One More Sleepless Night

TEN



Oh, thank God for that, thought Nicky as Rafael crushed her against him and slammed his mouth down on hers.

She’d known it would be tough to convince him that kissing her again was a good idea, but she’d never imagined it was going to be that hard. Goodness, the man was stubborn.

For a moment back there she’d feared her seduction skills were so rusty he’d never crack because she’d hurled everything she had at him and he’d just stood there firing back all those reasons why he wasn’t going to kiss her, tight-jawed and as implacable as rock.

Well, almost as implacable as rock, she amended, her head beginning to swim as desire swirled around inside her, because she’d finally broken through all that idiotic denial, the not particularly convincing aloofness and all those baffling objections and, boy, was she glad she had.

Gone was the rigidly stoical Rafael of seconds ago, all buttoned up and resistant, and here was the man by the pool. Six feet three inches of wild and uncontrollable passion.

Her lips parted and as he pushed his tongue between them she groaned and sank against him. One of his arms wrapped itself around her waist and he buried his other hand in her hair, in an exact imitation of how he’d kissed her before but with one crucial difference.

And that was her response. There was nothing cold and numb about that this time. His tongue touched hers, and she jerked as if electrocuted. Sparks shot straight through her and her blood began to sizzle. Heat pooled in her pelvis and spread throughout her body like a fever.

As they kissed the heat intensified and her insides began to burn as if a thousand fires had sprung to flame in the pit of her stomach.

Unable to help herself, Nicky moaned. Oh, how she’d missed this. This heady feeling of wanting. Of being wanted. Of the delirious desperation that intense need caused. She’d missed the feeling of drowning in desire, the unstoppable thundering of her heart and the giddy aching of her body.

For the first time in weeks she felt truly alive. Vibrant and on fire, and she pressed herself closer, wrapped her arms tighter, and kissed him back even more fiercely.

After what felt like hours, they broke off and she stared up at Rafael and blinked, fairly reeling at the strength of her reaction to him. His eyes were glittering, dark with desire, his breathing was ragged and she could feel his heart thundering against her. As it seemed he couldn’t move or speak either she thought that perhaps he was as stunned as she was, and the knowledge sent primitive satisfaction surging through her.

‘Well?’ she murmured huskily.

He blinked, frowned, and then gave his head a quick shake. ‘Well, what?’

‘Didn’t I guarantee it would be better this time?’

He blew out a soft shaky breath. ‘You did.’

‘And?’

‘It was better.’

There was nothing wrong with better, thought Nicky, but the imp inside her, the one who’d been slumbering away for weeks now, was waking up. It yawned and rubbed its eyes and made her say with a coquettishness that she didn’t usually go in for, ‘Just better?’

‘Much better.’ His mouth curved into a faint smile and he raised his eyebrows. ‘Why? Think you can improve?’

‘Oh, there’s always room for improvement,’ she murmured and lifted her head for another divine kiss.

And this time when their mouths met Nicky’s brain well and truly went AWOL, because within seconds Rafael had taken control and was angling her head and deepening the kiss and sliding his hand up her side as he kissed her.

His hand curved round her breast and settled, and at the feel of it caressing her achingly sensitive flesh she sighed into his mouth. He brushed his thumb over her nipple, sending more of those tiny electric shocks skidding through her, and she melted against him.

Oh, this was heavenly, she thought dazedly. Absolutely heavenly. Instinctively she tightened her arms around his neck and tilted her pelvis against his erection and rubbed. He groaned and pulled her even closer, kissed her even harder and blew her mind.

By the time they broke for breath this time her bones had dissolved and she was glad he had some kind of hold on her because otherwise she’d have collapsed into a puddle of lust on the floor.

‘God, I’d love to see how we can improve on that,’ she said shakily, and thought that she doubted it was possible because how could you perfect perfection?

He brushed a lock of her hair back and tucked it behind her ear. ‘Would you?’

