‘Don’t,’ he ground out, reaching for her shoulders, drawing her attention to his face.
‘You...don’t like it?’ The uncertainty in her eyes was his undoing.
‘I like it, too much. I haven’t slept with a woman in six years. If you do that again, this will be over.’
‘For now,’ she responded impishly, grinning up at him.
‘For now’was a phrase that held such promise. He had to hold himself back from reminding her that this was not the beginning of a relationship, so much as...what? He couldn’t answer that.
‘Yes, for now,’ he agreed, after a beat. ‘And I want to lose myself in you.’
Her eyes widened and her hands lifted, holding his arousal, as if committing him to memory as he’d done with her, and then she was reaching for the condom and stretching it down his length. The slow procession was torture. At several points, he wanted to take over, but his own hands were shaking and he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to achieve the result any faster.
Finally, he was sheathed, and their passion threatened to engulf them completely. He reached down, lifting Lucinda to standing, kissing her lips, parting her mouth and warring with her tongue as though his life depended on it, as their bodies meshed once more, arms tangled with arms in an effort to get closer, legs pushing between one another’s legs, as they stumbled and tumbled to the bed, finally falling onto it, pens and lipsticks beneath his back as she rolled on top of him, her kiss taking over, dominating, as she straddled him hungrily.
‘Hang on,’ he muttered, reaching behind his back and pulling out her keys, pushing them to one side, then freeing up as much detritus as he could, swiping it from under him, uncaring when it hit the floor with a loud succession of clunks.
She laughed but only for a moment. When he settled back on the bed, she moved her mouth back to his, kissing him and tasting him, lifting her hips and bringing her womanhood closer to his arousal, teasing him with her nearness, until, finally, she wasn’t teasing so much as taking him, all of him, inside. Slowly, slowly, her muscles stretching around his size, inch by inch, until, finally, he was buried deep within her, so tight and spasming that his control was almost completely shot. A sound hissed from between his teeth as he closed his eyes and let the feelings explode through him.
Hell, he wasn’t going to last long. Apparently, taking care of his needs with his own hand was no substitute for actual sex.
He pushed up, rolling Lucinda to her back, staring down at her with a sense of frustration. He needed to control this. He had to be able to pleasure her without losing himself. His pride was at stake here. Thirio was not a selfish lover; he never had been. He loved making women feel good, and that hadn’t changed.
Watching her face, he moved, slowly at first, then faster, all the while concentrating on the nuances of her expression, seeing what she liked most, bringing her to the edge of pleasure slowly, building it within her before pulling back, kissing her gently, relieving the pressure, then building it up again, until, finally, she tipped over, exploding in a loud, frantic, sudden wave, her muscles tightening around him until, control be damned, he was coming too, his own release almost in synch with hers, his body racked by the force of his release as he held himself above her, staring down at Lucinda without seeing her, for the brightness of the shooting stars darting across his eyelids.
He felt as though he’d run a marathon; he felt as though he were king of the world! Everything was bright and shiny and delightful. Now when he stared at Lucinda, she came back into focus, her beautiful face flushed and watchful, those full, angelic lips pouted into a natural smile, her bare décolletage begging for his attention. He dropped his head and kissed her there, feeling the frantic racing of her pulse beneath his lips, tasting her salty perspiration and finding that even that was an aphrodisiac. His arousal jerked inside her, and she made a rasping sound.
‘I appreciate your enthusiasm,’ she whispered into his ear, so he tilted his face and found her watching him with the most angelic expression.
His gut twisted. This was a betrayal in every sense of the word. And yet, he’d made himself clear to her. She wasn’t expecting anything from this, besides sex. How could either of them resist this? Why had he bothered trying? Not for six years had he been tempted, but there was something about Lucinda Villeneuve that had turned his pledge on its head. It went beyond the fact she’d arrived here unannounced and gone toe to toe with him. This was more complicated, more elemental. Completely unavoidable.
‘That was amazing.’
He lifted a single dark brow. ‘There’s room for improvement,’ he conceded, though his body felt pretty bloody great.
‘Oh, really?’ She ran a finger down his cheek, towards his lips. ‘What would you change?’
‘For one thing, I’d have the stamina to give you more than one orgasm.’
‘Not just one orgasm,’ she corrected. ‘A mind-blowing, life-altering orgasm.’
‘Ah.’ He nodded with mock seriousness. ‘Then at least three of those.’
‘Three?’ she repeated incredulously. ‘I can’t even imagine.’
‘You won’t have to imagine.’ He turned his head quickly, capturing her finger between his teeth and biting down on it, so she laughed. ‘Next time.’
The words floated between them, a silent promise that lifted her skin with goosebumps.
‘You certainly know how to set the bar high,’ she said after a moment.
It felt so good to be lying naked with her. He wanted to stay there all evening, until he was ready to take her again, but that was all the more reason he had to move. Oh, he’d succumbed to this, absolutely, but he wasn’t ready to lose all of himself. There still had to be an element of control and separation.
He pulled out of her with regret, standing and turning his back so he could dispose of the condom in a wastepaper basket, before coming back to the side of the bed. She was still lying where he’d left her, completely spent. He studied her, delighting in his effect on her, knowing he should pull her to standing and draw her away from the bed, return to the business she’d come here to do.
But greater forces were at play, and instead Thirio flopped back beside her, albeit with a good two feet of space between them. He propped onto his side, facing her, and a moment later Lucinda did the same thing, echoing his body language. It was almost impossible to lie there and not reach out to touch her, but Thirio wanted to challenge himself, and so he stayed where he was, with all the appearance of being at ease even when a coil was beginning to wind inside his belly, tighter and tighter, building pressure as though he hadn’t just had the mother of all releases.
‘Have you really not slept with a woman in six years?’