The Millionaire Bachelor

by Susan Mallery

  She pulled back. Hot color flooded her cheeks. “I’m sorry,” she managed to say. “You must think me…” Her voice trailed off. She didn’t know what he was thinking and she didn’t want to know. She’d been a fool. She wanted to die. She wanted to run away and never see him again. Most of all, she wanted to turn back time a little more than five minutes and have this to do over again.

  She tried to stand, but her legs were trembling. She pushed off the sofa again, this time using her hands for extra leverage. Suddenly Stone grabbed her upper arm. His firm grip held her in place.

  “Why did you do that?” he asked. His voice was low and harsh. Obviously the moment had been so repugnant, he could barely speak.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered again.

  He shook her. “Why?”

  Compelled by reasons she couldn’t explain, she looked at him. Something dark and dangerous lurked in his blue-gray eyes. His mouth was stern, and a muscle clenched in his cheek.

  “I thought you were interested in me. Not romantically,” she added hastily, not wanting to increase her humiliation more than necessary. She swallowed and averted her gaze. “I thought, last night, when we danced…” She shrugged.

  “I was aroused,” he said flatly.

  She nodded. “I thought that meant you wanted me.” The last two words were barely audible. An hour ago, she’d been on top of the world, confident of her looks and her capabilities. Now all she wanted was to crawl away and hide under a rock like a slug or a roach.

  “I can’t—” He hesitated. “My past,” he began. “There are things that I can’t explain.”

  “I know. I wasn’t expecting anything more, Stone. I thought it would be nice.”

  For the first time since she’d kissed him, his expression softened. “If it was just ‘nice,’ we would be doing something wrong.”

  She didn’t respond. After all, she had no frame of reference. “I’ll understand if you don’t want me to work for you anymore. I’d rather not quit, but I will if you’d prefer. However, if you’re willing to give me another chance, I promise I won’t ever say or do anything like this again. I’m so very sorry.”

  He released her arm and raised his hand so that he could cup her cheek. “Cathy, I wonder if you even know what you’re saying. You act as if I’m angry or insulted.”

  “Aren’t you?”

  “No. I’m flattered. I can’t promise you very much, but I do want you. Make no mistake about that. My concerns are all for you. That this isn’t what you really want.”

  Some of the humiliation faded. “I kissed you. How could I not want this?”

  He gazed at her for a while. “We are talking about becoming lovers.”

  Thank goodness she was already blushing so he wouldn’t notice the fresh wave of color that swept over her face. That word. No man had ever said it to her before.

  Lovers.

  “Yes,” she murmured.

  He rose to his feet without saying anything. When she spoke his name, he pressed his fingertips to her mouth, then took her hand. They left the office and walked down the hallway, turning left at the end and stopping in front of a closed door.

  There he stopped and faced her. “Are you sure?” he asked. “Because once you come inside and I begin to touch you, I won’t be able to stop.”

  Cathy looked from him to the door. So this was his bedroom. She’d known it was at this end of the house, but she’d never explored much. She hadn’t wanted to pry.

  There were a thousand ways she could have answered. She could have explained that she wanted him to be the one to teach her the secrets between a man and a woman. She could have tried to tell him that she loved him and that being intimate with him was as close as she could come to perfection. She could have gone on about how many nights she’d lain awake in her bed reliving their kiss and wanting to repeat it.

  But the words got tangled in her mind. She didn’t know where to start or how much he would want to hear. So she simply put her hand on the doorknob and turned it. The door swung open, and she stepped inside.

  She had a brief impression of a large bed, a wide window with a perfect ocean view and sunlight spilling onto thick carpeting. Then Stone took her into his arms and drew her close. When his hands held her against him, thoughts of the room faded. When he kissed her, she couldn’t think at all.

  As soon as his mouth moved on hers, the tingling began as her whole body focused on the feel of his lips pressing, caressing, moving on hers. He was all damp heat and passion, drawing her closer still, as if he couldn’t possibly get enough of her. This is what she wanted, she realized. Not just the lesson, not just the intimacy, but the wanting. She craved his desire for her. No man had ever felt those needs, not for her, and as she shifted against him and felt the instant hardness that surged against her belly, her trembling turned into shivers.

  He touched the tip of his tongue to her bottom lip. Instantly she parted for him. He slipped inside, rediscovering her. Her hands fluttered helplessly as she tried to figure out where to touch him first. His arms? His shoulders? Then she wrapped one arm around him and settled her free hand on the back of his head.

  His hair was silky and cool, a marked contrast to his heated body. She felt her breasts flatten against his broad chest. When he stroked her back then moved lower and cupped her rear, she gasped faintly against his kiss. Involuntarily her hips arched forward, bringing her belly more firmly in contact with his arousal.

  There was too much to think about, she realized with mild panic. She couldn’t keep track of what was happening. There was the kiss, and the sensations brought about by the kiss. The feel of their tongues stroking and circling, the sweet taste of him, the way he growled low in his throat and she both felt and heard the sound. There were the signals from her body—places he was touching, the way his fingers felt, the pressure and sureness of his hands. Her breasts were achy, her nipples hard. Her thighs felt hot, and she could feel dampness forming in her most secret place.

