He caught her hand with his, his breathing unsteady as his eyes met hers. ‘Don’t be scared. I won’t let it hurt. I don’t ever want to hurt you.’
‘I’m not scared...just a bit nervous.’
‘So let me help you relax,’ he said softly.
He stripped off his clothes, and then hers, gently peeling off her bra and panties, kissing her the whole time, his hands caressing her hip, her waist, the underside of her breast, until she was shaking with need, wanting him to touch the fluttering pulse between her thighs.
When they were both naked she felt her stomach tighten with nerves. He was so solid and aroused, and his dark gaze was so intense she could feel it deep inside her.
‘Why are you looking at me like that?’
‘You’re beautiful.’
Saliva pooling in her mouth, she stared at his lean, beautifully muscled body, her eyes lingering on the smooth length of his erection.
‘So are you,’ she said softly.
He smiled, and she smiled back at him, and then she felt her whole body start to throb as he pulled her gently towards the bed.
His skin was just as she remembered it—smooth and warm and firm. Greedily, she caressed the contours of his back, her breathing losing its rhythm as his hands dropped to her waist. He pressed her against the thick ridge of his erection and she felt her heartbeat accelerate in time with the oscillating ball of heat low in her pelvis.
He began moving against her slowly, his hot mouth seeking the bare skin of her neck, kissing and licking the raised line of her clavicle until she was drowning in the dark, teasing currents surging through her body.
She gasped as his hands caressed her eager, straining body, her head swimming as they slid over her ribcage to capture her breasts. His fingertips skimmed over her taut nipples, and then her stomach clenched sharply as those same fingers slipped down to the triangle of blonde hair and the slick heat between her thighs. His breathing jerked and she parted her legs, letting him take the weight of her in his hand, moving against the insistent press of his palm.
‘I want you,’ she whispered, her hand closing around him.
He groaned against her throat. ‘Wait a minute,’ he muttered.
She watched dazedly as he reached for his trousers and pulled out his wallet.
‘Are you sure you want this?’ He was holding a condom packet, but loosely, and she knew he was waiting for her consent. ‘Are you sure you want me?’ he said hoarsely.
She nodded. ‘I’ve never been surer.’
And suddenly he was there, his big body warm and solid against hers. She locked her hands around his neck as he shifted against her, lowering his hips to hers, his erection hard and hot. And then her pulse accelerated as he pushed forward.
She took a breath, trying to relax, but her face must have given her away because he stopped moving.
‘Don’t stop,’ she whispered.
‘I’m just letting you get used to me.’
She felt his hand slide to her hip, shifting beneath her to raise her up, and suddenly it was easier, smoother. Now her body was welcoming him, and she was rising up to meet his thrusts.
Letting her arms curl around his shoulders, she pressed up against him, breath quickening, muscles clenching as a pulsing heat gathered inside her and exploded like a supernova, and then she felt him clamp her closer, his body erupting into hers with a groan.
CHAPTER EIGHT
BREATHING OUT UNSTEADILY, Mimi buried her hands in Basa’s dark hair, her heart racing in time with his, lost in the aftershocks still quivering through her body, in the scent of his skin, and in disbelief at her own uninhibited passion.
No one had ever held her like this...so close.
If only they could stay like this for ever.
She felt him shift against her and her heart gave a little jump as he raised himself up onto his elbows and stared down into her flushed face.
‘Was it okay?’ He stroked her tangled blonde hair away from her forehead.
She nodded, then smiled. ‘It was a lot better than okay.’
Something flared in his dark eyes. He lowered his mouth and she arched upwards as his lips brushed her neck, her collarbone, the curve of her breast.
Raising his head, he gently eased himself out of her. ‘I’ll be right back.’
Pulling the rumpled sheet up over her legs, she watched him walk into the bathroom, her breath catching in her throat. Earlier, she’d been too caught up with nerves and expectation and desire to take in his beauty, but he really was absolutely gorgeous, she thought, her eyes running down his spine to the muscular swell of his buttocks.
Rolling onto her side, she buried her face in the pillow, inhaling the faint trace of his aftershave. She felt stunned, happy, her body soft and loosened. She was suffused with a tranquillity very different from the sharp, sweet spasm of pleasure that had so recently swamped her, and she lay for a moment, trying to remember how she had felt before.
Did she feel different?
Her mind was still hazy from climaxing and it took a moment for her to bring order to her thoughts.
Yes and no.
Physically, she ached a little, but there had been no actual pain, just a sense of being stretched—and, frankly, her head had been spinning, her body rippling with other more urgent and pleasurable sensations for her to register the actual moment.
And yet she did feel different—though not because of some shift in status to ‘full womanhood’. Maybe she would have had that kind of transformative moment if she’d still been an adolescent, but for her this was not just about having sex for the first time...it was about what it felt like to surrender, truly surrender, to desire. It was about discovering a different side to herself—a passionate and fearless self so unlike the woman who had been living her life in the shadows for the last two years.
