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‘Don’t be vain,’ she urged, leaning back from him, overpowered by his masculinity that close. The scent of him was tugging at her nostrils, an intoxicating combination of musk, mint and the faintest hint of some exotic cologne. Even the smell of Ari Stefanos made her fill her lungs like an addict and left her dizzy.
‘I was being frank,’ Ari countered huskily.
‘And don’t be provocative either,’ she added jerkily, stiffening in the midst of a sizzling encounter with his glittering dark golden gaze. With an effort she dropped her head only to find herself looking instead at the impressive pecs and abs delineating his chest and stomach below his sleek bronzed skin. Her mouth ran dry, hunger stirring in an almost painful surge, her breasts swelling and her nipples pinching taut while a hollow ache throbbed at the heart of her. She pressed her bottom down hard on the stool in an effort to ward off that craving.
‘I wasn’t trying to be provocative.’ Ari breathed in slow and deep, his chest swelling. ‘But I take just one look at you when I get this close and all I can think about—’
‘Me too,’ Cleo cut in, instinctively leaning forward to close the gap between them, on such an edge of anticipation that she could barely breathe.
‘I promised not to make you feel uncomfortable here,’ Ari reminded her in a frustrated undertone.
‘I’m only uncomfortable because you’re not touching me,’ Cleo mumbled, craving his mouth so badly she ached.
‘Is that an invitation?’ Ari growled as he slid off the stool to stand in front of her.
In answer, Cleo succumbed to temptation and rested her palms against his warm chest, letting her hands slowly trace down over the ridged planes of his abdomen. Her heart was racing, her breath coming in short choppy waves, her body tight with an urgent tension that literally hurt to withstand.
Without further hesitation, Ari knotted long fingers into her sleep-tousled curls and crushed her soft pink lips under his. Her tongue tangled with his as a big hand curved to her hip to urge her into connection with the urgent hardness pushing against his zip. Excitement leapt and flared inside her and a hot melting sensation in her pelvis turned her body boneless.
Desire simmered and boiled through Ari. He remembered the boundaries he had sworn to observe, the caution he had planned to exercise, and he marvelled at the effect Cleo had on him. None of those reservations could stand against the charge of unfamiliar recklessness powering him. Her hands ran lightly down his body to his thighs, scorching him wherever her exploring fingers touched. She dropped to her knees and pure anticipation ran riot through him.
She unzipped his jeans, found him with her stroking fingers, tracing the powerful heat and urgency of him. He wanted more, he wanted more before she even got properly started. And she was definitely a little clumsy at what she was doing, but her sheer enthusiasm could have levelled entire cities. The fleeting graze of her teeth didn’t have the slightest impact on the wild flare of excitement flaring through Ari and expanding at an exponential rate. He exulted in the satisfying suspicion that he could be the first male she had dared to appreciate in such a way.
Long brown fingers smoothed through her tumbled hair and he groaned out loud with pleasure. Cleo glowed with a sense of achievement and then he was pulling her up, lifting her up onto the granite counter behind her to peel off her pyjamas.
‘Remind me to buy you some proper lingerie,’ Ari husked as he spread her thighs and bent his dark head, shifting with predatory grace to utilise his carnal mouth on the tiny bundle of nerve endings screaming for his attention.
On the brink of telling him that he would not be buying her any clothing and that any he did buy would not be worn, Cleo lost her concentration. She lost it so completely that the heart-pounding, pulsing wave of bliss that seized her utterly consumed her, and for a few timeless moments in the grip of that powerful climax she honestly felt as though she had left her body.
‘I need to go upstairs and get protection,’ Ari breathed raggedly.
‘I’m on the pill now,’ Cleo told him. ‘After what happened at the retreat, I decided it would be safer to protect myself, but if there’s a risk thatyoumay—’
‘I was tested last month and I haven’t been with anyone but you since.’
That information pleased Cleo enormously and she smiled at him.
Mere seconds later, Ari lifted her and sank into her hard and deep, and her spine arched and she moaned, because her swollen flesh was already so exquisitely sensitive. The pleasure was intense, and excitement roared through her afresh as Ari ensured that she did not have time to begin worrying. As another exhilarating surge of pleasure rocked her, she gave herself up to the moment, suddenly rejoicing in the freedom to do exactly as she liked.
With every lithe erotic thrust, sensation piled on sensation and she quivered at the shocking intensity of what she was feeling. Her heart was pounding, her pulses racing, and suddenly she was in a fever of excitement for the finishing line again. And she was there in the heart of the flame, fireworks flaring inside her and the colours of the rainbow in her dazed eyes as the wild fevered hunger rose to an agonising peak and then slowly brought her down to earth again.
Ari felt intoxicated by pleasure as he began to pull back from her. He had never wanted anyone as much as he wanted her, had never dreamt that he could go from day to day reliving intimate moments with one particular woman and counting the hours until he could see her again. In truth, he had flown back late the previous evening purely to ensure that he could have breakfast with Cleo. What had transpired since that modest goal inflamed him all the more.
As Ari stepped back, Cleo slid naked off the counter, shocked by her surroundings, and she stooped to grab up her pyjamas. Long fingers closed over her wrist. ‘Where are you going?’
Cleo breathed in deep. ‘I thought—’
‘No, you’re staying,’ Ari incised succinctly as he bent down to lift her up into his arms, naked and flushed. ‘Tonight, I don’t want to feel like a one-night stand whom you can’t wait to escape again.’
‘I didn’t mean it that way. I just thought—’
‘You think the wrong things sometimes, especially around me,’ Ari told her lethally. ‘I want you here in the morning, so that I can have you again...although I could always grab you out of your room at a mutually agreeable hour—’
Cleo grinned. ‘Seems a little complicated...but like this...er... It’s totally casual, no strings...okay?’
‘You’re quite happy for me to be with other women?’ Ari intoned in apparent surprise. ‘I’m sorry, but I’m not happy to offer you the same freedom—’
‘I didn’t say that.’
