Page 25 of One Night in My Rival's Bed

‘Nor me with Niamh.’

He held my gaze for a long beat.

‘We can’t let them rush into anything they can’t undo,’ he said. ‘A fling is fine; marriage is another thing entirely.’

‘Yes, it is, but if we’re too against them marrying it could backfire and make them all the more determined.’

His gaze went to my mouth. ‘Like what happened with us?’ He gave a slow rueful smile and continued, ‘I told myself I wasn’t going to touch you and look at us now. There’s barely a part of our bodies that isn’t touching.’

‘You’re not touching my mouth.’

‘I can soon fix that.’ He lowered his lips to mine, and I lost myself in the potent heat and fire of his kiss. After a few breathless moments, he broke the kiss to look at me through sexily hooded eyes. ‘Anywhere else I’ve neglected to touch?’

I shivered at the rough edge to his voice and the determined glint in his gaze. ‘I think you missed the side of my left breast.’

‘I’ll see to it right now.’ He kissed his way down the side of my neck, covering every inch of my skin with soft fluttering movements of his lips that set my nerves dancing. By the time he came to my left breast, I was whimpering. His touch was so light and yet so electric, stirring my desire for him to fever-pitch.

‘And I don’t think I touched you here,’ he said, moving his mouth down to my belly button.

I sucked in my breath and shuddered as his tongue circled the tiny whorl of my navel. He moved further down to the seam of my body, and I forgot to breathe when his lips and tongue explored my female flesh. Oh, and I forgot to think as well. Sensations I had never experienced before rippled through my body in crashing waves. I panted, I gasped, I cried, and I arched my back in ecstasy as the shockwaves coursed through me.

‘Well, that’s never happened before,’ I said on an expelled breath of wonder.

Grayson shifted position so I was eye to eye with him. He stroked a lazy hand down the flank of my still quivering thigh. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I’ve never been able to come like that.’ I lowered my gaze a fraction and confessed, ‘I always used to pretend.’

He lifted my chin, so my gaze locked on his again. There was no judgement or criticism in his expression but rather a look of gentle compassion that totally ambushed my feelings. I was tryingsohard not to be infatuated with him, to keep my feelings out of our one-night stand. But it was almost impossible not to open my heart a teensy-weensy crack.

‘I’m glad you feel comfortable with me.’ He stroked a slow-moving finger across my lower lip, sending tingles to my toes and back.

I threaded my fingers through his hair, my lower body aching for him all over again. ‘I’ve thought of another place you haven’t touched me.’

His smouldering gaze sent another wave of searing heat through my core. ‘Really? How remiss of me. I must be losing my touch.’

Grayson Barlowe definitely wasn’t losing his touch as far as I was concerned, but I was in danger of losing my mind, or worse—my heart. What came next was the most dazzling encounter of my life. He held me as I shuddered through another spectacular orgasm, and I held him as he shuddered through his own powerful release. We lay in each other’s arms for a long time afterwards, neither of us speaking, our ragged breathing gradually returning to normal the only sound in the silence.

Finally, I found the courage to turn my head and look at him lying beside me. He had his eyes closed but as if he sensed my gaze resting on him, he turned his head and met my gaze.

‘Hey,’ he said in a gravel-rough tone, the fingers of his left hand entwining with the fingers of my right hand. He gave my fingers a gentle squeeze. ‘You okay?’

‘Why wouldn’t I be okay? I’ve just had multiple orgasms for the first time ever.’ I injected a playful note to my tone but inside I was still reeling from the passion that had transpired between us. The sort of passion I had never experienced before. Passion that left my body singing and tingling and fizzing in the afterglow.

Grayson rolled onto his side and leaned his weight on one elbow, his gaze still trained on mine. ‘You’re a very responsive lover.’ He slowly circled one of my nipples with his finger and I trembled anew.

‘Who knew two enemies could get it on with such success?’ I was still determined to keep my playful persona in place, but it felt odd, like wearing a jumper back to front and inside out.

His finger traced a circle around my other nipple, and I bit back a tiny gasp of pleasure. ‘Is that how you see us? As enemies?’ he asked.

I gave a little shrug and shifted my gaze from the probing heat of his. ‘We’re not exactly friends, are we?’

There was a long beat of silence.

‘We might have to be if Ethan and Niamh stay together,’ Grayson said. ‘Will that be a problem for you? I mean, after tonight?’

I worked hard to school my features into impassivity. ‘No. That was the deal, right? One night only.’

His gaze drifted to my mouth and my pulse began to pound. ‘I should take you home.’

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