‘Do you always waste so much time talking?’
she purred.
Her softly spoken tease made the atmosphere change. She could sense a new tension in him as he picked her up and carried her over to the bed, not bothering to pull back the bedsheet as he laid her on it. His eyes were unfathomable as he stared down at her.
‘Forgive me for not recognising your...’ he slid his hand between her legs, pushing aside the panel of her panties with a murmur of acknowledgment as he flicked his finger over her slick, wet heat ‘...impatience.’
Keeley swallowed because now his finger was working with a purpose and she could feel the heat inside her building. She wanted him to kiss her again but the only area he seemed interested in kissing was her torso and then her belly and then...then... She sucked in a shocked breath as he pulled down her panties and moved his head between her legs so that she could feel the tickle of his thick hair brushing against her thighs. Her body was tensed for what was going to happen next but nothing on earth could have prepared her for that first sweet lick. She jerked on the bed and tried to wriggle away from the almost unendurable pleasure which was spiralling up inside her, but he was holding her hips so she couldn’t move. And so she lay there helplessly—a willing prisoner of the Greek tycoon as layer upon layer of pleasure built to such a level of intensity that when it broke it felt like a swollen river bursting its banks and she screamed out his name.
As the spasms slowly ebbed away she felt a delicious warmth seeping through her body and opened her eyes to find him leaning over her, a trace of amusement curving the edges of his lips.
‘Mmm...’ he said softly. ‘For a woman who blows so hot and cold, I didn’t expect you to be quite so vocal. Are you always so sweetly enthusiastic when you come, Keeley—or are you trying to massage my ego by acting like that was the first orgasm you’ve ever had?’
Keeley wasn’t sure how to answer. She wondered if it would be shameful to admit she’d never experienced pleasure like that before and wondered how he would react if he realised just how sketchy her sexual experience was. She licked her lips. Don’t frighten him away, she told herself. Why shatter this deliciously dreamy mood with reality? Tell him what he expects to hear. Be the woman you’ve never dared be before.
‘You shouldn’t be so good,’ she said lazily. ‘And then I wouldn’t be quite so...vocal.’
‘Good? Are you kidding? I haven’t even started yet,’ he murmured.
She swallowed, and suddenly she felt out of her depth. ‘I’m not...’
His gaze lasered into her. ‘Not what, Keeley?’
She licked her lips again. ‘I’m not on the pill or anything.’
‘Even if you were, I always like to be doubly sure,’ he said, his voice hardening as he groped around in the pocket of his trousers until he’d found what he was looking for.
Keeley watched as he slid the condom on and thought how anatomical this all seemed—as if emotion played no part in what was about to happen. She swallowed. Had she really thought it might be otherwise—that Ariston Kavakos might show her tenderness or affection?
‘Kiss me,’ she said suddenly. ‘Please. Just kiss me.’
Ariston frowned as she made her breathless appeal and as he gave himself up to the kiss she’d demanded, his heart clenched. Hell... She was so...surprising. One minute the cool seductress and the next—why, she was almost shy. After making him wait longer than he’d ever had to wait for anyone, she was so sweet in her response. Had she learned at the knee of her mother how best to captivate a man? Had she discovered that keeping them guessing was the ultimate turn-on for men who’d seen everything, done everything and sometimes been bored along the way?
He felt as if he wanted to explode as he stroked her and kissed her and his heart was pounding as he moved over her, sucking in a deep breath of anticipation as, slowly, he entered her. And wasn’t the most insane thing that he was almost disappointed at the ease with which he thrust into her slick, wet heat? Hadn’t he been fantasising about her for so long that he’d allowed himself the ultimate illusion—and hadn’t her wild reaction to her orgasm only reinforced that crazy notion? That maybe she was a virgin and maybe he was the first...
But his insanity lasted no longer than a second before he began to relax and to feast himself on all the soft and curvy flesh which was just there for the taking. She was so hot. So tight. He caught his hands under her thighs and hooked her legs around his back, enjoying her little squeals of pleasure as he increased his penetration. He drove into her hard and harder still, deliberately holding back until she could bear it no longer and called out his name again. And then she just went under, her body arching into a tight bow until she let it go with one long and shuddering cry. And wasn’t this his fantasy? Not some woman she could never be, but Keeley Turner underneath him while he rode her, with those soft thighs tensing as she came all over again. He waited until her soft moans had died away and only then did he allow himself his own release, his heart clenching as the seed pumped hotly from his body and he reminded himself that this was what it was all about. The ultimate conquest of a woman who had been haunting him for years. A farewell to something which should have been finished eight years ago.
He fell asleep afterwards and when he awoke it was to find his lips touching one pouting breast. Barely any movement was needed to take the puckered nipple deep into his mouth and to graze it with his teeth and lick it, until she was squirming beneath him and before he knew what was happening he was inside her again. This time it was longer. Slower. As if it were all happening in some kind of dream. But his orgasm just went on and on and on. Afterwards he rolled onto his back, careful to allow her head to rest on his shoulder because women were very susceptible to rejection at times like this—and although he planned to wave her goodbye in the very near future, it certainly wouldn’t be tonight. But he needed to think about what happened next because this was a situation which would need unusual levels of diplomacy. His fingertip skated a light survey over her belly and he felt her shiver in response.
‘Well,’ he whispered. ‘I can’t think of a more satisfactory end to the evening.’
Keeley nodded, trying not to show her disappointment. Of all the things he could have said and he came out with something like that. Why, he made her feel like an after-dinner brandy he’d consumed! She licked her swollen lips. But what did she expect? Words of admiration and affection? Ariston telling her she was the only woman for him and that he wanted a relationship with her? Of course not. It was what it was, she told herself fiercely. A one-night stand which wasn’t supposed to mean anything. So she rolled away from him, shaking her tangled hair free as she attempted to find the level of sophistication which this kind of situation no doubt called for.
‘Indeed it was,’ she agreed coolly.
There was a short silence for a moment, during which he seemed to be mulling over his words.
‘I’m surprised Santino didn’t try to follow you down here to get to you before I did,’ he said eventually.
It was such a random remark that Keeley frowned as she turned her head to look at him, pushing back a handful of untidy hair. ‘Why on earth would he have done that?’
He shrugged. ‘I noticed how much attention he was paying you throughout dinner.’
‘Did you?’ she said, without missing a beat.
‘I certainly did. And after you’d gone Santino and Rachel left pretty abruptly too. We could hear them arguing all the way back to their room.’
‘And you thought...what?’ she questioned softly as some inner warning system began to sound inside her head. ‘Did you think it was about me?’