CHAPTER SEVEN
HEATEDARGUMENTWAS swirling in Letty’s busy brain and then she was pierced by heat of a different kind.
A long shiver snaked through her and she trembled, desire like a living flame flaring low in her belly. She didn’t understand her response or the sudden dimming of rational thought and, being Letty, she struggled to comprehend how her physical response could overwhelm her mental reactions. And in that moment of disconcerted stasis Leo tangled his tongue with hers, skated it over the roof of her mouth and her legs literally went weak. Ultimately that didn’t matter because he was already leaning her up against him for support while tugging down the straps on her maxi dress and letting it fall to the floor.
Eyes fluttering in dismay, Letty found herself lying back on the bed with no clear awareness of how she had arrived there. She gazed up at Leo worriedly, painfully sober, painfully aware of the size of her bare breasts, which had always been larger and more noticeable than she was comfortable with, but then bosomy women ran in the family genes and she hadn’t got a choice in the matter.
‘Theé mou…’Leo groaned with unashamed appreciation. ‘You have gorgeous breasts.’
Taken aback, Letty peered down at her attributes in bewilderment as Leo curved what could only be described as reverent hands to the bountiful swell of her breasts, shaping and moulding them, fingers grazing the stiffened peaks, lingering to rub the sensitive tips and provoke a breathy gasp from her lips as an arrow of heat ran down to her pelvis. Leo liked her body, Leo accepted her as she was, and a whole slice of her anxiety fell away in that moment. He closed his mouth to a tender pink nipple and she jerked in surprise, unprepared for the pulsing ache stirring at the heart of her body.
A sensual daze cocooned her as a tightening sensation banded her womb, her hips pushing up for relief as he teased a swollen bud with the edge of his teeth and moved hungrily to the other. Answering heat sizzled through her quivering body before the slowly heightening delight just seemed to explode deep down inside her, sending streamers of multi-coloured fire darting through every nerve-ending she possessed and dragging a cry from deep in her throat. Stray convulsions of pleasure continued to tug at her as she flung her head back in reaction, her honey-blonde mass of hair spreading across the pillows in a silken tangle.
‘You’re very sensitive there, meli mou,’ Leo murmured with satisfaction, long fingers gently brushing an almost painfully tender pink nipple. ‘I love that.’
Letty lifted a hand to frame one high cheekbone, utterly mesmerised by the smouldering blaze of his dark golden eyes. Her other hand curved to a bare bronzed shoulder with a new sense of intimacy that pleased her almost as much as it unnerved her. She liked the feel of his hot smooth skin and that was fine, perfectly acceptable as long as she accepted that that physical connection was as much as she could allow herself to feel for him.
‘What are you thinking about?’ Leo demanded with a disconcerted frown.
‘Nothing, nothing at all,’ Letty fibbed, lashes veiling her eyes as she drew herself up to put her lips against his again and he took the bait with alacrity, kissing her breathless while her restive hands roved over the smooth taut muscles of his spine to inch down into the waistband of his jeans to tug him closer still.
‘There’s so much more for us to discover,’ Leo murmured huskily, darting a trail of kisses down the slope that ran from her ear to her shoulder, singling out sensitive spots that even she had not known she possessed and reawakening the hunger he had briefly sated.
Somewhere during that moment, her last garment disappeared but she was much more preoccupied by the line of kisses Leo was tracing down over her midriff to the honeyed, throbbing core of her. She closed her eyes tight, surrendering control for the first time ever, knowing that the more aroused she was, the easier her introduction to sex would be. Before very long, she was no longer capable of such practical reflections and her body was writhing without her at the controls.
Excitement began to build in waves that climbed higher and higher. He slid a finger into her and toyed with the slick damp flesh between her slender thighs. Desire engulfed her in a sharp flood of impatience and frustration. She couldn’t stay still—she couldn’t stay still long enough to catch her breath and her heart was racing, perspiration breaking out on her skin as the heat mushroomed up from her pelvis and made her fingernails claw into his luxuriant hair.
