‘What?’ Nero looked genuinely bemused.
‘Or don’t you like my dress?’
‘It certainly draws attention.’
A glint of humour was in his eyes and the glance he lavished on her now made the blood sizzle in her veins.
‘And men were staring at me?’ She struck a pose to stir him even more. As if she was on a mission to push Nero to his limits, she couldn’t stop. Even his growled response and his grip on her arm had no effect. ‘You were happy to call me the Ice Maiden along with everyone else, but now I show another side and you don’t like it.’
‘That’s not true,’ Nero said huskily, ‘I like it a lot.’
‘How much?’ She shivered deliciously as Nero’s thunderous expression changed to a challenging smile. He was playing with her, Bella realised as he released his grip on her arm. He was treating her like one of his ponies in the corral—drawing her to him, then casting her into the void without him so she craved nothing more than his attention. ‘I’m going back to the party.’
‘I don’t think so.’
Balling her hands into fists, she thrust them against his chest, but from the waist down they were connected. There was so much passion between them now they could set the barn on fire. Had Nero planned to goad her all along? He did very little in life without a very good reason. Nero was the consummate seducer—of horses, women—everyone he met. Ice Maiden? Nero cared nothing for that tag. He had always known how to make her burn.
They should have made it to the house—to a bedroom—to a bed.
They’d made it halfway across the stable yard when Nero dragged her close and trapped her between his hard body and the barn door. With his hands planted flat on the door either side of her face, he nuzzled her ears, her lips, her cheeks, her neck, sending heat shooting through her veins to her core. Her breasts felt heavy and a pulse throbbed hungrily between her legs. And when she managed to focus at all it was only to see all sorts of wickedness in Nero’s eyes.
She was drowning in arousal by the time Nero dipped his head to brush her bottom lip with his mouth. As his warmth and strength enveloped her, all it took was his lightest touch to fire her senses. The will to move—to leave him—the will to do anything remotely sensible had completely deserted her. She claimed one small victory, hearing him groan deep in his chest when he deepened the kiss and her tongue tangled with his. A lifetime of avoiding men had left her hungry, and now she found it ironic that the most masculine man she had ever met had freed something inside her, allowing her female powers to have their head.
Their kisses grew more heated, more urgent, until the barn door creaked behind them. Shouldering it open, Nero drew her inside. The silence was intense. It shielded them from the noise of the party, and when he dropped the great iron bar across the door she knew that no one could disturb them.
Kissing her, Nero backed her towards the sweet-smelling bed of hay. She kept hold of his shirt as she sank down, dragging him with her. This might be a dream that lasted one night, but she had no intention of waking yet. She softened as Nero pressed her to the ground. Each of his touches was a caress, and each glance a promise to keep her safe…
Unfastening the straps on her dancing shoes, he tossed them aside.
‘I’m not wearing very much beneath my dress,’ she explained haltingly, having a sudden fit of the same self-consciousness that had dogged her all her life.
‘Excellent,’ Nero approved, lowering the zip on her dress.
‘Nero—’ She flinched as he pushed her bra straps down.
‘You’re not frightened of me, are you?’
‘You? No,’ she answered. She was more frightened of the way she felt about him. ‘I’m not frightened of anything.’
‘Only a fool doesn’t know fear,’ Nero reminded her as his kisses moved to her shoulder and then the swell of her breast. And when she sighed in his arms, he took her bra off and tossed it away. ‘If I ruled the world—’
‘You’d be unbearable?’ she suggested, rallying determinedly between gasps of pleasure.
‘It would be a crime to construct lingerie out of reinforced canvas,’ Nero advised her as he teased her nipple with the tip of his tongue. ‘How did you fit that ugly contraption beneath this divine dress?’
‘With the greatest difficulty,’ Bella admitted.
‘Are you a virgin?’
‘What sort of question is that?’ she demanded.
‘It’s a perfectly reasonable question. And if you are, now would be a good time to tell me. Come on, Bella, your answer can only be yes or no—’
‘Or yes…and no,’ she said, stalling.
