Once her thighs pressed against the side of the tub, he reached up and cupped the back of her head, silky hair sliding through his fingers, as he pulled her down. Face to face, her lips an inch away from his, their eyes locked.
“If you have any doubt, now would be the time to speak it. For you aren’t the sort of woman one tastes, then simply walks away.” A rakish smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. “Not a second time.”
Chapter Eighteen
You aren’t thesort of woman one tastes, then simply walks away. Not a second time.
Where had he learned to speak such words?
They stole her breath away. They deepened her intention.
Assurance in her femininity and desirability blossomed inside her. “I’m going nowhere.”
Her hands clutched his shoulders for balance as she stepped one foot, then the other, inside the sultry water, its heat penetrating her down to muscle and bone, a fitting companion to the desire pulsing through her. Lowering into the steamy pool, her nightdress floating around her, she released his shoulders before pushing backward. She submerged entirely in the water, letting it flow across her skin, through suddenly weightless hair. When she emerged, the nightdress clung to her every curve.
In harmony with not only their own desires, but each other’s, she and he moved, slowly, deliberately, erasing the distance between them, eyes locked on to each other. She wasn’t sure if it was the hour of the night or the heat of the bath or, quite simply, the inevitable, but it was like a sensual dream from which one didn’t want to awaken.
She knew full well this was no dream, and that coming here was likely a bad decision, but just tonight she would shut off the part of her brain that evaluated potential consequences for actions, for what if she was right? What if this was the only way to get this implacable desire out from between them?
It didn’t matter now.
It might matter later.
She would leave later for the future.
Only the present—and this man—mattered.
Her gaze fell to his mouth. Firm and assured, that mouth. A mouth that knew how to devastate her. Her focus singular upon that mouth, she leaned forward, cutting all distance between them until his mouth was the scantest hairsbreadth from hers.
It isn’t too late.
Oh, but it was. For her.
Her lips touched his in a kiss that could have been sweet were it not for the pent-up lust driving it. Her body wanted more than his kisses. It wanted everything he had to offer.
On a groan, his hands found her bottom. As he pulled, she floated through the water, offering surrender as she straddled him and strained up against him. His cock—thick, hard…ready—pressed against her, the only barrier separating her most intimate flesh from his, a thin scrap of muslin.
“Are you fond of this garment?” he muttered against her mouth.
She shook her head.
He took the flimsy fabric in both hands and rent it in two. Greedy eyes roved across her bare arms, her breasts, every inch of revealed skin.
“Don’t,” he commanded.
“Don’t?”
“Don’t cover yourself.”
She only now realized she’d been lifting her hands to do just that, a reactionary impulse. She’d always thought herself too small, unfeminine. But the way this man was regarding her with appreciation—nay,lust—sent a hot blush rioting through her. Instead, she used her hands to run through his hair.
“You’re as beautiful as I imagined.” He spoke into the whorl of her ear, nipping the lobe, a testing nibble. She arched into him, wanting more of pleasure that teetered on the edge of pain. Then she felt it. His rigid manhood, slick and hot, against her slit. Instinctively, her hips ground down, the head of him rubbing against her nub. An intoxicated animal groan poured from her.
He clutched her hips, fingertips digging in. “Do that again.” His pupils had pushed his irises into thin gray rings.Desire.
She could deny this man nothing. The thought would unnerve her at any other moment. At this one, with obedience came the promise of pleasure. Denial wasn’t an option.
She swiveled her hips, and his gaze flickered. “I need you inside me.”
