He cupped her face and looked at her gravely, ruefully.
‘This isn’t how it was supposed to happen. You shouldn’t still be wearing your dress. I just couldn’t stop myself, couldn’t slow down. It was all too fast, and I am truly sorry.’
‘Don’t be,’ Mia whispered. ‘It was the most wonderful thing…’
‘For me too. Incredible. But next time it will be even more incredible.’
Next time… Mia loved the sound of that. Fast sex in a hotel room with a guy she wasn’t in a relationship with…
All of that went against the grain. It just wasn’t her, and she didn’t know how cool and casual she would have been if this had turned out to be a one-night stand.
She hadn’t given that a moment’s thought when she had entered the bedroom with him, but now something inside her leapt at his words.
‘Next time,’ he delivered huskily, unsteadily, ‘I’m going to go slowly…’
Mia’s eyes fluttered. She had just come, her body was still warm with the afterglow of her orgasm, and yet she could feel a rising tide of desire overtaking her.
Was this how a person emerged after years of celibacy? From deep freeze to fire in the space of ten seconds?
She curled against him and he smiled, stroked her dampened hair away from her face and kissed the corner of her mouth.
In return, she trailed her hand over his chest and smiled back.
She began to prop herself up so that she could get rid of the dress but he stayed her.
‘This time,’ he said, sitting up, ‘I’m going to pleasure you the way I should have done before. Slowly. I was selfish and it’s not going to happen again. Trust me.’
He removed the dress. She leant back against the pillows and saw the flare of hunger darken his eyes as he looked at her. Never had she felt more desired. A girl could get used to this kind of thing.
She reached to unclasp her bra from behind, freeing her small breasts.
‘You are beautiful,’ he said in a roughened undertone. ‘It’s going to take every ounce of willpower to do what I’m about to do…’
‘Which is?’
‘I’m going to run a bath.’ His voice was shaky. ‘And I’m going to fill it with bubbles, and I’m going to soap you very, very gently, and then I’m going to dry you and carry you right back to this bed so that I can make love to you, taking my time.’
Every single word made her blush like a teenager transported for the first time to cloud nine by the boy of her dreams.
She let herself be pampered by him. Being naked with him like this was crazy and great at the same time and, whereas she might have quailed at the thought of walking around without her clothes on with anyone else, she found that she positively relished it.
He did as he had promised and Mia luxuriated. The bath was big enough for both of them, and sliding into the warm water with all the fragrant bubbles was heavenly.
This—all of it—felt heavenly.
Her voice was soft and relaxed as she chatted, leaning back against the white porcelain, eyes half-closed, feeling his thighs on either side of hers. The bubbles concealed their bodies, but she knew his now, and her body tingled in eager anticipation at touching him again, being touched by him.
What was going to happen in this evolving scenario? She didn’t know and she didn’t care.
He got out first, dried fast and roughly and told her to stay where she was. Then he ran more hot water and began to soap her at the back of her neck, massaging her shoulders, curving his big hands over her breasts.
He had wrapped a towel around his waist and he looked like a beautiful Roman emperor with his dark hair slicked back, emphasising the strong, angular lines of his remarkable face.
He beckoned for her to stand and she did, feeling exposed as the water ran off her in rivulets.
She tilted her head back, her hair damp against her back, and closed her eyes. Her skin cooled and then his soapy hands were on her, slowly working their way from her breasts, along her stomach and then parting her thighs so that he could take his time, gently soaping between her legs.
‘I can’t keep standing!’ She gasped. ‘It’s too much.’ Her legs had turned to jelly and she subsided back into the water…but not for long…just until he lifted her out, dried her then lifted her again and carried her over to the bed.
She was still draped in the white towel. His had slipped lower down his lean hips. He stood back and looked at her, and she smiled at him and squirmed under his scrutiny.
‘Slowly this time,’ he murmured, unhooking his towel and dropping it to the floor to move closer to the bed. ‘This time, I’m going to explore every inch of your beautiful body.’
Max wasn’t quite sure how he was going to achieve that. There she was, with that towel loosely covering her body, and he was raring to go, as horny as though he hadn’t just had her. She was exquisite—so slender, so smooth—every bit of her in stunning proportion, from her small breasts to her narrow waist to the length of her legs.
He slowly removed her towel and a rush of blood fired up inside him with the immediacy of a conflagration. She was incredibly delicate, but so well-toned from the amount of physical exercise she got from just her daily activities.
He joined her on the bed, trailed his finger across her cheek and then along her collarbone and enjoyed the way she trembled, sighed and quivered. He found the tip of her brown nipple and teased it in ever-decreasing circles until it was stiff and throbbing. In response, she covered her face with her arm, but he could see her mouth half open with pleasure.
It took willpower he’d never known he had to resist the urge to go hot, hard and fast. Instead, he lowered to take one throbbing nipple in his mouth, and she moaned as his questing mouth suckled and teased.
His big body tensed and then relaxed when she stroked his shoulder lightly, curling up to caress his ear and the side of his jawline.
