Harlequin Presents: Once Upon A Temptation June 2020--Box Set 1 of 2
up to the headboard, catching under the edge of it so he was one long, straining beast beneath her. Her heart leaped with excitement.She was having an effect on him. Whatever he was trying to prove to her or himself wasn’t easy for him. With a secretive smile, she danced her open mouth down his torso, following where her touch had strayed, dislodging the sheet as she went.
His musky scent filled her nostrils as she took a blatant taste of his salty length.
His whole body jerked and she pushed at his thighs, making room for herself to explore with her touch and her tongue. Filled with helpless craving, she did everything she could to give him pleasure. She wanted him to fall apart, to feel as vulnerable to her as she was to him.
Just when she thought he couldn’t grow harder or thicker, couldn’t possibly hold on to his control, he said in a rasp, “I need a condom.”
She rose to kneel between his legs. “I’m on the pill.”
“Let’s not take chances.” He rolled and reached into the side table drawer, withdrew one and handed it to her.
Shakily she tried to apply it, but she’d never done that before. He finally brushed her touch away and said, “I’ll do it. Take off your nightgown.”
He sounded distant and implacable. Not nearly as moved and aroused as she was. Her eyes grew damp with helplessness as she threw her nightgown off the bed and stayed kneeling where she was.
“Come.” He finally touched her, guiding her to straddle him. “This is what you want, isn’t it?”
“Is it what you want?”
“I just put on a condom. What does that tell you?”
His hands were on her now and he ran them over her, greedily filling his palms with her breasts and hips and the round cheeks of her butt, as if he couldn’t get enough. One hand rode up the front of her thigh, and his thumb slid inward to part her damp folds. When he found the slick center of her, he made a rumbling noise of satisfaction in his chest.
Here, finally, was the lover who had been generously teasing her past the point of no return each night. She wanted to give that back to him and shifted, rising to guide him to her entrance, then slowly taking him in.
Oh, dear.
“Hurt?” he asked gruffly, making her aware she’d caught her breath.
Had that been the source of his reticence? Worry? Tenderness filled her as she folded herself onto him.
“It feels really good,” she sighed. His penetration wasn’t so much painful as painfully intense. Profound. She hadn’t had a lot of sex and he’d been her only lover in years. Now they had so much between them—not just a son, but history and a tangle of emotions that still remained knotted. They had a very tentative trust that needed protecting, but in this moment, she felt incredibly close to him.
She kissed him with abandon, long and deep, letting the joy of being entwined with him spin her into that depthless space of pure, luxurious passion they always found. The eddies of arousal within her became a deeper imperative. Her hands roamed over every inch of him that she could reach while his own hands molded her back and hips and thighs.
When she began to move, he guided her. Moved with her. Let her sit tall while she touched where they were joined. Moments later she was crying out with exaltation, shaken by her powerful orgasm. Breathless, she sank bonelessly onto him.
With her skin damp and her heart still pounding, he rolled her beneath him and said, “My turn.”
“Mmm,” she agreed, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She locked her ankles behind his lower back and groaned with abandon as he began to thrust and withdraw in slow, powerful strokes.
When the tension wound tight in her again, however, and she hovered on the brink, he settled his weight on her, no longer thrusting, and soothed her down from the peak.
“What are you doing?” she panted, confused.
“You don’t like it?”
“No, it feels really good, but…” She made a restive noise and moved beneath him.
“I’m in charge now, Scarlett,” he said, and she felt his will like a force that took hold of her very soul.
He drew her back up to the peak and let it recede again, making her so crazy she wound up scraping her nails down his back and biting into his shoulder.
He laughed and nipped at her jaw. “What’s wrong, querida?”
“Don’t make me beg, Javiero.” She turned her face to the side and one tear leaked out her closed eyes and ran down her temple.
He made a noise of pity and gathered her in. When his lips found the dampness at her temple, he used his thumb to rub the tear into her skin.
“What do you want from me?” he asked.
“This. You.” More. She had wanted to return to what they had had eleven months ago. She had wanted their lovemaking to be a reset. A fresh start.
That had been the fantasy of a fool, but she couldn’t let him go, either.
She held him in a clasp so intimate she could feel the pulse of his heartbeat between her legs, but too much had happened to allow them to go back to that moment of profound pleasure and an unstained history. If she had stayed with him that day, she might have had a chance.
Now here she was, trying to recreate magic that had been an illusion in the first place.
Her heart beat outside her chest, trying to reach his, but his was closed off. How else could he hold her like this, on the brink of ecstasy, and deny them both?
When his mouth touched hers, she poured everything into the kiss, her heart and soul and all the love within her. All of this, what little she had of him, was going to disappear. She knew it. But she quit fighting his agonizing pace and savored it with him, wanting the moment