It Started With... Collection. Miranda Lee
had felt perversely proud of herself at that moment, perhaps because she knew he’d looked upon more beautiful bodies than hers. Yet he still seemed to find her very desirable.
I’m not sure one night is going to be enough, he’d said.
Not enough for her either, she suspected, if this was his idea of foreplay. What next? she wondered as an erotic tremor trickled down her spine to where her tightly held buttocks were quivering with anticipation.
He suddenly pressed himself up against her back, his left hand dropping from her shoulder to take possession of her left breast, whilst his right hand slid across to push her hair back from her face and neck. Her head tipped sideways when he put his mouth so close to her ear that his hot breath made her shudder.
‘I think,’ he murmured, ‘That it’s time to go to bed now. What do you think, beautiful?’
‘I can’t think at all,’ she returned shakily. And wasn’t that the truth!
‘God, but I love seeing you like this,’ he ground out, cupping her chin and twisting her head far enough around so that their eyes could meet.
‘Like what?’
‘All hot and bothered.’ His eyes glittered down at her whilst he moved his outstretched palm back and forth across her by-then exquisitely sensitised nipple.
A tortured moan escaped her parted lips. ‘You are a libertine,’ she accused breathlessly.
‘Not quite,’ he retorted. ‘But I could easily become one tonight.’
Ryan struggled for control as he scooped her up and carried her over to the bed. He struggled to calm his flesh, which was clammering wildly for a quick release. Not just quick—savage. He wanted to throw her onto that bed, rip off her panties and just ram himself into her.
Rough sex, however, was not something Ryan ever entertained. He prided himself on being an imaginative lover, but always a tender one. He never indulged in anything which smacked of violence. The thought of making a woman cry out with pain was anathema to him.
Okay, so some women liked it rough, he reminded himself as he laid her down across the bed. But he couldn’t imagine that Laura would be one of them. Clearly she had believed, up until this life-changing moment, that she needed to be in love to enjoy sex. Which was a fallacy, of course. Sex was a basic human function much the same as eating and sleeping; you didn’t need to be in love to enjoy either of those. Ryan had never been in love in his life and he sure as hell enjoyed all three.
Despite knowing deep down that he was making a big mistake taking a work colleague to bed—business and pleasure don’t mix, remember?—Ryan told himself that he might actually do Laura a good turn by proving that sex and love didn’t have to be joined at the hip. After all, it wasn’t healthy for her to continue living without a man in her life. Her responses tonight had already shown him that she wasn’t the ice queen she’d been pretending to be with him these past two years. Far from it.
By the time he sat down beside her on the bed and reached for her left foot, Ryan had almost convinced himself that what he was about to do had a noble side to it.
Almost …
Laura clenched her teeth hard in her jaw as Ryan slowly undid the ankle strap on her shoe then eased it off her foot. Where did he learn to touch a woman like that so softly and so gently? She would have thought a goalkeeper’s hands would be harder and rougher. But, no, they had the sensitivity and the skill of a surgeon. Every time one of his fingertips touched her flesh, an electric current ran up her legs.
‘I’ve always admired your dainty feet with their slender ankles,’ he said as he dropped the shoe onto the bedside rug and moved onto her other foot. ‘And, whilst I adore these particular shoes, I can’t risk leaving them on right now. The thought of your digging their lethal-looking heels into my back does not appeal.’
When an image popped into Laura’s head of exactly how she might manage to dig her heels into Ryan’s back, her heartbeat went from a fast trot to a wild gallop, her mouth falling open as she sucked in some much-needed air. But when the second shoe was dispensed with and his hands started travelling up her legs she found herself holding her breath once again. By the time he made it to the tops of her thighs, she had to breathe or die.
Her gasp brought his eyes to her flushed face.
‘These have to go as well, Laura,’ he told her, hooking his fingers under the sides of her panties and peeling them down her legs, all the while holding her eyes.
At last, he looked at her there.
By then Laura found it impossible to speak.
She was dying for him to touch her more intimately, but dreading it too. She knew she would be wet down there. She could feel it.
‘Ryan,’ she managed to blurt out when his finger moved perilously close.
Too late. He was there, and it felt incredible.
Her moan brought his eyes back to hers.
‘You have a problem?’ he asked, but without stopping. He was still using just the one finger, but it knew exactly where to go and what to touch, an erotic weapon of total seduction.
Her face twisted into a grimace which reflected her dilemma. She was going to come. And, whilst she was dying for release, it was not what she wanted. She wanted to come with him inside her.
‘I … I … You have to stop!’ she cried out.
He stopped. Just in time.
Laura shuddered with relief.
His head cocked to one side as he frowned down at her. ‘Would you like to tell me why I had to stop? It wasn’t because you weren’t liking what I was doing. I could tell.’
She gnawed at her bottom lip and looked away.
‘I won’t know what you want if you don’t tell me,’ he said softly, and quite sensibly.
So she told him, her voice faltering and her face flaming with embarrassment.
‘Is that all?’ he said, sounding and looking pleased. ‘Just give me a minute or two.’
He stripped off with considerable speed, chucking his clothes onto a nearby chair and not stopping until he was down to his underpants. At that point he did hesitate, first to go over to put another log on the fire then to search through his jacket pockets for his wallet, out of which he extracted two foil packets.
Laura could not believe that she hadn’t thought of protection herself. Just as well Ryan wasn’t so silly. But then he wouldn’t be, would he? she thought ruefully. Not a man of his extensive experience!
Laura did her best to put her sensible head back on, but it was all to no avail when Ryan stepped out of his underpants. Oh dear, oh dear; she’d known he would be built like that. He was seriously impressive. His body was the sort of body that you saw on billboards advertising jeans or male Y-fronts. He could easily have made it as a male model. And he was all hers—for tonight, anyway.
This last thought brought excitement, but apprehension as well. Despite knowing she was way beyond changing her mind at this critical stage, Laura could not dismiss the niggling feeling that going to bed with Ryan would change her life in ways which might not be all good. She might have given the consequences of tonight’s impulsive actions some more thought if a naked Ryan hadn’t joined her on the bed at that point.
‘Only got two of these, I’m afraid,’ he said as he placed the condoms next to the lamp on the bedside chest. ‘But they’ll be enough. For now …’
When he pulled her round and rolled on top of her, Laura gasped at the weight of his body. But, as soon as he propped his upper body up on his elbows on either side of her chest, the feeling of pressure lightened considerably.
‘Open your legs wide, Laura,’ he commanded, ‘And lift your knees up. Yes, that’s the way,