I’d thought was stuck in my throat to shift, giving way to a low groan I couldn’t keep down.
I could feel him, his thrusts slow and gentle, the grip he had on my fingers intensifying as our bodies picked up a steady rhythm, moving together, and I pulled my legs up around him, arching my back again, pushing my hips up against his. I was giving him permission to push harder, go deeper, do whatever it was he needed to do because I was going to take it all. He was setting me free, making me realise what I’d been missing all that time I’d been unhappy and unsure of the life I’d once led. It was like the floodgates were finally opening, and this time I really was emerging as the new me, instead of all those practice sessions I’d been going through these past few months. Could sex with a new man really do that? Could it really make me feel that way?
Throwing my head back I closed my eyes again, moaning quietly as his mouth began covering my neck in the tiniest of kisses, starting at the base of my throat and working upwards, his hips grinding into mine as he continued to thrust in and out of me with that same gentle rhythm. And each time he pushed back inside me I felt a beautiful shot of something – like the sweetest of electric shocks – hit me, causing my body to buck slightly, forcing more low groans out of me. He was making me crazy, and I was loving every wrong, confused second of it.
But then, as his fingers gripped mine so tight it verged on painful, I felt him stop, just for a second, then shudder slightly. And that was when the rush hit me. He was coming fast and hard, and I couldn’t help but cry out loud as I felt my own climax start to build, my whole body shaking with the force of an orgasm the like of which I hadn’t experienced since – I hadn’t experienced. Ever. Every inch of my skin felt like it was on fire, burning up with the heat that seemed to spread through me, diminishing only slightly as both our bodies began to slow down, that rhythm fading, his grip on my fingers loosening.
I kept my eyes closed for a few more seconds, just listening to his breathing, heavy and ragged.
‘You okay?’ he asked, gently stroking my hair from my eyes, which I slowly opened, my heart still racing as I looked at him.
‘Hell, yes!’ I smiled, because what had just happened here… how could that not make me smile? Even though I wasn’t entirely sure what I should be feeling now. I’d had sex with this man, just hours after meeting him. What did that make me? Crazy? Cheap? Lucky? All three?
‘You felt incredible.’ His voice was so low, his mouth almost resting on mine as he spoke. It was the most erotic thing I’d ever experienced, but then, to be fair, anything even verging on erotic wasn’t something my I’d experienced all that much of before. Adam just hadn’t been the type to go in for all that. He’d been a very practical man, in every sense of the word. Guarded, almost. But I’d loved him. I really had loved him. Onceuponatime.
I didn’t know what to say now. I wasn’t even sure I could speak anymore, my throat had gone all tight again. And my body, Jesus! That was still tingling in a way I hoped would never disappear. I could live with that feeling forever.
I felt him slowly pull out of me, rolling over onto his back. I turned onto my side, propping myself up on one elbow. ‘Thank you.’
He did the same, leaning forward to kiss me gently. ‘For what?’
‘For waking me up.’ In more ways than one. But he didn’t need to know all the other stuff.
He smiled, reaching out to run his fingers lightly over the curve of my waist. ‘Baby, it was a pleasure.’ His eyes dipped to my breasts, his hand moving up to touch them, something that brought back that wonderful tingle as his fingers grazed my nipples. ‘Has anyone ever told you you’ve got the most incredible tits?’
‘No,’ I laughed. ‘Actually, they haven’t.’
‘Well, somebody should have done,’ he whispered, his mouth resting against mine as he spoke in that deep, raspy accent of his. ‘Because they are fucking amazing.’
I smiled, running my fingers through his even more messed-up hair, letting him pull me closer as he kissed me again, so slowly it drew another tiny moan out of me.
‘Stay with me, Lana. Don’t go back home. Stay here. In Vegas. With me.’
All I could do was stare at him. I certainly couldn’t get any words out, not that I’d know what to say anyway. Was he being serious? Or was he just a little bit drunk? Because I was positive I must be. None of this was making sense anymore. If it ever had made sense. What on earth had I just done? What the hell was he asking me to do?
‘Look, darlin’, I’m the kind of guy who likes to take a risk, and you look like the kind of girl who feels the same.’
As a woman about to turn forty, I silently thanked him for calling me a girl. But this still wasn’t making any sense. ‘I don’t know what kind of risk you’re asking me to take here, Eddie. But I’m not sure I…’
He shut me up with a kiss. A long, deep, sexy-as-hell kiss. And that just pushed me under, killed me dead. I was gone. Finished. Another kiss. Another deadly blow to any common sense I might have still been clinging onto.
‘I know you’re looking for something, darlin’. And whatever it is, maybe you can find it here.’
‘In Vegas?’
‘It’s as good a place as any.’
‘You have no idea what I might be leaving behind back home.’
‘I don’t believe you’re leaving anything important.’
‘You don’t know me, Eddie.’
‘But I want to. I want to know every, single, beautiful inch of you.’ His mouth was back on my neck, leaving a trail of tiny, soft kisses along my skin, my entire body shuddering as those kisses travelled lower. ‘Spend the day with me tomorrow, Lana. We’ll take one of the Harleys, go riding, grab some food at this great little diner I know on the edge of the desert… Let’s have some fun, darlin’.’
‘You make everything sound so easy,’ I groaned, unable to stop my body from shuddering again as his fingers gently stroked my hip.
‘It is easy,’ he whispered, his lips gently brushing my shoulder, his beard tickling my skin again. I was beginning to love that feeling. ‘I can guarantee, sweetheart, that after you’ve spent the day with me, you aren’t gonna want to go home.’
I couldn’t help laughing, a small, slightly hysterical, laugh. It was the nerves and the shock and the total confusion this entire surreal scenario was throwing my way.
‘You’re actually serious?’
‘I’m serious.’
I was thrown now. Completely. ‘Okay, I… I mean, that’s just… I can’t even find the words… We only met yesterday.’
His thumb stroked my cheek again, his mouth so close to mine I could feel his breath on my skin. ‘And you still don’t believe in fate?’
‘I told you. I’m cynical. I don’t believe in fairytales.’
‘Who said anything about fairytales?’
‘Why, Eddie? Why do you want me to stay here? A complete stranger you don’t know from…’ I stopped talking, the sudden realisation that I was about to mention my ex-husband’s name hitting me like a smack to the face.
‘I’ve just been inside you, Lana.’
Oh, Jesus, was this really happening?
‘And I want to go there again, and again.’ His mouth was back on my neck, moving slowly upwards, kissing that spot just below my ear, sending a shiver through me I couldn’t control.
‘I