Nero frowned as he shifted position. ‘I think you’d better explain.’
When had she ever found it easy to discuss intimacy—or met a man who cared enough to ask? ‘Of course I’m not a virgin. At my age?’ she added with an awkward laugh.
Nero shrugged this answer off. ‘Plenty of women your age are virgins—they haven’t met the right man—they’re flat-out not interested. It isn’t a crime, Bella.’
Right. But she hadn’t thought to hear Nero say it. She had always believed it was almost as taboo for a woman to admit to being a virgin at her age as it was to admitting she slept around.
‘So what’s your reason?’ he prompted gently.
Surrender. That was Bella’s reason. Loss of control. Putting her trust in someone else. She had never trusted anyone enough to be able to completely let go. But how to tell Nero that? ‘People can control your life,’ she murmured.
‘Only if you let them,’ Nero murmured between tender kisses. ‘I would never do that. I have too much respect for you, Bella.’
She searched his eyes as Nero stroked her hair back. ‘You have to let the past go,’ he insisted gently. ‘Learn from it, by all means, but move forward.’
‘I have moved forward,’ she said fiercely.
‘Hey.’ Nero was laughing softly as he brought her into his arms. ‘No one’s achieved more than you, tiger woman.’
‘I had to…I had to defend my father.’
‘Your hero?’ Nero prompted, understanding.
‘He was always my hero,’ Bella admitted, eyes shining as she remembered all the wonderful times she had shared with a man who was flawed in the eyes of the world, but just about perfect where she was concerned. ‘I had to stand my ground.’
‘And fight?’ Nero supplied. ‘I know something about that,’ he said wryly.
‘I had to show all those people, Nero.’
‘And you did,’ he reassured her. ‘Now it’s time for you to think about Bella Wheeler for a change…’
And as he kissed her she thought that might, at long last, be possible—except there would always be that same thing holding her back—Bella’s hidden flaw. ‘I can’t,’ she said, pulling free from Nero’s embrace.
‘You can’t?’ Nero’s ebony brows rose, though his eyes were as warm and as passionate as they had ever been.
‘You asked me if I was a virgin,’ she reminded him. ‘And I don’t know how to answer you because if I say I am, I’m not… What I mean is, I have and I haven’t…’
‘And when you did it was a bad experience—and that’s what you remember?’
‘Enough not to try it again,’ Bella admitted, trying to be wry and funny at the same time, with the inevitable result that she ended up stumbling over the words. Her cheeks were glowing redder by the second. Closing her eyes, she tried again. ‘What I’m trying to say and not making a very good job of is that I have…once, but I’ve never reached the ultimate conclusion that everyone else raves about.’ She opened her eyes again. ‘So you tell me, Nero. What does that make me?’
‘A woman I want,’ he murmured, drawing her into his arms. ‘And if you haven’t had an orgasm before, you’re about to. So buckle your seat belt, Ms Wheeler—you’re coming with me.’
And when she made some mild protest, Nero ignored her and removed her dress as if they had all the time in the world, and every
inch he brought it down he replaced the whisper of silky fabric with his sensitive hands, or with his lips, or the nip of his teeth. Naked and exposed, her heart opened but, vulnerable though she was, she had gone too far now to turn back. The truth was, she didn’t want to turn back.
Cradling her in his arms, Nero freed her hair and arranged it around her shoulders so that it framed her face. ‘You’re beautiful, Bella Wheeler,’ he murmured.
She wasn’t, but Nero made her feel so, and for the first time in her life she felt like a desirable woman. That feeling gave her strength and, unbuttoning his shirt, she pushed it from his shoulders, pausing only to admire the firm tanned flesh. At what moment had this hard, rugged face become hers to kiss? She brushed the curve of her smooth cheek against Nero’s sharp black stubble and shivered with the promise of all the knowledge in his dark eyes that he would use to bring her pleasure.
Dipping his head, he took her lips again. ‘No doubts?’ he murmured, making her quiver as his hot breath touched her ear.
