“Yes. She realized a long time ago that you’re clever, that she couldn’t pull the wool over your eyes the way she could with everyone else. You see her for what she is—a silly, selfish creature—and she can’t bear that you know the truth about her. So she hurts you.”
“And where did you get your diploma, Sigmund?” she asked sarcastically.
He laughed. “You think about it. Sooner or later you’ll put your inferiority complex aside and admit that I’m right.” Something about the way his fingers were stroking her neck made her want to believe him. Was he telling the truth? Would he rather be with her than Ellen?
“Why did you go in there and twist your hair up?” he asked as his impatient fingers went foraging for the hateful pins. “I told you I liked it loose.”
“Ellen looked so tidy and I looked so—”
“Yes, and she had on tight jeans and a shirt bursting at the seams, and you got all uptight and defensive and paranoid as we both know you are inclined to do.”
“I did … do … not,” she denied.
“Y
ou wilted right before my eyes. Your animation drained away. When I touched you, you tensed, even though just a few minutes earlier you were climbing all over me.”
“That’s vulgar!” she cried, sitting up and pushing away from him.
“And you love it.” He brought her right back, crushing her against the wall of his chest. “That’s what’s wrong with you, Miss Ashton. Not nearly enough men have talked vulgarly to you. They’ve been frightened off by this ice palace you’ve constructed around yourself. Well, I’m too hot-blooded for your green eyes to freeze. I don’t give up easily, either. I saw you and I wanted you. I’m going to have you.”
With each word his lips had descended closer, until the final word was spoken directly into her mouth. His hands splayed on her back as he drew her to him. Her breasts were flattened against his chest and her nipples flared to life at the igniting touch.
He lowered her down into the cushions in the corner of the sofa. “Would you like some wine?” he asked, his lips sipping at hers.
“Wine?” she asked as though she’d never heard the word before. “No.”
“You would love some.” He lifted himself from her long enough to fill half a glass with the red wine. He brought it to her mouth and tilted it just enough for one ruby drop to fall upon her lips. Then, before she could drink it, his tongue was there to lick it up. He poured more against her mouth and again he lifted it from her lips and chin with his velvet-rough tongue.
They became intoxicated. Not with the wine, but with each other and the wine-flavored kisses. In his haste to drain the glass, the last bit of wine he dripped onto her lips overflowed and trickled down her cheek. His finger caught it and wiped it away. He was about to lick clean his finger when Hailey captured his hand and lowered it to her mouth. Watching him with half-fearful eyes, she closed her lips around his finger. Her tongue scoured the fingertip, while she sucked on it rhythmically.
“Hailey,” he rasped and buried his face in the scented hollow between her breasts. “Do you know what you’re doing? Do you have any idea of the passion that hides behind your cool facade?” He placed a hand over her beating heart and her nipple flowered in his palm. His fingers finessed it into a firmer bud.
“Unbutton my shirt,” he urged softly. The muscles in his arms bulged as he held himself over her while she carried out the task. When she was done, he rolled to his side so that they were lying face to face on the narrow sofa.
“I want you to get to know me, Hailey. I don’t expect you to make love to a stranger.”
As if sensing her shyness, he kissed her. His mouth mated with hers in a consciousness-stealing kiss. Imbued with his confidence and strength, she was constrained to put aside her timidity and let her senses direct her.
She started by sifting through the hair lying against the loose collar of his shirt. Then she explored his ears with a touch of her fingers. She pulled away from his kiss to smooth his brows, which seemed to be in a perpetually ruffled state. His eyes remained closed as she traced the patrician length of his nose to his upper lip. He kissed her fingertips in turn as they skated across his lips.
Adjusting her gentle curves to his hard body, she kissed his throat, bravely letting her tongue investigate that deep triangle at its base. Her fingers combed through the crisp hair on his chest and marveled at the mysterious mounds and ridges beneath his warm skin.
Accidentally her fingers brushed across his nipple. His sharp intake of breath and the sudden stiffening of his body alarmed her. She snatched her hand away. He lay perfectly still, in an attitude of breathless anticipation.
As though drawn by a magnet, her fingers returned to that place on his chest. Hesitantly, she touched it with her middle finger. Ring finger. Index finger, circling him slowly. The turgid skin grew tighter. She circled it again.
“Oh sweetheart,” he groaned and tilted her head back to kiss her with unleashed passion. Recklessly, he sought the hem of her top. His anxious hands drew it over her head and flung it away. His mouth worked its way down her chest. He pulled one black satin strap away and rained deliciously damp kisses on her shoulder. Lower. And lower still.
Just when she expected him to rid her of the camisole, he smoothed the lace over her breasts with gentle hands and pulled it taut. The heat of his eyes licked her like live flame as he savored the picture of her nipples straining against the black lace. He could have been photographing her, so intense was his look.
Then he kissed her. His tongue raked across her nipple with a delving motion that the veil of lace only intensified. His lips surrounded her and squeezed her gently. Reflexively, her hips ground against him, feeling his growing desire.
“Oh yes, Hailey, my love. Yes.”
His hand on the curve of her hips held her against him for long moments while their bodies pulsated together. Slowly, painstakingly, his hands slipped between them, found the fastening of her slacks, and unzipped them.
He pressed his palm over her navel and rotated it in time to a sensual cadence. His fingers smoothed down the naked skin of her abdomen until he encountered the lacy band of her panties. Hooking his fingers under it, he dared to discover what lay beyond.