by Lucy King
And why would he want to? Bella was a woman who knew what she wanted and was clearly as much in favour of nostrings sex as he was.
So why was he bothering to analyse a hurdle that clearly didn’t exist? Why was he contemplating his principles when he had a gorgeous sexy woman wriggling in his lap and inviting him to make her scream? Was he nuts?
Shutting down his brain, Will concentrated on the feel of her against him, the warmth of her skin beneath his fingers and the smouldering heat in her eyes.
He slid his hands higher up her thighs, felt her tremble, planted his hands on her bottom and pulled her tight against him. Catching her mouth with his, he swallowed her gasp of shocked delight and tilted his hips. He felt her moan into his mouth and moved one hand round to slip beneath her knickers. Her fingers locked themselves in his hair and she arched her back against him.
He could feel her heat, her need. She was so wet, so slippery, so ready for him, that he didn’t think he could stand it much longer. When he slid a finger deep inside her she let out a muffled ragged groan. He felt her muscles clench around his finger and heard her catch her breath as his thumb found her clitoris.
He rubbed and stroked and she shuddered. She ground herself against him as their mouths fused, teeth clashing, the ache inside him becoming almost unbearable.
And then she was dragging her mouth from his, leaning over to rummage around in her handbag with one hand, and fumbling with his belt with the other.
‘Women really are good at multitasking,’ Will said hoarsely, trying to focus on something other than the way every one of his senses was filled with her.
‘You’re not doing too badly,’ she muttered, shivering as she pulled a condom out of her bag and ripped it open with her teeth.
Having unbuckled his belt, she undid the buttons of his fly, slid her hand beneath his shorts and freed him. The touch of her fingers on him blew his mind and as she deftly rolled the condom onto him Will had to bite down hard on his tongue to stop himself climaxing right then.
Staring into his eyes, she lifted her hips and as his fingers slipped from her he pulled her knickers to one side and then finally she lowered herself onto him, taking him in inch by incredible inch.
At the white hot lust that thundered through him, Will set his jaw and fought for control. But then she was sinking down hard, sighing and rocking back and forth, and he thought—as much as he could think—that he’d never seen anything so arousing. They were both still fully clothed yet were as tightly joined as it was possible to be.
Will tugged her head down to his and captured her mouth with his. His heart hammered as she whimpered and then began kissing him back as fiercely as he was kissing her, and a tight coil of heat began to build deep inside him.
She moved up and down him and as he met her increasingly frantic thrusts his mind went blank. All he was aware of was the agonisingly delicious tension gripping his muscles.
And then somewhere through the thick hot fog in his head, he heard her cry out. He felt her tense, arch her back and then shatter and convulse around him and he couldn’t hold himself back any longer. Pulling her down and thrusting up hard, Will buried himself as deep as he could and, with a groan that tore from his throat, hurtled into oblivion.
How long they stayed like that, with his arms around her and her head on his shoulder, Will had no idea. Was it seconds? Minutes? Hours? However long it was, it was long enough for them to have pulled up outside her shop.
‘We should do this again,’ he muttered hoarsely, his hands stroking up and down her thighs.
‘I’d like that.’
‘But properly. How about dinner?’ he said, thinking that dinner—with Bella for dessert—was once more a most excellent idea.
She raised her head and gave him a wide satisfied smile as she lifted herself off him, ran her hands through her hair and fixed her clothing. ‘Dinner would be nice,’ she said, her voice so gravelly and satiated that Will wanted to yank her back down and make her fracture in his arms all over again.
Silently cursing the fact that he’d promised Caroline he’d sort out the mess she’d got herself into this evening, Will shoved his hands through his hair and put himself back together. ‘Are you free on Saturday?’
‘I probably shouldn’t admit it but I do believe I am.’
‘Then I’ll pick you up at eight.’
‘Great.’