Her legs were open for him. He could feel her knees pressed against his thighs, inviting him, and he couldn’t resist. But still he took his time, inching down her stomach with his tongue to circle her belly button and jab delicately into the small indent, while the rhythm of her body told him just how much she was enjoying this.
He planned on her enjoying it even more. He was going to take her to paradise and back, and it felt very, very important that he do that…that he show her just how much he could pleasure her, how much they could enjoy one another. Nothing had ever seemed more vital.
She weakly tried to clamp her legs together as he nudged his way there, but he gently, firmly parted her thighs, a hand on the soft inner flesh of either one, and darted his tongue along the slippery groove of her womanhood, sheathed in soft, downy pubic hair.
He probed the delicate folds with his tongue to find the pulsing nub of her clitoris and he settled down between her legs, teasing that sensitive place while she squirmed against him, pushing towards his mouth and pulling away, coming so close to the edge and then backing off.
He wasn’t going to let her come against his mouth, but he couldn’t hold off much longer.
He raised himself, breathing hard, and for a few moments just rubbed his aroused hardness against her silky wetness, only breaking off to protect himself and relishing the few seconds it gave him to try and contain his wild response.
This time round, he came into her slowly, easing himself in and feeling her tightness around him with a groan of pure pleasure. When he kissed her, it was with great tenderness. He kissed her mouth, her eyes, the soft flesh of her cheek. He waited for her to be just ready for him to take her to that place and, when she was…when she urged him on, face flushed and her body burning up with wanting…then and only then did he thrust deep and hard, taking them both to a shuddering orgasm.
He’d never felt anything like it.
Utterly spent, he lay on her for a while.
‘I�
��m too heavy for you.’
You’re perfect for me… Mia thought.
He rolled off onto his side and then pulled her in against him.
‘Was that as amazing for you as it was for me?’ he asked softly, and she smiled.
‘Better. Better than amazing. After my marriage broke up, I guess I hid away from relationships. At first, I was just grieving the loss of my marriage, but then after a while… I suppose I just found that I wasn’t interested.’
‘You must have had guys asking you out?’
‘When I thought about dating again, my mind went blank. It became a habit to be on my own. I enjoyed it.’
‘Everything becomes a habit after a while.’ He stroked her hair from her face.
‘What’s become a habit for you?’
Max hesitated. Out here, being with this woman, was like being in a temporary bubble and, from within it, his life back in London seemed gilded but jaded. Was that because work had become a habit? He shifted uncomfortably at the thought of that because he was defined by work. Where would he be if it became no more than something that filled the days? Something he had grown accustomed to, without any merit of its own?
Of course, he had women, but if her habit had become avoiding the business of dating, then surely his was avoiding the business of dating for longer than two months?
‘There’s a certain tedium attached to the business of making money,’ he eventually murmured.
‘But you don’t have to do it, do you? Surely you have enough?’
He grinned at her. ‘You’d think.’ He frowned. ‘It’s not so much the business of having cash in a bank account. If it were simply a matter of money per se, then you’re right. I have enough. It’s the enjoyment of how that cash gets made that’s addictive.’ He grinned again at her silent scepticism. ‘And maybe…’ he added thoughtfully.
‘Maybe what?’
‘And maybe…’ His voice lightened. ‘We should grab some sleep. I have a packed itinerary for tomorrow and the crutch will have to be left behind. I’ll carry you if needs be.’
Maybe the habit of having to make money because his siblings depended on it had become too ingrained to break, but really, was there any need to drive himself for the sake of James and Izzy? He’d done his bit. James, certainly, was incredibly successful in his own right, contributing to the family empire while also running his own highly profitable computer software businesses, and Izzy was clearly a big girl now, even if he hadn’t seen it coming.
So what was with the pressure to keep earning?
And what did he think would happen if he kicked back?
Would he have to re-evaluate his priorities? He dismissed any such thought with consummate ease.
Mia kissed his chin. There were times, few and far between when something happened between them, when she glimpsed a vulnerability inside him that roused feelings in her, far removed from sexual feelings, that were oddly tender.
He’d confided in her, but then he’d stopped, and she wasn’t going to press him to tell her anything he didn’t want to.
He was proud and he was arrogant but not because he set out to be that way. That was simply the way he was, nothing to do with trying to impress or instil fear. She loathed all forms of arrogance but she’d come to see that, with Max, it was a trait that was intensely appealing, and very, very sexy, because it was so utterly unconscious.
She began to sit up, scouting around for the dress and her underwear.
‘Where do you think you’re off to?’ he drawled lazily, running his finger along her spine and then tugging her back so that she fell against him, laughing.
‘Off to my room,’ Mia told him, wriggling so that she could look at him.
‘No way.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I might want you in the middle of the night, and then what am I supposed to do if you’re not in my bed?’
Mia laughed. Inside, she was thrilled—too thrilled. She wanted to keep reminding herself that this was a fling and nothing more, no castles in the air waiting to be built.
