‘You have no idea how much you turn me on,’ he breathed in a rough undertone and Becky looked at him with darkened eyes.
‘You could try telling me. I need convincing after you’ve spent so long ignoring me...’
‘I like to think of it as a slow burn...’ He eased the shorts off and she half-sat up, tugged the top over her head and flung it to the ground, then lay back, propping herself against the pillows.
Theo paused, taking time out to look at her, so supple and soft and so very, very feminine. The height of femininity, with her rounded curves, her long hair and open, honest face.
He straddled her and then knelt, his legs on either side of her, so that he could continue his lazy exploration of her glorious body. He had to keep telling himself not to rush because he wanted to, badly. He had to make himself slow down, although it was nigh on impossible when he moved down her body and began to lick her between her legs, tasting her, savouring her dewy wetness in his mouth. He nudged his erection into some good behaviour because there was no way he was going to allow himself to lose control again. Once had been bad enough.
Becky could barely breathe. It was exquisite having him down there, head between her legs, his hands under her bottom, driving her up to his mouth so that not even the slightest fraction of sensation was lost.
She hooked her legs around his back and flattened her hands at her sides. She could feel the steady rhythm of an orgasm building and eased away from his mouth, panting, not wanting to come, wanting and needing him inside her.
Theo straightened, lying lightly over her so that he could deliver a few little kisses to her mouth. ‘You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this,’ he confessed unsteadily. He pushed himself up and Becky traced the corded muscles of his arms.
‘How long?’ Becky made her voice light, teasing and mildly amused. She hoped that only she could hear the desperate plea to have something, anything to grab on to, that would turn this into more than just sex for him. It would never be love or anything like that, but affection, maybe... Would that be asking too much? She was only human, after all.
‘Pretty much as soon as I stepped out of your front door.’ He dealt her a slashing, wicked grin that made her toes curl.
‘You could have stayed a little longer.’
‘Unfortunately...’ Theo nuzzled the side of her neck so that some of what he was saying was lost in the caress ‘...there was a certain little something called reality to be dealt with. Playing truant can only last so long...’
‘A bit like what we’re doing here.’ Becky laughed lightly, although her heart was constricted with pain.
‘This is a bit more than truancy.’ Theo looked down at her seriously. ‘It’s not just about having some fun and then pushing on. There’s someone else in the equation.’
‘But essentially it is just fun and pushing on. I mean, we’re here and we’re in bed together, and then we’ll leave and that’ll be that...’
Theo shrugged. He wasn’t going to cross any bridges until he was staring them in the face. ‘I plan on bringing my mother back as soon as possible,’ he admitted. ‘It’s all very well and good, her being out here—and I’m sure she’s enjoying the weather, my aunt’s company and my aunt’s kids and grandchildren—but that’s a form of truancy in itself, wouldn’t you agree?’
‘Maybe...’
‘And, as for us pushing on... I admit things are slightly more complex on that front than I’d originally imagined.’
‘How so?’ Becky felt her racing heart begin to stutter. Tense as a bow string, she waited for him to elucidate.
‘All this talk is killing the mood.’ Theo shifted to turn onto his side and pulled her into position so that they were facing one another, belly to belly. ‘I thought my mother would have been delighted to discover that I was capable of more than having flimsy relationships with unsuitable women. I imagined that that would have given her a fillip, so to speak. Bucked up her spirits and stopped her from having worst-case scenarios in her head about me remaining a bachelor for the rest of my days, because somehow I was incapable of forming bonds with any woman that might be permanent. I intended to insinuate that you might not be the one for me, but certainly there was a woman out there who would be...a woman who wasn’t a supermodel with nothing much between her ears...’
‘Not all models are like that.’ Becky thought of her clever, lovely sister.
‘I know,’ Theo admitted. ‘But maybe I’ve just made it my mission to find the ones who are. At any rate, I was perhaps a bit short-sighted. I also thought that I’d be able to break things off between us gently. A process of gradually growing apart because of the distance or my work commitments or your work commitments. No need for you to put in an appearance—just a slow and gradual demise which could be explained away without any visits from you. I had no idea that my mother would jump on board this charade with such rich enthusiasm or that she would...’ he sighed and searched for the right words, and then shot her a crooked, sideways smile ‘...fall in love with you the way she has. It poses a problem, although it’s not something we can’t work with.’
‘What problem?’
‘It’ll wait. I can’t talk any more, Becky...’ He dipped his fingers into her and slid them up and down. ‘And neither can you, from the feel of things.’
He didn’t give her time to pick up the threads of the conversation or even to dwell further on it, because he lowered himself down the length of her agitated body, hands on her sides, mouth kissing, licking and nibbling.
She gave a husky groan as he buried his head between her legs again, teasing with the same lingering thoroughness as he had earlier teased her tight, sensitive nipples. She curled her fingers into his hair, arched back and bucked in gentle, rotating movements, urging on his inquisitive tongue to taste every bit of her.
