Page 24 of 2 Books in One Bundle

‘You’ve almost completely destroyed my brain’s processing power.’

‘What about your rule?’

‘A temporary hiatus will do no harm.’

‘You’re going to break it for me,’ she said giddily. ‘And you were so adamant.’

‘Don’t overthink it,’ he muttered, his gaze fixed to her mouth. ‘I don’t intend to.’

And she didn’t want to. She didn’t need to. How, or why, he’d changed his mind was none of her concern. She just wanted whatever came next.

‘Here’s to living in the moment.’

‘I couldn’t agree more.’

Eyes blazing, he grabbed her hand and before she could catch her breath he’d led her up the stairs and into his room. He kicked the door shut and pulled her into his arms and their mouths met in a desperate clash of heat and desire.

With a harsh groan that skated over her nerve-endings and set them on fire, Zander tightened his hold on her, exploring her mouth with such skill and intent that her limbs went weak. Lost to sensation, dizzy with his scent and revelling in the hard power of his body pressed up against hers, Mia wound her arms round his shoulders before her legs could give way and kissed him back with equal passion.

One large, warm hand found its way to the back of her neck. The other moved to the base of her spine to clamp her in place. Eventually, the hot, wild, desperate kiss slid into ones that were slower, less feverish, but somehow all the hotter for it. She felt them everywhere, in her toes, in her fingers, even in her ears. The blood flowing through her veins heated and thickened. Her stomach liquefied.

With a soft moan, she twitched her hips so that his hardness pressed into the place where she so desperately ached for him. He slid the hand at the small of her back lower, over the curve of her bottom, and ground her against him, and that kicked everything up a gear.

The sparks of electricity that shot through her nearly took out her knees. Her heart began to pound even harder and desire poured through her like warm honey. She broke the kisses in order to gulp in some much-needed air and he took immediate advantage of the move by shifting his attention to her jaw, her ear, and then slowly, hotly, down her neck.

Instinctively, she dropped her head back to give him better access to wherever he wanted to go, her swollen, achy, tingling breasts desperate for his touch, but the high neckline of her dress was in the way and quite suddenly she needed both of them, her and him, naked,now.

Zander clearly shared her thoughts, or perhaps he sensed her urgency, because the devastating kisses stopped abruptly and his hands went from caressing to searching.

‘Where’s the zip on this thing?’ he muttered after a moment of thorough searching that she hadn’t minded one bit.

‘At the side,’ she said, her voice so thick and raspy she barely recognised it.

Having found the tab, he slowly slid it down and she shivered, though the room was warm. He reached down and slipped his hands beneath the hem at her knees to push her dress up, over her head and off.

His smouldering gaze roamed over her, taking in the black lace bra that these days barely contained her breasts and matching knickers. It lingered on her abdomen for a moment, and her heart fluttered, but she didn’t want to think about the baby right now, about what this was and wasn’t, so she stepped forwards, lost herself in the intensity of his expression and eased off his jacket.

‘You’re overdressed,’ she murmured, her breath hitching as she unbuttoned his shirt and pushed that off him too and thought that God, she’d forgotten how magnificent his chest was. All those muscles. The solidity, the strength.

The night of his party, she hadn’t had nearly enough time to fully explore the expanse of it or to properly savour the feel of his hair-roughened skin beneath her palms. Tonight, she planned to rectify that, so she put her hands on him and, emboldened by the shudder that ripped through him, slowly trailed her fingertips over the ridges and dips. Her mouth watered at the thought of tasting him, and she leaned in closer, closer, shutting her eyes and breathing him in, but it seemed that he had other plans because he suddenly swept her up in his arms, carried her across the room and deposited her on the bed.

While she lay against the pile of pillows, catching her breath and recovering from the surprise move, Zander stripped off the rest of his clothes with impressive speed and efficiency and, although she’d seen it all before, it was as if she was looking at him for the first time.

She’d assumed her dreams had embellished his assets, but no. In the soft glowing light, she could see that his shoulders were just as broad as she remembered, his thighs just as powerful. And in between them, jutting up, long, thick and hard, the massive erection that had driven her to heights of pleasure she’d never experienced before.

Her heart thudded wildly as he joined her on the bed. He shifted onto his side, then half rolled on top of her, and her entire body trembled.

‘Are you sure it’s medically safe to do this?’ he said, smoothing back a rogue lock of hair from her cheek.

‘Definitely,’ she said with a shiver at the unexpected nature of his touch. ‘The doctor recommended leaving it for forty-eight hours, but it’s been longer than that so we’re good.’

His dark eyes glinted. ‘We are better than good. We are exceptional.’

And Mia knew that he was an ace seducer, that these smooth lines might be practised even if some weren’t, that making women swoon was his thing, but nevertheless, she did exactly that. He lowered his head to hers, their mouths meeting again for a slow, hot kiss that sent flames flickering along her veins and dissolved her stomach, and her head actually spun.

Needing to touch him, she lifted her hands to his shoulders and ran them over his hard muscles and into his hair, and he moved his beneath her to unclip her bra. He tossed it aside and then slid a hand from her waist up, and when he cupped one breast with it, she moaned at the palpitations that jolted through her. She was so sensitive. She had goosebumps all over and quivered everywhere. His thumb brushed over her nipple and she almost came on the spot.

Had she felt this level of desperation before? she wondered with the one brain cell that was still functioning. She couldn’t remember. She could barely recall her own name, especially when he replaced his hand with his mouth and she saw stars.

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