He didn’t stop. He wanted her to come against his questing mouth and she wanted it as well. It felt right. She moved against him, squirming, her breathing fast and shallow, and then she came in a spasm, arching up while he continued to probe her most intimate place with his tongue. His hand rested on her belly, tugging so that the sensations were so powerful that she had to stifle the urge to cry out loud with pleasure.
She breathed him in as he rose up to straddle her, and opened her eyes only once to see him take his manhood in his hand, circling it firmly but gently, pleasuring himself while she cupped him in her hands and rose to delicately lick the veined hardness.
He came on her, a hot splash that she rose to greet with her mouth, savouring its saltiness while the sadness she had kept at bay began permeating back into her.
Exhausted, she could barely utter a word when, after what felt like dreamy hours, he lay next to her. She curled against him, fighting sleep but unable to resist it, and the next time she opened her eyes a thin, grey light was seeping through the curtains into the bedroom.
She struggled into a sitting position, disoriented for a few seconds, then registering what had happened the night before.
Also registering that the space next to her was empty and, glancing at her phone at the side of the bed, that it was a little after six in the morning.
Early.
While the thoughts were still foggy in her head, the bedroom door opened and in he walked, as stealthy as a big cat, not bothering to turn on the light, instead making for the bed and perching on the side. Aside from a towel wrapped round his lower half, he was naked, and she closed her eyes and breathed in deeply as she tried to get her thoughts into some kind of order.
‘How long have you been awake?’ she asked, heart thundering inside her, reacting all over again to the intense pull of his masculinity.
‘Not long. Long enough to have a shower and do some thinking.’
He looked at her, pink and sleepy-eyed, her hair tousled, just the slope of her narrow shoulders visible because she had pulled the duvet up to her chin, which she rested on her knees. There were instances, thoughts that flashed through his head, that made it impossible to remember her as his dutiful PA.
None of this had gone according to plan. He had anticipated something clear cut, possibly a bit uncomfortable but largely sanitised. He had anticipated a situation he would walk away from, dusting his hands free of complications that he had told himself he could do without. They had slept together but there had been a finite time limit imposed on what they’d had, and at no point had it really occurred to him that that time limit might end up going off-piste so accustomed was he to exercising complete control over all aspects of his life.
He’d done the right thing in returning to London once the story had hit the press and he had done the right thing in suggesting they faced her mother. He had accepted responsibility for the fact that none of this would have happened had he not dumped his ex and then turned his attentions to the one woman he should never have contemplated going anywhere near, whatever her hidden attractions.
Had he planned to sleep with her again?
He honestly didn’t know.
Common sense had prevailed once, but he was honest enough to acknowledge that it had flown out of the window the minute he had returned from Barbados to find her holed up in her house, like a prisoner terrified of a firing squad positioned outside the front door. Every protective instinct he’d never known he had had kicked in with stupendous force.
Was that what had reawakened the attraction he had been confident of putting to bed? Had the novelty of new sensations propelled him into wanting to light that fire all over again?
Yet he had managed to hang on to his common sense, had managed to look at the bigger picture and take on board the role he knew he had to play to assuage her mother’s fears and doubts.
He had chatted to her mother but, all the while, his eyes had strayed to Ellie, who’d been as nervous as a kitten. He had noted her interaction with her mother, had seen the concern and love there. He intuited the pain she would feel at the thought of crushing her mother’s optimistic, romantic dreams. He knew what pain felt like, how it could sear a hole right through you until you were dazed with it, and something inside him had twisted.
Guilt? A conscience?
Was that why he had been driven to sleep with her again? Because his conscience had been pricked? Because he had seen her tremulous fear of letting her mother down and had recognised, guiltily, that he had put her in that position?
Or was it just a case of something started that had ended prematurely?
James did not underestimate the power of sexual attraction. He’d still wanted her, whatever label he chose to put on it, and she still wanted him. Their relationship had not behaved according to the rules he had laid down, but weren’t there always exceptions to rules?
He had been adamant that things would need to stop so that normal working relations between them could resume after he returned from Max’s wedding. He’d always kept his working life very separate from his love life. However, the two had merged, and maybe this was just something they both needed to finish. It wasn’t about emotions, it was about finishing a chapter that had been started. They were both adults and she had her head screwed on. Why should it interfere with the excellent working relationship they both had?
Her grey eyes, locked on him, were wary. He raked his fingers through his hair and noted the way she swallowed, all too aware of him just as he was all too aware of her.
‘Last night...’ he murmured.
‘I know. Shouldn’t have happened.’ Ellie looked at him defensively.
‘But it did,’ he said gently.
‘I was in a poor place. Things hadn’t worked out the way I thought they would...’ She glared at him accusingly. Why couldn’t he just leave it be? she wondered fiercely. Why did he have to drag everything out in the open for an early-morning post-mortem?
The way she had succumbed to him, given herself to him, was a cruel reminder of just how much she loved him and how much she had so foolishly invested in him.
