Page 24 of Bound by a One-Night Vow

Thinking about a baby and Andrea in the same sentence was dangerous. It opened a door inside her head that until now had always been firmly locked. Images flooded her brain of him cradling a newborn baby, its downy head covered in ink-black hair, making something tighten around her heart like the slow closing grip of an invisible fist.

Izzy let out a measured breath to bring herself back under control. ‘You really know how to kill a mood, don’t you?’ Her attempt at humour didn’t quite hit the mark.

Andrea took one of her hands and pressed it to his mouth, his eyes still holding hers. ‘It’s an important conversation to have because this is only for six months. A child would change everything.’

‘Rest easy, Andrea. I don’t want to have kids. Do you have this conversation with every woman you sleep with?’

‘I always use condoms. No exceptions.’ A small frown pulled at his forehead. ‘My relationships don’t normally last longer than a few weeks, if that.’

‘Why’s that?’

He twirled a strand of her hair around one of his fingers, his gaze dropping to her mouth. ‘I don’t like giving my partners false hope. I’m not the settling down type. I bore too easily.’

‘So you end things before they get too clingy?’

‘Works for me.’

Izzy wondered why he had got to the age of thirty-four without wanting more than a few weeks of passion with yet another lover he would then let go without a backward glance. Didn’t he want more than that?

Didn’t she?

Izzy blocked the thought like slamming the door on an unwelcome guest. What she wanted was to buy back her grandparents’ house to honour her mother’s wishes. That was her goal and she was not going to rest until she achieved it. She touched his jaw again, moving beneath his weight, her body still on fire. ‘Are we done talking now?’

His lips curved up at one corner, a glint in his eyes. ‘What else did you have in mind?’

Izzy pulled his head down so his mouth was just above hers. ‘Figure it out.’

His mouth covered hers in a kiss that triggered a wave of longing deep in her body. His hands moved over her in barely touching strokes that heightened her skin’s awareness, ramping up her need to feel him crush her to him. He took his time pleasuring each erotic zone on her body—her breasts, the underside of her wrists, her thighs. He moved down her body, leaving kisses on her electrified flesh, teasing her into a frenzy of want that made her writhe and whimper. Clothes were removed and discarded, both his and hers, and for once she didn’t feel naked and exposed and embarrassed.

He parted her thighs and stroked her with his fingers, making her snatch in a breath as the sensations tingled through her most tender private flesh. She had never allowed a partner to be so intimate with her. Not that her less than a handful of lovers had even tried. But Andrea’s touch was so gentle, so respectful and giving she was swept away on the sheer eroticism of it, her inhibitions fading as tingles of pleasure shot through her in tiny little fizzes. His lips and tongue caressed her, opening her to a new world of feeling, a world of cataclysmic pleasure that left no part of her body untouched. Ripples of delight ran from her core to her extremities, even to her fingertips and toes. A shiver ran over her scalp, coursed down her spine and back up again as every muscle and tendon in her body shook and shuddered with a release so exquisite it blew every thought out of her mind.

Andrea stroked the side of her thigh as she came back to her senses. Izzy couldn’t speak. Didn’t want to speak in case she ruined the atmosphere by saying the wrong thing—an unsophisticated, self-conscious comment that would make him realise how disparate their lives were when it came to sex. She was in no doubt of his experience. Hadn’t he just proven it? He had played her body like a maestro played a temperamental instrument. He had made her senses sing with such harmony and balance that she couldn’t imagine ever allowing any other man to touch her now she had experienced his caresses.

Andrea brushed back her hair from her face, his gaze hooded but with a light of intensity—a probing light of contemplation. ‘You’ve gone very quiet, cara.’

Izzy forced a smile. ‘Don’t you want to...?’ She waved a hand to their where their bodies were pressed together. ‘Finish off?’

He took her hand and pressed a kiss to the middle of her palm, his eyes still holding hers. ‘There’s no hurry. I want to savour every minute.’

Izzy chewed the side of her mouth, her gaze slipping out of reach of his. With her free hand she traced the carved contour of his left pectoral muscle with her finger. ‘I’ve never slept with someone so...so not in a hurry...’

He brought her chin up with the end of his finger, locking his gaze on hers. There was a soft concerned look in his eyes that made her wonder if her enmity towards him had been misplaced, misguided, mishandled. ‘Your pleasure is important to me. I want our first time together to be mutually satisfying, not a fast and furious fumble that leaves you frustrated.’ His thumb brushed over her lower lip for a moment, his brow furrowing. ‘Are you telling me you haven’t always enjoyed sex?’

Izzy lost herself in the dark warmth of his gaze. How could he so easily read her mind? Her body? Her emotions? ‘I’m not as experienced as I’ve made it appear or sound in the press.’ She sighed and continued. ‘I’ve never been all that comfortable with physical intimacy. I couldn’t bear the thought of being intimate with anyone without numbing myself first with alcohol. None of my partners seemed all that interested in whether I was having a good time or not. Everyone assumed I was the up-for-it party girl, but in reality... Well, this is the first time I’ve had an orgasm with a partner. I used to fake it to get sex over with.’

He touched her face with a slow-moving finger from her cheek to her chin and back again. ‘Oh, Isabella.’ His voice had a soft note of compassion that derailed her even further. ‘Sex is supposed to be a mutual thing, not a one-way street. Your partners should have checked to see if you were comfortable with what they were doing. You shouldn’t have to endure sex but enjoy it.’

Izzy gave him a self-deprecating smile, so touched by his understanding she was worried she might get emotional. ‘Speaking of one-way streets... Are you going to finish making love to me?’

The shadow of concern was back in his gaze. ‘Is that what you want? What you really want?’

Izzy stroked his face from ear to stubbly jaw. ‘I want you to make love to me. I want to experience your pleasure as well as my own.’ Her voice was nothing more than a breathy whisper but it contained all the longing she felt for him, the longing she could feel throbbing, deep and heavy, in her blood.

He brought his mouth down to just above hers. ‘Are you sure?’ His warm breath caressed her lips and his hesitancy melted her heart.

‘I’m sure,’ she said and closed the gap between their mouths.

CHAPTER EIGHT

---