She nodded, her heart in her throat. ‘Yes. What was that?’
‘A power surge, most likely. Are you sure you’re OK?’
She could only nod, words deserting her again as those silver eyes glowed down at her and she became aware that the throb of fear that her life was going to end was ebbing away and being replaced by a different, more pleasant and intoxicating throb, emanating from where his fingers were warm and firm against her body. Her heart rapped out a fast tattoo of warning.Tell him he can let go of you now.But Serena’s lips wouldn’t move, and the words wouldn’t materialise. Because she didn’t, in her heart, want him to let her go. She liked how it felt being held in his arms, liked the heady vibration of her heart and her blood. All of the feeling that had been jostling in her begged for release even more desperately and before she was even really aware of what she was doing, before she could summon the sense or power to stop herself, Serena was pressing to her tiptoes and reaching for his mouth.Just one kiss, she promised herself,just so I know how it feels, and then I’ll stop.
One kiss, however, was all it took to ignite an even more ferocious fire in her blood. The press of Caleb’s mouth vibrated through her whole body, unlocking the bars around those feelings so they flowed free and unchecked for the first time in so, so long—rivulets of pure, potent, sparkling sensation streaming upwards and outwards and in every other direction as he kissed her back with such exquisite tenderness and skill that Serena thought she might die of pleasure.And wouldn’t that be a perfect way to go, she thought, feeling so replete and yet hungry for so much more that she consented to a second swipe of his lips, and then another, and by that time she was sliding her arms up to loop around his neck, securing herself to him, and any thought of stopping was obliterated from her mind entirely.
CHAPTER TWO
Serena’s mouth tastedeven better than he’d thought it would. Sweet, like honey. So sweet it was quickly becoming addictive, and Caleb knew that for the rest of his life he’d never again be able to enjoy the nectar without thinking of her and that moment, the eagerness of her mouth beneath his and her yielding body.
Her lips parted beneath his and he didn’t waste a second seizing that opportunity to slide his tongue into the wet heat of her mouth and back her up against the wall of the elevator. The spread of heat through his body, sure and sexy, inflamed in intensity, and sent a heavy beat drumming through his blood. Kissing her, being kissed by her was the most pleasurable assault he’d ever known, and for all that Caleb was used to this interplay between male and female—the warm scent of a woman’s skin, the soft noises of assent and delight, the press of the feminine shape—with her it all felt new. Thrilling. A dream he wanted to sink even deeper into.
Maybe it was the way she responded to each sweep of his hands, as if his touch was electrifying her. Or maybe it was the way her shape fitted so sleekly against his, as though their bodies had been cut from a shared mould. Destined for one another.
It was a ridiculous thought, and not one that he would have countenanced in any other moment, but right then and there, being driven crazy by the duelling desires to savour and devour her, it seemed to make perfect sense, to explain this new vortex of sexual potency he was being sucked into. Serena was his match, her body made explicitly for his, designed to draw from him all that he could offer and to receive a pleasure that only he could deliver.
Trailing a line of fire down her neck, Caleb didn’t stop until he located the spot of her hammering pulse. As he settled his mouth on that spot, the taste of her skin driving him as high as the play of his lips was sending her, that scorching convergence wound a new blistering heat around them, binding them together even more strongly.
Lifting her leg, she curled it around his thigh, and his erection, already painfully tight, throbbed at the explicit invitation, at how beautifully his pelvis nestled against the heart of her. Caleb responded instinctively, pressing even harder against her and, driven by the need to feel all of her, to take her to the highest possible peak of pleasure, slid his hand along the smooth skin of her thigh. Eager to see her bright eyes shatter with delight, to see her pleasure wash over her, his fingers ventured higher until the slight quiver of her flesh stirred an awareness that should have surfaced prior to that moment.
Because whilst he was in no doubt as to what he wanted, could Serena say the same? Mere moments ago, she’d been set on leaving, and had the jolt of the elevator not thrown her into his arms, she’d likely already be gone. And he would have let her go. He’d never had to plead with a woman to go to bed with him and never would. Nor was he a man who’d take advantage of a woman who was carried away.
‘What is it? What’s wrong?’ she asked, her lips beautifully swollen and hair mussed from where his hands had tangled in its glossy lengths.
‘Nothing. You’re perfect,’ he said quickly to erase that flash of insecurity in her eyes. ‘And I would gladly whisk you to my suite to continue this, but I don’t want you to feel that has to happen. You can still leave. I want you to be sure this is what you want too.’