  To complicate matters, her brain was getting fuzzy. She didn’t want to think anymore. She just wanted to feel. She wanted to do all the things she’d read about. She wanted to feel his body on top of hers, wanted him to touch her breasts, perhaps even to kiss them. She wanted him to touch her down there.

  That last thought made her blush return. Stone didn’t seem to notice. He cupped her face in his hands and pulled back enough to trail kisses across her forehead, then her cheeks.

  “I want you,” he breathed in her ear. The warm air made her shiver. He followed the breath with a soft kiss that made her want to melt right there. “I want you,” he repeated. “Naked, in my bed. I want to be inside of you. I want to fill you up and pleasure you until you can’t think about anything but how we are together.”

  His words created an erotic image that both aroused and terrified her. He was a strong man, extremely focused on whatever he set his mind to do. She hadn’t realized that when they made love, all that attention would be centered on her. She wasn’t sure she was up to it. But she was willing to find out.

  “Cathy,” he murmured, and kissed her mouth. “Sweet Cathy.”

  His hands dropped to her shoulders, and he eased her suit jacket from them, then tossed it over the back of a chair. As his mouth teased hers, his fingers reached for the first button on her blouse. She felt her breathing increase, although not all of her reaction was from passion. He was going to touch her breasts. She just knew it. She was desperate for that. Maybe he could ease the aching there. But she was also terrified. What if he hated them? What if it hurt? What on earth had she been thinking? This was all a hideous mistake and she was going to tell him, too. Just as soon as they stopped kissing.

  Because while the rest of it was frightening and something she was beginning to think she could do without, the kissing was still very nice. So she concentrated on that. She closed her eyes and lost herself in the kiss and almost managed to not notice when he finished unbuttoning her blouse and pulled it free of her
skirt. She was so successful that she actually jumped when warm male hands settled on her bare rib cage.

  He broke the kiss and moved down to her throat. Cathy wanted to protest, then he licked the sensitive skin under her left ear and she found that was nearly as nice as kissing. She would insist he stop doing that in just a second or so.

  His mouth moved lower, down her neck to her shoulder. He nibbled along her collarbone. She was vaguely aware of her arms falling to her sides and her blouse sliding down before drifting to the floor. It seemed so unimportant.

  He kissed down her chest until he reached the swell of her left breast. Her breathing quickened, but there wasn’t any fear now. Just the wild hope that he could soothe the ache, that he could somehow give her what she’d just realized she needed.

  He licked the valley between her breasts. She shuddered and whispered his name. But then he was gone. She opened her eyes. He walked to the window and drew the drapes partially closed. There was still plenty of light, but it wasn’t so bright. Cathy wasn’t sure if Stone was doing that for him or for her and she found she didn’t much care.

  While his back was to her, she slipped out of her pumps and her panty hose. In all her romantic imaginings, she’d never once figured out an erotic way to remove panty hose. But she left on her skirt.

  As he returned to her side, he pulled his shirt free of his jeans, then sat on the edge of the bed and removed his shoes and socks. When he held out his hand to her, she took it and joined him on the bed.

  He ran his fingers through her hair. “How scared are you?” he asked.

  “Somewhere between very and petrified.”

  A smile tugged at his lips. “That’s honest.” He pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose. “For what it’s worth, I haven’t made love in a very long time. There’s every chance that I’ve forgotten how.”

  “Don’t even expect me to believe that,” she told him, but his confession made her feel a little better. Maybe he wouldn’t notice how awkward she was.

  He chuckled and pressed his mouth to hers. Even as she parted to admit him, she felt his fingers against her bra hooks in back. She fought against the need to fold her arms against her chest to keep the undergarment in place. This didn’t seem the time or place for modesty, she thought. After all, she’d been the one to initiate their lovemaking. So when he slipped a finger under the shoulder strap of her bra, she relaxed and let him pull it down and toss the undergarment aside.

  The air felt cool on her breasts. At least her eyes were closed, and they were kissing. She couldn’t see what he was doing, and he probably couldn’t stare at her and kiss her at the same time.

  He eased his hands behind her and urged her to stretch out on the bed. Unfortunately that meant they had to stop kissing, but she tried not to think about that. Before she could well and truly panic, he placed a hand flat on her rib cage.

  Here it comes, she thought, hoping she didn’t do anything stupid and that it wasn’t horrible and—

  His hand slid up to her right breast. She braced herself, not sure what to expect. Then he touched her. A gentle, sure caress. A warm palm cradled the fullness of her curves while thumb and forefinger teased her tight nipple.

  The pleasure was as intense as it was unexpected. She’d thought it might be nice—at least alone in her bed when she’d imagined it, she’d thought it would be very pleasant. In the past couple of minutes, she’d assumed the worst. But now that he was touching her, she didn’t know what to think. And then it didn’t matter and she didn’t want to think. She only wanted to feel how wonderful it all was with him stroking her like that.

