Page 34 of How To Tempt The Off-Limits Billionaire

But Muzi didn’t know how to end the long-running battle.

It was early Monday morning and the sun was just breaking over the mountain. This was the time he normally went for a run or hit the gym, but with his injuries—the cut on his leg was throbbing and his shoulder still felt tender—that was out of the question. His other option was to get up and dressed and head back to the city to where a pile of work lay on his messy desk. That didn’t excite him either. What he most wanted to do was to lie here and look at Ro and spend the next week discovering her delightful body.

She was, mostly, ready to go there with him, he could see it in her eyes. Normally, if a woman was even a little reluctant he would back the hell away, but Ro was a magnetic force and he was irresistibly drawn to her. He wanted her as he’d never wanted anyone before. He didn’t know where to put this new, insistent, demanding desire. A part of him wanted to run away, the rest of him wanted to stay right here and hope she woke with a change of heart.

He recognized that a relationship between them was futile, that whatever was bubbling between them could not be sustained. She wasn’t going to stay in South Africa, and he had no intention of living anywhere else. But more than geography separated them—he couldn’t see himself handing his heart over to her, or any other woman. His birth mom had taken a piece of it when she decided that he wasn’t worth keeping around, another part of his heart died with Lu. When Mimi died... No, he couldn’t go there.

Love meant risk and love equaled hurt.

He’d managed to make it into his midthirties without love, or a steady relationship, someone to come home to. He was used to being alone, happy on his island. He had friends, finding a temporary lover was never a problem and being alone was safer.

Then why did being with Ro feel so damn right? It was a question he suspected would never be answered.

Muzi was about to leave the bed—they had both fallen asleep in their clothes—when Ro’s hand landed on his stomach. He sucked in a surprised breath and wished, desperately wished, that her hand would move down lower. He couldn’t take his eyes off her fingers, imagining them wrapped around his shaft. Just a thought caused him to turn rock-hard and it took everything he had not to release a loud groan.

He needed to leave the bed, get dressed and go back to the city.

But more than that he needed to make Ro his.

He dragged his eyes from her fingers to her wrist, up her arm, across her shoulder and onto her face. Her open, astonishing eyes were the color of old-fashioned blue ink, deep and dark and mysterious. Wide and enticing, and desperately sexy.

“Kiss me, Muzi, please.”

Because he wanted to do exactly that, more than he wanted to keep breathing, he lowered his head and gently covered her mouth with his, wrapping his arm around her slim waist. He was lying on his bad shoulder and it instantly started to throb. But he didn’t care how much pain this position caused his shoulder, he was kissing Ro.

And that was all that mattered.

She tasted of early morning, or honey and spice, of want and need. Cupping her face with one hand, he traced the ridge of her cheekbone as his tongue tangled with hers. He ran the back of his hand down her neck, across her shoulder, needing to feel her skin. Desire, fiery and demanding, welled up but he pushed it back.

Until she permitted him to take this further, he’d be content to feed her hot, desperate kisses and pray that gave him the green light to love her.

But even if this was all she could give him, he’d take it. Kissing Ro was better than having sex with anyone else.

Ro cupped the back of his neck and ran her hand down his bare back, over his butt. She scooted closer and pushed her breasts into his chest and he could feel her hard nipples through her bra and shirt.

Making out with her, not taking this further, was going to kill him...

Needing her entire body to be connected with his, he used his good arm to roll her onto him, her chest against his, her mound resting on his hard erection. He groaned as she ground down, her body telling him that she wanted more.

Her mouth, and brain, had yet to catch up.

Muzi ran his hand up and under her shirt, up and down her back, over her butt, sighing when the scent of her skin, citrus and flowers, flowed over him. This was the best way, bar none, to start his Monday, to start his week. Being with her was...what was the word...? Yeah.Magic.

He’d never used or thought of the word in the context of a woman before.

He was in more trouble than he thought.

Ro lifted her head and sent him a tremulous smile. “You okay?” he asked, seeing the sheen in her eyes.

She nodded, and he saw her swallow. Her fingers touched his short beard, wandered over his lips and traced the contours of his chin. “You are the most masculine man I’ve ever met. So strong, so steady.”

He placed her hand over his erratic heart. “Not so steady, I feel like my heart is about to explode.”

“Mine too,” Ro admitted. She lifted his hand and placed it on her breast and he felt her lush roundness, the softness beneath his palm. What he couldn’t feel was her heartbeat.

“Uh... Ro, your heart is on your left side,” Muzi pointed out.

Ro’s smile was just that side of wicked.

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