again and again, until who would lose control first was no longer in doubt. ‘Keep your legs wide,’ he said, helping her to do so by placing the palms of his hands flat against the inside of her thighs and pressing them apart. ‘I want you to do nothing, think nothing. All you have to do is feel, Holly, feel me …’
All she had to do was accept this steady pulse of pleasure growing inside her, while Ruiz worked to a dependable rhythm. A soft wail escaped her throat as the tension began to build to an unsustainable level. She tried to lie still as Ruiz had told her, but she couldn’t blank her mind to what he was doing to her and knew it couldn’t be long now … Perhaps one stroke, perhaps two—
He was ready for her, and when the strength of her climax threw Holly into his arms, he held her firmly as she bucked against him lost in pleasure. This felt so right. She felt perfect. Cradling her in his arms, he stared deep into her eyes to watch the fire rage and subside again into a series of pleasurable waves, each of which brought a groan of contentment from her lips. ‘I think you liked that,’ he murmured. His mouth tugged in a grin as he dropped a kiss on her parted lips. ‘I think you liked that a lot …’
‘I did,’ she confirmed groggily. ‘But now you have to keep that standard up.’
‘You know I have very high standards.’
‘And there’s only one way to maintain them,’ she murmured.
When he queried this with a raised brow, she murmured again, ‘Regular practice.’
‘Then I can only be grateful I rescued you from the samba club when I did.’
‘You never told me how you knew.’
‘Gabe called me at the gym,’ he confided in a whisper against her mouth. He was already hungry for her again.
‘Of course,’ she whispered. ‘So, what did he say, exactly?’
‘He said that the pretty little thing he’d seen me with at the club was having trouble with some men.’
‘Pretty little thing?’ Holly queried, pulling back her head to stare at him. ‘Are you sure he was talking about me?’
‘Size is a matter of scale, isn’t it?’ he said, smiling against her mouth. ‘Or in your case, Holly, it’s all in your mind.’ He lavished an appreciative look down the length of her naked body.
She stretched extravagantly, no longer self-conscious or inhibited. ‘You are rather large,’ she said. ‘I might hang onto you to keep me looking small.’
He laughed. ‘You do that. Now, have I answered all your questions? Or would you like to talk some more?’
‘Talk? No. Talking can wait,’ she said, reaching for him. ‘Don’t be selfish,’ she complained when he teased her by pulling away. ‘You can’t show off goods like that and then deny me the pleasure of them.’
‘Again?’ he said. ‘So soon? Are you sure?’
‘It’s been at least thirty seconds,’ she observed impatiently.
‘Well, if I must,’ he agreed, moving over her.
Ruiz was incredible. Big and hard and muscular didn’t begin to describe him. Dangerously dark, with a wicked sense of humour, but even that didn’t begin to scratch the surface of a man who meant so much to her. She was head over heels in love with him—in over her head—and it felt so good. There could be no half measures with a man like Ruiz, Holly reasoned gratefully as he probed and stretched and stretched her some more. ‘I’m glad you came to my rescue at the club,’ she managed to gasp before he took her mind off conversation. ‘And now you can come to my rescue again.’ Arching against him, she seized him with her muscles.
‘Whoah, tiger,’ Ruiz husked, responding just as she had planned. ‘That’s very forward of you.’
‘Don’t pretend you don’t like it,’ she said grasping him again. ‘I know you better than that.’
He brushed her swollen lips with his, and then dipped his head to suckle her nipples as he thrust firmly into her. She sucked in a noisy breath. Nothing could have prepared her for this level of sensation. ‘Brute,’ she complained, balling her fists against his chest when he proceeded to ride her with the same easy control he used on his polo ponies.
‘You love it,’ he said confidently, maintaining the rhythm she adored. Cupping her face in his hands, he kissed her as he made love to her, and when he pulled away she thought that seeing her responses mirrored in Ruiz’s eyes was the most erotic experience she had ever had. And now his kisses had grown deep and tender. ‘I want you,’ he murmured.
‘I want you too.’ He had no idea how much.
Burying his face in her breasts, Ruiz drew on her scent as she eased back her legs to give him greater access. Pressing her knees back, he brought her to the edge again. ‘Now?’ he teased her.
‘Please,’ she begged him, and only moments later she was bucking out of control with only Ruiz’s firm hands to guide her and keep her safe.
‘That was so, so good,’ she murmured a long time later.
Kissing the soft swell of her belly, he moved on to Holly’s heavy breasts to show them the appreciation they deserved. From there he kissed his way down the silky length of her body until he could bear no more, and, turning her on top of him, suggested she ride him.
‘I’m not sure I’ve got your excellent technique,’ she said.
She looked sultry and hot in the mellow light of early evening. Her red gold hair, burnished in the last rays of the sun, tumbled in glorious disarray over her breasts. ‘Enough with the excuses,’ he murmured, starting to guide her hips with his hands. ‘Remember, practice makes perfect. This is almost as easy as the samba. That had three steps. This has two, forward and back …
‘Who knew you’d be such an able pupil?’ Ruiz commented with appreciation after a few minutes of this.
‘At a guess?’ she said. ‘You.’
He groaned with contentment as she picked up the rhythm. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t made love with this man before, but being in control like this, directing his pleasure, took her feelings to a new level. She loved being in control. She loved teasing him by making him wait. She loved to see the tension growing in him as she brought him to the brink, though she couldn’t keep him hovering there as he had kept her hovering, because she wanted to fall so badly too—
They fell together in a bucking, thrusting tangle of limbs as the pleasure waves hit them. She knew nothing more after that for a long while, and, as a slave to sensation, she was glad to be lost. When she woke she was still safely wrapped in Ruiz’s arms. Their legs were tangled around each other and his sensuous face was relaxed. Thinking he must be asleep, she took hold of his hand to kiss each sensitive fingertip in turn.
‘I trust you’re satisfied,’ he murmured.
‘For now,’ she agreed sleepily, turning her face towards him on the pillow.
‘You’ll exhaust me,’ Ruiz complained, but his lips were already tugging in a wicked smile.
‘I’m going to do my best to,’ Holly agreed, ‘though I think I still have some way to go,’ she observed, registering the pressure of Ruiz’s erection against her belly growing more insistent by the second.
Lifting himself up on one elbow, Ruiz smiled against her mouth. ‘More?’ he murmured, teasing her.
‘Much, much more,’ she agreed.
But first he caressed her with all the care and tenderness she had always dreamed of. Emotion wedded to strong sexual attraction was a wonderful thing, Holly had discovered, and Ruiz’s stamina had never been in doubt. She exclaimed with the anticipation of pleasure as he turned her, touched her and entered her. She was on her side with her back to him, her legs drawn up in what was at once the most comfortable, as well as