the expensive tailored clothes.
Her hands, at last, slid beneath the surface of the material of his loosened shirt, and the sensation of his warm, smooth skin beneath her palms was heady in its intimacy. Her fingers cupped his shoulders and worked the shirt from his body and arms. It slithered to the floor. Only then did she allow herself the luxury of letting her hands stroke over his torso. It made her breath catch—it was perfect, quite perfect. A column of lean, muscled flesh and bone, neither over-nor under-developed, neither broad nor slim, but perfect. It was bliss to touch, bliss to let her hands roam free, drifting in slow sweeps on its surface warmth, sliding around his waist to glide up over the muscled contours of his back.
And then, most blissful of all, to lift her body against his again, and let the contact of her swollen nipples graze across his own naked, exposed flesh.
She felt his arousal strengthen, and it made her breath catch, made the excitement surge again in her. As if it were a cue for him, suddenly, from being immobile, he took control again. His hands wrapped around her back, fingers splaying out in possession.
His mouth came down on hers.
This was no soft kiss as at the hotel, nor was it urgent with relief as it was at her flat. This was the kiss of a man, a male, strong, sensual, possessing her mouth as if it was his to take for the asking. He opened her to him with effortless intent and speared within, meeting her and deepening the kiss with sensual mastery.
Desire surged in her, stronger and more insistent. She returned kiss for kiss, her hands moving up to cup the shape of his skull beneath the pressure of her fingertips, buried in the silken, sable hair.
Her body was ripe, engorged, her lips swollen, her breasts straining, and between the vee of her legs, where the strength of his shaft pressed insistently, intimately against her, she felt a quickening that fed the hunger she must sate.
As if he felt she had reached that point, he suddenly caught her up and deposited her on the wide, soft bed. Her breath caught as he stood briefly, to strip, with controlled, swift movements, the last of his clothes. He came down beside her and in the same moment his fingers hooked into the hip-level waistline of her panties and peeled them from her. Where they fell she did not know or care. Knew only that she was lying naked to his view. And now he was perusing her, propped on one elbow, just a little way from her on the wide bed, his eyes moving over her naked body leisurely, lingeringly, until his gaze reached her eyes, and held.
It was the most intimate look he had given her yet, and Lissa knew that now they were truly about to start making love together. This was her moment of time with him.
She felt beautiful. More beautiful than she had ever felt in her life. The beauty of her naked female form, her long hair flowing out in a swathe behind her, her limbs, her body, all displayed for him, for him alone—the body of a woman in desire, a desire that she would consummate with this man, whose perfect body lay beside her, in a state of nature as was hers. There was a naturalness about it, a rightness about this coming together of two bodies, two people, giving themselves to each other.
Not in love, nor lust, but in mutual appreciation of the gift of physical sensuality.
She smiled. It was a warm smile as the recognition of the rightness of what she was doing, where she was, what was to happen, glowed in her. For just a second something veiled in his eyes—as if it might be a question, and then it was gone, banished, and he was looking down at her with an answering tug at the corner of his beautiful mouth.
‘Xavier,’ she said softly. A statement, a recognition. An acknowledgement of what she was about to do. Make love with a man she desired above all others. ‘Xavier,’ she breathed again.
It was all he needed. His head lowered to hers and he began to kiss her. Slowly this time, but with such skilled, arousing sensuality that she was lost—lost in a world she had not known possible, a world where every touch, every caress, drew from her a response that intensified with every exquisite contact.
He stroked her body, his hand warm on her flanks, her breasts, smoothing and gliding over her stomach, cupping her breasts with the bowl of his hand, fingers scything slowly either side of her nipples as if the touch were as pleasurable to him as it was to her. She moved her head in the soft pillows, sensuously revelling in the sensation as his hand moved down over her flank again, dipping between the pillars of her thighs, parting them for himself.
The tips of his fingers glided between, and she was dewed for him already, her breath catching with a soft cry in her throat as the incredible sensation of pleasure and bliss focused her entire being on that portion of her body. Against her thigh, as he moved closer to her, she could feel the strong length of his bared shaft.
He moved over her. He was against her stomach now, full and hard, and his hands framed her face, his mouth lowering to hers to kiss her yet again, sensual, deep kisses.
Then he lifted his mouth from her. ‘I must delay one moment,’ he said, and as he raised himself from her and turned away she realised what he was doing. Her eyes fluttered shut, and she let her head tilt slightly in the opposite direction. There was the subdued slide of a drawer, another moment’s delay, and then she felt his weight shift on the bed.
‘You may open your eyes again, cherie,’ he said. ‘The dreadful deed is done.’ There was amusement in his voice, and his hand reached to turn her head towards him again. He kissed her softly, reassuringly, and she relaxed, her eyes opening to his amused consideration. A man as experienced in affairs as Xavier Lauran would of course, she acknowledged, be prepared to take the necessary precautions, against both disease and the threat of an unwanted pregnancy with a woman who was, after all, no more than a passing desire to him. For just a moment unease flickered within her. She had come to this point knowingly, consciously, without any seduction or persuasion, simply because she was at a moment in her life when she had the time and opportunity to seize for herself an experience she would savour, appreciate, for the rest of her life. It was not real, this fantasy of desire with Xavier Lauran, but for its duration it was sweet, and oh so potent.
And it was now—now. The moment of consummation, of desire fulfilled, of yearning achieved, of fantasy indulged.
He moved over her again, kissing her on her mouth, his elbows supporting the weight of his lean body, his hips against hers, his legs lying between hers, and on her abdomen rested the manhood with which he would possess her.
She was ready for him. Absolutely, completely. For this moment. Now. Her hands glided along his flanks and she felt him tense. She gazed up at him, desire in her eyes, and met his answering desire.
‘Now,’ she said softly. ‘Now.’
He lifted away from her, his strong thighs parting hers yet a little more, and then, his fingers still cradling either side of her face, he slowly started to enter her.
She gave a long, low gasp, an exhalation of pleasure that brought the tilted smile crooking at his lips again.
‘A little more?’ he asked.
She only sighed in reply, not wasting breath on words to give an answer he already knew. He eased further into her, deeper. She opened to him, her silken tissues making his entrance as smooth as satin. The sensation was like nothing she had ever known, widening her, stretching her, yet entirely without pain. Only pleasure—pleasure that was more than physical sensation, pleasure that went through her whole body, engaging every part of it, so that her blood began to throb in her veins. Her fingertips pressed into the sides of his body.
‘It’s so good,’ she breathed.
He smiled at her again, and the way his mouth curved, his eyes lit, made her catch her breath again. He deepened his penetration, his hips now coming into contact with hers. Instinctively she raised her own hips, bending her knees just a little to balance herself. As she opened to him further he surged yet deeper into her, fusing her to him, and her flesh enclosed him like a lover’s embrace.
She was filled—fulfilled. Entire and whole. Complete. Two bodies become as one. For precious moments he just lay like that, cradled within her, as her hands rested at his waist.