Twisting round, she reached for the door handle. Unable to resist, Will pulled her back into his arms and slammed his mouth down on hers. The kiss barely lasted a second, but it was so hot and hard and electric that when he broke it off he was breathing as raggedly as she was and his heart was thundering. ‘Goodnight,’ he murmured, wondering how the hell he was going to be able to wait until Saturday.
‘Goodnight,’ she said, flashing him a blinding smile before opening the door and disappearing into the night.
Bella closed the door to her flat above her shop and sagged against it, her legs no longer able to hold her up.
Had she really just done what she thought she’d just done?
While her brain made a stab at railing against the idea that she’d had sex with someone she’d only just met, her body assured her that she most definitely had. And how. God, and how.
She’d known sex with Will was going to be good, but she’d never imagined it was going to be that explosive. When she’d taken him inside her she’d nearly passed out with delirium.
All control had fled and she’d let her body do what it wanted and sweep her away with the flow. And what a fantastic idea that had been.
She’d never imagined it was going to be that addictive either. But the minute she’d lifted herself off him, she’d wanted to sink back down onto him and ask him to tell Bob to go round the block a few times. When Will had given her that scorching goodbye kiss, she’d had to dash off before she could grab him by the lapels and drag him into her flat with her.
Even now, her body still tingling and twitching with the aftershocks of her orgasm, the pulse between her legs throbbed and ached, desperate for more of him. She’d never known need like it.
And now she had to wait two days before she’d be able to satisfy the craving. Bella let out a tiny groan. Agh. Two whole days. Two whole nights. Forty-eight hours. How on earth would she manage?
Summoning strength to her limbs, she hauled herself to her feet and wandered into the kitchen, dazed and confused by the heady way she was feeling.
Who exactly was this man who’d dazzled her, bewildered her and had her throwing caution to the wind and thinking about sex to the exclusion of all else? she wondered, opening the fridge and taking out a bottle of wine.
She pulled the cork out, plucked a wine glass from the cupboard and poured herself a healthy measure.
Phoebe would know, but she could hardly call her, could she? Phoebe would want to know all the details of how they’d met and how it had panned out, and Bella wasn’t sure she was up to dissecting what had happened just yet. Besides, Phoebe would probably tell Alex, who would probably mention something to Will, and Bella certainly didn’t want him knowing she’d been asking about him.
And yes, she supposed she’d find out more about him at dinner on Saturday, but frankly she couldn’t wait until Saturday. She wanted to know now.
Setting her glass on the kitchen table, Bella sat down and opened up her laptop.
Research, she told herself. That was all she was doing. A quick check. Just to see. All perfectly normal. A sensible precaution in this day and age, actually, she assured herself, taking a sip of wine, then tapping Will’s name into the search engine and waiting for the results to pop up.
When they did, a nanosecond later, her eyes widened. Wow. Ten thousand entries. So much for wondering how she was going to occupy herself for the next two days.
Feeling an idiotic grin spreading across her face, Bella clicked on the first link and began to read.
One hour, a bowl of vegetable soup and another glass of wine late
r, Bella was no longer grinning.
Her research had started off so well. She’d found out that Will lived and worked in the Cayman Islands, which no doubt accounted for the tan.
She’d discovered he owned a vast estate over there and liked to windsurf and scuba-dive, which no doubt accounted for the lean muscled body.
She’d learned that he was some sort of genius with figures and derivatives, and she’d had a crash course in day trading.
She’d learned that his family could trace its roots back to King John, and that even without the dukedom he was a billionaire.
She’d learned his mother had died of a stroke when he was twenty-three, and he’d emigrated shortly afterwards.
And then she’d discovered something else. Something that had wiped the smile from her face and was the cause of the disappointment crashing through her.
Will dated. A lot.
According to the articles she’d trawled through and the photos she’d pored over, he rarely saw the same woman more than half a dozen times. In one interview dating from only a month ago, he’d been asked whether he was on the lookout for a duchess and he’d said no. ‘Emphatically’ apparently. When the interviewer had mentioned the Hawksley Collection and asked about love he’d said he didn’t believe in it.