It had felt so right, beginning her sexual awakening with Basa. But not out of any lingering, sentimental attachment to her teenage fantasies—that fairy-tale prince of her dreams had never existed except in her imagination.
The man who was here with her now was not perfect at all. He was stubborn, and ruthless, but he was also loyal and caring and he had a deep-rooted sense of responsibility for his family, friends, and employees. Most importantly of all, he was real, and together the two of them had faced their shared past, here in this beautiful wilderness.
She glanced out of the window. The sun was shining, birds were singing—everything was carrying on without any thought of what had just happened in this room.
What would happen next?
Her breath swelled in her throat. It was stupid, really. She’d spent so many years dreaming about Basa and it was only now she realised that her fantasy had stopped at the moment of climax.
Her eyes darted towards the discarded clothes on the floor. Was he going to come out of the bathroom and just start getting dressed? She sat up. Should she be getting dressed?
Before she had a chance to move he walked back into the room and slid in beside her, gathering her against him.
Her heart rebounded inside her chest and she breathed in against a rush of emotions. But it was okay to feel a little emotional, she told herself. It was her first time, and the sex had been so good; Basa had made it good for her.
For a moment she lay listening to his breathing, savouring the heat and solidity of his body next to hers, and then she turned and looked up at him. ‘How about you? Was it okay for you?’
He stared at her for a moment. ‘It was a whole lot better than okay.’ His face softened, and he laughed. ‘Do you know, nobody has ever asked me that before?’
She laughed too. ‘There’s a first time for everything.’
‘Yes, there is.’ He touched her cheek gently, his face growing more serious. ‘Did you mean what you said about why you waited?’
When s
he nodded slowly, he dipped his head and kissed her, his hand hugging the curve of her hip.
‘I really am sorry, Mimi, for how that evening ended between us, and for leaving you up in my room like that.’
‘It doesn’t matter any more.’
‘But it did then,’ he persisted. ‘And I think it’s stayed with you.’
She was about to tell him it hadn’t, only she didn’t want to lie to him any more. ‘A bit,’ she confessed.
She hesitated, the impulse to make light of her feelings fighting with her need to be truthful.
‘But I can’t blame how I felt entirely on what happened at Fairbourne.’
A minute ticked by and then he frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
She felt suddenly aware of his gaze, and of the pulse beating in her throat.
‘There were things before that. Like my parents. They had an incredibly passionate relationship and I wasn’t planned.’
Body tensing, she took a shallow breath. It was the first time she’d told anyone that—not even Alicia knew—and it made her feel horribly exposed.
‘I wasn’t either. Apparently my father was astonished when my mother told him.’
He spoke matter-of-factly and, looking up, she felt some of the tightness ease from her shoulders.
‘My dad was astonished too—but not in a good way.’ She dropped her gaze. ‘Me being around changed things—for my dad anyway. He left, and my mum never really got over it. That’s why I was so happy when she and Charlie got together.’
His face stiffened, but it was too late to take it back.
She swallowed. ‘Actually, I wasn’t just happy... I encouraged her.’
She held her breath, expecting to see contempt or confusion in his eyes.
But after a moment he said quietly, ‘For the right reasons.’
‘I suppose...’
His words had made warmth snake across her skin, and for a few quivering seconds she wanted to tell him more. But surely it was better to quit while she was ahead, so instead she shrugged.
‘Anyway, I got on with my life, and you had a good reason for not coming back to me that night.’
He hadn’t told her much, but it was easy to embellish the bare bones he’d given her—the nightmarish hours following that call to his lawyer, his escalating shock and disbelief at each emerging revelation.
‘I don’t know how you dealt with all of it,’ she said quietly. ‘You were so young.’ Just twenty-seven. ‘But you took care of everything...you righted the wrongs.’
‘Not all of them,’ he said softly.
His fingers twitched against her skin. Leaning forward, he caught a handful of her hair and wrapped it around his fingers, using it to draw her closer to him. She felt her insides grow liquid and hot as he stared down into her face, his breath warm against her skin.
‘But I’m planning on making up for lost time.’
‘You are?’ Her voice sounded far away, muffled by the uneven thud of her heartbeat.
‘If you want me to.’
She could feel her body rippling back to life as his dark gaze roamed her face. He was answering her unasked question, offering her a next step. What should she say?
He was talking about sex, and though she wanted to make up for lost time as much as he did, she couldn’t help but be a little nervous. She didn’t need to ask, didn’t want to ask about his previous partners, but it was clear that Basa was sexually experienced—certainly experienced enough to be able to separate his emotions from his libido.
But how did she know she could do the same?
She’d only had sex once, and maybe if it had been just ‘okay’ then it would have been easy to walk away—to treat this as a one-off, her first and last time with Basa. Maybe if it had been just ‘okay’ she would honestly have said that sex was just a physical activity, involving bodies.
But sex with Basa had been astonishing, frantic, miraculous. And, although her one experience hardly qualified her as an expert, she knew already that for her it had been more than just bodies moving in time with one another. There had been tenderness, and with tenderness came vulnerability, and she was already vulnerable enough where Basa was concerned. She wasn’t sure if she would be able to stop herself from making the physical attraction between them more than it really was, and yet...
