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Ari was refusing to think. That kiss had powered him up like a rocket. He hadn’t ever feltthatbefore with a woman and he could not overcome the temptation to explore it even though every brain cell in his head was telling him ‘no’.
‘Let’s go upstairs,’ he heard himself say in defiance of his shrewd brain.
‘You had better not get me pregnant,’ she warned him in a near whisper, because that was her biggest fear relating to sex. She didn’t want to be a single parent as her mother had been with no other adult to rely on. ‘I’m not on the pill.’
‘I don’t make mistakes like that,’ Ari assured her while trying not to laugh at the gaucheness of that warning.
Cleo was wondering whether to mention that she was a virgin, but she decided he didn’t need to know that and would hopefully not notice. She was also afraid that if she admitted that truth it might make him think better of what they were doing. He closed a bold hand over hers and headed for the stairs, and she got all breathless and incredulous about what she was doing. But this was the guy who had haunted her dreams from the first moment she laid eyes on him, and there was no way she was willing to deny herself the chance to be with him just once. Shecouldhandle the ‘just once’, she told herself squarely.
The bedroom had a wooden cathedral ceiling and a massive divan bed. Ari tugged her gently back to him and lifted her top off her so smoothly she only fully registered what he was doing as he freed her from the sleeves. Cheeks colouring as he eased round her to appreciate the fullness of her breasts in a bright scarlet bra with deep cleavage, she only forgot to be self-conscious when he kissed her again, and—my goodness—he could kiss. He made her head swim and her body hum like a purring engine. She didn’t notice the bra dropping to the floor or the loosening of her waistband, only reconnecting with reality when her loose jeans dropped round her ankles and he lifted her out of them and brought her down on the bed instead.
‘You have gorgeous breasts,’ he husked.
In the act of trying to cover them like some shy maiden, her hands dropped again and she lifted her chin, striving for a confidence that she did not have in her body. She had always thought that her boobs and her hips were too big for the rest of her, and that if by some miracle it were possible to stretch her to a much greater height, she might have had a terrific figure. As it was, she had always felt dumpy in stature and top-heavy.
He sank down on the bed beside her and curved his hands to the full firm globes, his heavily lashed dark golden eyes colliding with hers. It was as if a shower of sparks went flying through her and suddenly she was leaning forward and finding his gorgeous mouth again for herself. It had not even occurred to her that she could ever feel anything as powerful as the instincts driving her now with him. He tasted so good and the scent of him was even better, ensuring that one kiss led to another and that his hands were all over her just as hers were equally all over him. She had never felt that fierce urge to touch and explore before. But the smooth flex of muscles below his shirt, the tented evidence of his arousal beneath his trousers, held an extraordinary pull of attraction for her. He groaned beneath her touch, hunger blazing in his dark golden eyes as he gazed down at her.
‘You are so incredibly sexy,’ Ari husked feverishly, rearranging her to close his lips round a pouting pink nipple and tug on it until she gasped out loud.
A river of molten fire snaked through Cleo’s veins as he simultaneously stroked the delicate folds between her legs. A fingertip dipped, a thumb skilfully brushed her clit and her body raced from zero to sixty in seconds as a flood of reaction gripped her. A croak of sound was torn from her lips, her back arching, a spasm of such raw response travelling through her that she was mindless in that moment, a being controlled by wild want and need.
‘Never wanted anyone as much as I want you right now,’ Ari growled, peeling away what remained of his clothing. He was entranced by her passion. She couldn’t seem to keep her hands off him any more than he could keep his hands or his lips off her: she was more than the object of his desire; she was a partner, and for him it was an exhilarating experience.
Yet on another level of his shrewd brain Ari could not quite credit what he was doing. He did not mix business and pleasure, yet he was in bed with an employee—an absolute no-go in his rule book. But Cleo’s innate allure for him, he conceded, overpowered every misgiving and smashed his control.
Cleo was way beyond the ability to speak, pulling him closer, finding his sensual mouth again for herself, hands roaming down over his long, smooth back and spreading there while she remained feverishly attuned to her awareness of the erection pressed against her thigh. For an instant there was a pause as he drew back to don protection. Her breath was feathering in her throat, her heart pounding as he came back to her and suddenly he wasthere, where she most wanted him to be, nudging against the most sensitive spot, pushing in, stretching her in the most remarkable way, somehow answering the overpowering need coursing at the very core of her.
