This was probably not the time to point out to Drake that Lucas Rothwell and Jack Livingstone had said much the same words to Ruby and Harper and yet they were all happily together now. Dared she hope the same could happen to her? That Drake would gradually lower his guard and fall in love with her as Lucas and Jack had fallen for her friends?
Aerin placed her hands on the strong wall of his chest, looking up at him with clear focus. ‘What if we were to forget about my checklist and the fact that you only ever do flings? What if we just went with the flow while we’re stuck here?’
Drake’s gaze drifted to her upturned mouth and his hands shifted from her hips to her waist. Then his narrowed gaze came back to hers. ‘Is this a pity thing?’
Aerin closed her eyes in a slow blink to quell her frustration. Couldn’t he see how much she wanted him? It wasn’t about his tragic past but abouthim. The essential Drake she was finding so hard to resist. ‘No, it’s nothing to do with pity. Of course I feel sorry you’ve had such a shocking thing happen to you. But I want you for you. I want you to be my first lover. I don’t want to get to the age of thirty and still be a virgin. I think you’re the right person to give me that experience because I know and trust you. I’m not asking for anything other than a weekend fling.’
Drake released her from his light hold and put a slight distance between them. There was a battle playing out over his features, a tug-of-war between his body wanting to do as she suggested and his mind carefully weighing up the dangers. Muscles tensed in his jaw, shadows came and went in his gaze, the strong column of his throat rose and fell in a tight swallow. ‘Are you sure you can keep your emotions out of it?’ he asked, still frowning.
‘I don’t know because I’ve never slept with anyone before.’ But weren’t her emotions already in it now? Feelings she was trying to keep hidden. Feelings that had bloomed into life ever since his first kiss, like a spring bulb poking its head from beneath the ground, thawed by the warming rays of spring sunshine. ‘How do you keepyouremotions out of it?’
He gave a crooked smile that didn’t make it to his eyes. His eyes were still troubled, the shadows lurking, the doubts circling, the yes and no debate ongoing. ‘It’s never been a problem before.’
Aerin closed the distance between them and lifted her hand to his unshaven jaw. ‘But you’re worried it might become one with me?’ She stroked her fingers along the stubble-roughened skin, a light shiver coursing over her own flesh.
His strong hand encircled her wrist in a firm but gentle hold, his eyes locking on hers. ‘It’s a possibility that does concern me.’
Wasn’t that something positive to cling to? That he was prepared to admit he could be in danger of falling for her? Didn’t that show he had the potential to love even though he claimed he didn’t? He lifted her wrist and turned it over to place a kiss to the sensitive skin on the underside. She shivered again, his electrifying touch sending livewires of need to her core.
‘Because you don’t want to hurt me or get hurt yourself?’ she asked.
Drake planted another feather-light kiss to her wrist, the slight graze of his stubble against her skin sending a wave of incendiary heat and rolling fire through her blood. ‘Some people don’t care if they hurt others. But I do.’
He hadn’t fully answered her question, though, about whether he was worried about getting hurt himself. Or had he already endured a lifetime’s quota of hurt and pain? Losing his family in such a horrendous way was certainly a harrowing experience that would leave deep emotional scars.
Aerin ran her fingers through the thickness of his dark hair, her body so close to his she could feel her softer contours melting into his harder ones. Her breasts against his chest, her pelvis in the cradle of his hips, her thighs against his muscular ones...and the potent rise of his male body against her most sensitive flesh of all. ‘If I wasn’t a virgin, would you be feeling a little less reluctant, do you think?’
Drake slipped an arm around her back and brought her even closer, his bottomless brown eyes burning with lust. His other hand went to the back of her head, his fingers splaying through her hair, sending hot tingles down her spine. ‘Physically, as you can probably tell, I’m not at all reluctant. But this is not going to be something we can forget ever happened. I’ll always be your first lover, the first man who kissed you. And you’ll be the first woman I’ve slept with who I can’t simply delete from my phone and forget about. I don’t want you to be embarrassed or uncomfortable when we cross paths in the future, either at one of your family’s gatherings or professionally.’
