There was no time to protest because then Isam moved and her world would never be the same again.
Imagination was no preparation for the wonder of them coming together. She’d known the mechanics but reality dumbfounded her. Strange, yes, with a feeling of fullness she couldn’t describe. A momentary flinch of pain, quickly gone, obliterated by delight.
It felt as though she’d waited a lifetime for this. The wild beauty of it. The earthy reality of body joining with body. And something more. Something like relief and glory and compulsion all tangled together.
Isam looked so serious, watching her hawk-eyed as he moved slowly, awakening her body to a new reality. But Avril was eager to learn and share the ecstasy he’d already given her. Soon she was moving with him, hands clutching him tight.
His gaze flickered when she hitched her heel around his muscled thigh. Instinctively she’d wanted to lock them closer together, only to discover the new angle heightened her pleasure. He helped her hook her other leg around him.
Isam paused, teeth bared, nostrils flaring, a man on the edge.
He looked...untamed. And she revelled in the change from urbane businessman to elemental lover.
Thiswas how she needed him.
With gritted teeth he withdrew then bucked his hips, driving her to a new, extraordinary height.
After that there was no more slow. The control he’d so obviously exerted crumpled under a rush of sensual need. They moved together, gasping, hearts racing, and Avril felt a rush of pleasure gathering again in her pelvis, her breasts, her blood. Until her vision started to splinter as ecstasy engulfed her.
She opened her lips to call his name just as he claimed her mouth and their striving bodies hit the summit together.
The world spun out of control as light burst behind her eyelids. There was only Isam, holding her tight as he lost himself in her, introducing her to paradise.
Later, much later, when she could conjure the energy, Avril smiled and pressed her mouth to his damp skin, rejoicing in his tiny shudder of reaction and the murmur of satisfaction that rumbled from his chest into her body.
Life was good. So very, very good.
Get out of bed. Do it now.
Through the curtains no one had bothered to draw last night, the faintest morning light was visible.
Isam had an early flight to Zahdar that he couldn’t miss. Before that he wanted to see Avril home.
Avril, who’d tempted him beyond reason, beyond the limits of his control, into reaching out and taking what he wanted. He’dknownhe shouldn’t, known that, despite her eagerness, there’d be complications, andstillhis vaunted self-control had proved no match for his hunger. That was a first.
Never had it occurred to him that she’d be an innocent.
A shiver skated through him as he remembered the moment when he’d encountered that fragile, unexpected barrier and her honey-brown eyes had widened in consternation that turned quickly into pleasure.
Isam told himself that if he’d known he’d never have taken her to bed. Bad enough that he’d broken every rule by sleeping with someone dependent on him for her salary. But to take her innocence too...
In front of him Avril stretched in her sleep then burrowed back against him with a little twitch of herderrièrethat brought her flush against his erection. Involuntarily his fingers closed harder around her soft breast and his chest grew weighted as his lungs tightened.
Get out of bed. Do it now.
While he still could. Before she woke. It would be better if he were up and dressed by then because it would be easier to resist her. To talk sensibly about the implications of what they’d done.
Yet he couldn’t bring himself to move.
Unfamiliar emotions eddied in his belly. Even when he’d discovered her lack of experience he’d been unable to rein in his desperate hunger. He remembered the final ecstasy of their joining, her clutching tight as he bucked hard and fast. Too hard? Too fast? She’d climaxed. She’d looked adorably sated and smug afterwards but had he hurt her?
Isam wasn’t used to such ambiguities around a lover. He wasn’t used to questioning his actions.
But you’ve never had a lover like Avril.
Even before they’d had sex, something about Avril set her apart from other women. Why?
She wriggled again in her sleep, this time arching so her breast thrust into his cupped hand. A spike of heat shot to his already tight groin.