by Lucy Monroe
“Yes.”
“According to what I know of him, he’s never had a long-term relationship.”
“Neither have I.”
“He dates a lot more than you do, sweetheart.” Yes, definitely worried. And her mom hadn’t read that in the business journals, or maybe she had. Innuendo was not reserved for the tabloids only.
“It’s okay, Mom. Trust me.”
“I’m glad you’re noticing a man, don’t get me wrong. For a while, I wondered if you were honest-to-goodness married to your career. But Miguel Menendez?”
“Yes.” That was all she said. She couldn’t say more, not in front of Miguel, and that would be too embarrassing. But she and her mom understood each other.
“You can’t always choose where your heart leads you.”
“Exactly.”
“He must be pretty special to have broken through your wall of indifference to men.”
“Definitely.”
“I’m glad, sweetie. Really glad.” That was her mom, always supportive—even when she was a little apprehensive.
“Thanks, Mom. Talk to you later?”
“Sounds good. Have fun!”
“Love you, Mom.”
“Love you, too, Amber. So much.”
They hung up, Amber smiling.
“You two are very close.”
“Yes, since my dad died before my birth all we’ve ever had is each other.”
“She never remarried?”
“No. She’s dated a few times, but she says that no one has ever made her happier than her memories.”
“Your parents must have had a very good marriage.”
“According to her, it was the best. Worth keeping a memory intact over.”
“Your mother is a remarkable woman.”
“She is. She wasn’t sure about my modeling at first. She tried to talk me out of it, and then one day she came to me and said I should pursue my dreams no matter what they were. And there’s been no looking back since. But I’ve always been determined to prove to her that she didn’t make a mistake supporting me in my dreams.”
“That is laudable.”
“Is laudable sexy?”
“On you,cielo, everything is sexy.”
“We aren’t going to leave your apartment again tonight, are we?” He’d said as much before he kissed her, but it was starting to sink in more firmly exactly what that meant.
“Does the prospect bother you?”
“No. Not much,” she added with more candor.
“You have nothing to fear. It will be very good between us.”
“Um…” She licked her lips again and then sighed. “I’m sure you are right. Only there’s something I think you should know.”
“What is that?”
One thing she’d learned long ago, in cases of true importance blunt was better than tap dancing around a subject. “I’ve never been with another manthat way .”
He stared at her, looking totally poleaxed.“¿Que dice?”
“I told you I wasn’t very experienced.”
“Not veryis not the same ascompletely without .”
“Well, no it’s not. Are you saying you don’t want me because I’m a virgin?” She’d never anticipated that, but she should have. He’d already said he normally went for women who knew their way around a bedroom, or at least that’s what he’d implied.
“No. I…” His voice trailed off and he stared at her some more, something indefinable flaring in his features. “Why are you a virgin?”
“What do you mean why?”
“Have you been saving yourself for marriage?”
“That’s a really archaic concept.” Though one she wasn’t totally against, but the truth was, it hadn’t been anything that defined in her mind. “I’ve never wanted another man enough to make love, to let him into my life like that.”
“I want to make love to you, over and over again. If you want truth, I feel like I cannot breathe for the hunger inside me.” He didn’t sound particularly happy about that fact, but she understood. It was overwhelming to want someone that much, even for a man like Miguel.
“I want you like that, too.”
He nodded. “But we are making no promises for the future.”
“Of course not.” They’d only known each other a couple of days. No matter how strong the physical attraction or how right it felt when they were together, they didn’t know each other well enough to start talking long-term commitments.
Though she knew deep inside that she was in love with this man, she was more able to share her body than that particular piece of knowledge. It was just so unbelievable. The whole love at first sight thing was a myth. It had to be, but she felt something for him that went beyond physical desire and originated in the region of her heart.
Still, she was no more ready to make a lifetime commitment than he was. Probably even less so. Her career was just taking off. It was the worst possible time for her to take a break and pursue personal ambitions. But they had two weeks and who knew what they could work out after that?
His expression reflected unmistakable relief, quickly followed by sensual hunger. “You do me a great honor, allowing me to be your first lover.”
“I don’t think I have a choice.”
“I know this feeling. I feel it, too. I want to touch you now…to learn your body’s secrets.”
“But the driver…”
“I could close the privacy window, but that would embarrass you, would it not?”
“Yes.”
“I have no desire to embarrass you.”
“Good.” But she was tempted. She clamped her jaw to keep herself from admitting it.
It seemed to take forever to get to the penthouse, but when they arrived the housekeeper had already left.
“I called from the car phone and asked her to take care of a couple of things before leaving early,” Miguel explained.
“While I was chatting with my mom.”
“Yes.”
He put his hand out. “Come.”
After a second’s hesitation, she took the proffered hand and allowed him to lead her to the bedroom where a bucket of champagne chilled in a stand beside the bed. That along with two glasses on a nearby table, the turned-down bed and drawn curtains spoke of the “things” he’d asked his housekeeper to attend to before leaving.