‘None,’ she said shakily. Torn between passion and fear of the past coming back to haunt her, she blocked out her past experiences and believed only in a very different future with the man she loved. Lacing her fingers through Nero’s hair, she bound him to her.
Sensing her disquiet, Nero soothed her with a kiss, and when that kiss became heated he turned her, bringing her across his thighs so he could kiss his way up the back of her knees, her thighs and her buttocks until he reached the small of her back. As he cupped them, her buttocks responded with delight to each kiss and nip and stroke. She groaned with anticipation, forgetting everything but this, and even opened her legs a little to encourage him. Nero turned her so he could watch the pleasure building in her eyes as he stroked her into a frenzy of arousal. His hand found her heat and moved with an exquisite understanding of her need, but he drew it away, smiling faintly when he saw her disappointment. ‘Not yet,’ he cautioned.
‘But soon,’ she begged, writhing against him.
Nero suckled first on one breast and then the other. The heat of his mouth, the lash of his tongue and the rasp of his stubble all conspired to heighten sensation until she was completely lost in the moment. Laughing softly, Nero kissed the corner of her mouth until she turned to look at him, when he deepened the kiss and, drawing her into his arms, lay down with her on the hay.
‘Now,’ she begged him, easing down on the hay so that his kisses must find her belly and now the inside of her thighs. Shameless and determined, she thrust her hips towards him in a blatant invitation, crying out in triumph when Nero parted her legs with the wide spread of his powerful shoulders. Throwing her head back she gasped with approval.
But it still wasn’t enough.
‘I submit,’ Nero murmured, when she moved over him and held him down.
‘That’s good,’ she said, kissing his face, his neck, his shoulders, and then his chest.
‘Don’t stop now,’ he teased her.
She had no intention of doing so, though she felt a jolt when she kissed the hard planes of his belly. He was so toned, so perfect. Nero was a playground of pleasure. And it was his turn to exclaim softly when she stroked his thighs, before cupping the swell of his erection beneath the straining fabric of his breeches. She measured and nursed it, and wondered if she could encompass it in one hand. There was only one way to find out…
‘Feel free,’ Nero murmured as she trailed one fingertip down the cool steel zip.
‘Shameless,’ she mocked him softly as he locked his arms behind his head.
‘You’d better believe it.’
Freeing the fastening at the top of his zip, she eased it down and he sprang free. Question answered: two hands. Lowering her head, she closed her mouth around him.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
FOR a moment Nero was completely lost. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t think; the pleasure was far too intense. Bella had really surprised him. She was bolder than he had imagined, and instinctively sensual. She traced the acutely sensitive tip with her tongue, sucking and licking until he was forced to move—had to move if he wanted to please her.
Without losing the delicious contact of Bella’s mouth on him, he kissed his way down her body until he reached the plump swell of her arousal. When she whimpered and threw herself back in the hay he stripped off the last of his clothes. Spreading her thighs wide, he found the heat at her core again and, laving it delicately with his tongue, he gradually increased the pressure. She was already moist and so swollen with arousal that when he parted her plump lips to claim the most intimate part of her, she widened her thighs and urged him on. When Bella’s mouth and tongue began their work again, the exchange of pleasure between them was like nothing he had ever known.
Nero brought her to the brink so many times she wondered how he knew when to draw back. Was it second sight? Intuition? Whatever it was, she was pleased he possessed the skill. And, as for her fears of falling short as a woman—what fears? By the time Nero moved over her she couldn’t have taken fright if she’d tried. She had never felt anything like this—had never thought herself capable of such intense sensations. Could it really get any better?
Nero brought her beneath him, positioning her as he teased her with just the tip of his pulsing erection. She loved the way he cushioned her buttocks with his hands. ‘Oh, please,’ she begged him. ‘Don’t make me wait this time.’