Bella rubbed her eyes, pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. Wasn’t that typical?
Will Cameron might be hotter than the Sahara in summer and he might have given her the best orgasm of her life, but for whatever reason he was a commitment-phobe. And therefore no good for her whatsoever.
Resisting the urge to drown her sorrows in the rest of the bottle of wine, Bella got up and went in search of her phone. That little voice inside her head yelling, ‘Who cares?’ could protest all it liked. She wasn’t listening. Because she’d had enough of Mr Right Now. She was looking for Mr Right and, despite her hopes to the contrary, Will Cameron was Mr Wrong In Every Way.
CHAPTER SIX
IF HE’D thought his conversation with his aunt at the bank had been odd, thought Will, sitting in the library at Hawksley House, nursing a glass of whisky and staring broodingly into the fire, it had been nothing compared to the way in which the rest of the day had turned out.
Today was, without exception, the strangest, most surreal day he’d ever experienced and he wasn’t sure he wanted to experience a day like it ever again. He’d had enough mind-boggling revelations and gut-churning trips down memory lane to last a lifetime. And as for the tangled financial mess his aunt had created, well, that had taken hours to unravel. God only knew what sort of trouble she could have ended up in if he hadn’t found out what she’d been up to.
Aware that his hand had tightened around the glass, Will set it on a side table before it shattered and rubbed a hand over his face.
And somewhere muddled up in it all there was Bella.
When he’d woken up this morning he’d never in a million years have imagined that she would have slammed into his life. But she had. Like a tornado, whipping around, lifting everything up, churning it around and then dropping it back down in a chaotic jumble. She’d been unexpected. Unbelievable. And as sexy as hell.
If his body weren’t still throbbing with the after-effects of the mind-blowing interlude on the back seat of his car he’d never have believed it had happened. But the ever present image of her writhing on top of him, rocking back and forth, biting on her lip and moaning told him it had been all too real. He might not wish to experience a day like today ever again, but he had every intention of experiencing her again.
Will ground his teeth and tried to drag his aching body back under control.
How in God’s name was he going to be able to wait until Saturday? In fact why was he waiting until Saturday? Why on earth wasn’t he taking her out for dinner tomorrow? So he’d arranged to have a drink with Alex, but he could easily postpone it. He was pretty sure that Alex, himself totally besotted with his fiancée, would understand. There was no need to suffer this agony any longer than was necessary.
He levered himself to his feet to retrieve his phone from his desk where he’d emptied his pockets earlier and then stopped, frowned and fell back down, his blood turning to ice.
What on earth did he think he was doing?
Since when had he contemplated ditching a friend for a woman? And since when had he brought forward a date because he couldn’t wait? Where had his self-control gone? And more disturbingly, where had the idea that he might be besotted with Bella come from? He couldn’t be besotted with her. He’d only just met her. Besides he didn’t get besotted. Ever.
Will let out a growl of frustration. He’d wait until Saturday because he had to. Because that was the plan. Because he wasn’t besotted. And because he had gallons of self-control. Somewhere.
The sound of his mobile ringing jerked him out of his thoughts and he jumped to his feet and snatched it up before he could analyse the sharp stab of hope that it might be Alex cancelling. ‘Hello?’
‘Will?’
At the sound of Bella’s voice on the other end of the line, Will’s pulse leapt and his blood began to simmer as the desire gripping his insides intensified.
Maybe she didn’t want to wait either. Maybe she was as much at the mercy of this as he was. In fact, now he’d dealt with the havoc Caroline had wreaked on her finances, maybe he could invite her round right now. Or head over to hers. He wasn’t fussy. Just weirdly desperate to see her again. ‘Who else?’ he said, reining in his raging libido and telling himself to cool it.
‘Of course.’ He could hear the smile in her voice and his stomach flipped.
