He wasn’t making her come in five different ways before filling her this time. He wasn’t letting her come at all. Not until she was unable to bear it a second longer. Not until she begged for mercy. Not until they were both at the end of their sanity. In the cage of his arms he caressed her, alternating with licks, love bites, kisses—he teased and tasted every inch of her glorious body. She was pregnant. She was hot. And she was his.
He laughed roughly as she moaned, her hips circling, her hands seeking to touch him too. He suffered the tormenting slide of her fingertips, the delight of her hard grip, and moved to retaliate. He relished the way her muscles quivered under his onslaught. But nothing pleased him more than the look of hunger in her eyes. She was as willing, as craving, as he.
‘Leon, please. Please.’
He paused above her, soaking in the moment he’d been aching for.
‘Why have you stopped?’ she asked, her expression edged with desperation.
‘I don’t want this over too soon,’ he answered with rough honesty.
‘I’ve wanted this for weeks,’ she moaned. ‘So much.’
Satisfaction and frustration split him. Fire and fury. ‘Then why did you deny us?’ Why had she put up those barriers? He was making her pay for that. ‘Why did you resist?’
How had she? But he couldn’t wait for her answer—the demand of his own body, his own need, was too strong. She moaned in soft, earthy surrender as he thrust hard, fiercely claiming his possession. He arched, his eyes closing as pleasure sent sharp bursts down his back. His body tightened more, wanted more—deeper, harder, for longer. But she lost it beneath him, about him, crying out as her sweet body was wracked with the feral convulsions of one hell of an orgasm. But this wasn’t over yet. He simply refused to let it be over yet. So he held still, his will stretched to the point of pain.
‘Leon, it’s so intense,’ she gasped. ‘So intense.’
‘All the more reason to embrace it,’ he growled, still furious with her for making them wait all these weeks.
‘Please,’ she begged, breathless and twisting and fierce beneath him. ‘Please, Leon.’
It was as much a desperate plea as a forceful command. And now he could do nothing but surrender to both. He felt torn in two by the fierce, unrelenting urges to both master and worship her body.
‘Ettie,’ he growled. Demanding. Devoted.
The give and take, the push and pull was mirrored in his hard thrusts, in the buck of her fiery hips. He roared as his shy lover responded with that fight. She was that desperate for him. Which he adored because he couldn’t get enough of her either. She made him both weak and strong. He was almost rendered unconscious by the ferocity of the pleasure as he pushed her to climax again. Yet her scream was silent, her body so taut with tension, shaking with intense delight, it couldn’t render it vocally. The sight of her in that moment stopped his heart. His release came, instant and savage and so intense he all but blacked out.
When he returned to reality and summoned the energy to lift his head, he was horrified to find her face pale, her eyes simply huge and—glistening with tears?
‘Are you okay?’ he asked warily. Guilt hit him anew.
She was exhausted and he’d just subjected her to the roughest of rides. ‘Sleep.’ He drew the coverings over her, partly to hide the resurgence of his own desire, impossible as it ought to have been. He’d wanted her too much for too long. But surely he could wait until tomorrow before having her again?
Shadows crept into her beautiful, clear eyes. ‘I can go back to my room.’
An ice-cold storm brewed in his belly. ‘You want that?’
She licked her lips and glanced away from him. ‘If that’s what you’d prefer.’
Of course he wouldn’t. ‘What’s going on, Ettie? Was I too rough?’
‘No.’ She wiped her eyes and turned away.
Not good enough. He turned her back towards him and gazed into her eyes. ‘Then what?’
Her colour mounted and she seemed to be holding her breath. ‘That other night you couldn’t seem to get enough…but if you don’t really want me any more, we don’t have to…’
If he didn’t really want her?
‘Ettie,’ he huffed out a relieved laugh, ‘I thought you were exhausted. I didn’t want to be too demanding…’ He lost his train of thought as he saw the shadows shift to smoke in her eyes. ‘Glykia mou.’
