“Let go,” she whispered. Rode him harder, faster, until his breath was coming in short, shallow spurts and his dark lashes swept down over his eyes. She wanted to make him come apart for her. To feel that control. She pressed down on him hard, taking him even deeper inside of her, the friction as she took him again and again so delicious she was getting close...so close...
“Izzie,” he groaned, his hips driving up into her now, setting the pace. “I need to— I can’t—”
She sank her fingers into the hard muscles of his shoulders, felt his body swell inside her, shake against her, come apart, his face dropping into the curve of her neck. She held him to her, reveling in how uncontrolled, how complete his release was.
His ragged breathing slowed. He pushed back so he could see her face. “That wasn’t how it was supposed to be,” he growled, a dark frown slanting its way across his face. “I don’t lose control like that.”
She bit her lip, dropped her gaze to the dark hair dusting his chest. “I wanted it to be good for you.”
He tipped her chin up with his fingers. “You were incredible,” he assured her, a gravelly edge to his voice. “You were close?”
She nodded.
He slid his fingers under the straps of her dress and pushed it off her shoulders with a deliberate movement. “Then let’s get things back on course.”
Her heart galloped like a high-strung racehorse anticipating extreme excitement. He moved his hands to her thighs and urged her up onto her knees. “Put your hands over your head,” he ordered. She obeyed and he yanked her dress off, leaving her clad only in her lacy bra.
He set his palm to her chest and pushed, sending her back into the duvet with a soft swoosh. Then he picked up the bottle.
A protest rose in her throat. He wasn’t actually going to—
“You’re going to ruin your duvet,” she breathed as he straddled her, bottle in hand.
“To hell with the duvet,” he murmured, tipping the bottle upside down and spilling the amber liquid over her heated flesh. “I always thought Cristal couldn’t get any better, but this might change my mind.”
“Alex,” she protested, raising herself up on her elbows. “I don’t think—”
He pushed her back down with a flick of his wrist. “Relax.”
Oh. Her stomach churned with anticipation as he put his lips to the curve of her breast where the champagne trail began. Took a lace-covered, champagne-soaked nipple into his mouth and sucked deeply. Her insides twisted, heat flaring in the moist, aroused part of her that had been left unfinished. He lavished the same pleasure on her other breast, driving her higher, making her squirm against the whisper-soft down beneath her.
She bolted upward as he pressed his mouth against the trembling skin of her stomach. “I’ve never—”
His mouth stilled on her inflamed skin. “Don’t tell me that selfish boyfriend of yours didn’t indulge you in this either.”
She shook her head. He pressed a kiss against the tense muscles of her abdomen. “You are so beautiful, Iz. I want to see, taste every part of you...”
She melted. Completely. Released her anxious grip on her muscles, let him part her thighs and arrange her to his satisfaction...follow the trail of liquid downward to her most sensitive flesh. “Oh,” she gasped as he parted her, tasted her, the act so soul-baringly intimate she dug her fingers into the bedding and squeezed her eyes shut. But then the hypersensitivity turned to white-hot pleasure as his tongue began a slow, hot torture that made her hips buck off the bed.
“Easy.” He held her down with firm hands as he pleasured her with long, slow strokes of his tongue.
“I can’t...I don’t—oh—” Digging her nails harder into the sheets, she willed herself to accept the pleasure he was offering her. But she was too far gone and when his tongue moved against the hard nub that was the center of her pleasure, she couldn’t take any more.
“Alex, please—”
“Shh.” He slid a hand under her bottom and lifted her to him. “I know.”
And then he was sliding a long finger inside her, stroking deep, adding a whole new layer to her pleasure, and she was jerking in to his hands, begging him to give her release. He did, the magic slide of his fingers tipping her over the edge into an orgasm so intense her entire body shook, her head flinging back against the pillows.
Shivers snaking through her, feeling as though she’d been hit by a ten-ton truck, she lay there trying to catch her breath. Alex slid up her body, rested his elbows on either side of her and ran a finger down her cheek.
“You are full of surprises, Isabel Peters,” he drawled softly.
Her cheeks heated fifty shades of red. “You don’t do so badly yourself.”
He dug his hands under her and scooped her up into his arms and carried her to the en suite bathroom. “We need to shower this off you or you’ll be a sticky mess.”
We?
He flicked on the taps, ran the water hot and pulled her into the huge walk-in shower with him. She closed her eyes as he washed her with an erotic thoroughness that made her want him all over again. Then he carried her back to his bed and made her wish come true.
Izzie let her head drift to his shoulder, absorbing the feeling of rightness she always felt with this man. How utterly complete and protected he made her feel.
Tomorrow she might wonder if she’d made a huge mistake. Tonight, she didn’t care.
CHAPTER TEN
THREE THOUGHTS OCCURRED to Izzie as she woke up in Alex’s bed, the vibrant blue of the Pacific sparkling beyond the French doors. She was sprawled on top of him as if she owned him. She’d made a huge decision with wide-ranging career implications last night, and she had a flight to catch in a few hours.
The last thought, in particular, had her gingerly detaching herself from him and rolling onto her side to look at the clock on the bedside table. Ten o’clock. She needed to leave in a couple of hours. Plenty of time.
Plenty of time to ruminate over what she’d done.
A glance at the man who was normally out of bed by six confirmed he was still asleep. He looked so sexy with a dusting of early-morning stubble covering his jaw, his long, dark lashes swept down over his cheeks; her heart tripped over itself. Oh my.
She collapsed back against the pillows and let out the quietest of sighs. In the space of twenty-four hours, she’d slept with her interview subject, agreed to give up the story of a lifetime and committed to starting over with a man who could and surely would break her heart.
Awesome. Way to go, Izzie. You definitely have your priorities in order.
The cold light of day literally and figuratively crowding in on her, she covered her face with her hands. James was going to flip his lid. But what choice had she had? Ethically, she couldn’t have continued to work on a story on a man she was now sure she was head-over-heels infatuated with.
She grimaced. Fingered the fine silk sheet draped over her. James wouldn’t see it that way. He’d see it as a foolish, shortsighted decision. A wasted opportunity few ever got. Which brought up the question, what was she doing? How had she gone from being an ultra-independent woman who knew the value of providing for herself to a blithering idiot when it came to this man?
Was she in love with Alex?
“That’s a pensive look if I’ve ever seen one.”
She jumped at the mockingly spoken words, her gaze flicking to a now fully alert Alex. His slow smile melted her insides. “I’m thinking about my boss’s reaction on Monday morning.”