‘What can I do for you?’ he said, and rather hoped she was going to tell him exactly what he could do for, and to, her.
He heard her take a deep breath. Imagined her running a hand through her hair. Imagined running his hands through it again and felt his pulse spike.
‘I’m calling to cancel our date.’
And then it slowed right down. All the heat and desire dwindled away and Will went strangely cold. What? Why would she want to cancel their date? ‘I see,’ he said, thinking that actually he didn’t see at all. She’d seemed pretty keen earlier, moments after she’d come apart in his arms. ‘Any particular reason?’ he added, aiming for a nonchalance he certainly didn’t feel.
‘I’m busy on Saturday.’
Hmm. Will threw himself into the chair behind the desk and picked up the crystal paperweight blinking at him in the firelight. That was annoying, but fair enough. Perhaps, like him, she hadn’t been thinking all that clearly at the time. And they hadn’t exactly whipped out their diaries to coordinate. ‘Then another day,’ he said.
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Why not?’
‘I just don’t think it’s going to work out.’
Unable to glare at her, Will glared at the paperweight. How the hell did she know that? She hadn’t given it a chance. And what was there to work out anyway? The only thing they had to worry about was sexual compatibility, and there was absolutely no problem on that front.
At the memory of just how sexually compatible they were, a bolt of lust tore through him as sharp and jagged as lightning, and he dropped the paperweight. On his toe.
Wincing at the pain, Will scowled, bent down to pick it up and put it back on the desk.
‘Are you all right?’
The concern tingeing her voice irritated him even more. ‘Fine. Just great.’ He ground his teeth. ‘What makes you think it wouldn’t work out?’
A pause. ‘I just know.’
He went still as a thought flashed across his mind. ‘Are you involved with someone else?’
‘Of course not. Do you really think I’d do what I did if I was?’
‘I don’t know, do I? I don’t know you. You aren’t allowing me the chance.’
‘Well, I wouldn’t.’
She sounded outraged and Will made himself calm down. Not everyone had infidelity forever at the forefront of their mind. ‘No
. Sorry.’
‘Would you?’ she snapped.
A chill rippled through him. ‘No.’
‘Well, then.’
‘So?’ What was her problem? God, he wished he could see her face.
‘It’s really nothing,’ she said irritatingly coolly. ‘Like I said, I just don’t think it would work out, that’s all.’
Will frowned as his stomach churned. With pique, of course, because he couldn’t remember the last time a woman had cancelled a date with him. Women generally didn’t. So why was Bella giving up on them before they’d even started? And why did he even care?
Will narrowed his eyes and switched his brain into gear. This was nuts. Why was he worrying about this? So what if the fact that she’d reduced the episode in his car to a one-night stand left a bad taste in his mouth? If it didn’t bother her why did it have to bother him?
Setting his jaw, he pulled himself together. He hadn’t begged for a date in his life, and he wasn’t about to start now.
‘Fine,’ he said, as if he couldn’t care one way or the other. ‘If that’s what you want, fine.’
‘Oh,’ she said, sounding faintly taken aback at his capitulation. Ha. As if he was going to put up a battle. ‘Well. Good. No hard feelings?’
His whole body tightened as the memory of exactly how hard she’d got him feeling smacked him around the head, and for a split second he wanted, no, yearned, to fight that battle. And then he ruthlessly stamped it all back down, because that kind of perverse way of thinking would lead to nothing but the sort of complications in his life that he really didn’t need. Nevertheless … ‘Bad choice of words, Bella.’
Another pause. ‘I see,’ she said. ‘Yes. Sorry … Well, then, goodbye.’
‘Goodbye,’ he said curtly, and hung up.
Maybe it was for the best, he thought, tossing his phone on the desk in frustration. If simply cancelling their date had this effect on his equilibrium, imagine what else she could achieve.
In fact, he ought to be glad that she’d put an end to their acquaintance. The last thing he needed right now was a woman playing havoc with his head. Not that they ever did, of course.
