immediately tensed, only for him to crack his hand down hard across one cheek.
‘Ouch!’ Fire plumed out from the point of impact, making her flesh tender. Ric rubbed a hand over the same point which seemed to emphasise the sting. It was too sensitive to tolerate but too intense a pleasure not to crave. She twitched when his thumb brushed against the tight whorl of muscle he’d made his goal, prompting him to deliver a second sharper smack.
God, it took her breath away. ‘Don’t’ she whimpered. ‘I’ll hold still. I swear it.’
Ric leaned close. He tickled the shell of her ear again. ‘Maybe I don’t want you to. Maybe I like the way your muscles clamp down tight.’ She hadn’t realised it, but her muscles hugged his cock in a death embrace. Kara willed them to relax, which rewarded her with the first real groan she’d heard him make. He lifted his hand again, but he didn’t smack. Instead he smoothed his thumb over her puckered entrance. ‘You know, I’m still finding it a little hard to believe that you’re untried. You’re not lying to me, are you? Because you seem the sort to experiment?’
‘Yeah, so maybe my partners weren’t so adventurous.’ She repressed memories of Gavin’s cock-centric, stick-it-in-and-wiggle-and-it’ll-all-work-out style of loving. He’d never understood the allure of the taboo.
‘Then it’s a good job you ran into me.’ He rubbed again with the super-smooth pad of his thumb. Maybe developer fluid had softened out the grooves. ‘Easy, now. Easy. Let me just dip in.’
Goosebumps broke out across Kara’s skin. She tried not to tense up again, but the sensation was new and he’d made it into a big thing by discussing it. If he’d just slipped her a finger while they’d been caught up in the act of fucking then it’d have been a turn-on but nothing so mentally intense.
Ric pushed a little but drew back at the resistance. When he tried again it was with one of the fingers he’d just withdrawn from her cunt. It slid in up to the first knuckle. A second soon joined it, and they massaged her inside, causing hasty exhalations. He’d hit on a hidden set of nerves that lit up and tangoed at being caressed.
‘That’s right. Good girl,’ Ric praised. Slowly, his hips began to rock again, the demands of his cock too urgent to ignore any longer. It was sheer bloody amazing he’d managed to hold still the length of time he’d managed already. His shaft moved in time with the stab of his fingers. Kara’s body sucked on to both penetrations with equal ardour. No one had ever made her come three times in a row. She’d spent plenty of time trying to accomplish it all by herself, but had reached the conclusion long ago that her body simply wasn’t wired up like that. Some women could come over and over, but she wasn’t one of them. Mind you, she’d never tried pushing a finger up her arse. Clearly, that was key.
‘More,’ she groaned.
Ric gave a sharp whistle, but he rose to the challenge. He stretched out his fingers inside her too, so they slid deeper. Then he scissored them apart like he was treading water with his fingers. ‘When I set up that shoot for you with two guys, I swear you’re going to thank me for this.’
Two guys – yeah, she guessed the possibilities opened out if she was prepared to take one of them in her arse as well as her cunt. She’d reach bliss like the woman in the photograph upstairs.
Kara’s neck arched and her legs began to tremble. Ric didn’t let up. This time he was going for broke, and he was too caught up in the action to tune it down a notch. His lightning-quick rhythm turned everything into a frantic blur. She knew the moment he came though, even before the bellow he made gave him away, because the pulse of his cock beat hard inside her. He jerked and jerked, hanging on to her as though his life depended upon it. Maybe it did. Her balance was shot to hell. Sandwiched between Ric’s hold and the desk she managed to stay upright despite the trembles that magnified and ballooned into a thunderous climax.
When he withdrew, she felt sticky and sore. Ric’s wet cock briefly crossed her palm. She made a feeble attempt to capture him. ‘Behave,’ he chastised. He picked up his whisky tumbler and downed the remainder in one gulp.
Kara straightened up. Her legs wobbled but she managed to rearrange her clothes and hobble over to her former chair. She slumped into the leather embrace, where she sat looking at Ric, wondering what the hell to say. This was the point at which she would expect her instincts to tell her to snatch up the keys from the carpet and get out of here. It had been intense, but nothing that burned this brightly could possibly survive the daybreak. Still, she couldn’t make herself leave.
‘Spare bedroom’s on the first floor,’ he said.
Kara’s heart plummeted into her gut.
‘Right.’ She might not be so eager to run, but Ric obviously felt differently. While he wasn’t about to turf her out, the party was definitely over. His whole mien had changed. He’d clammed up so tight the strain showed around his eyes. ‘Goodnight,’ he managed to croak as he left the study.
Kara took a breath but held back the tart retort that sat on her tongue. ‘Yeah, right,’ she whispered to herself as she climbed the stairs a few moments later. She was so going to sleep well after that mine had just blown up in her face. Alaric Liddell might be a damn good fuck but apparently he also had a chip the size of his blasted island on his shoulders about engaging in post-coital intimacy. Shame, because she’d rather been looking forward to laying her head down next to his on a pillow.
CHAPTER FOUR
Ric lingered on the stairs watching the guest room door. He knew the exact move to make to turn what had been a fabulous evening into an all-night lust fest. It would start with an apology and include room for grovelling and penance. Only one thing stopped him – he’d made this mistake before, rushed in before he’d really judged a character and lived to regret it. A playful smile didn’t necessary equate to a great long-term lover. Sometimes, it didn’t matter how plain he made it that he was in this for fun and nothing more; as soon as he turned up the heat, women expected emotions to follow.
The idea of exposing himself to that level of intimacy set a shiver racing down his spine. Ric folded his arms before him. He took a deep breath and forced himself along the corridor, head down, absolutely not straining his neck to look back over his shoulder at what could still be, if he simply knocked upon the guest room door.
Don’t be a fool. Kara North might be a very welcome addition to Liddell Island; she looked good, smelled better and, boy, did she make a good after-dinner guest, but he absolutely wasn’t looking for a permanent fixture in his life.
Still, he only crossed the threshold of his room once he’d seen her light blink out. Much as the idea of company enticed him, intruding on a person’s sleep overstepped certain boundaries, and, if all you were offering was one night of no-strings sex, it moved you firmly into dickhead territory.
Ric stripped off in the dark, leaving his clothes in a heap upon the floor. Sleeping apart was for the best. It meant that come morning they’d part company with no further expectations of one another. It might not constitute the most comfortable arrangement, but at least he hadn’t helped to generate any false hopes on her part. She wouldn’t be the first lover he’d had that had called him a bastard for laying things out straight. He’d wait and see how she settled down on the island before he even thought of claiming his prize.
Ric grinned as he flopped on to the pillows anticipating that future date. The memory of Kara’s long legs and the silk-smooth grip of her pussy still made him feel warm and fuzzy.
Sometimes
