closed her eyes and dropped her forehead against his collarbone. Maybe if she wished hard enough she’d wake up in her own bed and discover this was a dream.
An intense, remarkably erotic dream. One large palm circled her lower back and instinctively her pelvis tilted forward, right to that hard column of masculine arousal.
Should she tell him there’d been no men in her life, not the way he thought? Admit that her previous experience of kissing had been once in her early teens and once again a couple of years ago, neither of them memorable except for her disappointment. Clearly her expectations had been too high.
But this man blasted those expectations to smithereens. She’d never thought a kiss could make her feel so...
‘Alice?’
She lifted her head. ‘I’d like to kiss you again.’ Her voice was rough, unrecognisable, and she swiped her tongue over her bottom lip. A shudder ripped through her at the way his eyes narrowed on the movement.
‘Is that all you want?’
She opened her mouth but didn’t know what to say. She’d never had a conversation like this. She’d assumed that when the time was right and she’d finally found a man with whom she wanted to lose her virginity, it would just...happen.
Stupid to be shy now when she’d apparently already propositioned the guy. But now she was sober. Her head as clear as it was possible to be when wrapped in the arms of an impossibly gorgeous Greek God of a man.
‘Couldn’t we just kiss and see what happens?’
Again that tiny uptilt to the corner of his mouth, only this time Alice read tension there as much as humour. ‘I already know what will happen. We’ll have sex and we won’t stop till we’re both utterly sated.’
Her heart gave a wild flutter and something tugged hard inside her. She felt moisture at her core and wriggled, hyper-aware that the ribbon of fabric between her legs was damp.
‘You need to decide.’
He gave her the choice to step away and behave like sensible, sane Alice Trehearn.
Yet how could she when the tips of his fingers traced a pattern of temptation across her back? They roved from one hip to the other, dipping and swirling and making desire course through her.
‘I...’ She closed her eyes, trying to gather her wits. But all she could summon was the realisation she wanted this man as she’d never wanted before. It didn’t matter that she’d always imagined sex as part of a loving, committed relationship. Life had taught her that you never knew what was around the corner and happiness had to be grabbed with both hands.
Maybe it was partly the champagne but she sensed it was Adoni himself who tempted her to take a step she’d never taken before.
Surely he was the perfect man to initiate her into sexual pleasure?
What did she have to lose except her inexperience?
And wouldn’t a night in his bed be the perfect antidote to loneliness? Loneliness had compounded the sharp ache of grief since she’d been forced to leave David’s estate and all the people she cared for.
Firm hands gripped her shoulders and he stepped back, shocking Alice with the sudden, urgent distress she felt.
‘No! Don’t!’ She looked up into those dazzling eyes and knew there was only one answer she could give if she was to be true to herself. ‘I can’t guarantee orgasms but I’d like to stay with you.’ The words came out in a breathless tumble.
A warm hand cupped her chin, his thumb stroking rhythmically over her mouth till her bottom lip dropped open and Adoni traced her mouth. Alice shivered at the heavy weight of desire filling her belly and the decadent promise of pleasure in his remarkable eyes.
‘I’d like you to stay too, Alice.’ The way he said her name, with the slightest of accents, sent a shiver of pleasure through her. ‘As for the orgasms—’ he smiled, a slow, sexy smile ‘—let me worry about those.’
ADONI ROLLED ONTO his back, his blood thundering, aftershocks of rapture echoing through him. Light flashed in the blackness of his closed eyes and he struggled for breath, his chest rising mightily as he sucked in air.
Finally he found the strength to open his eyes and stare at the ceiling of his bedroom. It looked unfamiliar, as if the events of the evening had changed his perspective, even on something as mundane as cream paint.
Certainly he felt different. Not just sated but as if he’d tapped into an energy source that both drained and renewed him at the same time.
‘They didn’t do it right,’ he said finally, his voice raw.
‘Sorry?’ Alice’s voice was a wisp of sound. It shivered across pleasure points on his body that were still remarkably receptive to that sweet cadence.
‘The guys you had sex with. The ones who didn’t give you an orgasm. They had no idea what they were doing.’
For Alice Trehearn had to be one of the most sensual women he’d met. Her responsiveness, her passion, had soldered a connection between them that felt rare, almost precious, even if her limited experience had been glaringly obvious. She hadn’t been able to conceal her shock at some of his caresses.
At one stage, when he’d finally allowed himself to thrust deep within her, he’d even imagined for a moment that he was her first. She was so incredibly taut and close around him she might have been a virgin. Except virgins didn’t offer themselves to strangers and talk so casually of orgasms.
He’d half wondered if, despite her frank talking, she might be reticent and cold with a man. Instead she’d been like a live wire just waiting to explode in a shower of sparks.
Aware that she’d never before had an orgasm, Adoni had taken his time exploring her body, lavishing caresses all over till she was trembling and gasping against him, sobbing for release. Her throaty pleas had been sweet as wild honey and had prolonged her sensual torture. For he’d lingered, experimenting, revelling in each gasped exclamation.
By the time he’d slipped his fingers across that nub at the centre of her need, it had taken barely a caress for her to lift off the bed, shuddering as she gasped out her release. And again when he’d nuzzled her there...
Adoni closed his eyes at the vivid memory of musk and sweet femininity, of silky thighs clamping round him and her choked little cries of disbelief as rapture took her.
He’d almost come undone there and then, so aroused was he by this woman. Yet she’d been worth the wait. Finding his own completion, deep-seated within her velvet heat, watching her slate-blue eyes blaze in wonder as her body reached that pinnacle a third time. That was a pleasure that would stay with him well into the future. He couldn’t remember another climax so intense it felt as if he’d lost a part of himself.
But he’d eagerly lose himself again and again with a lover like Alice Trehearn. Even now, gasping for breath as they fought their way down from that incredible high, her fingers splayed possessively across
