Modern Romance February Books 5-8. Heidi Rice
links, shirt. They all dropped to the floor.
His tanned body, laced with dark hair, looked like sculpted marble in the flickering firelight, all hard muscles and taut belly. She brushed her hand lightly against his chest. His skin felt like silk over steel. Biting her lip, she lifted her eyes to his.
“If I’m yours, Darius,” she whispered, standing in front of him in the half-enclosed room, “you’re mine.”
Brushing back long dark tendrils of her hair, he pulled her roughly into his arms. His hard-muscled chest moved against her full, aching breasts and pregnant belly. The soft wind whispered against her bare skin as he unhooked her silk lace bra, and her breasts sprang free. He looked down at her body and gave a quick breath.
Pressing her breasts together, he cupped their weight in his hands before he lowered his head to suckle one pink, full nipple, then the other.
Shuddering with pleasure, she closed her eyes.
His hands stroked gently, reverently, down her body to her naked belly to her hips, still covered with the tiny silk panties.
Running his hand down her legs, he knelt before her and pulled off one stiletto, then the other, as she balanced against him, her hands gripping his shoulders. She remained standing—barely—as he caressed upward from her manicured toes, to the tender hollows of her knees, and higher still. She swallowed, holding her breath as he stroked up her thighs.
She closed her eyes, heart pounding as he pulled her panties down her legs. She couldn’t move fast enough. He impatiently ripped them off in his powerful hands, tossing the flimsy silk aside.
“Those were expensive—” she protested.
He looked up, and the edges of his cruel, sensual mouth curved upward. “They served their purpose.”
An icy fear suddenly crept through her heart as Letty wondered if she, too, might someday have served her purpose. If he might someday rip her apart, then discard her.
Then all her rational thought fled as, still on his knees, he gripped her hips and moved between her legs.
She felt the warmth of his breath on the most sensitive, intimate part of her body, as she stood naked with the warm night breeze swirling against her skin, as one of New York’s most famous billionaires knelt before her in the firelight, beneath the ivy walls of a rooftop garden.
Holding her tight, he lowered his mouth between her thighs and tasted her with a soft moan. He licked her as if she were a melting ice cream cone in his favorite flavor, creamy and sweet. As she gasped, his rhythm intensified, until he worked her with his tongue, sliding sensuously against her. Pleasure exploded through her body almost immediately, and he gripped her hips, keeping her firmly against his mouth as her body twisted with the sudden intensity of pleasure that left her knees weak and sent spasms all over her body.
She was still dizzy in the heights of pleasure as he rose to his feet and drew her toward the sofa. He lay down first, stretching out naked against the black leather, hard and ready for her. She took a step, then hesitated, biting her lip.
“What is it?”
She tried not to look at how huge he was, his hard shaft jutting arrogantly from his body. She blushed, feeling shy. “Um, what do I do?”
He gave a low, lazy laugh, then pulled her over him.
“I’ll show you,” he said huskily.
He spread her across him on the sofa, her thighs over his hips, his arousal pressing low against her pregnant belly. He reached up, cupping her cheek. As he drew her down for a kiss, her long dark hair fell like a veil against his skin.
The kiss was tender at first. She relaxed into it with a sigh, her body curving over his as his hands roamed gently over her back, her arms, her belly, her breasts. Then his kiss deepened, turning urgent and fierce. Placing his hands on her hips, he lifted her up, positioning himself beneath her.
He slowly lowered her down on him, filling her, inch by delicious inch, in tantalizing slow motion.
She gasped as she felt him inside her, going deep, then deeper still. Her whole body started to tighten, more savagely than it had before.
Lifting her hips, he lowered her again, showing her the rhythm, until her body started to move of its own accord. Closing her eyes with fervent intensity, she rode him, slowly at first, then faster. The pleasure built and built...
Her lips parted in a silent cry as joy burst like fireworks shaking through her body. She heard his low gasp as he, too, exploded, pouring inside her.
She collapsed, falling softly against him on the black leather sofa.
For long moments, he held her tenderly, as if her weight were nothing. Their bodies were still fused, slick with sweat, as he leaned up to kiss her. He felt so solid and strong beneath her. Like a foundation that could never be shaken.
She shivered in his arms. In the half-enclosed outdoor room, the September night was growing cool. But that wasn’t the reason.
The idea of being Darius’s wife had seemed like a recipe for disaster, if not outright doom. And so it would be, if she were tempted into giving him her heart, while in return, he gave her only money.
Letty looked down at the heavy diamond ring, now shining dully on her left hand.
If only Darius could again be the young man she remembered, with the kind nature and forgiving heart. She would willingly give him everything. Not just her body, not just her name, but her heart.
HE WAS A GENIUS, Darius thought as he woke in his bed the next morning with sunlight flooding in through the windows. He looked down at Letty sleeping beside him and smiled. A damn genius. Best five billion dollars ever spent.
And he would spend the rest of his life being thrilled, if it continued paying off like it did last night. The sex had been spectacular. And even more. Something had changed in the way Letty looked at him. He loved the mixture of gratitude and shy hope he saw in her eyes.
He kissed Letty’s temple tenderly. She yawned, stretching like a cat.
“What time is it?” she murmured, her eyes still closed.
“Late,” he said, amused. “Almost noon.”
Her eyes flew open. “Oh, no! I’m late for—” Then she seemed to remember how much had changed in the last twenty-four hours, and that being late for work was no longer an issue. “Oh. Right.” She bit her lip, blushing and looking so adorable that he was tempted to keep her in bed another hour.
It was incredible how much he still wanted her, when they’d made love four times last night—on the rooftop terrace, here in bed, and in the shower when they decided to wash off. Only to promptly get all sweaty again when they returned to bed.
Letty was meant to be his, Darius marveled. He’d never felt so sexually satisfied in his life.
And yet already he wanted more. How was it possible?
He smiled down at her. “Hungry?”
“Starving,” she admitted. “And thirsty.”
“I can solve that.” Rising from the bed, he got a white terry cloth robe and handed her one, too. “Come out to the kitchen.”
She gave a sudden scowl, and even that was adorable. “You didn’t tell me you had staff staying at the penthouse. What if they heard us last night? What if they—”
“There are no live-in staff. I have a housekeeper who comes in four times a week, that’s it.”
She blinked in confusion. “Then who’s going to cook?”
“I’m not totally useless.”
She looked at him with unflattering shock in her eyes. “You