That was where he was headed and he didn’t care.
He tried to force his mind to engage in banalities to stem the tidal wave of his orgasm and keep from disgracing himself. Against shuttered lids, he conjured a picture of the Sunday service at Riverbend Church; the board of directors of the Mill discussing the end of year’s report...but every single image crashed and burned to be replaced by the glorious sight he’d glimpsed in the dark glass as her tongue licked and swirled, her mouth suckled. An image he feared would now be lasered into his brain for ever more.
He groaned, the heat curling and twisting and then yanking hard in his groin as her hot, beautiful mouth feasted on the last few ounces of his self-control.
His fingers tightened in the mass of curls as he dragged himself away from her. ‘Enough.’ Hooking his hands under her arms, he hoisted her off her knees.
Her cheeks pinkened as those bright green eyes flickered with challenge. ‘Why did you stop me? I was enjoying myself.’ The pouting lips made the heat pulse and throb harder.
He grabbed her wrist as she reached for him. ‘Uh-uh. I said enough.’
She cocked one perfectly plucked eyebrow. ‘Why? From all that moaning you were doing, I got the definite impression you were enjoying it too.’
He grinned. Damned if she wasn’t as wild and reckless and wanton as she’d ever been beneath that layer of chic sophistication—and didn’t that make her perfect for him? In the only way that mattered now.
‘I didn’t say I wasn’t enjoying it,’ he said, his gaze steady and his voice firm, or as firm as it could be while he was clinging onto control by his fingertips. ‘I just don’t want to come that way. Not this time.’
‘Spoilsport.’
He laughed, but tightened his hold on her wrist and brought her fingers to his lips. ‘I want to be inside you, Gina. I want to watch you climax with me—you’re even more gorgeous when you come.’
He kissed her knuckles and a wary look crossed her face, giving him another disarming glimpse of the girl he remembered, who had been so bold sexually, and yet so unsure at the slightest sign of tenderness.
She draped her arms over his shoulders, threaded her fingers into his hair to drag him close, the siren returning full force—and he dismissed the sentimental thought. After all, there was nothing tender about tonight, and what he planned to do to her.
‘Well, all you had to do was say so, Rhett,’ she purred.
Brushing the riotous hair back from her face, he kissed her long and hard, thrusting his tongue into her mouth and forcing her to submit this time.
Cupping her generous butt in his hands, he boosted her into his arms, dumped her onto the room’s kingsize bed. ‘Consider yourself told.’
* * *
Gina laughed, the desire coursing through her veins and the electric connection that snapped to life between them making her feel free and unencumbered for the first time in a long time. It felt so good to relinquish control, to be able to take what she wanted without fearing the consequences.
Carter wouldn’t judge her, because he knew who and what she really was. When it came to sex—hot, hard, explosive sex—they had always been kindred spirits.
He bracketed her hips and pressed his lips to her pulse point, drawing her knees up and positioning himself above her—but as she took in a deep lungful of that tangy masculine scent the press of his erection registered. The intoxicating desire ripped away to be replaced by a jolt of panic. Slapping her hands against his shoulders, she forced him back.
‘Wait, Carter. You have to use protection.’
He lifted his head, his eyes a little unfocused, a little dazed.
‘Please tell me you have something with you, because I don’t,’ she continued, the panic making her voice hitch. She should have said something sooner, much sooner. Why hadn’t she?
‘Yeah, sure. Sorry.?
? He raked a hand through his hair. ‘Wait right there.’ He jumped off the bed and padded to the suite’s bathroom, his naked butt gilded by the moonlight.
She stared at the ceiling, the sudden realisation of what they’d almost done—a second time—dousing the flames.
He reappeared in the doorway of the bathroom. Her pulse hammered at the imposing sight silhouetted in the doorway. But as he returned to her she was hurled back to a time in her life that had left her hollow and empty and devastated. A time she had forced herself never to acknowledge. She sat up, threw her legs over the bed.
‘I have to go,’ she said, struggling to keep her voice steady as the brutal memory hovered too close, threatening to engulf her.
‘Why?’ He caught her wrist, preventing her from moving as he sat beside her. ‘I found what we needed.’
He threw a handful of foil packets on the bedside table.