Her hands were resting against his jacket, and as she smiled, they curled into the fabric, ready to pull him closer. ‘I’m sure,’ she replied quickly.
Too quickly? But whilst a sense continued to whisper through his mind that perhaps he should put a stop to it anyway, his body was more than convinced, his hand swiping the control panel with his access card to get them to his suite as his mouth reclaimed hers with a hunger that continued to transcend all he had ever felt before. A want that was feeling more and more like need.
Compelling, desperate, irresistible, insatiable need.
Serena was relieved when Caleb lifted her into his arms and carried her from the elevator, because she didn’t know how much longer she’d be able to remain standing upright, not when every single inch of her body was trembling. Every touch, every kiss was penetrating so deeply, if felt as if her soul was shaking too.
He had asked her if she was sure, and with feeling as powerful as that, snaking and curling through her, how could she be anything but sure?
Her world had narrowed to him, to the feelings he’d set spinning inside her. The life she had known before this evening, before him, had faded, retreating from her mind almost entirely, pushed aside to make room for all this glorious newness. She knew, however, that she had never done anything like this before, never been tempted into being ravished in an elevator, to letting a man she hadn’t known before that night slide his hand between her legs. But that didn’t seem to matter. There was no longer a single doubt in her heart or her head. Any reservations had been burned away by the fire blazing between them, and for this one night she would ignore what she should do and do what she wanted. Take what she craved. Needed.
There would be slowing, no stopping. She wanted the opposite. She wanted more.
As if reading that wish, Caleb’s kisses grew less restrained—not that they had been restrained before—but as he lowered her to the bed, pressing her back into the covers with his weight, it was as if there was a new urgency driving him. An even deeper hunger opening up inside of him.
Serena felt it too; her body was achy and hot and only growing hotter. Restless. She’d never known a feeling like it, a desperation so pure she wasn’t sure how she could stand it. Her hands went to his chest, her fingers scrabbling with the tiny buttons of his shirt, impatient to bare the hard chest beneath, and she felt his lips curve at her hurried fumbling, enjoying it. His hands were far more skilled, pushing up her dress, curling into the thin band of her knickers and sliding them down her legs to the floor in one easy move.
If there was a moment for Serena to be beset by any kind of uncertainty or hesitation, that was probably it, but, for one of the only times in her whole life, she was being ruled by impulse and impulse alone. She was trapped in the eye of a wild, heady storm, and it felt exactly right. This moment, this place, this man. It felt more right than anything had in a long time. Perhaps ever.
Locating the hidden fastening on her dress, Caleb nudged the fabric apart, a hiss emerging from between his teeth as first his eyes and then his mouth made contact with her breasts. He kissed the top of them, before dragging one lacy cup down and fastening his mouth around the nipple, laving it with his tongue until she was arching beneath him.
Nothing had ever come close to what he was making her feel, and Serena throbbed with all the glorious, pounding sensations, a restless tattoo inside her that she had never experienced before but could suddenly feel everywhere, and she arched upwards again, pressing against him.
Seeming to know exactly what she was asking for, exactly where and how she needed to be caressed, Caleb slipped his hand between their bodies, sending his fingers straight to the pulsing heart of her. That first stroke of his finger to the taut cluster of nerves zagged through her like lightning, jolting her, blinding her. Even as she cried out, he didn’t stop, touching her with the perfect amount of pressure to undo her even further. He whispered words to her, words she didn’t hear as she rose and fell with the ministrations of his hand, her breath so close to dying altogether. And then she was crying out again, whispering his name, begging him to stop and not stop in the same breath, as her body was rocked by one long explosion.
Immediately she wanted more. She reached for his trousers, unfastening them, and together she and Caleb pushed them down his legs. For a second, she allowed her eyes to indulge in the beauty of his naked body, but only for a second, because her hunger was too relentless to be paused for long.
‘Do you have a condom?’ she gasped, and he nodded surely, having already reached for his wallet from the floor. Tearing open the small foil packet with his teeth, he rolled it along his length, his hands not entirely steady, and Serena was so filled with anticipation she could barely breathe.
He covered her again, the eyes holding hers alight with pewter sparks as he nudged her entrance. That brief flicker of contact had her arching, ready to accept him, and as she did, Caleb thrust smoothly into her. Whatever tightness or strangeness there was lasted only the barest of seconds before she was filled with an overpowering sense of completion and connection. Caleb growled out a noise of contentment, shuddering from deep within his chest, and it was enormously gratifying that it felt as good for him as it did for her.
