Page 44 of One Bridegroom Required!

He wanted to finish what he had started earlier. He made her sound like an itch he needed to scratch.

She would have this one glorious initiation and then it would be over. Logic told her that she was crazy, that if she walked out now he would not force himself on her, nor beg. But her senses overrode all logic. She could not refuse him, nor would refuse him. She had dreamed too long of this moment to deny it now. Her body trembled as he discarded the waistcoat and turned his attention next to her white chiffon shirt.

His face was shadowed but the tension showed in the tight set of his jaw as he surveyed the dark-tipped globes which thrust towards him through the pale, gauzy material. ‘Oh, God, yes,’ he breathed, like a man bewitched. ‘Yes.’

Her breathing was shallow, and rapid as a hunted animal’s, and yet he had scarcely touched her. Her cheeks were burning as she stood before him like a willing victim, not knowing what to do or what to say next.

Luke frowned. This was not how he had imagined it. He wanted fire from her, not fear. He wanted her to fight him, not accept him. This would be a glorious battle before it became a victory. ‘Take your shirt off,’ he told her unsteadily. ‘Do it very, very slowly...’

Holly let out a long, low sigh. So this was what he wanted, was it? This was what would turn him on. And if he wanted her to play the vamp—then vamp she would be.

She lifted her chin proudly, feeling the heavy sway of curls falling down her back, then unhurriedly let one finger slowly circle the button of her shirt, as though the button itself were an erogenous zone. She heard him suck in a breath as she popped it open, and then another, another... until her breasts sprang free and then, to her surprise, he leaned forward to bury his head in them, holding her tightly by the waist for a moment, before letting his tongue and his lips taste each heavy and sensitive mound.

‘Oh!’ gasped Holly, her head falling back helplessly, her hands blindly seeking the thick, gold-tipped hair to balance herself as she swayed, saturated with desire, feeling his tongue wet and warm against her nipple.

‘Is that good?’ he demanded thickly.

It was heaven. She made an indistinct sound of assent as his teeth lightly scraped against the rosy tips which puckered and strained for his lips.

He fell to his knees before her, but she soon realised that it was no gesture of homage, merely a way that he could unbutton her velvet skirt with a speedy accuracy which spoke of lots of practice. It pooled with a whisper to the floor around her ankles, so that she was left wearing nothing but the unbuttoned chiffon shirt, minuscule white panties and a pair of knee-high black leather boots.

‘My God!’ he groaned. ‘Holly!’

Vamps were verbal. ‘What is it?’ she whispered provocatively.

‘This is like every fantasy I’ve ever had, condensed into one!’ he groaned.

Vamps incited too. ‘Just you wait,’ she promised, wildly wondering whether she would be able to follow through.

‘Lie down,’ he urged her. ‘Lie down just like that.’

She knew what to do. She lay on her back on the ivory satin, with her hands pillowed behind her head, her knees bent, and looked straight up into his face. Even through the gloom she could sense the sexual promise in the searing glance which he sent jackknifing through her.

Her heart pounded as she watched him drop his suit jacket to the floor, his hands unsteadily beginning to unbutton his shirt. Oh, God—she needed something to distract her from the moment of truth when Luke Goodwin would stand before her proud and naked.

‘W-what do you want me to do?’ she murmured, through lips which felt bee-stung swollen.

r /> He stilled momentarily, and she saw the sudden twisting of his mouth. ‘Straight sex bore you, does it?’ he drawled, and she was certain that she could sense disappointment m his voice. Or was it contempt? He stood looking over her, and for one mad, terrible moment she thought he was about to change his mind and walk out.

But he didn’t.

‘Play with your breasts, baby,’ he breathed shakily. ‘Touch them, Holly. Pretend they’re my hands. Go on... touch them.’

She had seen a dirty movie once. Someone at college had smuggled it into the film club for a joke, and Holly and three others had left halfway through. But she remembered how the buxom women had performed. The way they’d writhed their hips in exaggerated circles, moaning as they palpated their huge breasts as if they were kneading dough. And that was presumably what turned men on. Even so, she couldn’t look him in the face as she did it.

She closed her eyes and began to run her hands experimentally over herself. It felt strange and wicked and oddly good, though nothing like as good as when his hands had been upon her. She risked raising her eyelashes by a centimetre, and through the shade of her lashes she could see Luke ripping his tie off and hurling it to the floor.

Next she heard the rasp of a zip and saw a grim look of determination on his face as he struggled to free himself—kicking first his trousers off and then his boxer shorts. And then...

Holly swallowed and screwed her eyes tightly shut. The only adult males she had ever seen in the nude before had been in a life class, and they hadn’t been... hadn’t been...

Dear Lord, she thought as she allowed her lashes to flutter up by a fraction, and fear skittered over her skin. If that was masculine arousal, then it was pretty daunting.

‘Are you peeping, Holly?’ he questioned silkily. ‘Don’t peep, sweetheart—open your eyes properly and take a good look at me.’

Running a nervous tongue over parchment lips, she did as he suggested.

‘What’s the matter?’ he whispered. ‘Afraid that this—’ and he touched himself with a total, almost arrogant lack of self-consciousness ‘—will prove too much for you, Holly? Don’t think you can take it?’ He reached out his hand and without warning skimmed his finger down over the centre of her panties, wet with wanting now, the way they had never been before. She shuddered with pleasure as his finger came away moist from the cotton, and as he slowly licked the tip of it he gave a smile of desire and satisfaction.

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