but it did the opposite. Mari reacted to the contact like a cattle prod, throwing her arms wide to break the connection.
‘I was looking for the kitchen. Do I go right or left?’
There was a long pulse of silence. It buzzed in her ears like a cloud of bees. Mari waited until it became unbearable.
‘Did you hear what I said?’
He was so still, his stillness projecting a tension that was evident in the skin taut over his face. The tension emphasised each slashing angle and perfect plane. Even at a moment like this Mari marvelled that a man could be that beautiful, not just aesthetically because of the sculpted outline of his lips or the symmetry of his bold features, but it was the underlying earthy quality that charged the air around him.
‘This has been a long day. I’ll get Tomas to fetch you—’
‘Don’t wake the poor old man, just tell me how to get there!’ She struggled to flatten the panic she could hear in her voice. ‘Please, Seb.’
She shook her head resolutely, too stressed to interpret the strange way he was looking at her, wishing he’d put on some clothes.
‘You’ll get lost. I’ll show you,’ he said, but didn’t move.
‘No!’
‘Yes!’
They both spoke and moved at the same time, colliding.
Maybe he was a bastard; maybe he was just his parents’ son. You couldn’t choose your genes, and why fight nature? he thought as he reached for her. ‘Later,’ he murmured as he pulled her up hard against him and, one hand on her bottom, the other tangled in her hair, he pulled her head back and fitted his mouth to hers.
She melted into him, soft and warm, her arms going up to circle his neck as she gave a little sigh into his mouth, and kissed him back.
The hungry kiss went on and on, until with a groan he pushed her away and turned his back to her.
‘Get out of here,’ he growled. ‘While you still can.’
The sudden rejection left her trembling. She could still feel the strength of his arms, the hardness of his erection against her belly. Mari bit her lip, and thought to hell with pride—she didn’t care if he knew. She didn’t care who knew. She wanted him, and if that meant begging she would, even at the risk of rejection!
‘Let me stay, Seb, please. I don’t want to go.’ She had never wanted anything less in her entire life; she felt dizzy with the sweet hunger that coursed through her veins.
He swung back, took one look at her standing there and with a groan swept her up into his arms and stalked across to the bed with his prize.
He laid her on the bed and knelt beside her, sweeping her wild curls from her cheek and forehead, smoothing them out onto the pillow. The expression of fierce concentration on his face made her stomach flip.
One hand beside her face, he bent down and kissed her softly, running his tongue along the inner surface of her lower lip, tracing the pouting outline before he slid inside, his tongue tasting every inch of the moist interior. His free hand moved to one breast, cupping it through the thin fabric, his thumb running up the lower slope to graze then tease the engorged rosy peak. Then he covered it with his mouth, wetting the fabric and drawing a hoarse cry of pleasure from her aching throat.
Mari arched up to him, tangling her fingers in his hair, feeling his big body curved over her, tensing a little as his hands slid under her nightshirt, up her thighs, then relaxing, her head pushing back into the pillow because it felt so good.
The sensations shooting through her felt like an electrical storm. The frantic feeling escalated until he suddenly levered himself upright.
Her blue eyes flew wide open in protest.
‘You’re overdressed.’ At some point, Mari had no idea how or when, her little shrug had gone, but before she had time to consider how she felt about being naked in front of him he took the hem of her nightshirt in his two hands and pulled. The middle seam parted with a loud ripping sound until the only thing holding it together was the prissy little bow.
Holding her eyes with a wicked smile, he very slowly undid the bow and peeled the fabric apart, then her insides dissolved some more as she closed her eyes and breathed in his scent. Warm and musky, it was intoxicating.
‘Look at me.’
She did, her dark lashes parting to reveal the blue languid depths.
Lust slammed through him with a force that threatened to stop his heart, and what a way to go, he thought, drinking in the sight of her gorgeous wanton beauty. Her body was perfect, from the fullness of her high, firm breasts to her long, gorgeous legs that he was imagining wrapped around him.
‘Have you any idea how much I want you?’
‘I have some idea,’ she said, daringly running her hand up his hair-roughened chest and belly.
He gave a low laugh and removed his boxers, drawing an ego-enhancing gasp from Mari.
The first skin-to-skin contact caused a flash of heat within her; the burning continued to build as he kissed her while touching her everywhere until she was on fire. She tensed as he parted her legs, then relaxed as the liquid heat flooded through her body, the pleasure bordering pain, it was so intense.
When he flipped onto his back and fed her hands onto his body she began to eagerly explore his warm, moist skin, fascinated by the overwhelming masculinity of his body, moving across the hard contours of his chest and down over the ridged muscles of his flat belly, while he lay, one hand hooked behind his head, watching her through gleaming hooded eyes.
It gave her a feeling of heady feminine power to curve her fingers around the hard, hot, silky column of his erection and hear him groan with pleasure. So much so that when he removed her hands and pinned them above her head she gave a cry of protest.
‘I need to save some for you,’ he whispered in her ear. ‘Let me give you it all, Mari.’
‘Please, oh, please!’
Her frantic plea ripped a lusty growl from his throat as he kissed her.
‘I didn’t sleep with Adrian.’
He lifted his head, and dark eyes glazed with passion blinked down at her. ‘Good.’
‘Or actually anyone.’
For a moment he lay above her perfectly still, every sinew strained, then she heard him mumble, low and sounding like someone in pain. ‘Too late... Do you want me to stop?’
‘No...no...’ She trembled in anticipation, relaxing at the first shallow thrust, no explosion of pain just a feeling of intense pleasure... She let out a moan as he pushed deeper, his tongue sensually mimicking the more intimate movement of his hips.
Instinct made her wrap her legs around his waist as she arched under him, her body rippling tight around him, her fingers clawing at his back.
She clung to him as though he were the only thing stopping her vanishing into the sensual maelstrom that held her in its core as he was in her core, filling her with each stroke, pushing her higher and higher until— When it came, the fierce explosion drew a low keening cry from her throat. She grabbed hold of him and was saying his name over and over as she felt his hot release inside her, then he shuddered and rolled away.
For a moment she felt lost, then he pulled her to him, her head on his chest. She fell asleep listening to the heavy thud of his heartbeat.
He waited for the postcoital sense of emptiness that was the trigger for him to leave the warm bed. He never consciously acknowledged it, but if he had he would have considered it a perfectly reasonable price to pay for retaining control, keeping part of himself separate.
Instead Seb felt an utterly alien feeling of peace. Before he had a chance to ponder it another realisation hit: for the first time