This just was.
The elevator doors slid open. Instantly, anticipation began to hum through her body. This was their floor.
She felt each one of his fingers against her back as he gently escorted her out. Hopes and fears collided against one another like two misrouted commuter trains coming from opposite directions.
What if he just left her in her room, like all the other nights, and went to sleep on the sofa?
What if he didn’t?
Stopping before their suite, Rebecca stared down at her bulging purse. It was stuffed to the bursting point with chips they hadn’t bothered to take to the cashier to exchange for currency, as if doing that would somehow bring an end to the dream they were both having.
“Do you think Mrs. Madison will let us keep it?” Was that her voice that sounded so reedy? She cleared her throat. “The money we won?”
Angus unlocked their door. “The chips were ours, and we didn’t win anything.” He followed her in, then closed the door. “You did.”
The sound of the door closing echoed in her brain. Vibrated in her breast. She forced herself to calm down. This was still Angus, still her. Nothing had changed.
But it might. Sweet heaven, it might.
“But there wouldn’t have been anything to win with if Mrs. Madison hadn’t left the chips in your name,” Rebecca insisted.
With a shake of his head, he laughed softly, then bracketed her shoulders with his hands. His eyes delved into hers, as if he were examining her, looking for clues. “You have undoubtedly got to be the most honorable woman I know.”
“Since you probably know a great many, that’s a pretty big compliment.” Hesitating, Rebecca fidgeted with the ends of her wrap. It wasn’t any of her business. She told herself not to ask, but couldn’t resist. “How many women do you know?”
He dropped his hands and moved away. It had been a long day, Rebecca had to be tired. “Billions,” he said flippantly. Then something in her eyes stopped him—she was serious. “None.”
After Jane, there had been none that he had bothered to get to know, none he’d wanted to get to know. Until Rebecca had appeared, dripping, lost and semibarefoot in his office.
She shouldn’t have pressed. The smile on her lips was self-mocking. “I guess the answer’s somewhere in the middle.”
The lone lamp that had been left on in the suite was just behind her. Its light mingled with the fabric of her gown, rendering it almost nonexistent. It illuminated her body so clearly that he could see every soft, tempting inch of her outline.
His mouth went dry. “Closer to none than billions.”
If he continued looking at her like that, she thought, as if she were a hot fudge sundae and he had a congenital weakness for ice cream, she wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep from throwing herself at him.
With an effort to try to maintain her composure, she held out her purse to him.
“All right, if the chips are ours, then I want to give you my half.” She saw his eyebrow rise. “As a down payment on my debt.” She wished she didn’t feel as if she were babbling.
He made no move to cross to her or to take the purse. Did she really think he’d take money from her? he wondered. That all there was between them was business?
His voice was low, too low for her to hear anything but the words. “You don’t have a debt.”
She didn’t understand. He was trying to find out her identity, what had happened to bring her to that parking structure, running for her life. She’d taken up his time as well as his space. “But you’re working for me.”
The smile that curved his mouth touched her soul. “I’d rather think I’m working with you.”
From across the room, his voice seem to whisper along her body, making it quicken. Making her feel warm, so unbearably warm. Her eyes never leaving his, she slowly shed her wrap, letting it slip from her shoulders and gently drift to the floor.
He would have given anything for a drink right now, something hard and potent to numb his body. To anesthetize it so that he wouldn’t feel all the sensations that were racing through him at urgent, breakneck speed.
He had to leave, now, before his self-control gave out completely. “I guess we’d better call it a night.”
But he remained where he was.
Slowly, she moved toward him, a dream drifting on the sultry summer wind. “I guess so.”
Mesmerized, held tightly in the grip of something to which he couldn’t put a name, he could only watch her.
“I’ll take the sofa.”
Standing before him now, Rebecca took his hand, weaving her delicate fingers through his. They felt powerful. Gentle. She had no idea where her courage was coming from, but she prayed it wouldn’t desert her.
“The bed’s big enough for the entire cast of the revue we saw tonight. It would almost be like sleeping in separate rooms.”
He shook his head, unable to drag his eyes away from her face. His head was filled with her fragrance. The scent drove out the last of his common sense. “Too small. I’d find you.”
She was a hair’s breadth away from him now, her face turned up to his. Her body enticing his.
“I wouldn’t hide,” she said softly.
He could feel her breath on his skin. It sent tremors through his body. Huge tremors that spelled a complete, total collapse of every shred of resistance he had.
There were a thousand reasons this shouldn’t be happening. She was his client, he had professional ethics; there might be a man waiting for her, a husband, a lover, someone who had a right to her affections.
There was only one reason it should be happening. Because he wanted her.
“That’s just the trouble,” he told her, doing his best to warn her away even while everything within him pleaded with her to stay. “You should hide.”
She wasn’t going anywhere. Any lingering crumbs of conflict she might have felt had been laid to rest by the light in his eyes.
“Tell me why.” No matter what he said, she knew she wouldn’t listen.
He couldn’t think clearly, not when needs were slamming through him like pre-game football players in a locker room, threatening to overpower him. “For so many reasons,” he said.
