CHAPTER NINE
THETOUCHOFhis lips on hers was gentle yet not tentative. As if he gave her time to adjust to the inevitable.
And itdidfeel inevitable.
As if she’d waited half her life for this. As if the kiss they’d shared on the sand hours ago had evoked a longing that, once roused, couldn’t be assuaged or argued away by common sense.
Common sense?
Where was that as Mina curled her fingers around those hard, wet shoulders?
Where was it as his kiss deepened and Mina not only opened for him but slicked her tongue against his, curling, inviting,demandingmore?
She’d learned a lot from their earlier kiss. It had blasted away the little she’d thought she knew about kissing. Her limited experience hadn’t prepared her for Alexei’s wholesale takeover of her senses.
He didn’t even touch her, except for his lips and tongue, but that was enough to create a sensual storm. Mina was swept away, clinging to his shoulders for support and to prevent him pulling back.
She’d been the one to withdraw last time. His hand on her breast had broken the moment, terrifying her. Not because he’d overstepped the bounds. But because Mina had been overwhelmed by how much she’d wanted more. How reckless he made her.
Stupid. Thoughtless.
The words lost their sting as Alexei’s heat swamped her and she felt his body all down hers. He angled his head for better access to her mouth and growled his appreciation as she sucked his tongue hard.
Had she ever heard such a sexy sound? It made her nipples pebble and heat blossom at the apex of her thighs where she felt an achy emptiness.
Mina might have an impulsive streak but in some things she was innately cautious. She’d never given herself to a man. Never been attracted enough to trust someone so intimately. Never been so swept away that it wasn’t a matter ofifbutwhenshe surrendered.
Alexei made her feel more than she’d thought possible.Thatscared her. He didn’t.
Fingers still curled into his shoulder muscles, she turned her head, breaking the kiss. The sound of their ragged breathing filled the air.
‘You don’t really want me here.’ Mina struggled to find an argument that would end this.
‘But I need you here.’ His words were hot on her sensitised skin, his mouth moving against her cheek in a caress that made her tremble.
‘Only as bait to lure him.’ She gasped the words, trying to catch her breath. Trying to find the strength to push Alexei away. If she had any self-respect, she’d stop this.
His fingers gripped her chin, inexorably turning her head. Alexei was so close she fell into that malachite gaze.
‘He can go to hell. All I can think about is you.’ Alexei frowned, his look almost savage, his breathing as uneven as Mina’s. ‘If you’d been seriously hurt out there...’ He shook his head. ‘You have no idea how I felt, thinking about that.’
Mina read the echo of her own stark emotions in Alexei’s flared nostrils, tight jaw, grim line of mouth and shadowed eyes.
‘Believe me, I know.’ Mina couldn’t hold back the words. ‘When I thought about how I’d put you at risk I felt sick.’ Alexei’s hand softened against her face, palming her cheek, inviting her to turn her head into his touch. She did, luxuriating in the comfort of it, even as it sent a buzz of adrenalin ricocheting through her body. ‘It’s crazy. I don’t even know you—’
‘And you don’t like me,’ he added with a wry tilt of his mouth.
‘I don’t think this is about liking.’ What she felt came from a deep, vital part of herself and it demanded honesty. She was beyond prevarication.
The hint of humour in his expression died. ‘Carissa, I—’
‘No!’ She pressed her fingers to his mouth, desperate to stop his words. Mina couldn’t bear for him to call her by her friend’s name. Not when she trembled on the brink of something so huge. ‘Don’t say anything. No more words, please.’
There were lies enough between them. But what she felt, however unexpected, was real. More real than anything she’d felt for any other man.
It had to be just sex. It couldn’t be anything more. Yet this felt as unstoppable as sunrise. As wondrous as a child’s smile.
She could no more turn her back on this than she could stop the storm outside.