Page 37 of One More Sleepless Night

‘Lie down,’ he said in a voice that wasn’t altogether steady.

Nicky’s heart thumped madly as she did as he said and lay back on the bed, because, oh, there was definitely something to be said for a gorgeous man who knew how and when to use his power and liked to be in control.

And right now, with the way his eyes were burning over her, she was quite willing to submit herself to whatever delicious torment he had planned. There’d be plenty of time for payback later, she decided, and felt a wide wanton smile steal across her face.

‘That smile looks dangerous,’ he said, his eyes blazing down at her.

‘Could be.’

‘Sirens,’ he muttered. ‘I’m doomed.’

‘What?’

‘Sirens.’

‘What about them?’ she said, and stretched in what she hoped was an enticing manner because there was drawing things out and indulging her senses and then there was just plain being sadistic, and the way she was lying spreadeagled on the bed while he still remained upright and beside it definitely fell into the latter category.

‘They had a tendency to lure sailors to their deaths with their song,’ he said.

‘Lucky you’re not a sailor and I can’t sing, then, isn’t it?’

‘You have plenty of other attractions.’

‘So are you just going to stand there and look at them?’ she asked, recalling his earlier words to her and deciding to hurry things up a bit. ‘Or are you planning to do the decent thing and join me, because I am this close—’ she held up her thumb and forefinger a millimetre apart ‘—to pulling you onto this bed and ravishing you.’ She paused and smiled and batted her eyelashes up at him. ‘And, believe me, finesse will not feature heavily.’

That seemed to do the trick. Rafael let out a strangled groan, jerked forwards and, planting his hands either side of her head, came down heavily on top of her. At the sudden urgency of his actions Nicky’s breath shot from her lungs and lust spun through her.

‘You know, I’m coming to the conclusion that finesse is vastly overrated,’ he said roughly.

‘You have no idea how glad I am to hear you think so,’ she said softly, loving the feel of his weight on top of her and wrapping a leg around his waist.

And then his mouth was on hers and she couldn’t remember what she’d been glad about because his hands were in her hair, his tongue was in her mouth and both were rendering her to a mindless tangle of electricity, desire and delicious, delicious tension.

She ran her hands over the tight muscles of his shoulders and his back and dug her nails in, which took the kiss to another, more frenzied, more desperate dimension in which clashing teeth, melding moans and writhing limbs dominated.

Her head was so foggy, her brain so utterly destroyed, she was only dimly aware of Rafael pulling one hand from her hair and sliding it down her neck and then over the agonisingly sensitive skin of her upper chest.

But when it came to a rest on her breast all that electricity, desire and tension shot through the roof. Nicky groaned into his mouth and arched her back as his hand cupped her and he rubbed his thumb back and forth over her nipple and a burst of white-hot pleasure exploded deep inside her.

He dragged his mouth away and shifted a little, and she gulped in a shaky breath as it closed over her other nipple.

Biting her lip to stop herself from crying out at the stabs of ecstasy that were jabbing at her, she pressed her fingers into his head and tilted her hips to grind into his erection. She writhed. She whimpered. She simply couldn’t help it.

‘Ready to beg yet?’ he said hoarsely against her breast.

God, probably, she thought dazedly, but in a bit because she wanted more and could take more. ‘Not nearly,’ she said, and then added in the hope it would make him double his already sensational efforts, ‘You’ll have to try far harder than that.’

So he did.

His mouth resumed its devastating assault on her breast and his hand slid lower and lower until it reached the juncture of her thighs and then his fingers were parting her and sliding into her and the feeling was so electrifying she would have jackknifed upright had he not been pressing her down.

He stroked her, relentlessly, expertly and her insides wound so tightly she felt they might snap at any moment. Heat coiled in the pit of her stomach. Tremors began to rack her body and shivers raced through her veins as the excitement swelled and spread into every cell of her body. She was hovering on the brink, a nanosecond away from splintering, clenching around his fingers and hurtling off into oblivion when suddenly he stilled and his head lifted.

Nicky groaned in protest as her orgasm instantly ebbed. ‘Why are you stopping?’ she said, her voice rough and raspy.

His green eyes gleamed down at her. ‘Beg me,’ he muttered.

What? Oh, his timing was good, she thought as a stab of such intense longing shot through her that she nearly did as he asked. Or very very bad, depending on your point of view. She didn’t know which hers was.

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