A sting of pain made Cleo jerk and grit her teeth. For an instant she tensed and then the discomfort was gone, washed away in the tide of amazing sensation that followed. He shifted his lean hips and a wave of elation gripped her as the pleasure began to build with every driving motion of his powerful body on and in hers. A sense of wonder rose within her as her heart hammered and the piercing need that had controlled her only minutes earlier returned with a vengeance, forcing the level of excitement to a pitch she could hardly bear. Ultimately, she reached the heights, and white-hot electrifying pleasure shot through her every limb as her body seemed to splinter in a shower of physical and mental fireworks that left her falling back against the pillow in shaken wonder.
A wicked grin slashing his sensual lips, Ari sat up and feasted golden bronze eyes on her dazed face. ‘We need to talk,’ he declared unnervingly.
‘We’ve got nothing to talk about!’ Cleo told him in a defensive rush, clawing the duvet to her and sitting up. Had he guessed that he was her first? How would he have guessed that? There was no way on earth he could have guessed, she told herself urgently.
‘Think about it,’ Ari urged softly, springing out of bed and disappearing into the bathroom.
There was blood on him, and he knew, he simplyknew, that she had been a virgin, but he could see that she was ready to deny it. And how did he fight that? Admit that her lack of sensual sophistication had been an equal betrayal? Yes, a seeming critique of her performance would really raise him in her estimation! Frustrated, because he was a male who always preferred honesty in place of other less presentable approaches, Ari switched on the shower. All he could realistically think about at that moment was how soon he could have her again...and he knew that was out of the question so soon, only that didn’t stop him recollecting how absolutely amazing the encounter had been. He had never felt passion like that; he had never had sex that good...
The scent of her skin, the feel of her, her ability to stay natural and her lack of desire to impress him, all combined with her effortless sexiness, were a temptation he could not resist. As a rule, women didn’t tempt Ari. He felt like sex and he had sex and it was usually that basic in that no one particular woman had special appeal for him. Yet Cleo attracted him like a magnet, and in surrendering to that attraction, he had not been sated, as was the norm for him. In fact, he was already wondering how soon he could be with her again...
Distract him, Cleo was thinking in consternation. The last thing she wanted was any kind of intimate discussion, not following on from the biggest mistake she had ever made in her life! She had to get out of the cabin and back to the hotel just as soon as she possibly could, write her ghastly error off to temptation and inexperience and never ever think about it again. In a frantic race she located her dropped clothing and hastily got dressed again.
Ari emerged from the bathroom, a towel knotted round his lean waist because he suspected that too much nudity would freak her out. He was utterly taken aback and unprepared to find her fully clothed again. Women didn’t usually rush away from him.Hedid the leaving, not the other way round. Shock stilled him in his tracks.
‘So,’Cleo stated rather abruptly. ‘You never did get around to telling me what you were planning to do about these siblings you’ve discovered you have.’
Ari shot her an arrested appraisal, that having been the very last thing he had expected her to mention at that moment. He shook his tousled dark head slightly and regrouped. ‘I’m trying to track them down with a view to getting to know them...if that’s what they want.’
Cleo gave him a bright smile of approval that struck him as incredibly fake while she sidled closer to the door with the air of someone not wishing to be noticed. ‘That’s a lovely idea—’
Ari stepped between Cleo and the door. ‘Going somewhere?’
‘Yes, I want to get back to the hotel before my roommate wonders where I am,’ she pointed out stiltedly.
‘Staging a cover-up is unnecessary,’ Ari intoned with conviction. ‘This is a private matter.’
Cleo tilted her head back, because she was barefoot and he was so tall that she couldn’t look him in the eye any other way. ‘Well, that’s one way of putting it. I’d call it a huge mistake, but fortunately, we can forget it ever happened,’ she told him even more brightly, seeking and expecting his approval. ‘As far as I’m already concerned...itdidn’thappen—’
His well-shaped black brows pleated. ‘Itdidhappen, and why should you want to run away from it? I have no regrets whatsoever—’
