my life.’
‘I’m not—really I’m not…’ Rose ducked her head and her hair slipped forward, covering her face.
Zac pushed it back behind one ear and tipped her face up with a finger under her chin. She couldn’t look anywhere but at him. He was standing in front of her now.
‘Yes, you are, Rose. And I want you because of that and also because I won’t be able to think again until I have you.’
She could feel herself slipping down a rabbit hole, with nothing to grab on to at the sides. Except for Zac.
He moved closer and closer, until their bodies were touching and she was drowning in his scent. She grabbed his shirt in order to stay standing, trying not to fall down the hole completely. And then he lowered his head and her world was reduced to this: yes.
His kisses were like nectar—but with a darkness that called to some alien dark part of her. That was why she was really there. She was weak and she wanted to taste the forbidden too much.
She moaned with a kind of angry self-despair into Zac’s mouth and he clearly took that as encouragement, sliding his tongue deep, dancing and duelling with hers. The kiss turned deeper and more lustful.
Zac’s hand dropped to her waist, and then further. He squeezed one buttock through the material of her skirt, his hand easily encompassing the firm flesh.
Rose ripped her mouth away, unable to think how to do more than one thing at once any more. She rested her forehead against his neck, breathing rapidly. Zac moved back slightly, but only so he could bring her over to a nearby couch. He sat down and on jelly legs Rose followed him, falling into his arms, sprawling across his lap.
She tried to sit up but he wouldn’t let her, saying, ‘I like you like this.’
Rose just looked at him, and he kissed her again, and she forgot to protest. He was smoothing a hand down over her chest, cupping a breast, squeezing gently. She gasped into his mouth.
And then his hand was untucking her shirt from her skirt so he could explore underneath, touching her skin, moving higher, cupping her breast again more intimately, finding her nipple under its lace covering and pinching it gently.
Rose tore her mouth from his again and looked at him, feeling feverish. Zac pulled down the lace of her bra and now his hand was on her bared breast. He looked feral, hungry.
‘Undo the buttons of your shirt. I want to see you.’
With shaking hands she did his bidding, like some kind of wanton robot. Her shirt fell open and Zac looked down. Colour scored his cheeks.
He muttered, ‘Just how I imagined…beautiful.’ And then he lowered his head and kissed her breast, tasting the hard bud of her nipple, licking the pouting flesh and sucking it into his mouth like a succulent morsel.
Zac bared her other breast and anointed that one with his hot mouth and rough tongue. She had to press her thighs together to try and contain the building tension deep in her core.
But, like a mind-reader, Zac was sliding his hand between her thighs now, forcing her to part them for him. She looked at him again, aware that her shirt was wide open, her breasts bared and upthrust, framed by her bra.
He pressed against her sex through her underwear. Fingers exploring, sliding up and down. One of Rose’s hands gripped his arm, as if that might keep her anchored. She couldn’t believe she was behaving so wantonly, letting him touch her so intimately, urging her to fall over a precipice that she’d only explored by herself before now.
But she couldn’t find a voice to tell him to stop.
Zac pushed the gusset of her underwear aside and then he was touching her with expert precision, knowing exactly where she ached. Rose bit her lip. He kept looking at her as his fingers slipped through her slick folds, unlocking all her secrets, and then dipped inside her…gently at first and then with increasing pressure as he forged a deeper and deeper passage, rhythmically, remorselessly.
His thumb massaged her clitoris, and Rose tried valiantly to cling on to control of her own body, but it was impossible. She came apart in his arms, head thrown back as all her muscles locked tight. She could feel herself clenching and shuddering, completely defenceless against such a rush of pleasure.
It seemed to take an aeon for her to come back to earth, floating on a cloud of satisfaction she’d never experienced before. She lifted her heavy head, feeling dazed.
Zac was still looking at her, and he said with a touch of sensual approval, ‘You’re so responsive.’
And then Rose saw herself as he did—bared from the waist up and from the waist down. Legs spread. She went hot all over—hot with mortification. They’d been in the apartment for mere minutes and she was already writhing and moaning on his lap—a million miles from the sophisticated responses he was undoubtedly used to.
She scrambled free of his embrace and moved to the end of the couch, tugging her skirt down and pulling her shirt back together. She knew her legs wouldn’t hold her up without shaking.
Zac sat up. ‘Rose…what is it?’
She didn’t hear him. She was berating herself. She should have told him the truth before now. Hadn’t that been part of the bargain she’d made to herself to justify coming here with him? But she’d forgotten in the heat of the moment. She was meant to be trying to put him off—not lead him on.
‘Rose?’
Her whirling thoughts came to an abrupt halt and she looked at Zac, who was beside her now. Stubble was already marking his jawline. His hair flopped forward and the strong lines of his face were breathtakingly distracting, even now.
‘There’s something you need to know,’ she said in a husky voice. ‘I’m a virgin.’
Zac struggled to understand through the fog of lust clouding his brain. ‘What did you say?’
Her cheeks coloured dark red, and she said it again—starkly. ‘I’m a virgin.’
For the longest moment he could only look at her. She might as well have said that there was a unicorn on the other side of the room—that was how little he could understand what she was saying. Then her words slowly impacted and he thought of how responsive she’d just been, and he noticed how she was holding her clothes together…
He suddenly needed space. He stood up and asked a little hoarsely, ‘How old are you?’
‘Twenty-two.’
Zac shook his head, as if it might encourage his brain cells to start working properly again. ‘And you’ve never…?’
Rose stood now too, arms crossed over her shirt to try and hold it together. Her skirt was still ruched up over her thighs. She looked dishevelled…undone. Sexy as hell. And he could see that she didn’t have a clue how alluring she was.
Something inside him tightened.
She avoided his eyes. ‘I’ve never had a boyfriend—not like that. I never wanted to have sex with anyone… It’s just me and my father at home. He found it hard to cope after my mother died, so I never went out much…’
The tightening sensation in his chest increased and Zac reeled as this revelation of her innocence sank in fully. It struck him powerfully—especially after all the secrets and lies he’d found in his own family. The tragedy that had ensued as a result of them.
He knew he should be sending her away. He didn’t do virgins. Just as he didn’t do relationships. He was from a world that had stripped away any illusion that innocence or happy families existed a long time ago… And yet he found that he couldn’t make himself do what he knew he should.
He moved closer to Rose and reached out and put a finger under her chin, tipping her face up. As soon as their gazes met