For the longest of moments, Carla had really thought Rico was going to stick to his guns in refusing her request and she’d been all ready to back down, since a no was, after all, a no, even a humiliating one. But to her relief he’d obviously had a change of heart because the next thing she knew she was in his arms and he was kissing her as if his life depended on it.
She softened and melted into him instantly, parting her lips and moaning his name as they came together in a clash of teeth and tongues and a tangle of hands. She wound her arms around his neck and pressed herself close, and at the feel of him, so big and solid against her, shivers shot down her spine.
To actually be able to touch him after a morning spent resisting the urge to do exactly that was utterly intoxicating and she couldn’t get enough. She ran her hands over his shoulders and down his arms and he shuddered and groaned into her mouth. His muscles tensed with every caress and she could feel his granite-hard erection pressed against her.
With one hand he angled her head and deepened the kiss, and her breasts tightened and tingled, her nipples stiffening with the need to be touched. With the other he pulled her hips more tightly to him, sending shocks of electricity spiralling through her.
When he pulled back, breathing raggedly, he looked as if he was in as much of a fog as she was. The blue of his eyes had darkened to the deepest navy, the desperate hunger she could see in them reflecting the frantic need she knew her own contained. Before he could have time to even think about the wisdom of what he was doing she breathed huskily, ‘Complete the tour and show me your room,’ and thankfully he didn’t need to be told twice.
Taking her hand, he strode into the house and across the hall. At the bottom of his stairs he stopped, his eyes blazing and a muscle pounding in his jaw, and said, ‘Go on ahead.’ In response to the quizzical look she gave him, he merely added, ‘I had a fantasy about exactly this scenario only yesterday afternoon.’
‘What was I doing?’ she said, her pulse thudding heavily at the dizzying realisation that he’d imagined this, just as she had.
‘Simply walking up the stairs.’
‘I think I can do better than that.’
She turned and began slowly climbing the stairs, swinging her hips and running her fingers over the banister as she went. Halfway up, she paused to look over her shoulder and give him a wicked grin, and the intensity with which he was watching her knocked the breath from her lungs. At the top, she crooked her finger at him, and within seconds he’d taken the steps two at a time.
‘How was that?’ she breathed as he led her into his bedroom with indecent haste.
‘Better than I could possibly have imagined.’
He had her back in his arms in a flash and in between hot, frantic kisses she tugged on his T-shirt while he shoved her top up, only releasing her so that they could free themselves of items that neither had any need for. Jeans and shorts and shoes immediately followed and then he was backing her towards the bed and tumbling her onto the mattress.
For a moment, as she lay sprawled on the sheets catching her breath, he just stood there staring at her as if he’d never seen a nearly naked woman before, and while every cell of her body quivered in response to the heat of his gaze she took the opportunity to do the same.
Everywhere she looked she saw hard muscle and tanned skin, his broad chest and powerful thighs sprinkled with a smattering of rough, dark hair. In the region of his hips and pelvis were scars which, in contrast to those on his chest, were livid and recent, presumably a result of the surgery he’d had to have. But she couldn’t have asked him about them even if she’d wanted to. All her attention was drawn to the enormous erection that lay beneath the fabric of his black shorts and made her pulse race and her mouth water.
As stunning as the view was, though, the desperation throbbing inside her was becoming intolerable.
‘What are you waiting for?’ she said with a seductiveness that was surprising even to her ears.
‘You’re too perfect.’
If only he knew, she thought, the gruffness of his voice tugging at something deep inside her. She might not have too many lumps and bumps on the outside, but the fears and doubts she had on the inside more than made up for it. ‘Believe me, I am far from perfect. But I am burning up with desire for you. I need you. Now, Rico.’
He must have heard the desperation in her voice because in an instant he’d joined her on the bed. He lowered himself on top of her, pressing her down with his delicious weight, his hardness a heady contrast to her softness. With a rough groan he brought his head down to hers and captured her mouth with a mind-blowing kiss, and she wound her legs around his hips and her arms around his neck until she was enveloped by his scent and warmth and her head cleared of everything but him.
After a moment that seemed to stretch for hours he rolled onto his back, taking her with him, which had her straddling him and rubbing herself against his erection, her breaths coming in short, ragged pants while he undid the clasp of her bra. She shrugged it off, her blood thick and hot, her pulse thundering, and a moment later he flipped her back over.
‘Nifty,’ she gasped.
‘A miracle, quite frankly,’ he murmured. ‘A couple of days ago a move like that would have had me reaching for the painkillers.’
She grinned and then he cupped her breast, his palm fitting to her perfectly, and her smile gave way to a sigh as sensation skated through her body. She arched her back and he trailed kisses down her throat, across the slope of her chest and took her hard nipple in his mouth. She moaned his name and grabbed his hair, and when he moved his other hand down her body, his fingers slipping beneath the waistband of her knickers and then into her tight, slick heat, she gasped.
He transferred his attention to her other breast while he rubbed her clitoris with his thumb, his fingers moving inside her, and all coherent thought fled. When he shifted and moved and added to her torment by putting his mouth to the spot where his fingers and thumb were creating suc
h devastation she nearly leapt off the bed.
‘Enough,’ she panted after a few minutes of agonisingly exquisite torment.
‘No.’
‘Yes. I want you inside me when I come. Don’t make me beg.’
‘It has a certain appeal.’