His skin felt so deliciously warm and smooth, and she couldn’t resist running a hand over his stomach, her fingers tracing the contoured lines of his muscles, her head dizzy with the freedom of being able to reach out and touch him, of not having to hold herself in check.
He sucked in a breath, his hand catching hers.
‘What’s the matter?’ She looked up at him.
‘Nothing.’ He shook his head. ‘I’m trying to play it cool here, but my body’s acting like it belongs to some horny teenager.’
The air between them seemed to thicken, and her pulse quickened at his confession, at his open acknowledgement of her power to arouse him.
‘I thought you wanted to make up for lost time?’ she said softly.
Her hand slid lower down over his belly, trembling slightly, and she wrapped her fingers around his hard, straining length, her breathing losing its rhythm as his pupils flared.
‘Oh, I do,’ he said hoarsely as he reached out and cupped her breast, his thumb brushing lightly, maddeningly, across her rigid nipple.
Somewhere low down and deep inside she could feel herself melting, and she squirmed against his hand, moaning softly. She felt his breathing change as he pulled her close and rolled onto his back, taking her with him, anchoring her aching, hollowed-out body to his with not quite steady hands.
Shivering, she arched, pressing down against him as his fingers caressed her breasts, their teasing touch sending ripples through her body so that she could think of nothing but him, nothing but her need to feel his heat and power again, to feel him inside her.
She shifted against him, parting her legs further, chasing the fluttering beat of heat that was just out of reach. Groaning, he leaned sideways, fumbling on the floor for his discarded wallet, his other hand gripping her against him.
‘Here.’
He handed her the condom packet and she tore it open.
‘Pinch the end.’
His jaw was clenched, the muscles bunching in his arms as she rolled it onto his hard length. She felt a wet heat flood between her thighs at the barely checked hunger in his eyes, and then she lowered herself onto the blunt head of his erection.
His fingers grazed her stomach, strangling the breath in her throat.
‘Don’t be scared,’ he whispered, sliding his hands under her bottom and lifting her up. ‘Just take it slow. I won’t move until you’re—’
He breathed in sharply as she reached down and took him in her hand, guiding him slowly. A moan climbed up her throat as she pushed down, her body stretching, filling with what she wanted. His fingers reached for her breasts and then, raising himself up, he took first one and then the other nipple into his mouth, tonguing and licking them in turn, his breathing ragged as she started to rock against him.
Her body was contracting, tightening and pulsing around him, and then he started to move beneath her. She was moving in time with him, torn between the soft press of his mouth and the hard push of his body.
He made a rough sound and fell back against the pillow, his dark eyes resting on her face. His hands moved over her thighs, and then between them, his fingers oscillating in time to her heartbeat until she was shaking with need and pleasure.
‘Look at me, Mimi,’ he whispered.
She stared down into his face, her breath jerking from her throat as he eased himself in and out of her body with ever-increasing urgency. His hands gripped her waist and she cried out, her body splintering apart, gripping him tightly as he groaned and thrust up inside her.
Her heartbeat was filling her head and she shuddered against him as he breathed out unevenly, his chest rising and falling. Heart pounding, she stared down at him, trying to imprint the moment into her memory, wanting to remember the shape of his mouth, the pull of his gaze, the feel of his body inside hers.
‘Come here.’ Pulling her forward, he kissed her, and then, cupping her face, pressed his forehead against hers. ‘You’re smiling,’ he said softly.
Mimi tilted her head back. ‘I’m happy.’
Happier than she could ever remember being. Except she couldn’t help but feel a flicker of apprehension—because in her world happiness came with an inbuilt risk that at some unspecified point in the future all of it could be taken away.
His eyes were dark and unwavering. ‘What a coincidence. So am I.’
Pulling her closer, he smiled, and instantly she forgot her fears and was lost in his smile, lost in him, so that nothing mattered except the press of his lips against hers...
* * *
Basa shifted forward in his chair. As he scrolled down his laptop screen he tried to concentrate on what his PA had written. Rebecca was an excellent PA, and normally he enjoyed her concise and meticulous reports, but today he was struggling to focus on anything other than the woman standing on the deck outside his window.
Mimi was staring across the lake. She was holding up some kind of video camera, so he couldn’t see her face. She was wearing nothing that could be described as even vaguely attention-seeking, and yet his gaze kept returning to her approximately every ten seconds.
Sighing, he closed his laptop and leaned back, frowning at his uncharacteristic lack of focus. On an average day he would have worked through a report like this one in a couple of hours, and his recommendations would already be winging their way back to Rebecca.
Only this wasn’t an average day. It was the day he and Mimi had become lovers and he was still coming to terms with that new and incredible reality.
His pulse jumped. He was Mimi’s first lover, and he was a little confused—ashamed, even—by how much that mattered to him. He’d always thought of himself as modern and urbane, but against his will—against that image of himself—he could feel himself liking the fact that he was her first.
Craving His Forbidden Innocent Page 12
