‘You find my touch abhorrent?’
Oh, my, nothing like aiming straight for the jugular. ‘No,’ she disclaimed quietly. ‘But I’m not ready to sleep with you.’
‘We already sleep together.’ His voice was so dangerously quiet that it sent an icy shiver scudding down her back.
Dull pink streaked her cheeks. He was fully aware of the havoc he was creating, and she hated him for the deliberate assault on her ambivalent emotions.
‘You know that isn’t what I meant.’
He caught hold of her chin between thumb and forefinger, tilting it so that she had to look at him.
She couldn’t articulate a single word, and it was difficult to swallow the lump that had suddenly risen in her throat. Her eyes felt large and impossibly wide as she watched his head descend, and she was incapable of movement as he angled his mouth to settle over hers in a kiss that claimed his possession, savouring it in a manner that alternated between gentleness and restrained savagery.
Elise told herself she should be shocked. Instead, she became caught up in a tide of deep primitive need.
One hand cradled her face, the other cupped her bottom as he pulled her hard against him. Evidence of his arousal was a hard, throbbing entity, and she gave a faint moan of protest as his mouth took on a light teasing quality, then slowly withdrew.
She could only look at him, totally ignorant of the deep slumberous quality evident in her eyes. Her lips felt swollen, and she could have sworn they trembled beneath the intentness of his dark gaze.
It was as if time stood still, for she wasn’t conscious of anything except the man: his eyes, the sensual curve of his mouth, the hard planes of his jaw, the strength of his chin, the texture of his skin.
He didn’t say a word for what seemed an age, then he leaned forward, swept an arm beneath her knees and lifted her against his chest.
Sensation curled deep inside her stomach and began radiating through her body as he mounted the stairs to the upper floor.
On entering their suite he closed the door, slid off her shoes, then carefully set her down on her feet. Lifting a hand, he slowly traced the contours of her mouth, probing the softness with a gentleness that made her catch her breath.
‘I want to make love with you.’
Her eyes dilated and her pulse began to kick in a quickened beat. She wanted to voice her nervousness, but the words never left her lips.
His eyes held hers as he shrugged off his jacket and tossed it over a chair, then he loosened his tie and discarded it before unfastening the buttons on his shirt. Next came his shoes and socks.
Elise couldn’t look away as his fingers unbuckled his belt, slid free the slim metal clasp, then freed the zip on his trousers.
Black silk briefs rode low on his hips, barely containing the turgid rigidity of his manhood, and awareness arrowed from her feminine core, focused and so intense that she was unable to suppress a slight shiver that spiralled down her spine.
Slowly he closed the distance between them, took her left hand in his, and led her to the bed. His touch was warm and strong, and she uttered no protest as he sat on the mattress’s edge and drew her close.
Her eyes were almost on a level with his, and she felt mesmerised by the dark gleaming passion evident as he lifted a hand and lightly traced the contours of her face.
The touch of his fingers against her skin was electric, and she swallowed convulsively as they trailed down the column of her throat and traversed a path to the edge of her top.
He freed one button, then the next, until the edges hung loose, and she uttered a faint gasp as he brushed the full curve of her breast.
‘The thought of doing this has driven me to edge of sanity,’ Alejandro said huskily. ‘All evening, every movement you made emphasised their unfettered state.’ With extreme care he eased the blouse free and tossed it to join his discarded clothes.
‘Beautiful,’ he whispered, gently shaping the creamy fullness, testing its weight as he lightly circled each sensitised peak.
Acute sensation curled deeply inside her stomach, and her throat began to constrict as he leaned forward and took one peak into his mouth, rolling it with the roughened edge of his tongue until she felt it swell and harden beneath his touch.
A low groan locked in her throat as he bestowed a similar attention on its twin. Then she gasped out loud as he began to suckle deeply, drawing from each tender peak an erotic satisfaction she had no conscious urge to deny.
When at last he lifted his head, she met his gaze through half closed lids, and she stood quite still as he reached for the waistband of her culottes and began easing the silk down over her hips to pool at her feet. Satin and lace briefs followed, and she felt heat sear her body as he conducted a leisurely appraisal.
He lifted a hand and trailed gentle fingers up over her ribcage, then slowly traversed her hip, slipping to caress the slight roundness of her bottom before brushing a path to her thigh.
His eyes never left hers, and Elise felt her own dilate as he sought the soft, curling hair, then followed its upper line, caressing, moving back and forth, until her whole body began to sing like a finely tuned instrument.
Slowly his hand lowered until he reached the junction between her thighs, and she uttered an audible gasp as he initiated an intimate exploration she was hesitant to accept.
‘Am I frightening you, querida?’
Fear wasn’t quite the word she would have used to describe her feelings. Excitement, exultation, to name only two. ‘No.’ The single negation emerged as a whispered gasp.
His touch proved an erotic torture, and she shuddered as an initial spasm caught hold of her and spiralled out of control.
‘Alejandro.’ His name on her lips was a deep, husky groan.
Dear God, such sweet magic. It was like being taken straight to heaven and shown a hundred different delights.
‘Gently, querida,’ he cautioned as she reached blindly for him.
The soft sounds emerging from her throat were incomprehensible, and she was hardly aware of him easing her down on to the bed.
He carefully moved her injured hand into a comfortable position, then stretched out at her side.
His mouth sought hers in a long, slow, drugging kiss that alternately teased and tantalised, and she began to tremble as his lips began a path of erotic discovery so that it was all she could do not to cry out as he nuzzled the entry to her innermost core.
Brazen, she admitted silently as she climbed to dizzying heights. Shameless. Hopelessly, helplessly passionate and disruptively sensual. She never wanted it to end, yet the spiral of sensation was so incredibly acute she wasn’t sure how much longer she could maintain any restraint.
It was the most intimate kiss of all, a deep, drugging oral simulation of the sexual act. A sensual gift so exquisite, so incredibly generous that she wanted to weep from the joy of it.
Slowly his head moved, and he began raining a trail of open-mouthed kisses over the plane of her stomach, upwards to caress the soft underswell of each breast before fastening on one sensitised peak.
Then he raised his head to look down at her, taking in the slumberous darkness of her eyes, the soft pink that coloured her pale features, and her parted lips.
Elise lifted a tentative hand to the dark springy mat of hair on his chest, and she traced his shoulder, played delicately with the strong cage of his ribs before moving involuntarily down to the taut flat planes of his stomach.
She felt the muscles clench, and unconsciously her tongue edged out and ran a tentative path along her lower lip.
‘Dios,’ Alejandro