There was no space between them, not even for a prayer, if he could have remembered any. His mind was as empty of all other thoughts as hers had been when she’d first come to him.
All there was, was her.
Letting her instincts lead her across this fresh, new ground on which she was treading, Rebecca raised herself on her toes. Her heart pounding, she skimmed her lips along his throat. Electricity flowed through her veins as she felt his reaction to her.
Her voice was soft, seductive as she coaxed, “Name one.”
Angus didn’t want to. He should have, but heaven help him, he didn’t want to. What he wanted now, what he realized he had wanted from the very first moment he’d laid eyes on her, was Rebecca.
Her hands feathered along his chest, toying with the buttons on his shirt. Toying with his heart.
Unable to take any more, he caught up her hands in his, and held them. He searched her eyes, looking for answers to questions that tormented him.
“I don’t want you to regret this, Rebecca. I don’t ever want you to regret this.”
He said it like a plea, not a warning, and if she’d had even the tiniest inclination to stop, to withdraw, it disintegrated in the face of his words.
“I won’t,” she promised.
He framed her face between his hands, his eyes intense. He’d know if she was lying. “No matter what.”
“No matter what,” she echoed. How could she ever regret what she wanted now with every ounce of her being?
The last of his resistance snapped. His mouth came down on hers, taking what she offered so selflessly. The urgency rushing through him, stunned him. He’d always been a gentle lover, a considerate lover, able to give while holding just a little of himself back, able to watch with detached ple
asure as he placed someone else’s needs above his own.
While the desire to pleasure her existed now, there was something else possessing him, something he’d never dealt with before. A ravaging, all-consuming desire that he felt unable to contain.
He wanted to take her here, now, while his blood pumped hot and his body pulsed and throbbed from wanting her. Angus felt like a man obsessed.
Over and over again, his mouth took hers, humbled by what she offered, greedy for more. Insatiable. His hands roamed her body, seizing possession of every curve, every dip, urgently seeking to burn away the touch of any man who had been there before him.
Her animal-like whimper stopped him cold.
What was he doing, taking her like some bull in heat? With almost superhuman effort, Angus drew his head away from her.
Dazed, she could only look at him. Had she done something wrong? “What is it?”
He dropped his hands. “I don’t want to hurt you.” He’d never forgive himself if he did. She was a beautiful, delicate woman in a very vulnerable state, and he was behaving like a damned rutting stag.
“You won’t.” Very deliberately, she covered his hands with hers and moved them back to where they had been on her hips. “But I’ll be forced to hurt you if you back away now.”
The savage tension of the moment receded as he laughed, pulling her even closer. “You and whose army?”
She raised her chin, equal to his challenge. “Haven’t you heard? The pure of heart are their own army.” Her eyes softened, blurred with desire, with wanting him. She could sense what he was thinking. “You’ll be my first, Angus. I don’t remember anyone else, so there wasn’t anyone. Only you.” It was as simple as that.
He wanted to be the first. Heaven help him but he wanted to be her first. And her last. And even as that evoked fear within him, it was burned away in the heat of his desire.
“And you won’t remember anyone else,” he promised, for even if her memory returned, he meant to obliterate that part of it. He wanted her to remember no other lover but him.
The moment he brought his mouth to hers, the fire ignited all over again, exploding around them. Consuming them.
As if to reassure himself that she was real, he swept his hands all along her body, claiming her. Branding her. His hands gripping her buttocks, he molded her to him.
His kiss deepened, widened, drawing her in. Submerging him.
Feeling himself shaking inside, he slid the thin straps of her dress down her shoulders until the material was trapped between their bodies.
Angus stepped back just enough to allow her gown to pool to her waist. It rested there as it waited for him to urge it down completely.
To take what was already his.
For a moment, he could only look at her. Angus groaned as a new volley of desire delivered a powerful salvo to his midsection and regions beyond. With skin as white as virgin snow, she was so beautiful she robbed him of his last snatches of breath.
Like a reverent penitent, he worshipped her with his hands, with his lips, caressing her bare skin as he tugged her gown away from her hips.
Underneath she was nude. “No underwear?”
His hot breath vibrated against her belly. “No need,” she whispered hoarsely, her eyes fluttering shut as she absorbed sensation after delicious sensation.
A thrill passed through him as Rebecca ran her hands through his hair, pressed his head to her breast.
Her breath was ragged as she tried to drag it back into her lungs, vainly struggling to hang on to her mind before it went reeling away.
She didn’t want to be passive, didn’t want to merely receive, but to give. She might not remember any men before Angus, but there was nothing wrong with his memory. Other women resided there, other women he had loved, had slept with. Rebecca wanted at least to hold her own against them, if not completely eradicate those other women from his mind.
One by one, she undid the rest of the buttons on his shirt. Though she wanted to rush, she forced herself to move as slowly as she could. What she lacked in experience, she meant to make up for by tantalizing him.
The fire in his eyes told her she was succeeding.