‘We’ve both adults, Drake. You’re making it sound so terribly complicated. All I want is this weekend. Once it’s over, we can pretend it never happened and move on with our lives.’
His eyes softened and he brushed a stray hair away from her face, a lopsided smile on his mouth. ‘I have a feeling I’m not going to forget about it in a hurry.’ He drew in a deep breath and released it in a not quite steady stream.
Aerin lifted her hand to his face and stroked his lean jaw. ‘Nor me.’
His head came down and his mouth closed over hers in a searing kiss that sent a riot of sensations through her body. His tongue didn’t ask for entry but demanded it, tangling with hers in a sexy combat that mimicked the intimacy they both craved. This was not a chaste kiss between old friends. This was not a kiss that could ever be forgotten. This was a kiss of urgency and explosive heat and longing. Drake’s mouth continued its thrilling exploration of hers while his hands slipped beneath the opening of her wrap. She shivered as his hand shaped her, his caresses threatening to heat her blood to boiling.
Until he had touched her, she’d had no idea her breasts were so sensitive. She had not realised the intensity of feeling to have a man’s hand cradle her shape while his thumb moved back and forth across her engorged nipple. But she wanted more than his hands on her breasts and, as if he had read her mind, he bent his head and took her nipple into the warm cave of his mouth. Aerin arched her spine as the tingling sensations shot through her, a groan of pleasure escaping her lips. ‘That feels...so...so...good...’
Drake went to her other breast, exploring it in the same erotic detail, his lips and tongue wreaking havoc on her senses. But it wasn’t enough. She wanted more. More skin-on-skin contact, more friction. More of the sensual heat his body promised as it surged against her.
Drake lifted his mouth from her breast and captured her mouth again in a kiss that was even more thrilling. His tongue played with hers in a game of catch-me-if-you-can and her heart pounded with excitement. His hands skimmed down the sides of her body, up and down in a caressing motion that made her skin lift in a delicate shiver. He peeled her wrap away from her body, his mouth still clamped to hers. But then he pulled back and, breathing heavily, slowly, ever so slowly peeled away her nightgown until it fell in a pool of satin at her feet. His eyes roved over her body, his gaze shining with lust as he took in every inch of her naked form.
‘You’re so damn beautiful...’ There was a note of wonder in his tone as if he had never seen a woman quite like her before. But then, maybe he hadn’t. She was hardly his usual type with her understated girl-next-door looks.
Aerin glanced down at the shape of him tenting his black boxer shorts. She was too shy to touch him but ached to do so. He took her hand and held it against his swollen flesh, allowing her to feel him through the satin.
‘Don’t be afraid to touch me,’ he said in a husky tone.
Her fingers stroked the turgid length of him and, with a boldness she’d had no idea she possessed, she slipped her hand beneath the satin and touched him skin on skin. He shuddered and groaned, his face contorting with pleasure.
‘I think you’re going to be a quick learner,’ he said with a gleam in his eyes. Then he scooped her up in his arms like a hero out of an old black and white movie from the golden days of Hollywood and carried her to his bed...
Drake knew he could have put a stop to things right then and there but for once in his life he couldn’t access his willpower. He wanted Aerin as he had wanted no other woman. He had weighed up the pros and cons of engaging in a weekend fling with her, he had carefully measured the risks and done his checks and balances. The rational part of his brain told him to keep his distance but another part of his brain—or maybe it wasn’t his brain at all but his body alone—told him to have this secret weekend with her. To have what he had wanted from the moment he saw her across the street from his office. Their first kiss had only reinforced the want, the driving need, the urge he couldn’t dampen down no matter how much he tried.
But was he worryingtoomuch? Aerin was looking for the fairy tale, the perfect partner and he was certainly not that. She had already ruled him out with her eight-point checklist. She wouldn’t allow herself to fall in love with anyone less than perfect, so why shouldn’t he indulge her wish for a fling?
Drake laid her on his rumpled bed and stood above her for a long moment, hungrily taking in the slim curves of her body. She was so lithe and lissom, her skin a pale cream without a single blemish. Her golden blonde hair was tousled around her shoulders and he couldn’t wait to bury his head in it and breathe in its flowery scent.