Page 35 of One More Sleepless Night

With desire and heat making the blood racing through her veins sluggish and her limbs heavy, Nicky languorously sank back against the soft velvet and inched her knees open a fraction.

‘Is that better?’ she said huskily.

‘Much.’

‘So what are you doing still over there?’

‘Contemplating exactly where to start.’

As her mouth went dry and heat pooled between her legs Nicky thought that he’d started already. ‘Will you be long?’

‘I might be.’

‘Why?’

‘I’ve just discovered a hitherto latent fascination with revenge.’

She shivered deliciously. ‘Revenge?’

He nodded. ‘And I think I could be getting a taste for it.’

‘Are you planning to make me pay for that disaster of a first kiss?’ she said a little raggedly.

‘I might be,’ he said and the look in his eye told her that there was no ‘might’ about it.

Wicked excitement spun through her. ‘How?’

‘By making you beg.’

Oh, heavens. ‘I’ve never begged for anything in my life.’

‘You will.’

Her heart thumped so hard her ribs ached. And then, just when she didn’t think she could stand the tension much longer, he pushed himself off the counter and began to prowl towards her, not taking his eyes off her as he approached.

He came to a stop in front of her, loomed over her for a moment and then dropped to his knees. He pushed her legs apart and inched forwards and her excitement ratcheted up so dizzyingly it was all she could do not to grab him and pull him first up and then down on top of her. Achingly slowly he leaned into her and the spicy scent of him wound up her nose into her head and made a mess of her brain.

When his mouth finally brushed over hers, Nicky moaned and nearly passed out with relief because for a moment she’d thought she was going to have to start begging right there and then.

But he didn’t linger. Instead he moved his mouth down over her chin, her neck and the skin of her upper chest, leaving tiny trails of fire wherever it touched, and at the same time he slid his hands up her thighs. The muscles beneath his fingers quivered and the skin beneath his mouth burned and then his teeth grazed her nipple beneath the lace of her bra and she gasped.

As he tugged her hips forwards and carried on kissing his way down her body Nicky closed her eyes and let her head drop back because it was all getting too much for her poor battered senses and, unlike some of her previous lovers, Rafael didn’t seem to need instruction.

Quite the contrary, she thought briefly as he dotted a trail of kisses over her stomach and then lower, and ran his tongue along the edge of her knickers. He knew exactly what he was doing.

And then she gave up thinking altogether in favour of biting her lip and arching her back and clenching her fists against the cushions to stop herself grabbing his head and pushing it where she so desperately wanted his mouth.

She whimpered and felt him smile against her skin and then he was lifting her hips, hooking his thumbs over the sides of her knickers and drawing back to slide them down her legs. He pulled them off and began stroking and kissing his way up over the inside of one of her knees, up along her inner thigh and then he was there. Right at the heart of her where she was burning and aching and so, so hot. He spread her legs even further apart, exposing her completely, and she let out an involuntary little moan. And then just when she thought she might be ready to beg after all, he licked along the length of her and a burst of pleasure exploded inside her.

Holding her in place, he licked and sucked and nibbled and stroked and within seconds Nicky’s head was swimming and her body was on fire and all her senses zoomed in on his tongue and the chaos it was creating.

After such a long time of nothing she was a writhing mass of sensation. As he continued to lay siege to her body shudders racked her. Need clawed at her insides. Her muscles filled with tension.

He slipped a finger, then two, into her wet heat, found her g-spot with deadly accuracy, and what with the relentless onslaught of his tongue, the feel of his fingers inside her and the ecstasy spinning out of control deep within her, it was all just too much.

Far too soon everything tangled into one great jumble of feeling, soaring and swelling until it hit a peak and, with his name on her lips, she shattered, breaking wide apart and spinning off into delirious oblivion.

When the stars eventually stopped exploding behind her eyelids, when her heart finally slowed and when the strength eventually returned to her limbs, Nicky let out a long shuddery breath and opened her eyes.

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