Dressed only in heels and his desire, she tugged his shirt from his arms, tossing it to the floor. The breath whooshed out of Angus as she surprised him, pushing him back onto the bed.
Pinning his shoulders to the mattress, she loomed over him, a goddess no sculptor had ever had the honor of immortalizing.
With her palms splayed across his chest, Rebecca held him prisoner as she inclined her head, bringing her mouth down on him.
Angus watched, desire tightening his gut, as, using just the tip of her tongue, Rebecca anointed skin that was already moist with anticipation. Skimming along it, working her way ever lower, she dipped her tongue around his navel, outlining it.
Her eyes were wicked as she raised them to look at him. A sense of power filled her as she felt his taut belly quiver in response. She sat back on her heels, her body teasing him, enticing him. With slow, deliberate movements, she began to unbuckle his belt.
Completely at her mercy, Angus covered her hands with his own and helped her pull his trousers from his hips. They were discarded, as were his briefs. He couldn’t contain himself anymore.
The next moment, cupping the back of her head, he brought her face up to his, sealing his mouth to hers. The time for playing, for teasing, was over.
Hungry, their bodies tangled, nearly fusing from the heat. Over and over again, their lips met and remet. Lost in the throes of passion, to everything but what they were feeling, they came perilously close to falling off the edge of the world. And nearly did fall off the bed.
Angus felt her laughter vibrating within his mouth and raised his head, one eyebrow arched in silent inquiry.
“You were right,” she explained breathlessly. “The bed isn’t big enough.”
“I’m always right,” he told her, catching both of her hands in his. She looked at him in surprise. “You tortured me—it’s my turn to return the favor.”
And return it, he did. Pushing her up higher on the bed, he used his tongue, his teeth and his lips to weave a soft, moist web that generated throbbing pulse points all along her body. He feasted and teased, aroused and withdrew, until she ached beneath him, with such a crying need for him to fill her emptiness that she thought she was going to explode.
Satisfied that he had given as good as he’d received, Angus dragged his body up along hers, pleasuring himself in the feel of skin rubbed against skin, until he could look into her eyes again. Humbled by what he saw there, he kissed Rebecca with all the passion she inspired within him.
Her eyes fluttered shut, only to fly open again in surprise as she felt his fingers lightly probe the very center of her desire, outlining it. Then he began to rub, ever so gently, until he brought her up and over the first climax.
Overwhelmed, Rebecca grabbed the covers beneath her, her body trembling as she absorbed the sensation.
Then she looked at him in breathless, dazed wonder, only to have him begin all over again. And again.
Exhausted, she summoned strength from some distant reserve as he began to caress her yet again. “Not without you,” she declared weakly.
Grabbing onto his shoulders, she arched her body toward him, parting her legs farther. The silent invitation was impossible to resist. Moreover, he’d reached the end of his tether. Angus couldn’t have held back any longer if the fate of the world had depended on it.
With his eyes on hers, he slowly slid into her, taking possession. Taken prisoner.
Hearts racing, they let themselves be swept away by the rhythm that beat within them. They danced the dance of lovers, the music growing steadily more frenzied until it suddenly peaked, then faded away.
Spent, weary, they collapsed against each other, too tired to move. Too content to care.
Ever so slowly, after what seemed like eternity, the world began to come back into focus. Little by lit
tle, Rebecca again became aware of everything. Of the imprint of his body as it pressed down on hers, of the way his breath was tickling her shoulder. Of the way the breeze was stirring the curtains at the window just beyond his head. Rebecca cataloged every last detail and pressed them between the pages of her mind.
Angus raised himself up on his hands, afraid his weight was too much for her. A smile played on his lips as he looked at her. She had been everything he had thought she’d be. And more. He only hoped that she could bring herself to forgive him for succumbing to his own desire so ruthlessly.
“So, now what do you want to do?” he teased.
“Do?” she repeated innocently, as if she were giving it serious consideration. And then her eyes glinted. “I want to do it again.”
“Again?” He rolled off her. Tucking one arm beneath her, he drew Rebecca to him and pressed a soft kiss to her temple. “Lady, you’ve got the wrong man for that. I’m dead. You managed to completely sap all my strength.”
“Dead, you say?” She turned her body into his.
He could feel her heating him. Could feel himself growing enticed again. It amazed him. “Completely.”
With skillful strokes that surprised her as much as it did him, Rebecca dipped her hand low and began to move her fingers lightly over him.
“Are you sure?”
“I was.” He could feel desire rebuilding itself at a prodigious rate. He wouldn’t have thought it was humanly possible to be so ready again so quickly.
But then, he’d never made love with Rebecca before.
Pushing him back into the mattress, she rose, straddling him. “Think again.”
“You think,” he told her, a wicked grin taking hold. “I’m going to be busy.”
“Damn straight, you are.” Fitting herself against him, she took him in and began to move her hips ever so slowly, in a tempo far less frantic, far less urgent than before. She knew what was waiting, and half the fun, half the joy, was the journey.
This time, he was the one who arched and swayed, covering her breasts with his hands, teasing her nipples with his palms until they hardened like two perfect ripened berries.
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