‘I need you inside me now,’ I whimpered against his mouth, beginning to shake uncontrollably as desire continued to rip through me in ever stronger waves.
‘I have no problem with that.’
He held my hips and tugged me forwards, while I spread my legs wide and wrapped my arms around his neck, and with one hard thrust he was buried inside me, so deeply, so fully, I actually saw stars.
For one staggering, heart-stopping moment neither of us moved. Neither of us even breathed. We just stared at each other, and I knew that the shock and disbelief that this was actually happening I could see in the swirling depths of his blazing eyes were reflected in mine.
Time seemed to stand still. All I could hear was my blood roaring in my ears. And as the seconds ticked by, my heart began to swell until it felt too big for my ribcage. My throat became so tight I couldn’t speak. To my horror, my eyes started to sting. So I pulled his head down and slanted my mouth over his and, as I’d hoped, a wave of blistering heat swept away the strange surge of emotion.
Nick swore softly against my lips and held me in place and then, with a great shudder, began to move. Focusing entirely on the physical way he was making me feel, I wrapped my legs around his hips and, taking care not to dislodge the dressing I’d applied to his shoulder, clung onto him for dear life.
With every confident, powerful thrust, my senses shattered that little bit more. He was hitting a spot deep inside me with laser-like accuracy. He didn’t need to be told. He didn’t need reassurance. It was as if he knew me—or rather, my body—better than I knew it myself. All I had to do was go along for the roller coaster of a ride, hurtling through the sky-scraping ups and the stomach-disappearing downs.
When he sped things up, my head spun. When he slowed things right down, it spun even harder. My breasts rubbed against his chest, the friction charging me with a thousand volts, so I pressed closer and lost my mind. The disintegration of his breathing and the increasing wildness of his movements sent thrills shooting through me. My own breathing was harsh and desperate, my lungs capable of nothing more than short sharp pants.
Beneath my palms the muscles of his shoulders and back bunched and flexed, the tension tightening them mirroring the unbearable tautening of mine. I felt feverish, fierce, desperate for something that was just out of reach. I wanted to bite him and taste him and do all sorts of wickedly wonderful things to him, but there was no time because, as if able to read my mind, he moved his hand from my hip to where we were joined, his fingers expertly finding my core, and within seconds I was coming so hard and fast I nearly blacked out.
The violent explosion that went off deep inside me flooded my whole body with wave upon wave of white-hot pleasure, racking me with shudders so intense I shook in his embrace. I wrenched my mouth from his, gasping for breath, while he pressed his face into my neck and surged into me one last time, hard and deep, letting out a rough groan as he found his own pulsating release.
His heart pounded against mine. His ragged breath burned my neck and his shoulders quaked. My limbs were weak. I felt boneless, as though I’d simply slither to the floor if he let me go. My mind was blitzed. I couldn’t get over the fact that I’d just had the best sex of my life with a man I’d always thought I detested.
We stayed plastered up against each other for a moment, recovering from the cataclysmic encounter, but as our heart rates slowed and the sweat on my skin cooled, reality slunk in. The remnants of the heat and passion that had rocked my world a moment ago fled my body and awkwardness rushed in to take its place.
We were locked tightly together. I was naked. Nick’s jeans were still open around his thighs. Supplies and my clothes were scattered across the floor. Where on earth did we go from here? Did we retreat to our corners to regroup and fortify our shattered defences or tumble onto the sofa for round two? What was there to say? He seemed to have no words and I was suddenly keen to fill the space.
‘So that was unexpected,’ I murmured, my voice raspy, my brain still trying to come to terms with the situation as I released my death grip on his shoulders and reluctantly removed my hands from his body.
He lifted his face from my neck, straightened a fraction, and stared at me, his eyes dazed, a dark flush streaking along his cheekbones. ‘Was it?’
‘Did you imagine it would be like that?’
‘No,’ he said with a slight shake of his head. ‘I had no idea.’
‘You sound awestruck.’
‘I am. It surpassed my wildest dreams, and they’ve been pretty wild. You’re astonishing.’
My chest gave an odd little squeeze, an aftershock of such mind-blowing pleasure, no doubt. ‘You’re the opposite of everything I thought you were. You’re not cold. You’re not aloof. You don’t dislike me.’
‘No.’
‘I’d never have guessed.’
‘That was the idea. Imagine the fun you’d have had mocking me. My ego wouldn’t have been able to take the rejection.’
‘I wouldn’t have mocked. I’d have probably hurled myself into your arms. But I can see how you might think that. Sorry.’
‘No,’ he said with a quick shake of his head. ‘If anyone needs to apologise, it’s me. I went too far.’
A hot, apologetic Nick with the glimmer of sincerity and warmth in his eye was too much of a turnaround for me to process and I filled with an urgent need to get back onto more practical ground. ‘How’s your injury?’
‘What injury?’
‘Very funny.’
With the ghost of a smile, Nick rolled his shoulder and didn’t even wince. ‘It’s fine.’
‘Well, I’m not,’ I murmured. ‘I’m seizing up.’