‘Sorry,’ she muttered, colour flooding her face.
‘Why?’ He pulled her closer. ‘I’m not sorry that my new fiancée is a nymphomaniac.’
He laughed at her gasp of outrage and thrust back the coverings so he could satisfy his need to see her naked beauty all over again.
‘We do have to, Ettie.’ He bent over her uncompromisingly. ‘We damned well do.’
He angled her so he could see right into her eyes as he swept his hands over her soft curves and watched the ebb and flow of her tension. To his relief and pleasure, her smile returned. A more feminine, more feline one than he’d ever seen on her. He growled and surged into her—slower this time, tormenting them both to the point of madness. And it was utter bliss.
‘I didn’t know it could be this much fun.’ She almost laughed a long while later.
Fun? Had she thought that was fun?
He’d thought it was devastating. But he cleared his throat and pulled his brain back from its fanciful, post-orgasmic superlatives. ‘It’s supposed to be fun.’ And now he was looking, he couldn’t tear his eyes from the satisfied glow enveloping her. ‘You look better than you have in days.’
‘I feel better.’ Her cheeks were rosy and there was a relaxed softness in her expression. She was stunning.
But he cocked his head and aimed to tease them both back to lightness. ‘Orgasms for medicinal purposes?’
‘Who knew, right?’ She giggled.
‘What happened with your ex?’ The question just slipped out at that most appalling moment. He hadn’t meant to ask it—not ever. But the idea that she’d cared for another man enough to want to marry him had grated on his deepest-set nerves. What had been so special about the jerk? Why had he let her go?
Leon gritted his teeth—why did he even want to know? But he did. Desperately.
Ettie was too quiet. He rolled to his side and propped his head up on his hand, studying the return of those shadows. They flickered across her face—resistance, sadness. He hated that some guy had hurt her. He didn’t mean to hurt her more by asking about it now. Were the memories that painful? Had the bastard mattered so much she could barely bring herself to speak about him?
‘He jilted me just before our wedding,’ she finally answered.
‘At the altar?’ His skin tightened.
‘Almost.’ She seemed to shrink deeper into the mattress. ‘His family had arrived. My friends. Ophelia was so excited about being bridesmaid…it was so humiliating…’
‘Why did he do it? Was there someone else?’ He couldn’t fathom it. What man wouldn’t want Ettie in his life? She was sexy, she was funny, she was sweet.
She looked away from him.
‘We hadn’t been intimate,’ she said huskily. ‘I’d wanted to wait.’
Leon’s brain malfunctioned for a moment. Not intimate? Wait? ‘You hadn’t been intimate at all?’
She shook her head. ‘We’d kissed but…’ She shrivelled lower into the mattress and tugged the sheet higher. ‘I wanted to wait.’
‘For your wedding night?’ He stilled as a bubble of something hot and fierce and frankly savage bubbled in his gut. That she’d wanted to do that—gift the guy her virginity—made his innards twist.
‘I know, it’s quaint, right?’ She wouldn’t look at him.
He shook his head. ‘Sweet,’ he corrected gruffly.
‘I should have known it wasn’t right.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘It wasn’t hard for me to want to wait.’ She lowered her chin and all but talked into the sheet covering her. ‘I thought I
had a low sex drive. That it was just me.’
His eyes widened. The woman didn’t have a low sex drive. She was the hottest, most insatiable lover of his life. ‘But your fiancé didn’t want to wait any more?’
‘He said it was so close to the wedding…that we should.’
He’d applied pressure and manipulated her innate desire to please. Leon tensed. ‘And how was it?’
Her face burned red again. ‘He didn’t stick around for the wedding, so I guess it wasn’t that good.’
So it had been just the once? He had to snap his mouth to keep his jaw from hitting the floor. ‘And there’s been no one since?’
Her blush built to beetroot, making it easy to read the deep embarrassment and insecurity all over her expressive face. She thought she wasn’t sexy, that she didn’t know what she was doing. That she’d not been able to satisfy her selfish ass of a fiancé. So there’d been that one let-down of an experience followed by appalling betrayal and rejection after.
