Page 43 of Falling for Provence

His eyes were so dark she couldn’t tell where the pupil ended and the iris began. Sinfully black. Bottomless pools that Ellie was being pulled into.

‘We have all night,’ he murmured. ‘And we can never have this first time again, can we?’

Ellie had to lick her suddenly dry lips as anticipation reached a level that was completely off any charts she’d ever been awareof. In danger of drowning in that gaze, her voice deserted her, so all she could do was shake her head. Slowly. As slowly as the astonishingly arousing circles Julien was making with his thumbs just below her collarbones as his hands rested on her shoulders.

She tipped her head back, her eyes closed so that she could sink into the sensation. Created on such a small patch of her skin, it was astonishing that it could be felt so far through the rest of her body even her toes were tingling.

And then she felt Julien’s lips on the side of her neck – a trail of featherlike kisses – the strap of her bra pushed aside as they reached her shoulder. Her hands skimmed over the hard contours of the muscles in his back and shoulders, her fingers brushing the soft skin on the sides ofhisneck – which she was aching to press her lips to – and then burying themselves in the soft, silky waves of his hair. The ache of unleashed passion was sharpening the pain in her nipples, so she pressed her breasts against his chest as she rose to her tiptoes to beg for another kiss.

He made a sound that Ellie could interpret instantly, and she knew the battle to slow this foreplay down was being lost. But did it matter? As Julien had said himself, they had a whole night together before anyone, or anything, from a forgotten world beyond this room could pull them apart. Perhaps this first, insane need to be as close as it was humanly possible to be had to be sated before they could take the time to savour discovering each other’s bodies. To touch and taste and hear the sounds of pure pleasure.

Ellie heard a tiny whimper of need escape from her throat, and Julien’s response was so swift she barely felt her feet leave the floor, her dress slithering from her body before she was lying on her bed. And then Julien was kneeling between her legs, his gaze touching her own with the same fierce, hard heat she could feel so tantalisingly close to that most private space in her body.

Her cry might have been his name.

Or perhaps it was simply a wordless plea to give her something she needed so badly that it felt as if she might die if it didn’t happen. She was already drowning in that look in his eyes, so she saw the reflection of what her body was feeling as that space was filled.

She could see that he wanted –needed– this as much as she did.

And Ellie held out her arms to welcome him.

14

Julien was kissing Ellie again.

The dream was so intense she could feel everything. The touch of his lips against hers, his warmth, the whisper of his breath on her skin. The scent that was as distinctive as a fingerprint and an echo of the delicious taste of him…

When she woke abruptly, just as those dream hands were sliding down her body, Ellie was aware of two things. One was that a shaft of sheer desire could actually be physically painful, and the other was that memories of such exquisite love making, especially when combined with the anticipation of repeating the experience in the very near future, could overwhelm absolutely anything else.

She wasn’t about to let it stop her doing the things that she was planning to do this morning, like the bike ride to thebricolageto buy some car polish as her contribution to Margot theescargot’s makeover. But, if the last few days were anything to go by, this anticipation would be there every moment, humming through her body like an electrical current that was both exhilarating and a bit scary at the same time.

Because it felt as if life was unexpectedly speeding up, and, generally, if things kept speeding up, they would start going too fast, and then it was too easy to lose control and if that happened… well…

‘It could end in tears, Pascal, that’s what.’ About to tip dog food into his bowl when they got downstairs, Ellie paused, her hand in mid-air. ‘Except, if you know it’s going to end – evenwhenit’s going to end – doesn’t that mean you’ve actually got nothing to lose, because you know you’re going to lose it anyway?’

Her little dog tilted his head obligingly and wagged his stumpy little tail, but he was far more interested in his breakfast arriving than any question that was far too convoluted to be comprehensible.

Ellie was still thinking about it as she sipped her coffee, however, while she sat out on the terrace to enjoy the early morning stillness and a light that was soft but completely different to the other end of the day. Could she do what Julien had suggested they do and enjoy the ride for as long as it lasted? If it was going too fast, did that mean it would end sooner?

But, if it did, wasn’t quality something to be valued over quantity?

She’d certainly never found qualities in any previous relationship quite like those that seemed to be intrinsic to Julien Rousseau.

That physical hum strengthened more than a few notches as Ellie let her mind drift back to that first night with him. And the next. He hadn’t stayed last night because he had an early start with a clinic at the hospital in Nice, but it was a half-day for Julien today, and he was planning to be back early this afternoon. He had insisted, in fact, that he was going to give her a driving lesson in her own car.

‘You’re braver than you think you are,’ he’d told her. ‘You should know that.’

He wouldn’t be saying that if he knew the thought of being behind the wheel of a car on the wrong side of the road was enough to send a shiver of terror down her spine. Ellie wondered if she could find an excuse plausible enough to wriggle out of the offer when the time came. She felt her lips curving into a smile. Maybe she could persuade Julien that an afternoon in bed might be far more pleasurable for both of them?

That thought sent a much more welcome shimmer down Ellie’s spine. One that culminated in a tingle she could feel quite distinctly in the tips of her toes, which was something she’d never experienced in any previous physical attraction. Was it because the quality of Julien’s lovemaking was also like nothing she’d ever discovered before, or was this a chicken and egg kind of question and it was something about the man, rather than any sexual skills he possessed, that made it so very different?

With a resurgence of that delightful hum in her body that almost made it feel like she was floating, rather than a far more mundane kind of movement, Ellie got on with her morning. Even if she wasn’t going to drive Margot, the little car needed sprucing up so that she could star in Laura’s marketing photo shoot.

Julien could see just how scared Ellie was. He was about to rescue her by saying it really didn’t matter if she learned to drive on a different side of the road because she wasn’t going to be in France for much longer, anyway.

But, as he held her gaze, he could see the moment that she decided shecouldbe that brave after all, and it gave him asurprising glow deep in his chest. Around his heart. The kind of feeling he got when Theo surprised him with the effort he’d put into doing something new.

Je l’ai fait. Je l’ai fait pour toi, Papa…

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