Harlequin Presents: Once Upon A Temptation June 2020--Box Set 2 of 2

didn’t,’ she gasped, lost in those dark dramatic eyes gleaming with sparks of gold in the low light, marvelling that he felt the need to state the obvious, because who wouldn’t want him? His eyes were absolutely beautiful—all of him was absolutely beautiful, she acknowledged dizzily as he snaked his hips back from her to unzip his jeans and take them off, the generous bulge thrusting against his boxer briefs making her stare for a split second. He looked a little larger than she had been counting on, she conceded, but Mother Nature had fashioned men and women to fit, so there wasn’t likely to be a problem in that line, she told herself.
His sensual lips sought hers again as he whisked off her panties, pulling her onto his thighs as he threw back the duvet and settled her on the sheet. He gazed down at her with wondering thankfulness because she was full of passion just like him and it wasn’t an act to impress him or even a ruse to take a photo of him, making him the boastful virtual equivalent of a show-and-tell. He smoothed hungrily grateful hands over her, his very last sin, and she was perfect, a perfect doll as she lay there looking up at him with those wide-open cerulean-blue eyes, as clear as the Zenarian sky in summer, against her pale redhead’s skin. He threaded long fingers through her wonderfully soft, silky ringlets and shifted down the bed to tug her to him and crush her luscious mouth under his again.
His hands wandering over her curvy bottom, pulling her to him, he rejoiced in her softness and smoothness and responsiveness as he slid down the bed to spread her thighs and assure that she got as much pleasure out of the encounter as he expected to. Startled by that move, scolding herself as the most appalling wave of awkward embarrassment washed over her, Izzy threw her head back on the pillows and closed her eyes tight. If she didn’t see what he was doing, it would be more bearable, more difficult to recall that he was looking at her…there.
Yet that first lick from his tongue over her feminine core sent a wave of heat shooting through her as hot as a lava flow and every nerve ending she possessed screamed into immediate response. Nothing had ever felt that good, nothing had ever felt so necessary to her that if he had stopped, she would have screamed even louder in frustration.
Involuntarily one of her hands closed into his black hair and it was like thick silk between her fingers, and those eyes of his when he looked at her, yes, somehow her own eyes had opened, well, it was somehow the sexiest thing ever. Her extreme self-consciousness died away because she knew she wanted him more than she had ever wanted anything and that there was nothing wrong with feeling how she was feeling. And finally, she relaxed, although possibly relaxed wasn’t the right word to describe how exquisite sensation sent her a little crazy and out of control.
Her body took over without her volition, her hips rising in tune with a racy beat that was new to her, little shudders of reaction tingling through her from her pelvis. The shudders increased to a level of devastating pressure that tightened and tightened around her womb until she thought she would go insane. The ferocious need that clawed at her was unbearable and it tore breathless little whimpers from her throat until finally she reached a peak and it felt as though she were internally combusting with pleasure from the outside in, rippling pulsations of sheer delight shooting through her to leave her limp and no longer on what seemed to be the same planet. The total experience was infinitely more sensational then she had expected.
That was fortunate, she soon learned, because as Rafiq came over her—having reached for protection, she noted with relief—what followed was not quite so enjoyable. She went from pliable to stiff as he nudged at her damp centre, easing in. As he groaned with apparent satisfaction at how tight he said she was, Izzy was concentrating on the newness of sensation, and then he tilted up her hips and thrust deep and it hurt. She hadn’t been expecting an actual pain, had assumed there would possibly be a sting or a faint twinge of discomfort but not anything that truly hurt, and she cried out at the pain of it.
And everything stopped: he froze, she froze.
‘It was my first time,’ she heard herself gabble in mortification. ‘Maybe I should’ve mentioned it but it’s done, so let’s finish.’
‘I don’t think so,’ Rafiq growled, thrown into a loop by the unwelcome news that he had bedded a virgin, which to him meant that he had taken advantage of someone more vulnerable, more innocent, in short a woman he should never have touched.
Unexpectedly, Izzy found that she was amused because in the blink of an eye Rafiq had transformed from passionate lover into a naked masculine pillar of censorious disapproval, the gorgeous eyes angry, the strong jaw line clenched, the sensual mouth flattened. ‘It’s not your choice, it was mine and it’s a little late to be a party pooper,’ she told him staunchly, absolutely refusing to be embarrassed after what they had already shared.
‘Izzy…’ Rafiq began, astonished to see the sparkle of laughter in her sapphire gaze and disconcerted yet again by her.
Izzy tilted back her hips and wrapped her legs round his hips. She didn’t have very long legs, so it was a struggle to execute that imprisoning gesture that told him what she didn’t have the words to tell him because she really didn’t understand herself at that moment either. But he wasn’t going anywhere, not until he had finished. ‘Well, see if you can fight your way free,’ she urged with a helpless giggle.
And Rafiq’s ready sense of humour came to the rescue because it was a ridiculous suggestion