The oddly tender gesture coupled with the hint of promise in his voice and the suddenly wicked glint that appeared in his eye shot her pulse so far through the roof and stole her voice so totally that all she could do was nod.

He let her go and nudged her gently back. ‘Then take off your dress.’

A great boulder of desire rolled the length of her body, nearly wiping out her knees, and she swallowed hard. ‘Now?’ she breathed, and inwardly winced at the way he’d evidently turned her brain to mush because was he really talking about next week?

He gave her a slow smouldering smile that had her stomach flipping like a pancake. ‘Now.’

How could she do anything but comply when she was so completely spellbound by him and the dizzying effect he had on her?

Everything but him and the way he was looking at her faded into a blur. As she slipped out of her shoes, her hands went to her side of their own accord and she slid the zip of her dress down and with Rafael watching her every move so closely Nicky was aware of her body in a way she never had been before.

The whisper of her zip sounded abrasively loud in the eerie silence of the afternoon. The soft cotton of her dress brushing against her skin sent tiny shivers scuttling down her spine, and her fingers trembled a little as she slipped the straps off her shoulders and let the dress fall to the floor in a pool of pale yellow. Her heart reverberated like a kettle drum and her blood roared in her ears as she watched Rafael swallow once, then slowly run his gaze over her nearly naked body.

Beneath his scrutiny, a shudder rippled through her and then she went so hot she wouldn’t have been surprised to look down and find that the lace of her strapless bra and knickers had gone up in flames.

‘What now?’ she asked, perfectly happy to have him take charge when it made her feel like this.

‘Sit down.’ His voice was satisfyingly hoarse and she smiled at the thought that despite his attempt to resist her, he was as much at the mercy of this as she was.

‘Where?’ she asked, because the only chairs she could make out in her very fuzzy peripheral vision were the kitchen bar stools and they didn’t look nearly sturdy enough for what she hoped was about to happen.

He scanned the living space. ‘The sofa, I think.’

With her pulse kicking with anticipation, she smiled, then turned and made her way over to the wide, deep chocolate-brown sofa, feeling her body moving languidly and her hips sashaying in a way that had nothing to do with any conscious thought on her part and everything to do with a primitively innate desire to attract.

She sat down before her knees could give way and looked up at him. ‘How do you want me?’

‘Sit back.’

With desire and heat making the blood racing through her veins sluggish and her limbs heavy, Nicky languorously sank back against the soft velvet and inched her knees open a fraction.

‘Is that better?’ she said huskily.

‘Much.’

‘So what are you doing still over there?’

‘Contemplating exactly where to start.’

As her mouth went dry and heat pooled between her legs Nicky thought that he’d started already. ‘Will you be long?’

‘I might be.’

‘Why?’

‘I’ve just discovered a hitherto latent fascination with revenge.’

She shivered deliciously. ‘Revenge?’

He nodded. ‘And I think I could be getting a taste for it.’

‘Are you planning to make me pay for that disaster of a first kiss?’ she said a little raggedly.

‘I might be,’ he said and the look in his eye told her that there was no ‘might’ about it.

Wicked excitement spun through her. ‘How?’

‘By making you beg.’

Oh, heavens. ‘I’ve never begged for anything in my life.’

‘You will.’

Her heart thumped so hard her ribs ached. And then, just when she didn’t think she could stand the tension much longer, he pushed himself off the counter and began to prowl towards her, not taking his eyes off her as he approached.

He came to a stop in front of her, loomed over her for a moment and then dropped to his knees. He pushed her legs apart and inched forwards and her excitement ratcheted up so dizzyingly it was all she could do not to grab him and pull him first up and then down on top of her. Achingly slowly he leaned into her and the spicy scent of him wound up her nose into her head and made a mess of her brain.

When his mouth finally brushed over hers, Nicky moaned and nearly passed out with relief because for a moment she’d thought she was going to have to start begging right there and then.

