He shook his head as his fingers slid and explored.

Ilsa couldn’t stay still. With every caress shehadto move. Every touch sent her closer and closer to the edge.

Lifting her hips, she arched high, her eyes closing as tremulous shivers of anticipation started inside.

When Noah took his hand away she frowned and snapped her eyes open, in time to see him tug at his own zip as he tore the condom packet with his teeth.

Ilsa had expected this moment would seem weighty and significant. She’d thought of telling him she was a virgin. But all that mattered was their need for each other.

Excitement and desire melded with something that made her chest feel full as she watched Noah frown in concentration.

She’d heard enough to expect her first time mightn’t be perfect but didn’t care. Next time would be better. Already he’d made her feel so very, very good. Not just aroused, but admired and appreciated.Special.

She wanted Noah with every cell in her yearning body. She refused to break this precious moment with a confession, as if lack of experience needed an apology.

So when he leaned over her, his chest bare now, his breath hot on her face and his shoulders blocking the room, she simply reached up and pulled him close. The weight of his erection teased her slick flesh. She knew a moment’s surprise at how large he felt, but it was nothing to the compulsion to give herself and have him finally satisfy her craving.

‘Ilsa.’ She drowned in those tropical eyes. ‘I want you so much I can’t promise to last long.’

Then, before she could think of a response, Noah pushed slow and deep.

Ilsa’s breath caught. She felt her eyes widen at the unfamiliar sensation, heavy, full and disorientating. She gasped as he paused when discomfort dragged at her. Then, after a second, Noah hitched her leg higher, up around his waist, and everything felt easier. With his help she wrapped her other leg higher, clinging to him as the almost-pain ebbed.

Even then he didn’t move. Just leaned above her, chest heaving.

Ilsa slid her hands restlessly across his shoulders, feeling the damp heat of his silky flesh. She shifted, clenching her muscles, and felt him shudder.

He was close to the brink, shaking, she realised, with the effort of not moving. Because he’d read her body’s instinctive shock. But the shock was gone, replaced by a need to move and even more, have Noah lose himself with her.

Tentatively she circled her hips and was rewarded with a smooth thrust that took him deep to her core. So deep it felt as if she’d discovered life’s greatest mystery.

Or maybe that was the effect of his silent gaze, locked on hers as if there was nothing in the world but them, together.

Holding on tight, wanting, above everything, to give Noah pleasure, she squeezed every muscle and felt him shudder. He withdrew and thrust again, faster, breath ragged and eyes glazing.

Triumph filled her and something softer, delight at his pleasure.

Abruptly everything changed. Noah leaned closer, his broad chest against her breasts, the friction of his body hair teasing her to full arousal again. Or maybe it was the way he nipped at her earlobe as his hand slid to that nub between her legs where sensation centred.

‘Come with me, Ilsa,’ he breathed against her ear. ‘Come fly with me.’

His voice grated deliciously as he took her again, his fingers pressing hard, his teeth grazing her neck until the climax came out of nowhere. It rushed in, shattering her senses, her body, her ability to do more than gasp and hold tight as Noah bucked one last time then shuddered, pulsing within her.

Her senses overloaded. Pleasure frayed her thoughts, taking her into infinite space where there was nothing but ecstasy, and this man, anchoring her to sanity.

Finally, as she came back to herself, she registered the addictive scent of him filling her nostrils. The taste of him on her tongue. The rasp of their gasping breaths. His weight, hot and heavy but oh-so-perfect, his chest palpitating from effort. The last pulses of his body as he shared his essence with her.

Emotion rose and filled every corner of her being. Elation. Gratitude. Satisfaction. Wonder. Greed. Tenderness.

And something else that she had no name for. Something profound. She knew if she could see herself in the mirror there’d be stars in her eyes. But what she felt in her heart...

No one had warned her that her first experience of sex would make her so emotional. That she’d want to stay in her lover’s arms for ever. That for the first time she could remember everything would feelright.

Not simply because of the physical pleasure but because with Noah she felt...

Drowsily she opened her eyes and looked straight into his. Her heart leapt.

For a second fear tickled her nape. Not fear of Noah but of how she felt about him. How tremendous the emotions bubbling inside her, when she knew this could only be a short affair.