The room was cast in intimate shadows from the curtains drawn against the afternoon sun, setting an ambiance every bit as romantic as candlelight.
For a long moment they simply stood and faced one another. The desire had been building between them since the moment they met, but at astronomical rates the past hour and her entire body shook with unfamiliar need.
Miguel noticed her trembling and smoothed his hands down her bare arms. “It is time.”
“Yes.” She felt no trepidation, though perhaps she should, but there was no room for anything but the craving she knew only he could meet.
Thoughts of what would happen, why she was there, what she was feeling—all of them not quite fully formed—flitted through her head as her body grew more and more shivery with arousal beneath his heavy-lidded appraisal.
Her heart was beating fast and she felt it rushing through her veins, the heady liqueur of arousal heating every cell until she felt the flush of need stealing over her entire body. She could hear her own panting breaths as if magnified by a sound system. They echoed around her while her pulse beat inside her head. Her chest was tight with excitement, but that was nothing compared to the sensation of an electrical charge zapping each of her nerve endings with tiny jolts of life.
That was the right word. Life. She felt so alive with Miguel. Colors were brighter, the air was crisper, smells were more intense. That was why she could distinguish his scent over that of other men. It was calling to her now with an elemental masculinity that defied his sophisticated exterior.
Miguel Menendez elicited an entire range of emotions in her she had not even thought existed. At leas
tfor her . Emotions she had never really even wanted and now wondered how she could have been so shortsighted to think she could live without them.
This was glorious. Amazing.Life .
He pulled her close with gentle hands, but his face told another story. His expression was feral in its intensity, further proof of the primal male that lurked beneath the tycoon’s façade. His dark eyes said his hunger was easily as strong as her own. Perhaps stronger. After all, he knew fromexperience how good this was going to be.
Or did he?
He’d said she was different. Perhaps their intimacy would be unique and special for him as well. She prayed it was so. She needed it to be that way, but the sane bit of her mind that remained told her not to expect it. That kind of wishing was best left for fairy tales where the knights were as innocent as the maidens.
“I will make it perfect for you,carida .” He spoke with his lips bare centimeters from hers.
“You’re so sure you can,” she breathed.
“Of a certainty.” He made a sexy sound deep in his throat and kissed her, his lips claiming utter possession.
Her knees threatened to buckle and she sagged into him. He took her weight without faltering, looping one arm around her waist and pressing her close. Everything about him was hard and strong and she felt both safe and incredibly sensual molded so perfectly to his body. Running her hands up his sculpted chest under the suit jacket, she kissed him back.
His nipples were rocklike little nubs under the fine fabric of his tailored shirt and he groaned when her fingertips brushed over them. Her own breasts and nipples swelled and ached for his caress. As if reading her mind, his free hand came between them to knead her swollen curves through the lightweight cotton of her black Dolce & Gabbana summer dress.
She hadn’t worn a bra because of the spaghetti straps. The lack of additional barrier between his caressing fingers and her sensitized skin increased the intensity of the pleasure. Soon, she was moaning against his lips and pressing herself into him, trying to find a position that assuaged the ache of need growing inside her.
He swept her high against his chest and her arms went of their own volition to loop around his neck. The pulse beating in his neck was as rapid as her own. She savored it with her lips and he stilled in his move toward the bed, his arms convulsing around her. Oooh…she liked that.
She pressed an openmouthed kiss to the underside of his chin, her tongue flicking out to taste him, rasping over the dark stubble just starting to shadow his jaw. He tasted salty and so incredibly masculine.
She kissed along his jaw, nibbling on the hard curve, reveling in his taste and sheer maleness. “You are such a macho man, Miguel.”
“I am glad you think so,cielo, ” he rasped, tilting his head so she could reach more of him.
She loved that he was so into her touch and not afraid to show it. His big body shuddered once, like a skyscraper in a low level earthquake, but she never once felt in danger of falling from his strong arms. He really was all man and ultraconfident to boot.
She nipped at his ear and then touched it with her tongue, loving the sound of feral arousal that came from deep in his chest when she did it. Suddenly he was moving again, quickly, across the room, stopping when he reached the oversize bed that dominated the area.
He laid her down with strength leashed by tenderness and stepped back, shrugging his suit jacket off as he moved. His muscles rippled under the form-fitting tailored shirt and she wanted to reach out and touch them. Her arm lifted as if she would, but he was standing too far away.
She watched in avid interest as he stripped off his clothes with an economy of movement that spoke of impatience and total comfort with his own nudity. She’d seen male models, tons of them in varying states of undress. Had been posed with them in nothing short of intimate situations for the camera, but never had another man’s naked or nearly naked body made her own weep.
Moisture pooled in that secret place between her legs and it felt profound. Not merely sexual, but exquisite. Like coming upon a hidden waterfall in the forest—something secret and beautifully lush. To have never experienced the reaction with another man made her body’s response all the more special and wildly intimate.
