Carmen had expected it to hurt, and it did, but it was also delicious—as if every star in the sky was spinning.

But she was hauled back down to earth by the question in his voice.

‘Carmen?’

She opened her eyes and locked her gaze with his for a moment. He seemed...angry. But she had no breath in her to respond to anything other than the feel of him inside her as she tried to acclimatise to this new sensation.

‘Elias...’ she begged as he pulled back, desperate to hold him inside her still.

She did not want him to stop, and he clearly got the message, because now he pushed in deeper, and it felt as if he were prising open the black sky.

‘Dios...’she said, because the sensation was exquisite.

She buried her face in his shoulder as he pushed again, all the way in this time, and then out, and then in again, each measured, slow thrust stretching her, taking her deeper than she had ever thought possible, to new experiences and new places she had waited so long to explore.

Slowly, she wanted to say. But she had forgotten not just the English word but the Spanish word too. She couldn’t speak. So instead she met his thrusts...moving with him, joining him.

It was like pushing off from a cliff-edge, diving into the freedom he gave.

‘Elias...’ She cried out his name as she shuddered inside, sensation sparking every cell in her body.

He took her to oblivion, and his groan as he came inside her was met by her startled shout of pleasure as she climaxed. The strength of her first orgasm, the pulses of pleasure, was so deep and unexpected that all she could do was collapse into it.

Elias lifted his head. ‘Carmen, I...’

She did not want it to be over—not least because she knew he would have questions—so for now they both just sucked in air, eyeing each other and panting.

He pulled out and looked down at the blood, and then back at her.

‘I think I must be getting my period...’

‘Don’t lie!’ he warned as he tucked himself back in to his boxers. ‘Not about this.’

‘Elias...’ She was trying to get her breath. ‘Please don’t make a big deal of it.’

‘Don’t even try to tell me I’m making a big deal of it.’ He ran a hand through his shock of dark hair. ‘If I had known you were a virgin—’

‘What? You wouldn’t have taken me, here in your office?’ She laughed in his face. ‘You’d have been all tender and—’

‘I wouldn’t have had sex with you in the first place.’

‘Worried my heart can’t take it?’

‘Something like that.’ He nodded.

‘We both enjoyed it, Elias. That’s all. Don’t worry—I’m not going to fall in love with you.’

‘Carmen, for goodness’ sake!’

‘No!’ She stared angrily at him. ‘I wanted you and you wanted me—and that’s it. The end. You’re the one who is complicating things.’

She got up and pulled on her top, heading for the door.

‘We are going to talk,’ he told her.

‘About what?’

She was stunned—not at his reaction, but at the power of what had taken place. Intimacy was a huge issue for her, and she had never been so overtaken by desire, so utterly lost in the sensations of her body, wanting...