‘Just do it!’ she told him fiercely. ‘I’m not expecting rainbows and unicorns!’
‘Which is why we’re doing it my way,’ Leo countered with ferocious amusement.
With difficulty, Letty overcame a mortifying sense of being out of her depth and hating that almost as much as she loved what he was doing to her. Being in bed with Leo was one of the biggest learning experiences of her life, teaching her how much she had underestimated the power of desire to seduce. In a daze and still on the crest of an almost unbearable high of physical responsiveness, she watched Leo reach for protection and roll back to thrust his jeans out of his path with something less than the cool and control she had expected from him.
And then he came back to her with a hungry demanding urgency that taught her that, regardless of his patience, he was every bit as fiercely aroused as she was. He rearranged her with deft hands, scored an expert fingertip over the throbbing bud and triggered a breath-stealing climax that blew her away seconds before he angled his lean hips and filled her in one smooth motion. The sharp stab of pain was lost in a welter of other sensations that consumed her and within seconds he was tilting her up to drive in deeper with restrained thrusts.
He groaned something in Greek but Letty was way beyond asking him to translate, far too concentrated as she was on the eddying pulse of pleasure picking up pace with his every fluid movement. She arched up with a long gasping sigh to greet the wildly sensual and satisfying slam of his body into hers and the all-consuming excitement fired her afresh. He shifted to sink into her receptive core from another angle and grind down on her and her body ignited like oil thrown on a bonfire, tightening and burning and flying into renewed release.
Afterwards she wasn’t quite sure what planet she was on, even if she was actually present with her own body because she felt weirdly insubstantial and detached from the world. She was drained, exhausted but somehow happy in a way she had never known before. For the first time ever she didn’t feel alone, and the arms she had linked round Leo stayed in place until he pulled away, rolling off the bed to stride into the bathroom. Safe sex, she reminded herself. Of course the practicalities would disrupt the aftermath.
‘Did you catch a distant glimpse of even one tiny rainbow?’ Leo murmured huskily as he strode back to the bed.
‘The whole sky was full of them,’ Letty whispered, suddenly feeling self-conscious, which struck her as ridiculous after the intimacy they had shared. She had known Leo for only a month and already he had turned her inside out and upside down, she conceded worriedly.
Leo came down on the bed beside her again and it occurred to her that everything that had transpired between them had been entirely one-sided. Her face burned with guilt and embarrassment because she had been selfish. Sex was supposed to be a two-way activity and she had barely participated.
An unholy grin slashed his wide sensual mouth as he looked down at her. ‘I could swear I saw a unicorn,’ he teased.
And Letty shook free of her insecurities and laughed, responding to the charisma Leo emitted at every turn. Certainly, he knew how to dispel an awkward moment.
‘I’d love a rerun,’ Leo confided. ‘But I know that right now that wouldn’t be very comfortable for you.’
Hot colour washed Letty’s cheeks and she turned her face into the pillow and curled up. ‘I’m exhausted,’ she agreed ruefully because she was. Not only had it been a very long day full of stresses and strains but also her relationship with Leo had shifted into dramatically new territory and she wasn’t yet sure how she felt about that.
‘Sleep,’ Leo urged lazily.
Letty would have enjoyed a bath to relax in but that would’ve entailed getting out of bed naked and crossing the room in front of Leo and she wasn’t quite ready for that amount of exposure. He had given her a great deal of pleasure and presumably had taken pleasure in her. Or was it merely a matter of gaining sexual release for Leo? It was better not to dress harsh facts up, she told herself; it would be wiser to remain realistic.
But the knowledge that that was the sensible way to behave didn’t prevent Letty from wishing that he would close an arm around her and show her some affection and discovering that need, that craving, inside her chilled her blood. There was no point seeking more from a male who had spelt out the reality that he didn’t want or need more, that indeed a bloodless convenient marriage that included sex was the current summit of his ambitions.