and then slowly withdrew. Again and again he stroked into the honeyed depths, and only when he felt her whole body begin to convulse in the ultimate pleasure, and heard her keening cry, did his iron control break free. Helpless in the throes of a sensual storm, he plunged hard and fast to join her in an earth-shattering climax.
He rolled on to his back, carrying Sally with him, and held her close against his heaving chest. He had never known a woman like her. Her fabulous body was sinfully sexy, and so instantly responsive to his slightest touch. Usually for Zac sex was a relaxing exercise, with a like-minded woman, during which the sole aim was to make the right moves and lead to a satisfactory conclusion for both.
But with Sally it was a sensual feast—and fun…He couldn’t believe she had been a virgin. He had never made love to a virgin in his life. He had always steered well clear of the innocent type. But now, in a totally proprietorial way, he found enormous satisfaction in knowing he had initiated the lovely Salmacis into the joys of sex, and also oddly protective.
‘Are you all right, Sally?’ he rasped a long moment later, when his breathing had slowed, and he smoothed the hair from her forehead with a hand that was not quite steady. She hadn’t said a word—maybe he had hurt her. He had lost control at the end, and he was a big man with everything in proportion.
Suddenly it occurred to him why she had said no the other night. She had not been teasing; it had been a totally justifiable virginal fear of the unknown, which somehow made him feel a lot better, and yet worse at the same time. He had come on to her like a ton of bricks because he’d thought she was an experienced woman, and nothing could have been further from the truth.
Sally lay against Zac’s chest and listened to his rapid heartbeat beneath her cheek. She heard his question, felt his hand on her head, but didn’t look up. She couldn’t…she was still throbbing internally in the aftermath of the most amazing experience of her life. Her body felt heavy, but paradoxically she was light-headed with the wonder at what had happened.
Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined sex to be so all-consuming—an intensely erotic ride on a one-way ticket to the stars. Zac wasn’t just a magnificent lover, he was the absolute perfect lover, she was sure. But as the tremors finally subsided, and she relaxed into a lazy lethargy with his great body beneath her and the musky scent of sex all around them, she slowly began to recall her own eager, almost brazen actions, and she was embarrassed by them.
‘Sally?’ He tugged lightly on her hair. ‘I asked you if you are okay.’
She had to face him some time, and, pressing her hands against his chest, she slipped down to lie at his side, casting him a sidelong glance. ‘I‘m fine,’ she murmured, feeling inexplicably shy.
Zac rolled off the bed. ‘I need the bathroom,’ he grated.
‘In the hall, opposite the kitchen,’ Sally murmured, but he was already striding across the room, totally at ease with his naked state. Sally watched his progress, secretly admiring his tight bum and broad back. Ta
ll, lithe and golden, he moved like a sleek jungle cat—all hard-packed muscle and sinew, with not a trace of fat on his massive frame. He was her lover, and a delicious little shiver stirred her sated body.
He had worn a condom—hence the bathroom, she suddenly realised. Good, she told herself, but the unbidden thought entered her head, that while she had been lost in mindless ecstasy Zac had still had all his wits about him, and had taken no chances with his bachelor state.
Zac stood in the bathroom, his hands clasping either side of the basin, his head bowed. The best sex of his life, and he had been damned with ‘fine’. Not wonderful, not awesome, not even good. No, he’d got fine. On top of which he felt slightly ashamed—not an emotion he usually suffered from—because he had given her no choice but to sleep with him.
Sally had the ability to confuse and confound him like no other woman he had known, and for the first time in his adult life he actually doubted his sexual prowess. But only for a second.
He lifted his head and ran his hands through his hair. Sally had been with him all the way. She could not have faked her response. She had been like a living flame in his arms. It was her first time, so perhaps she was simply lost for words? And he should not have left her so abruptly—in his experience women liked to be cuddled after sex.
Having analysed her reaction to his own satisfaction, he dismissed the niggling doubt he felt and left the bathroom.
He stopped by the bed and looked down at her. Her glorious red hair was spread across a pillow in a tangled mass of curls, her lips were swollen from his kisses, her exquisite body was spread across the white sheet in lax abandon, and instantly he began to harden again.
She glanced up at him. ‘You’re back,’ she murmured, and moved to give him space. And then he saw the stain. He paused for a moment, then stretched out by her side. He swept a few strands of hair from her face, his expression sombre.
‘You are sure I didn’t hurt you?’
The touch of Zac’s hand on her head and the warmth of his body reached out to Sally, and she lifted her eyes to his. For a moment she could have sworn she saw a look of uncertainty in the liquid depths.
‘I am fine, honestly.’
‘Damn it, Sally!’ He scowled ‘Do you have to say fine to everything?’
‘What do you want me to say?’ she asked teasingly. ‘You were a magnificent lover and I only wish I had known what I was missing, then I would not have waited so long?’ She tried a smile, ridiculously pleased he was back in bed with her.
‘You should have told me you were a virgin.’