The flames leapt in his eyes at her gratifying admission. His arm snaked around her waist and he pulled her inside, kicking the door shut on the world as his mouth came down on hers. ‘I’m glad. I want to give you lots of wonderful new experiences,’ he murmured, rediscovering the silky contrast of textures inside her mouth.
As she followed him through to the room where he had first entertained her she noticed him discreetly rotating his left shoulder and wincing.
‘What’s the matter with your arm?’
‘The taxi was involved in a slight accident on the way to Sydney airport.’
‘My God, were you hurt?’ asked Rachel anxiously.
‘I just jolted my shoulder against the seat belt. Actually, I think the stiffness is more a build-up of tension from having to use my laptop exclusively for the last few days…’
All the blood rushed to Rachel’s head. ‘Why don’t you let me help you with that?’ she heard herself say.
‘Help me how?’ he said, crossing to the cabinet on which an ice-bucket now reposed.
‘Give you a massage…for your shoulder,’ she said steadily.
He halted and turned. His chest rose and fell under the dark shirt. ‘Are you offering to take my pain away?’
She moved closer, deliberately taking his words at face value. ‘If you’re over-tense it’s the perfect way to ease your muscles into relaxing—I should know; I’ve just had one myself. Of course it means putting yourself in my hands—’
‘I rather think I’ve done that already.’
‘But I am fully trained.’
His nostrils flared, the skin on his face tightening as his eyes fell from her lustrous eyes to her smudged lips and her silk-sheathed breasts. I—dinner is almost ready,’ he said reluctantly.
She had never felt less hungry in her life. ‘Is it anything that can’t wait?’
‘You mean like a soufflé?’ His sultry smile was crooked. ‘No, nothing that can’t wait…all night long, if necessary.’
Her smoke-coloured eyelids drooped. ‘It might well take all night…if you’re especially stiff…’
His face flushed. ‘I’m sure I’m going to be a very difficult and demanding case…’ he murmured thickly. He looked around the room. ‘Where do you want to do it? The couch?’
She shook her head as she tried to tamp down her excitement. ‘Too soft—not enough support.’ She pretended to consider the other furniture in the room before turning her golden gaze to his. ‘The bed in your room looked fairly firm…’
She saw his hard throat move as he swallowed. ‘Yes, it is.’
‘Well, then…’ She held out her hand with a glittering smile. ‘Shall we go?’
‘Just a moment.’ He snagged the ice-bucket containing a bottle of champagne and two glasses. ‘In case we get thirsty,’ he told her as he took her hand, and fairly raced her up the stairs.
‘The way you’re jostling it, that champagne is going to fizz over when you try to open it,’ she warned as they arrived breathless in his bedroom.
‘That makes two of us,’ he muttered under his breath as he set the ice-bucket down beside the bed and switched on the lamps. He removed his spectacles and swung eagerly towards her. ‘Now what?’
She moistened her lips. ‘Now you take off your shirt. Have you got any lotion I can use?’
‘I’ll have a look.’ He walked towards the bathroom, dragging open his buttons as he went.
‘In fact, take all of your clothes off,’ ordered Rachel daringly as he clicked on the light. ‘It’ll be more comfortable for you that way.’
There was no sound from the bathroom for long moments, and she was about to investigate when he stepped out.
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She sucked in a shaky breath. He was wearing nothing but a small white towel wrapped low on his lean hips, pulling tightly across his strong thighs and exposing a vertical strip of bare skin where the two ends only just overlapped. He stood for a moment, letting her look her fill, revelling in her smoky-eyed approval. Then his muscles meshed smoothly into motion, his skin gleaming like dull satin in the lamplight, as he prowled towards her and handed her a slim bottle of skin moisturiser, and something else.