And then there’d been him.
‘That’s why I was so reckless when you… It was so different…’ She fell silent, that mottled rosy pink slowly washed from her skin.
He was savagely proud it had been so different. ‘Poor Ettie. You finally let go enough to have some fun, and then—’
‘I end up pregnant,’ she mumbled.
One night. Massive consequences. It wasn’t exactly fair.
‘I guess mindless, meaningless, fantastic sex just isn’t for me,’ she attempted to joke.
‘No, it is,’ he replied, utterly serious. ‘It just needs to be with me.’
She flushed deeper and her smile faded. ‘Is it good for you?’
Was she seriously worried about that? He couldn’t keep his hands off her. But that jerk had hurt her, striking an insecurity within.
‘There’s nothing wrong with you,’ he whispered. ‘Nothing wrong with what you do, how you respond…’ He ripped back the sheet from them both. ‘Look at what you do to me.’
She turned her face away but he tenderly cupped her chin and made her look. And then he kissed her—long, deep and lush—and felt that fire between them crackle.
‘He was a jerk, Ettie,’ Leon muttered, filled with protectiveness.
‘He was. I just wanted to please him.’
He hated the bastard who’d had no idea of the treasure he’d had in his hands. He hated the damage he’d done to her. But he had to ease up on releasing that rage. She was more vulnerable than her ultra-efficient, all-smiling concierge persona revealed. ‘You left school early and had to work?’ He talked, trying to contain his anger and ease the tension gripping his muscles.
‘Initially I left because Mum got sick. I needed to care for her and Ophelia.’
But she’d been a kid herself—just a teen. He hadn’t wanted to listen earlier, but now he wanted to know everything. ‘There was no one else?’
‘She was young when she got pregnant with me. She was estranged from her parents—I never had a relationship with them or my father. Ophelia was the result of another doomed-to-failure fling. She’d wanted it to work out with him…’
‘But that didn’t happen either.’
She shook her head. ‘Relationships never worked out for her.’
A chill swept over his skin. ‘And you held off having boyfriends.’
‘I was too busy to meet anyone,’ she said softly.
‘No,’ he contradicted her. ‘You shied away from them.’ He understood why—she’d seen her mother’s heartache and it had put her off. She’d seen the consequences—she’d lived them. He couldn’t resist asking the question that burned in his gut. ‘What did he give you that others didn’t?’ Why had she said yes to that guy?
‘I met him not long after Mum died. It was very quick and I was vulnerable, I guess. He flattered me. He made me think I was special.’
Leon hardened inside. ‘So he should’ve done—he was your boyfriend.’
‘I wanted someone to love me. I thought he did. But he didn’t.’
Leon didn’t believe in love. He didn’t believe anyone had it—they had habits and pleasant arrangements. But he could offer Ettie loyalty. ‘I’ll never betray you like that.’
She looked at him sombrely. Didn’t she trust him yet?
‘Can we always be honest with each other?’ she asked softly. ‘Like you said, we’re not talking stardust and promises. Don’t flatter me. Don’t try to soften any blows. Let’s just be grounded and honest.’
That fierce savagery clawed at his insides and he finally lost his grip on it. ‘Okay, here’s some honesty for you: I crave your body, Ettie. I’ve dreamed about having you again every night for these last three weeks. I adore having sex with you and I want to do it all the damn time.’
Now her smile blossomed. ‘Okay.’
She leaned in close and did more than let him. She met him—stroke for stroke, moan for groan. He denied the edge of desperation in his own need for physical fulfilment. He refused to face the fact that he couldn’t seem to get enough of her.
All that mattered was that she was here. He’d free her of financial responsibility, he’d give her physical satisfaction, he’d offer her a lifestyle only he could provide…and she’d stay. His child would be safe. As would she.
His plan was perfectly falling into place.