She opened her mouth to remind him that he was her boss, and if they had temporarily suspended common sense then that didn’t change the reality of the situation, but she didn’t go there. She knew, almost immediately, that she didn’t want that untimely reminder to spoil anything.
She’d just had the most incredible experience of her life. Why would she want to give him the wherewithal to end it? Like a thief in the night, she wanted to grab whatever more there was to come, steal those experiences so that she could hoard them inside her for the rest of her life.
On the other hand, there was such a thing as pride.
‘Who says I would want to be awakened at some ungodly hour in the morning to…to…?’
‘To make sweet, passionate and unforgettable love with me?’ He kissed her, a long, slow-burning kiss that had her weak with wanting more.
‘I’m not used to sharing a bed with anyone,’ she said truthfully, and he drew back to look at her seriously.
‘Nor am I.’ He kissed her eyes and the side of her mouth, tugging her hair so that he could feather more kisses along the slender column of her neck. ‘But there are such things as exceptions to rules…’
‘There are, I guess.’ She tried but how was she supposed to resist what he was doing to her? His words were as seductive as melting honey. Wading through them to get to the cautious, sensible person she was at the other side seemed an impossible mission.
She sank back in his arms and allowed herself to be thoroughly kissed.
And sleep that night?
Very broken. She was so conscious of the weight of him next to her. In the darkness, she could make out his outline, one leg splayed across the cool cotton sheets and his arm across her nakedness even when he’d fallen asleep.
At some point she too must have fallen asleep, because she was roused, slowly and sensuously, by the nudge of his swollen girth against her, finding her building wetness.
‘You said,’ he murmured with laughter in his voice, ‘that you might object to being awakened at an ungodly hour in the morning by me…’
‘Did I?’ She curved against him and reached down to feather her finger along his throbbing penis. He was rock-solid. She could feel the veins of his shaft and he inhaled sharply when she teased the tip of it with her thumb in small, circular movements. ‘I can’t remember that at all.’
She felt his rumble of laughter. If he could tease her beyond sanity, then she could tease him as well, and the silent darkness was a comforting blanket, squashing any vague notions of shyness she might have felt.
She manoeuvred herself with dexterity until she could administer to him with her tongue and her mouth. She had never been this intimate with a man before and it was a slow, sweet process of discovery.
As she licked and teased with her tongue, as she folded her lips over him and gently sucked, she was finding out that he was as weak as she was when it came to resisting the build-up of desire.
She had absolute control here, in this bed, in the darkness of the night, over this big, invincible, self-assured male, and she loved the feeling.
She gasped when he hoisted her gently so that he could do to her exactly what she was doing to him.
His face buried between her thighs and the dart of his tongue sent her pulses racing, deprived her of breath, and they pleasured one another for as long as they could before it wasn’t enough.
Their lovemaking was fast and hard and she came on a sob of wrenching abandon, shuddering as her orgasm brought tears to her eyes.
How could she ever have thought that sleeping on her own in a cold bed could be better than this? And how had she never been curious about the joy of sex when you were still warm from the languor of sleep?
‘Time for sleep,’ he mock-ordered in a soft, amused voice when
their breathing had finally returned to normal. ‘We have a packed agenda tomorrow. I can’t have you waking me up all the time to satisfy your needs.’
Mia giggled and mentally added ‘funny’ to the list she was compiling in her head. Where had that one-dimensional guy gone? The one she had written off as a workaholic with not much else going for him? Every second she was in his company revealed more and more complex and fascinating sides to him.
She certainly didn’t wake him, at least not for the remainder of the night, although she couldn’t resist reaching out when, at a little after six the following morning, she woke to his warmth next to her on the bed, so close, breathing deep and even, begging to be touched.
She greedily stole a long, satisfied look at his beautiful face, drinking in the strong lines, so much less forbidding in repose. He had the most amazing lashes. Long and thick and dark.
Then she touched him, touched and settled her hand around his shaft, keeping it there as he opened his eyes and looked at her.
No words were spoken. Some time during the night—or maybe in the early hours of the morning…she didn’t know when—he had obviously switched off the air-conditioning and chosen to use the overhead fan instead. Now, the faint whirr of the blades was the only sound in the bedroom.
That and their breathing.
Eyes locked, she pushed clear the sheets and continued slowly to massage him, ever so gently, but firmly building a rhythm, watching with mounting desire as she began taking him to the edge. His groans were deep and unsteady and his fingers curled into the sheet.
He erupted in her hand with a long moan of satisfaction. She felt his hot liquid running over her flesh and nothing, she swore, had ever felt better.
‘Wicked.’ His navy eyes glinted and he pulled her down to him. ‘But very, very nice.’
‘Happy to be of service,’ Mia said, kissing him and sliding one leg over his so that she could ease the urgent ache between her thighs.
And lovemaking, as she soon found out, was not one-sided with him.
He took her to the same heights she had taken him, and afterwards she was so pleasantly content that she could have fallen asleep again.
Forbidden Hawaiian Nights Page 12
