His fingers flexed on her arms. ‘You know what I want.’ His jaw tightened. ‘And you want it too. Except you always had to sugar-coat it with all that nonsense about love.’
The barb hit home, but did nothing to quell the flames licking at her core.
‘Sex?’ She huffed out a contemptuous laugh. Not easy when she was about to spontaneously combust. ‘Is that all?’ She pressed closer, rubbed provocatively against the thick ridge in his trousers. Past caring about pride, or maturity, or scruples, as temper and desire raged out of control.
He thought she was still the fanciful naïve virgin who expected love and commitment. Well, she wasn’t, and she could prove it.
‘If that’s all you want, why don’t you take it?’ she goaded, revelling in the rush of power as his eyes darkened. ‘You don’t have to worry. I won’t sugar-coat it a second time.’
His lips crushed hers. He tasted of fury and frustration and demand, his fingers caressing her scalp as he invaded her mouth. She clutched his shoulders and kissed him back, all thoughts of revenge, of vindication, incinerated by the firestorm of need.
He broke away first, only to swing her up in his arms. She fell back on the bed, feeling as if she were careering over Niagara Falls in a barrel—terrified and exhilarated, her body battered by its own sensual overload. He struggled to get the dress over her head, the sibilant hiss of rending fabric drowned out by their laboured breathing. She grasped his shirt, popping buttons, reached for the firm silky flesh beneath as he grappled with her bra, exposing her breasts.
He pushed her back on the pillows, kneeled over her. Unlike that first night, when she’d hidden herself from his sight, she basked in the intoxicating rush of desire as her nipples swelled and hardened under his assessing gaze.
He cupped the heavy orbs, rubbed his thumb over the engorged peaks.
‘Dammit, you’re even more beautiful than I remember.’
The stunned words touched her somewhere deep inside, but the fanciful emotion was lost as he bent forward and captured a nipple with his teeth. A staggered moan escaped as fire blazed down to her core. Grasping his cheeks, she pushed into his mouth. The rasp of stubble against her soft palms as primal as the crude heat burning at her centre.
She watched spellbound and desperate as he scrambled out of his own clothes. Kicking off his loafers, he wrestled out of the torn shirt, and dropped trousers and briefs in a crumpled heap to the floor.
Where once she’d been afraid to look at him, this time she devoured the dark male beauty of his body. Tanned skin, muscled shoulders, a lean ridged abdomen and powerful flanks all vied for her attention. But then her gaze fixed on the long, thick erection, and the tantalising bead of moisture at its tip. Her breath clogged in her lungs as he climbed onto the bed, caging her in.
Reaching, she closed her fingers around the hard, pulsing flesh. Vicious desire coiled as the magnificent erection leapt in response.
He pulled out of her grasp, deft fingers probing beneath the lace of her panties and finding the slick furnace at her core. Sensation assaulted her as he toyed with the hard nub. She sobbed, hurtling towards that brutal edge, but he withdrew.
Her eyes flew open, her senses straining. ‘Don’t stop!’ she cried.
He laughed, the sound raw, and dragged off the thin swatch of lace, casting it over his shoulder. Leaning forward, he whispered against her ear. ‘I’m going to be deep inside you when you come.’
She wanted to make a pithy comeback, but she could barely think let alone speak. All thoughts of caution, of consequences, were lost in the frantic hammer of her heartbeat as he grabbed a foil package from the bedside dresser and rolled on a condom.
He stroked her thighs, held her hips wide. Staring into her eyes, he gripped her bottom and pressed within. She gasped, quivered, stretched unbearably as he eased in up to the hilt.
He was a big man, and the fullness was as overwhelming and shocking now as it had been a decade ago. But this time she didn’t panic. She held on, angling her hips as the pleasure intensified, battering her senses as he paused, allowing her to adjust to the brutal penetration.
She tensed, panting, her skin glowing with sweat as he began to move. She tried to hold back, to make it last, her body buffeted by rolling waves of ecstasy, but the rhythmic thrusts drove her towards orgasm at breakneck speed.
‘Stay with me, bella,’ he grunted, the molten chocolate of his eyes locking hot on her face.
But the tight coil exploded in a blast of raw, delirious sensation.
She screamed out her fulfilment as he shouted his own release, and collapsed with her into oblivion.
‘I’ve never come that fast in my life.’
Issy stiffened at the muffled words next to her ear, the hazy afterglow shattering.
He was still buried deep inside her. Still firm, still semi-erect. His large frame anchoring her to the mattress.
She shoved his shoulder, tried to lower her legs—next to impossible with her thighs clasped tight around his hips. ‘Let me up. I need to leave.’ Now.
He lifted himself off her, and she stifled the groan as her swollen flesh released him with difficulty.
‘What’s wrong?’ he murmured.