CHAPTER EIGHT
SHE SHOULDN’T HAVE told him about her ex-fiancé. Leon must think she was such a naive fool. She’d done all the talking last night—exposed herself and all her embarrassing history. He’d shared virtually nothing, except his fantastic bedroom skills. Had he never been embarrassed? Never been rejected?
Of course not.
He couldn’t reciprocate with any humanising stories of his own humiliations, because he didn’t have any. And right this second she completely resented him for that. And because he was blocking her from making her own choices. Again.
‘You’re not going to work today.’ He was furious.
It was almost nine the next morning. She’d slept in and he was late heading to his office because they were arguing about her plans for the day. As it was, she was feeling unsettled. She wasn’t used to having a personal life, let alone everyone knowing about it. Her colleagues, her clients would all know she was sleeping with him. And the massive rocks on her finger were only going to make them even more curious. So she was tense enough without him telling her what she could and couldn’t do. Again.
‘Are you ashamed of what I do?’ she spat sullenly.
‘Do you think I’m that much of an ass?’ He rolled his eyes. ‘Thanks so much. You do honest work. You’re good at your job. But do I want a pregnant woman carrying deliveries upstairs? No. I do not.’
‘Joel would help me and it’s not like I’m huge and uncomfortable already—I’m not even showing. This baby is months away, Leon. What do you want me to do all day?’
The flicker in his eyes irritated her.
‘Be your concubine?’ she asked tartly. ‘Really?’
‘That’s your fantasy, not mine.’ He practically purred. ‘I don’t want you working as head concierge of the Cavendish any more. I want you as building manager.’
‘What?’ His statement undercut her argument and completely derailed her train of thought. She stared at him. ‘You what?’
‘Building manager. I want you to take over from George. It’s obvious who does the work. It’s Ettie. Who fixes the orders? Ettie. Who does all the rosters? Ettie. Who do the residents rely on? Ettie. You’re doing it all already anyway—you might as well get paid for it.’
She simply sat there, her jaw dropped.
‘I can’t understand how you’ve not been promoted already. Actually I can: George has been claiming credit for most of your work. And then tried to blame his mistakes on you.’
Ettie did her best impersonation of a goldfish.
‘I’ve already spoken with the management company,’ he continued. ‘George has agreed it’s time for him to move on to a smalle
r establishment. And the residents committee have approved it as well.’
‘Were you ever going to actually ask me if I wanted the job, or did you just expect me to jump at the chance?’
‘I knew you’d jump.’ He smirked. But then held up his hands. ‘It’s no more than deserved, Ettie.’
But she couldn’t accept any promotion—not now she’d slept with the new owner.
‘What’s wrong now?’ He released an exaggerated sigh.
‘They’ll think it’s nepotism.’
‘Why should you care what they think? The proof is in your ability to do the job. No one who knows you would ever think you slept your way into it.’
‘Thank you so much.’ Her blush burned.
He laughed. ‘Enough. We’ve banished that insecurity already.’
She scowled at him. ‘If it’s more money, then—’
‘You’re already wearing my ring, Ettie. You’re not backing out now. And your “more money” isn’t anywhere near enough to cover Ophelia’s fees for the next decade.’ He brutally shut down her thinking. ‘All I ask is that you take the rest of the week to recuperate from the stress of the last few days; you didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. Take time to get to know this place. Then go back next week and take over fully from then.’
‘You have it all mapped out,’ she said stiffly.
Why did that surprise her? She swung her legs out of the bed, determined to do something in defiance of him.
‘No. Stay there and rest.’ He braced one arm either side of her and leaned over her until she fell back onto the mattress.
Quick and furious and so damned easily he proved his point, leaving her breathless and so relaxed her fight fled and all she could do was moan her approval.
‘You keep distracting me with sex,’ she muttered when she could breathe again.
‘I’m distracting myself with sex too.’ He stretched and stood, apparently energised. ‘It’s a good distraction.’
Modern Romance May 2019: Books 5-8 Page 44