Page 36 of One More Sleepless Night

‘Been a while?’

She lifted her head and glanced down to find Rafael staring up at her, his eyes glittering with desire, satisfaction and a hint of surprise.

‘You could say that,’ she said huskily, then added because it seemed appropriate, ‘Thanks.’

‘It was my pleasure.’

‘No, no, the pleasure was all mine. Literally.’ And embarrassingly, she thought, feeling a blush steal into her cheeks at the memory of how abandoned, how vocal she’d been.

Rafael grinned. ‘Yes, well, don’t worry. There’ll be plenty of time to even up the score.’

‘You mean there’s more?’ she asked, widening her eyes with disingenuous innocence as a ribbon of fresh desire wound through her.

‘Much more.’

Nicky smiled and stretched. ‘I’m glad to hear it because you haven’t even got naked yet.’

He looked down over her once again with that heated gaze and her stomach melted. ‘Technically neither have you,’ he said.

Arching an eyebrow and giving him a saucy little smile, Nicky reached behind her back, unclipped her bra and tossed it over the back of her sofa. ‘Situation remedied,’ she declared. ‘And now, in the interest of fairness, it’s your turn.’

Rafael’s gaze dropped to her breasts and a muscle began to hammer in his jaw. ‘Since you’re so good at it,’ he murmured, ‘why don’t you do it?’

‘Bedroom?’

‘Conventional. Who’d have thought?’

She shrugged. ‘What can I say? I’m a fan of horizontal surfaces and space.’ Although upright on the sofa wasn’t such a bad alternative.

‘In that case,’ he said, holding out his hands, taking hers and pulling them both to their feet, ‘the bedroom’s this way.’

ELEVEN

Oh, yes, thought Nicky, standing beside the bed, letting her gaze drift over Rafael and wondering where she was going to start. Coming to Madrid had been such a good idea and she was going to have so much fun with him because for this afternoon at least he was all hers, and she felt like a kid in a sweet shop, her fingers itching to delve and her mouth watering with the need to sample the wares.

‘Are you j

ust going to stand there and look?’ said Rafael, and she looked up to see his face was dark and tight. ‘Because I am this close—’ he held up his thumb and forefinger a millimetre apart ‘—to tossing you onto the bed and ravishing you, and, believe me, finesse will not feature heavily.’

And there’d be nothing wrong with that, she thought, her heart jumping as desire shot through her all over again. But now that she’d got her mojo back—and how—she wanted to indulge every newly awakened sense.

So with her breath catching in her throat she put her hands on his stomach and slid them up, lifting his T-shirt as she did so and feeling his muscles twitch beneath her palms. He raised his arms to help her and she stood on tiptoe to pull the T-shirt over his head and up over his arms. She let it drop to the floor and then ran her hands back down his lowering arms and across his shoulders and then down over the broad tanned expanse of his chest.

Unable to resist, she leaned forwards and flicked her tongue over his nipple. Rafael inhaled sharply and she could feel his body tighten. With restraint. With desire.

‘God, I’d forgotten how tantalising undressing a man could be,’ she murmured.

‘Done it often?’

‘Once or twice.’ Although never with someone quite like him. Relieving him of his clothes had to be one of life’s greatest secret pleasures because he was physically quite magnificent.

Swallowing hard, she moved her hands down, undid his belt, the button of his shorts and then slid down the zip, relishing every glorious second.

And to think that that day he’d kissed her by the pool she’d had ample opportunity to admire the body on display. To ogle and want and touch. And she’d ignored it. What a waste.

Well, she wasn’t ignoring it now. And she wasn’t going to waste a second.

She slid her hands beneath the waistband of his boxers and moaned in anticipation as she eased them and his shorts over the thick, hard erection that she could feel beneath. He stepped out of them and she took a step back to simply admire. God, his body was incredible. It was all lean, hard muscle and taut restrained power and she couldn’t wait to have the full force of it unleashed on her.

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