all right,’ he said softly in her ear. ‘There’s nothing more to worry about. I’ll take care of you.’ And when she didn’t struggle, when she didn’t attempt to move away from him, his arms tightened about her.
‘It’s because I’m in a strange place,’ Lucinda excused herself. ‘I’m not normally scared of the slightest sound.’ And she lifted her face to his.
There was nothing he could do about it. His lips came down on hers almost of their own volition. He tasted sweetness and hunger as well as faint fear. And when she didn’t resist he guided her over to the bed.
They lay down together, mouths still clinging, and when Lucinda’s arms wrapped around him he drew in a deep shuddering breath. He wanted to make love to her but knew that he daren’t. Not yet. There was much ground to cover first; it was too soon—she was only just starting to put her trust in him.
Was she really doing that? Trusting him not to take advantage? Simply to kiss her and comfort her and make her feel better? It couldn’t be. She wanted him to make love to her, otherwise why would she have remained in his room? Why would she have let him kiss her? Why would she have put up no resistance when he led her to the bed?
Once he had followed those thoughts through, Zane no longer stemmed the tide of passion that filled him.
Lucinda knew that what she was doing was crazy but there was something inside her that refused to let go. She wanted his kisses; she wanted him to make love to her. She wanted everything he had to give. Something exciting had happened to her out here on this tropical island and all she wanted now was Zane.
Her job was forgotten; it was as though she was here with this man for a very different purpose—the cleansing of Simon from her system! Zane was the only person who could do it, who could make her forget. She would let him bury himself in her, let him transport her to a world where only senses mattered—and what happened after that—well, she would take care of that when the time came. For now she would lose herself in an affair that she would remember for the rest of her life. It was totally unlike her, went against every principle she held, but strangely it felt right.
Thumb and forefinger played with her nipple through the thin cotton of her nightdress, sending spirals of pleasure through every inch of her body. ‘Take my nightie off,’ she urged him, lying back with her arms above her head.
Zane needed no second bidding and this time it was his mouth that pleasured her, closing over her nipples, playing one against the other, making her squirm and wriggle and cry out in deepest pleasure. She threaded her fingers through the thick springiness of his hair and held him against her, not wanting him to ever stop.
‘This is all right for you?’ He paused and lifted his head slightly to look at her, his eyes dark and seductive in the moonlight. In fact the whole of him felt seductive, his body shining as though cast in pewter—except that it didn’t feel like hard metal at all; it felt warm and firm and infinitely touchable.
She traced her fingers over his back, feeling muscle and sinew and warm, intoxicating man, and she felt as if she wanted to keep him close to her for ever more. Of course she knew that wasn’t possible, but she could dream, couldn’t she? She could take a few moments in the time span of life to let her hair down and enjoy herself. Since the death of her father she had taken life very seriously—it was time for a change.
‘Yes,’ she whispered, unaware of how brightly her eyes were shining, how beautiful they looked in the light from the moon. It was a night made for love and she intended to take the challenge.
In response he took her mouth again, kissing deeply and excitingly, setting alight fires, and then slowly and seductively his mouth moved down her body, nibbling the soft column of her neck, touching his tongue to the strongly beating pulse at the base of her throat, seeking yet again her all too sensitive nipples, making her squirm and cry out and hold him against her.
The excitement was almost too much. She had never experienced such intense feelings. They filled her body, making her feel that she would explode at any minute—and he had hardly started!
She had been right in thinking that he would know exactly what to do to send a woman wild, to spin her out of this world and into the next. She felt faintly cheated when he moved away from her breasts to leave a trail of kisses over her stomach—and she wondered where he was going next!
Without even realising what she was doing Lucinda wriggled invitingly. But it wasn’t his tongue that found the hot core of her. He touched her with gentle fingers.
Lucinda couldn’t speak; her throat was far too tight. All she wanted was to feel him inside her. She had never in the whole of her life reached such a pinnacle of desire—and she knew there was more to come.
Briefly he pulled away and Lucinda felt a faint moment’s disappointment. Until suddenly she felt him entering her, slowly, carefully, excitingly! Zane knew exactly what to do to keep her in a state of heightened arousal. She wasn’t living in this earthly world any more; he had taken her into another dimension where only senses mattered.
She lifted heavy lids and looked up at him and saw the same pleasure on his face, the glazing of his eyes, and she heard the sounds of intense passion that were being drawn from his throat.
And she realised that she was moaning too. Strange sounds that she had never uttered before! Pleasure, pain, need, greed!
She closed her eyes again and then felt his fingers on her cheek. And when she looked at him he was asking if it was good for her. Not with words—he was beyond speaking—but simply by the expression in his eyes.
Lucinda nodded and clung to him, urging him more deeply inside her. This was a world of wonderland, of feelings and excitement, like minor explosions taking place inside her body. Every one of her nerve-endings sizzled, her hormones danced, and finally she threw back her head and let it all happen.
She had no idea that she screamed out; no idea that her body bucked and rolled. And when she felt that she could stand no more she experienced such an explosion of feeling that the world spun away into space. And only seconds afterwards she heard Zane cry out and sink himself even further into her as he reached his own shattering climax.
Not until their bodies had stopped heaving did he withdraw and he looked at her with such tenderness in his eyes that Lucinda wanted to weep. ‘No regrets?’ he asked softly.
Lucinda shook her head. ‘None. None at all!’
IN THE days that followed Lucinda and Zane spent every second of their time together. He didn’t seem to care that she was getting no work done. If they weren’t making love then they were out on his yacht or dining at some fabulous restaurant.
She was living, thought Lucinda, in a world of the very rich, far removed from her own particular lifestyle.
Her stepfather was admittedly wealthy but she had never wanted any part of it, nor was ever likely to. She was happy in her own little world, building up her business and planning for the future.
A no-strings affair with Zane suited her perfectly. She knew very well that she and Zane moved in different circles and there could never be anything serious between them. But why turn her back on the experience of a lifetime? He was so gorgeously sexy that no one in her right mind would resist
