shock waves running through her.
When his mouth took the place of his fingers, her whole body convulsed in a grinding ache of longing.
She felt the hard maleness of him against the electric sensitivity of her skin, and, her throat dry and burning, she pulled him down, opening to him, welcoming his weight.
There was an explosion of ecstasy at his first strong thrust, then their bodies bucked in unison, and behind her closed eyelids the world splintered into a million fragments of black and gold.
He groaned once, softly, just as the first joyous waves of release began to shudder through her.
Both of them were breathing as if they’d run a race as, blind and deaf, she lay beneath him, his fair head heavy on her breast.
When he finally lifted himself away and gathered her close, exhausted by the day and the emotional storm she had just lived through, she was asleep within seconds.
She surfaced slowly, luxuriously, her body sleek and satisfied, her mind drifting, no thoughts of past, present or future disturbing its tranquillity.
Gradually emerging from the dreamlike trance, she realised that last night’s storm had died away and sunlight was filtering round the curtains. The fire in the old black range had settled into whitish ash, and, despite the brightness, the air was cool.
But she was glowingly warm, lying cradled in the crook of an arm, her head pillowed comfortably at the juncture between chest and shoulder.
Simon’s arm… Simon’s chest… She could hear his quiet, even breathing, feel the beat of his heart beneath her cheek.
A cautious peep upward showed her his face intriguingly inverted, the firm chin covered in morning stubble, the thick, dark gold lashes fanning onto his hard cheeks.
Memories came flooding in, memories of his hands and mouth touching her breasts, his weight pinning her down, memories of hunger and need, of surrender, and undreamtof delight.
But it had been more than mere surrender. A great deal more. She had met and matched his passion with a passion of her own.
Recalling how recklessly, how wantonly, she had behaved, she waited to feel both shame and regret.
She felt neither, only a sense of amazement that she had lived for so many years without knowing such ecstasy existed.
Giving herself so completely to a man she scarcely knew, a man who cared not a jot for her, had been foolish in the extreme. But it had also been a new and wonderful, life-enriching experience, and she couldn’t regret it.
Perhaps in the following days she would come to regret it, especially when Simon treated her like any other casual one-night stand.
But possibly he wouldn’t just brush her off? She knew now that he could be kind and caring, so maybe he would let her down lightly? Pretend she had been just a little bit special?
But did she want that sort of pretence?
No, of course she didn’t. She had always preferred honesty, even if it hurt.
And it would hurt. She knew that without a shadow of a doubt. But it wasn’t as if she had fallen in love with him, she told herself hastily. It was simply that he was the only man she had ever wanted enough to make her throw caution to the wind.
She had never got into the modern way of regarding sex as merely sex, divorced from love, or sometimes even liking, just a natural appetite that could be indulged with as little soul-searching as possible.
If she could start thinking that way…
But she couldn’t, any more than she could alter the nature she had been born with. The most she could do was refuse to flay herself for what had happened, to accept with gratitude the new dimension it had given her life.
Simon had promised her nothing. She had expected nothing from him. It should be relatively easy to regard last night as a one-off and walk away.
So why did it feel like the end of the world?
Perhaps because it had come and gone so quickly. She hadn’t had time to grasp that moment of delight and fulfilment, to hug it to her, to savour it.
So what did she want? she asked herself crossly. The kind of affair that would drag on for a few weeks while Simon decided how to end it?
No, she didn’t want that. It would be less painful in the long run to keep her chin high and pretend she didn’t care. To give thanks that, if not totally unscathed, she had enough pride left to enable her to hide it.
And if all she would have left were some fleeting memories, she was still lucky. Though there might have been no love involved, at least she had known true rapture…
Unconsciously she sighed.
‘Why the sigh?’ Simon asked.
Glancing up, she saw the blue gleam of his eyes between half-closed lids. He looked so virile and sexy that her heart began to race uncomfortably.
Afraid he would feel it, she hastily eased herself free and, pulling the shirt together over her bare breasts, sat up.
‘Not regretting it, I hope?’ he pursued, pushing back the pillows and following suit.
Unwilling to let him know just how much it had meant to her, she answered as coolly as possible, ‘Why should I be?’
‘I thought in the cold light of morning you might be having second thoughts.’
‘If I were, it would be too late.’
‘Are you?’
Looking anywhere but at him, she answered, ‘No.’
‘I’m rather pleased about that. I must admit I haven’t been quite so impetuous since the days of my youth. Nor as careless… But I presume you are protected?’ he added.
The casual question shook her rigid.
‘P-protected?’ she stammered.
‘As in contraception?’
She could scarcely believe that she had given no thought to such an important issue. Yet, swept away by passion, she hadn’t.
And now it might be too late.
Looking at her half-averted face, he added blandly, ‘I’ve always been led to believe that modern women didn’t take any chances.’
They probably didn’t, she thought miserably, but she could hardly be described as a modern woman in that sense.
‘So you’re not?’ he pressed.
‘No,’ she admitted in a small voice.
There was a pause, as though he was considering what she’d told him, then he said, ‘Oh, well, at least we don’t need to worry too much about it.’
Ruffled by his insouciance, she said stiffly, ‘You