Her body was on fire and she feverishly played with her nipples, driving yet more sensation through her body. She was so close to coming...
But, when she could stand it no more, he reared up and rustled about, finding protection, giving her body a little time to breathe and for those almost-there sensations to subside.
She couldn’t wait to have him inside her. Like him, she hadn’t stopped wanting this. Unlike him, so much more was attached to her wanting, but for the moment she couldn’t even begin to go down that road, not when she was burning up.
He inserted himself gently into her. He was big and every time they had made love he had been careful to build his rhythm slowly, had eased himself slowly into her, before thrusting deeper and firmer.
She loved the feel of him in her, loved it when he began to move with surety and precision, knowing just how to rouse her, just where to touch her and when for maximum effect. It was as though her body had been groomed to respond to him in ways that she knew, in her heart, it would never, ever respond to any other man.
And this time it was no different. He pushed deep and hard and she automatically bent her knees, taking all of him inside her and feeling the rush of her orgasm as it hurtled towards her, sending her to a place where nothing existed but the sound of their breathing and movement, and then a splintering that was so intense that the world seemed to freeze completely.
Distantly, she knew that he was coming as well, felt the tension in his big body as he reared up with a strangled groan of completion and satisfaction.
She wrapped her arms around him, her eyes still closed and her breathing still laboured, shuddering as she came down from the high to which she had been catapulted. He stayed still for a while, his arms encasing her. It was such an illusion of absolute closeness that she wanted to cry.
Instead, she whispered softly, stroking his face until he opened his eyes and looked at her. ‘You were telling me that there’s a problem, Theo...’
‘Isn’t it usually the unthinking man who breaks the post-coital mood by talking? Or falling asleep? Or getting up to work?’ Theo half-joked, kissing the tip of her nose.
‘I wonder which of
those three would be your preferred choice of atmosphere-breaking?’ Becky darted a kiss on his mouth, which deepened into something more intense.
‘With you...’ Theo murmured, cupping her breast and absently playing with her nipple, rolling the pad of his thumb over it, thinking that he could easily dip down to suckle on it and just stay there until they were both ready to make love all over again, which, judging from the way his penis was behaving, would be sooner rather than later. ‘With you, I could happily go for the repeat performance option...’
‘Not yet.’
Theo flopped onto his back and laughed ruefully. ‘Okay. Here’s the problem.’ He sighed and took a few seconds to get his brain back into gear before shifting onto his side to look at her. ‘I don’t think it’s going to be easy for you to simply vanish from my life overnight, whilst I paper over your disappearance with as many limp excuses as I can think of. My mother may have had her spirit sapped by her ill health and worries but she’s still vigorous enough to do something like demand a meeting with you to find out why we aren’t making wedding plans. I asked you for a fortnight. It might not be long enough.’
‘It has to be, Theo. I have a life to be getting on with.’ She pushed herself away from him and then kept her hand flat on his chest to stop him from coming any closer.
‘I get that.’ Did he? Honestly? He didn’t think that a few more days of this was going to be nearly enough to get her out of his system.
‘I’m not going to be at your beck and call just because you think you might need me to put in an occasional appearance.’
‘What about being at my beck and call because I can’t seem to keep my hands off you and I don’t want you to disappear from my life?’
If he hadn’t said that...
If he’d just let her keep thinking that all he wanted was a continuation of the business arrangement they had embarked upon...
He didn’t want her to disappear from his life. She knew that it was silly to read anything behind that but her romantic heart couldn’t help but be swept away by the notion of fate having brought them together, delivered them to this place, this here and now, where possibilities were endless, if only he could see it.
‘I know you don’t mean that,’ she muttered, confused and hearing the uncertainty in her voice with some alarm.
‘I’ve never meant anything more in my life before, Becky,’ Theo told her with driven urgency. He could sense her capitulation but he didn’t feel the expected triumph. Instead, he felt a rush of heartfelt honesty that took him by surprise. This wasn’t just about his mother. Oh, no...this was about him. She was a fever inside him and he knew that just a little bit longer with her would douse it. Overpowering need had never cut so deep.
‘It’s not practical, Theo, and besides...’
‘Besides what...?’ She didn’t answer and he looked at her with deadly seriousness. ‘Tell me you don’t feel this too, Becky. This has nothing to do with my mother. I would be asking this of you were my mother not a factor in the equation. I don’t want to let you go...’
Just yet, Becky reminded herself, clutching at sanity the way a drowning man clutched at a life raft. You don’t want to let me go just yet...
She couldn’t afford to let herself be lured any further along the road than she already had been. She was in love with him. Each day spent with him was a day deeper in love for her. She had cracked this time, had argued herself into a position of being able to justify her surrender. So was she going to do that again? Until she was finally dispatched at some point in the not-too-distant future?
Theo knew that this was not only a tall order but an extremely rash one. It would be difficult to write her out of his life abruptly, but it could be done. There were always ways and means when it came to solving thorny problems. But he still really wanted her, and wanted her so badly that the need took precedence over clear judgement.