But he didn’t linger. Instead he moved his mouth down over her chin, her neck and the skin of her upper chest, leaving tiny trails of fire wherever it touched, and at the same time he slid his hands up her thighs. The muscles beneath his fingers quivered and the skin beneath his mouth burned and then his teeth grazed her nipple beneath the lace of her bra and she gasped.

As he tugged her hips forwards and carried on kissing his way down her body Nicky closed her eyes and let her head drop back because it was all getting too much for her poor battered senses and, unlike some of her previous lovers, Rafael didn’t seem to need instruction.

Quite the contrary, she thought briefly as he dotted a trail of kisses over her stomach and then lower, and ran his tongue along the edge of her knickers. He knew exactly what he was doing.

And then she gave up thinking altogether in favour of biting her lip and arching her back and clenching her fists against the cushions to stop herself grabbing his head and pushing it where she so desperately wanted his mouth.

She whimpered and felt him smile against her skin and then he was lifting her hips, hooking his thumbs over the sides of her knickers and drawing back to slide them down her legs. He pulled them off and began stroking and kissing his way up over the inside of one of her knees, up along her inner thigh and then he was there. Right at the heart of her where she was burning and aching and so, so hot. He spread her legs even further apart, exposing her completely, and she let out an involuntary little moan. And then just when she thought she might be ready to beg after all, he licked along the length of her and a burst of pleasure exploded inside her.

Holding her in place, he licked and sucked and nibbled and stroked and within seconds Nicky’s head was swimming and her body was on fire and all her senses zoomed in on his tongue and the chaos it was creating.

After such a long time of nothing she was a writhing mass of sensation. As he continued to lay siege to her body shudders racked her. Need clawed at her insides. Her muscles filled with tension.

He slipped a finger, then two, into her wet heat, found her g-spot with deadly accuracy, and what with the relentless onslaught of his tongue, the feel of his fingers inside her and the ecstasy spinning out of control deep within her, it was all just too much.

Far too soon everything tangled into one great jumble of feeling, soaring and swelling until it hit a peak and, with his name on her lips, she shattered, breaking wide apart and spinning off into delirious oblivion.

When the stars eventually stopped exploding behind her eyelids, when her heart finally slowed and when the strength eventually returned to her limbs, Nicky let out a long shuddery breath and opened her eyes.

‘Been a while?’

She lifted her head and glanced down to find Rafael staring up at her, his eyes glittering with desire, satisfaction and a hint of surprise.

‘You could say that,’ she said huskily, then added because it seemed appropriate, ‘Thanks.’

‘It was my pleasure.’

‘No, no, the pleasure was all mine. Literally.’ And embarrassingly, she thought, feeling a blush steal into her cheeks at the memory of how abandoned, how vocal she’d been.

Rafael grinned. ‘Yes, well, don’t worry. There’ll be plenty of time to even up the score.’

‘You mean there’s more?’ she asked, widening her eyes with disingenuous innocence as a ribbon of fresh desire wound through her.

‘Much more.’

Nicky smiled and stretched. ‘I’m glad to hear it because you haven’t even got naked yet.’

He looked down over her once again with that heated gaze and her stomach melted. ‘Technically neither have you,’ he said.

Arching an eyebrow and giving him a saucy little smile, Nicky reached behind her back, unclipped her bra and tossed it over the back of her sofa. ‘Situation remedied,’ she declared. ‘And now, in the interest of fairness, it’s your turn.’

Rafael’s gaze dropped to her breasts and a muscle began to hammer in his jaw. ‘Since you’re so good at it,’ he murmured, ‘why don’t you do it?’

‘Bedroom?’

‘Conventional. Who’d have thought?’

She shrugged. ‘What can I say? I’m a fan of horizontal surfaces and space.’ Although upright on the sofa wasn’t such a bad alternative.

‘In that case,’ he said, holding out his hands, taking hers and pulling them both to their feet, ‘the bedroom’s this way.’