Emotions as well as physical desire swamped her until she felt like she was drowning in a tsunami of need. Silken flesh that had known no man’s touch pulsed with agonizing rapacity for his. He stripped off his briefs, his hardness springing free. The flesh was slightly darker than the rest of his skin, stretched taut over an impressively large erection.
For all her exposure to the male body, she’d never actually seen a man in full arousal before. It was both just a little daunting andincredibly arousing. Despite the shiver of slight trepidation that skittered down her spine, her untried body instinctively knew what it yearned for and she undulated on the bed in helpless desire.
His eyes darkened until they looked almost black and he stroked himself with a natural sensuality that enhanced the hunger clawing inside her. “You are amazingly sexy,mi cielo .”
“That is definitely the pot calling the kettle,” she said between gasping breaths.
He smiled, his expression filled with promise. “You are by far the most seductive woman I have had the privilege to make love to.”
“You’re kidding.”
“I am not.”
“But you’ve been with tons of women.”
“Not exactly tons.”
“All of them more experienced than me.”
“It isyou I find so captivating,mi dolce tesoro .”
His sweet treasure?She shook her head, trying to clear thoughts fuzzy from desire. “I always thought I was sort of sexless,” she admitted in a quiet voice.
He looked at her incredulously. “You turn me on so hard it is all I can do not to take you now.”
A husky laugh choked out of her throat.
He shook his head. “It is not amusing, trust me on this. I do not want to hurt you and you are innocent.”
“Which is why I can’t see myself as the most seductive woman you’ve been with.” Yet as unbelievable as it seemed to her, she did not sense he’d said the words out of mere flattery.
“As I said, it is the woman Amber Taylor I find so stimulating, not your level of experience or lack thereof.” He climbed onto the bed, one knee beside her hip, the other insinuated between her legs, pushing her skirt indecently high on her thighs. “Though Iam finding the lack surprisingly tantalizing.”
“Oh.”
“Do you know what I find difficult to credit?” he asked, leaning over her with his naked body.
“Wh…what?” she asked in an embarrassingly squeaky voice.
“The fact that you have never made love to another man.”
“I was never interested.” Hence her belief in her own lack of sexual feelings.
“Yet, right now, virgin that you are, you are panting for it.”
He was right and the knowledge did not even embarrass her. It was much too amazing. “I guess I was just waiting for the right man.”
“And that would be me?” He leaned down and nuzzled her neck, sending chills of pleasure along her neck and shoulders.
“Do you need me to say it?”
CHAPTER SIX
HE KISSEDthe corner of her mouth. “No, I can see it. And that in itself is an aphrodisiac of unparalleled power.”
“Is it?” She licked her lips, tasting him on them.
“Believe it.”
“What else excites you?” she dared in a soft voice.
“Everything about you.” He kissed her temple. “But specifically?” His lips moved along her cheekbone, tasting her with nibbling kisses the same way she’d explored him earlier. “The way you lay there watching me as if I am the most enticing thing you have ever seen.”
“You are.”
He groaned and kissed her full on the lips, exploring her mouth with his tongue briefly before lifting his head. “And your honesty…I find that a complete tur
n-on.”
“That’s good, because I’m not good at hiding things from you.” She’d found herself being shockingly forthright with him from the first words they spoke.
He slid his hand down her thigh, sending her nerve endings rioting. “That surprises me.”
“Me, too,” she admitted in a voice that hitched on each word as his caresses sent jolts of pleasure zinging through her. “I put on a facade for the camera almost every day of my life…” Her voice trailed off as she turned her head from side to side on the silky pillow.
“But?” he prompted.
“But…from the moment we met, I’ve found myself blurting out things I would never admit to anyone else.”
His hand slid up her thigh until he met the elastic leg of her barely there panties. He skimmed along it with a shiver inducing fingertip. “Good. I do not want you telling another man you want him.”
She gasped as he came very close to touching her most private place. “That sounds possessive.”
“Count on it. When a woman is with me, she is mine.”
“And the converse?”
“As long as we are together, I am yours.”
“Then right now, we belong to each other?”
“Yes.”
If the moment had felt profound before it now felt as heavy as a megaton barge with meaning. They might not be verbalizing promises, but their bodies were making them for them…the very situation was rife with them.
Not ready to deal with those implications, she asked, “Do you want me to undress?”
He shook his head, his fingertip playing with the edge of her panties. “I prefer to do it.”
“Is that part of making this perfect for me?” She barely recognized the husky voice asking the question as her own.
“Yes.” He withdrew his hand from her thigh and traced the contours of her face. “Your beauty is such a gift to me.”
“You are used to beautiful women.”
“You are different. Your beauty goes to your soul, does it not? And I can see that in every luminescent line of your features.”
“You make me melt inside when you say things like that.”
“I wonder.”