He was involved with her because of the cottage. Break up with her when they returned to England, and he could still buy the place after the dust had settled. They would have had a few sex-filled days in the Cotswolds and a dalliance in the sun generated from the extraordinary circumstance that had brought them together.
Continue, for whatever reason, when they returned to London, and like it or not they would be indulging in a full-blown relationship. What else could he possibly call it? Whatever she said about him not being her type, how long before that would change? Would she inevitably be seduced by a lifestyle she had never envisaged for herself? Once upon a time, he had doubted that she would fit in to his world, not that he’d really given a damn. He’d been wrong. Looking at the ease with which she’d pulled off the expensive couture clothes she had bought, he realised she fitted in just fine.
Haute couture was something a woman could get accustomed to very easily. How long, then, before she became just another woman trying to talk about marriage and planning things that would never materialise?
But none of that seemed to matter because the sex was just so good.
And anyway, he argued with himself, he would have some contact with her afterwards because of the practice he had promised to buy for her. He would have to have her input in sourcing somewhere suitable. It wasn’t as though they could just walk away from one another without a backward glance.
There and then, he made his decision. The purchase of the cottage would have to be jettisoned. That had been an error of judgement, given everything that had come afterwards, and she would never find out about any of it. At any rate, Becky would soon be busy changing jobs and facing the challenges of living somewhere else. They would see one another but not regularly. His mother might see her again a few times but that would be it. Harmless dinners out where he would be able to manage the conversation.
It would be a shame about the cottage, but you won a few, you lost a few.
He slipped his hand between her legs and kissed her, a long, lingering, persuasive kiss. This was what he knew, the power of sex, and he was going to force her to admit to it too. He wasn’t going to let her walk away in a haze of high-principled apologies and rambling, earnest lectures about what made sense and what didn’t. If she walked away, then she was going to face what she was walking away from. Explosive, mind-blowing sex.
It was hitting below the belt, but Theo was nothing if not a man who knew how to take advantage of the situations life threw at him.
Becky moaned, her whole body quivering as he began devastating inroads into her self-control. He moved his fingers and touched her until she wanted to scream and beg him to take her. Her mind slipped its leash and she imagined all sorts of things she wanted him to do to her. She imagined what it would be like to pin down those powerful arms of his, restrain them with a nice leather strap and then torment his body by making love to him oh, so slowly...
She imagined them naked in a field making love under a black, starry sky, and touching one another in the back row of a cinema like a couple of teenagers...
And then the slideshow ended because none of that would happen if she walked away now.
She didn’t want any of that to happen. She knew the consequences of prolonging this disastrous union.
But she still reached down anyway, held his erection in her slight hand and began massaging it before climbing on top of him and letting herself surrender...
CHAPTER TEN
HOW COULD YOU...? How could you do this...?
Ten days ago, that was exactly what Becky had wanted to scream and shout at the man who once again had become her lover, against her better judgement.
She had thought at the time that being bedridden for a day with a cold virus would give her breathing space. In fact, as it had turned out, being bedridden had placed her in just the right place for him to stage his very successful assault on what precious little had been left of her common sense.
She’d folded faster than the speed of light and they had spent the remainder of their stay in Italy unable to keep their hands off one another. Much
to his mother’s obvious delight.
And, after they had returned to England, she had kept telling herself that it was just a matter of time before it all fizzled out. That work commitments and all the details that had to be sorted out with her job and the new practice would reduce their time together until they simply drifted apart though lack of proximity. He wasn’t the sort of man who could ever do a long-distance relationship or indeed any relationship where the woman he wanted was inaccessible.
Certainly, she had had to return to the Cotswolds, had had to begin the process of dismantling her life there and beginning the search for somewhere new where a practice could be profitable. Yet, somehow, she seemed to have seen him over the ensuing fortnight with more regularity than she might have imagined, and then his mother had returned from Italy, earlier than he had anticipated.
Becky stared numbly around her, back where she had started at the cottage, which had now been renovated to a standard that was eminently saleable.
In fact, she barely recognised the place.
She blinked rapidly, squashing foolish tears at her own naivety. There was no such thing as a free lunch and especially not in the rarefied world that Theo occupied.
At the time, she had thought, unwisely, that the cottage and the practice were part of the deal that he had hired her to undertake. Play the game and she would be rewarded—and she had played the game, not for the rewards, but for the pleasure of playing because she had missed him. He had phoned and she had got herself in a lather and called upon her pride but, in the end, she had thrilled at the thought of just seeing him again and being with him again.
But, of course, the picture was a lot more complex than the one that had been painted for her benefit.
She paused to gaze at herself in the mirror in the newly painted hall. She’d dumped all the finery, the expensive dresses, the designer shoes and underwear.
This is who you are, she told her reflection. A pleasant enough looking vet who’s lived her entire life in the country. Not some glamorous sex kitten powerful enough to turn the head of a man like Theo Rushing.
Snowbound With His Innocent Temptation Page 15
