CHAPTER TEN
ALEXEISTAREDINTOthose beautiful, sleepy, sherry-brown eyes and didn’t know whether to laugh or run for the hills.
Except running wasn’t an option. Problems had to be confronted. And no matter how delightful she was in his bed, Carissa Carter was a problem with a capitalP.
He should be annoyed she hadn’t warned him she was a virgin. He should be worried that in her inexperience she could misread great sex for something more. He should be checking the storm shutters and weather warnings. And he definitely should be disposing of the condom.
Alexei stayed exactly where he was, surrounded by firm, silky heat. Her legs around his waist were a perfect fit. His eyes flickered shut as he replayed the moment when she’d gripped him hard, everywhere, and he’d been ready to explode like an untested kid.
Speaking of untested... He opened his eyes and focused on the dreamy smile still lingering on Carissa’s lush, reddened mouth. He recalled the taste of her, the hungry, avid kiss that had sent him hurtling over the edge. It made him throb within her and he saw her eyes pop wide.
It surprised him too, the fact that there was a spark of life when he’d spilled himself so completely.
‘Are you okay? Are you sore?’
Move. You need to leave her alone.
Yet he couldn’t bring himself to do it yet. Not when she was so inviting, clinging as if she never wanted to let him go.
Alexei had never liked post-coital pillow talk. He kept a definite line between sex and friendship, not giving lovers the idea they might be in his life long-term. And still he couldn’t bring himself to move.
She shook her head, her dark hair, still damp, sliding around her shoulders and onto the pillow. She wore not a trace of make-up and her only adornment was the pair of tiny, intricate gold earrings she’d worn since she arrived.
Yet she was one of the most alluring women he’d seen. Not a perfect beauty, but then the supposedly perfect beauties he’d known weren’t either. The more time Alexei spent with Carissa, the more fascinated he was by the line of her cheekbones, her lush mouth and speaking eyes.
‘No, I’m not sore.’ She clenched her muscles, gripping him tight, and Alexei felt himself quicken. That should be impossible.
But he was learning to expect the unexpected with Carissa.
‘Still, you should have told me I was your first.’ The words filled him with a mix of feelings. Privilege. Triumph. And, he was stunned to discover, possessiveness. As if he wanted to lay claim to her.
Carissa shrugged, the movement dragging her breasts teasingly across his torso. Another shimmer of tension arrowed to his groin.
‘Maybe. But I was afraid you might stop.’
Did she have any idea what her words did to him? How they encouraged the half-formed lascivious, proprietorial thoughts in his befuddled brain?
‘It would have taken much more than that to stop me.’ He tried to imagine pulling back and couldn’t. As well he hadn’t been put to the test. Alexei prided himself on mastery over his animal instincts. But with Carissa that untamed side came to the fore. He was tempted to see how far this gathering arousal could take him, take them.
Witnessing Carissa lose herself so totally, spread before him like a delectable feast, had been better than anything he remembered for a long time.
Too long. He told himself it had been all work and no play recently. That was why the sex had seemed so preternaturally spectacular.
‘But you enjoyed it.’ It was couched as a statement but Alexei read the question in her eyes. It was a timely reminder that this was new to her. She had no reference point, no way of knowing that they’d shared something out of the ordinary.
How had that happened? Why had such a sensual woman remained celibate? Alexei had no doubt her responses were genuine, not feigned. She enjoyed sex as much as he did. Her patent enthusiasm had added spice to his pleasure.
Why end her virginity now, with him? Because, like him, she’d been unable to resist the elemental attraction that had sparked since she stepped over his threshold?
No, even before that. Alexei had felt it as she stood, arms akimbo, surveying his house. When she’d stared up at him with such arrogant confidence. He’d never experienced anything like it—so instantaneous and compulsive.
But the question remained, why end her virginity today?
Because it could be a useful negotiating tool?
The thought eddied like a circling shark.
Did she think to convince him to go easy on her father, despite his crime? His mouth tightened. Distrust was hard to shake when it was so ingrained.