  He dropped his hand, and his mouth touched her other breast. Hot breath warned her of what was to come, but even so she gasped with the wonder of it. Lips closed over her nipple while his tongue brushed against the very tip. Unable to control herself, she grasped his head as if to hold him in place. It was too perfect, she thought.

  “Please,” she whispered urgently, not sure what she was asking for. But Stone seemed to know. He chuckled low in his throat.

  “I knew it would be like this with you,” he said, raising his head enough so that he could look into her eyes. “I knew we would be good together.”

  Are we? she wanted to ask, but didn’t. If he said it, she would believe it.

  All will had drained away and she didn’t bother to protest when he stripped off her skirt and panties. Her skin was hot, and everywhere he touched, she felt fire. Her body trembled as he stroked her thighs, across her belly, then over her breasts. She grew wanton and drew him up for a kiss. They arched toward each other, and as he gripped her hair to hold her still, she felt the pressure of his arousal against her hip and was filled with a sense of feminine power. She had done this to him. He wanted her. Nothing had ever been so right.

  Still his hands moved over her. At last one of them slid between her thighs. She was too weak to stop him. She wanted it all and she wanted it with Stone. Her legs fell open.

  He stroked the insides of her thighs, moving higher and higher with each caress. At last his fingers sought out her most feminine place.

  “You’re so ready,” he said as he lowered his head to her breast and suckled her. His tone was reverent, his body taut. She assumed this was a good thing.

  He moved slowly, discovering her, allowing her to discover what he was doing. He slipped one finger deep inside of her, and she caught her breath as she imagined his hardness filling her. Then he withdrew and began circling around, searching. She wanted to help but she didn’t know what he was looking for. Right up until he found it.

  It was as if someone had connected her to a source of pure pleasure. His fingers produced magic sensations, feelings, heat and desire that she hadn’t known she was capable of. Every cell in her body focused intently on that single point. She half rose into a sitting position.

  “Don’t stop,” she gasped as she clutched his arm.

  His smile was slow and satisfied. “I won’t. I promise.”

  She sank back onto the bed. The world was spinning. She wanted to reach, but she didn’t know for what. The tension was unbearable…and she never wanted it to stop.

  He touched her and spoke to her and urged her on. She followed his voice, trusting him to know where they were going.

  “Give in to it,” he whispered. “Now.”

  She didn’t know how to give him what he obviously wanted. “I don’t know—”

  And then she did know. Her body tensed as she felt herself pushed up higher and higher until there was nowhere to go but through the clouds. She felt herself flung into nothingness. Into the most exquisite pleasure and peace she’d ever experienced in her life.

  She knew she spoke. She heard sounds, but she couldn’t have said what they were. She thought she might have cried out Stone’s name. She clutched at him and gave in to it all, as he’d requested. Then, when her body relaxed and the last of the aftershocks had faded, she pressed her head against his chest and asked him to hold her for a little while.

  Stone wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close. She was still trembling. “I really want to take credit for what just happened,” he said, “but you are obviously a very responsive woman.”

  She didn’t answer. He supposed it wasn’t the kind of thing a woman wanted to talk about the first time she made love with a man. To be honest, he didn’t want to hear about lovers from her past. He just wanted to be joined with her.

  He sat up and pulled off his shirt, then slipped out of his trousers and briefs. Before lying down beside her again, he took a moment to study her beautiful body.

  “You’re lovely,” he said as he touched her full breasts, then stroked her flat tummy.

  She laughed. “I’ve worked hard for this.”

  “It shows.” He frowned. “I do like how you are now, but I wanted you before,” he said.

  She shook her head. “Not possible.”

  “I felt the attraction back in the hospital.” He shrugged. “I wanted you to kno
w it was more than just how you looked.”

  She smiled. “I know. We were friends for nearly two years before we met. It was definitely my sparkling personality.”

  “Brat. I’m trying to be a nice guy here, and you’re making it difficult.”

  “Oh, sorry. I didn’t recognize the action for what it was.”

  Her teasing made him smile. “You’ll pay for that.” He lunged at her and pulled her close. He’d thought to start tickling her, but then his hand closed over her breast and passion took the place of playfulness. His erection flexed painfully.

  “I want you,” he said before claiming her mouth.

  He knew she was ready. What they’d done before had prepared her for him. So as he deepened the kiss, he slipped between her thighs and pressed the tip of his maleness against her waiting warmth.

  “This isn’t going to take very long,” he said ruefully. “I promise a better performance next time.”

  She wrapped her arms around him. “I don’t care how long it takes. I just want to make love.”

  He was too much of a man to resist an invitation like that. He pushed his way inside, then gasped and muttered, “You’re so tight. I’m going to lose it right here.”

  He withdrew to plunge in deeper. His hips thrust him forward so quickly, he barely felt the barrier as it gave way. But he felt Cathy flinch.

  Reality crashed in around him. Reality and truth. She’d been a virgin. Even as the questions formed and he told himself to stop, he couldn’t. He was too far gone. Half a dozen more thrusts, and he shuddered in release, emptying himself into her.

  Sanity returned slowly. He stayed where he was, inside of her, on top of her, savoring the intimacy even as he fought the panic.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, careful to keep his voice gentle.