He tugged at his belt and impatiently shrugged off his own clothes and she was still trembling when he drew her down onto the bed and covered her with his mouth and his body.
‘Zara,’ he whispered.
His kisses were heated and his fingers roved hungrily over her breasts until he found even more intimate quarry and he gave a little moan as he encountered her slick heat and began to move rhythmically against it.
‘I don’t want to wait,’ he declared.
‘Then don’t,’ she urged him just as fiercely as she took the condom from him and began to slide it on. Her fingers were shaky and her movements imprecise and she heard him mutter something harsh and fervent in his native tongue.
‘For God’s sake,’ he ground out. ‘You’re driving me crazy.’
‘Do it to me, Nikolai,’ she whispered. ‘Do it to me now.’
The rising notes of her erotic plea splintered his composure as he thrust into her and she gasped as he entered her, just as deep as he could go. It felt so good, he realised distractedly as he filled her hot, tight heat. Better every time. He could feel his control slipping and concentrated instead on her little cries of pleasure which were accompanying every sweet thrust. These walls must be thin, he thought suddenly as he lowered his mouth to hers in a hard kiss which muffled the sound.
He moved on her. In her. Again and again he brought her to the brink until she was mindless with pleasure as she writhed beneath him. Her silken skin felt so cool and welcoming and he could taste the bittersweet taste of lemonade on her mouth. Taut nipples contrasted with the soft weight of her breasts as they pushed against him. And then, just when he thought he could not bear it for one second longer, her supple body began to arch beneath his. Like a marksman’s bow, was his last conscious thought as his orgasm arrowed through him and he lifted his head and cried out.
Afterwards, they lay there, damp limbs tangled due to lack of space as Nikolai traced a little circle around the dip of her navel. Time seemed suspended and all Zara could hear was the sound of his breathing and the muffled slowing of her own heartbeat.
‘I think there had better be some changes in the future,’ he said eventually.
She turned onto her side. ‘Oh?’
‘I’m giving you a key.’
‘A key?’ she echoed blankly.
‘To my house. It’s impractical for you to have to rely on the housekeeper every time you want to get in.’ Didn’t she realise the significance—he who had never given a woman a key before? And yet something made him wary of telling her—because it might be only a temporary measure. Probably was only a temporary measure. He’d be bored with her by the time the year was out—and she would probably be bored with him, too. ‘And I want you in my house as much as possible, Zara.’
She stared at him. Surely giving her a key to his house was a small step forward—perhaps the first of many? Was Nikolai beginning to acknowledge that she did mean something to him? She kept her voice studiedly neutral. ‘Do you? ‘
‘Mmm. Preferably in my bed,’ he murmured as he drifted his lips over her throat. ‘You were born to grace my bed.’
Zara’s smile didn’t slip. What had she thought? That because she’d encouraged him to confront the truth of his past he would somehow come out with a great outpouring of love and emotion? That just because he had been tender and sweet with her in the garden, it actually meant something? Tender and sweet was what men did when they wanted sex with a woman. And biting back feelings of insecurity was what women did when they loved a man…‘I guess I should
say thank you.’
‘Oh, I think you can show your thanks in other ways, milaya moya.’ He pushed a wayward strand of hair away from the tempting curve of her lips and looked at her consideringly. ‘I take it that you still won’t give up your waitressing work?’
She shook her head. ‘You know I can’t do that, Nikolai.’
Their conflicting needs hovered in the air between them but Nikolai knew that it would be dishonest to make her any promises. Not unless he was sure he could keep them …
‘In that case, you have to be prepared for me to travel—because that’s what much of my work entails. If you’re free to come with me, so much the better—but if not, then I will need to go on my own. Oh, and maybe we should venture out a little beyond the bedroom from now on. And if you’re going to start regularly accompanying me to social events, then you really will have to let the stubborn pride thing go.’
She creased her face up in a frown. ‘What do you mean?’
‘You’re going to have to start letting me provide you with a suitable wardrobe. You can’t keep borrowing dresses from Emma at the last minute.’ He slipped his hand between her legs and saw her eyes darken. ‘Can you?’
Zara swallowed as she tried to quell the rising tide of desire—but she was lost. She was about to bury her principles and take whatever it was that Nikolai wanted to offer her, because she loved him too much to walk away. And because there was a small spark of hope deep inside her, which made her wonder if he could ever open his cold and empty heart and find some warmth within.
He would give her a key to his house, and the price for that would be that she would allow him to clothe her as he saw fit. And she would let him because she loved him and would never give up hoping that one day he might love her back.
Love had weakened her and desire had sapped what strength was left, allowing her to morph into being a wealthy man’s commodity; his mistress.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
‘SO YOU’LL be back…when?’