She heard herself add to this a brazen request in words that to her knowledge she had never spoken out loud before. Nero didn’t seem shocked. He stared into her eyes and kissed her as he eased inside her, filling her completely. ‘Yes, oh, yes,’ she cried as he stretched her beyond what seemed possible. He waited until she relaxed before he moved again, and when he did she whimpered with surprise that such pleasure was possible as he thrust deeply before slowly withdrawing again.
‘No,’ she cried out, ordering him back immediately.
Nero laughed softly as her fingers bit into his shoulders and her teeth closed on his skin. She was soon gasping for breath as he started moving to a steady and dependable rhythm, taking her higher and closer to the promised goal with each firm stroke. Could it be possible to hover so near the edge and still feel safe? The tango might have brought her here, but this was the best dance on earth. She was rocking on a plateau of pleasure with a great dam waiting to burst behind her eyes and in her mind.
‘Look at me, Bella,’ Nero commanded.
As he claimed her attention she obeyed, and with one final thrust he gave her what she had waited a lifetime to achieve. Briefly, it took her out. Shooting stars invaded her head as pleasure exploded inside her. Sensation ruled and she embraced it hungrily, screaming out her release as the violent spasms gripped her, and they went on and on until she was completely spent and left to float gently on a tide of lazy waves.
‘More?’ Nero suggested dryly.
‘Why are you smiling?’ Bella demanded groggily, barely able to summon up the strength to speak.
‘Once is never enough,’ Nero murmured against her lips.
‘You’re so right,’ she agreed on a contented breath. ‘That was so good, I think you’d better do it all over again just so I can be sure I wasn’t dreaming.’
Laughing softly, he brought her on top of him. ‘It’s your turn now. Ride me, take your pleasure. Use me as you will.’
She laughed into his eyes, feeling safe and strong—so safe she missed the flicker of something out of sync in Nero’s eyes. She was still buzzing with how it felt to be liberated sexually—to be free and fulfilled. Nero had shown her that this was how it should be—and how it would be from now on. He was unique. Fate had brought them together. They shared so much—and not just this, she thought as she began to rock to a primal rhythm. They shared careers, and a whole raft of other interests… Nero was a friend she trusted, and now he was her lover. Could anything be more perfect?
Bella sucked in a sharp breath as Nero’s hands began to control her movements. While one guided her h
ips, encouraging her, the other moved skilfully at pleasuring her. Her mouth opened in a gasp of surprise as Nero quickly brought her to the brink again. Lost to all rational thought, she allowed him to finish what he had so expertly begun and in the final moment before she took the plunge into pleasure she screamed out his name, and might even have whispered that she loved him.
Holding her safe in his arms, Nero stroked her hair until she fell into a contented sleep, while he stared unseeing into the shadows at the far end of the barn.
Bella slept soundly until a sharp ray of sunshine breached her closed eyelids. Stretching contentedly, she reached out a questing hand. The prickle of hay greeted her. It took her a moment to get her thoughts in order to process this. Party… Nero… Last night… Incredible.
And all these disjointed thoughts were bound by one certainty. She was in love. Nero was the man she loved. Thanks to him, she was transformed from Ice Maiden into something unimaginably different, Bella thought with a happy sigh, and last night Nero had put the seal on her love by proving that he felt the same. They had laughed and learned about each other and, trusting each other completely, had made the most spectacular love together.
So where was he?
She called his name, not really expecting a reply. Nero would be down at the stables with the horses. Considerately, he’d left her to sleep. He’d even brought a blanket from the house to cover her. Drawing it close, she sighed a second time. Did life get any better than this? She moved with remembered pleasure, but found it impossible to settle. The silence hung heavily all around her, making the barn feel incredibly empty, making her feel shut out.
So it was time to get up, she reasoned sensibly. She couldn’t lie here all day with just a blanket covering her. Nero had folded her clothes. They were so neatly stacked there was something alarming about it. She couldn’t put her finger on it exactly, but it could be interpreted as making order out of chaos. Last night had been chaotic and passionate—and amazing. Did Nero think so too? Or was he trying to make sense of the passion that had consumed them both?
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