Holly gave a low moan when Jarek finally claimed her mouth and kissed her with a bone-shaking sensuality that dispelled any doubts she might have had that he genuinely desired her. But she still couldn’t relax, and he must have sensed her tension because he lifted his mouth from hers and cradled her cheek in his hand.
‘I give you my word that I won’t try to rush you before you feel ready.’ He trailed his lips down her throat to the sensitive hollow at its base and murmured, ‘The route to sexual pleasure has many pathways that we can explore.’
Holly felt like a teenager on a first date. She had been certain that Jarek would reject her, but he had promised to be patient. Her heart was thumping with a mixture of nerves and anticipation and she needed a few minutes to herself.
‘I... I need to go to the bathroom.’
He lifted her off his lap and stood up, bending his head to drop a brief, hard kiss on her lips that left her wanting much more.
He grinned at her obvious disappointment when he took his mouth from hers. ‘All in good time, angel-face,’ he promised, in a husky growl that caused heat to unfurl in the pit of her stomach.
Five minutes later Holly was tempted to call through the bathroom door and tell Jarek she had changed her mind and did not want to make love with him. Except that she would be lying, she admitted to herself. Her lips were still tingling from his kiss and the heaviness in her breasts coiled all the way down to the hot, molten core of her.
She caught sight of herself in the mirror and grimaced when she saw that her eyes were huge and dark, with enlarged pupils. There was a bloom of heat on her cheeks and the hard points of her nipples were clearly visible, jutting beneath the shirt she had borrowed from Jarek.
Was it love or lust that was responsible for her accelerated heart-rate and quickened breathing? She didn’t know, and at that moment she did not care. Jarek had insisted that the medical condition she had been born with made no difference to his desire for her. She wanted to believe him, but she had spent the past five minutes in the bathroom to give him a chance to leave her bedroom. She wouldn’t blame him if he decided that having sex with her sounded like too much trouble.
But when she opened the bathroom door and saw him sprawled on her bed, naked save for a pair of black briefs, she felt a flash of relief. Simultaneously her stomach tied itself into a knot.
He was diabolically handsome, she thought. Although thinking was difficult when she was fixated on his magnificent body—all that lean, golden hardness, and the sheer perfection of finely honed muscles. All that untamed blond hair that he flicked back from his face with a careless gesture, and those brilliant blue eyes that trapped her gaze from across the room and gleamed with a hunger that was too raw and intense for it not to be real.
‘We can make love in the doorway if you like,’ he murmured as she clung to the doorframe for support, ‘but we will be more comfortable on the bed. Why don’t you come over here?’
She licked her dry lips and fought the urge to lock herself back in the bathroom. Jarek was leaning against the pillows, watching her from beneath heavy lids. With a flare of misery Holly wondered how many times he had played out this very scene: him sprawled on a bed like an indolent sultan, waiting for his mistress—probably blonde and definitely beautiful—to join him on the silk sheets.
She gave herself a mental shake as she walked towards the bed. It wasn’t as though she was a virgin, but she only had fairly limited sexual experience, and she was afraid that Jarek would find her disappointing.
‘Do you trust me, Holly?’
‘Yes,’ she said, without hesitation. He had saved her life on the mountain and she knew that physically she was safe with him—although her heart was a different matter.
‘Good,’ he said softly. ‘Before we begin you have to agree to two rules. Rule number one—and the most important—you must tell me if anything we do causes you discomfort and we will stop immediately. Secondly...’ His smile was a wicked promise that made Holly’s legs tremble beneath her. ‘You have to agree to do whatever I tell you.’ When she opened her mouth to argue he reminded her gently, ‘You said you trust me.’
‘I do,’ she whispered.
‘In that case I want you to return my shirt to me.’
‘Now?’
Her heart missed a beat when he nodded.
She stared at him, lounging there against the pillows as if he was her lord and she was a serving wench bound to do her master’s bidding. For the first time since she had fled from the beach in shame Holly’s chin came up and she stopped feeling crushed. If Jarek wanted her to perform a striptease she would damn well give him a performance that would bring him to his knees!
Keeping her eyes focused on him, she lifted her hands and opened the top button of the shirt, and then slowly worked her way down, sliding the buttons out of their buttonholes. She pushed the heavy swathe of her hair back from her face and the action caused the half-open shirt to slip off one shoulder.
Jarek’s eyes glittered and he no longer looked relaxed. The idea that she was the cause of his tension delighted Holly, and she unfastened the rest of the buttons without taking her gaze from his. She let the shirt slip from her shoulders—slowly, slowly, inch by tantalising inch—baring her breasts in all their proud, firm glory. Her nipples were flushed rose-red and they were hard...so hard they hurt.
Jarek made a thick sound in his throat. His skin was stretched tight over his sharp cheekbones and there was something predatory about his smile that made Holly think of a wolf—with very sharp teeth. She dropped the shirt and it fell to the floor, leaving her with just the fragile wisp of her lace panties to cover her femininity.
Jarek swallowed audibly. ‘You are so beautiful,’ he muttered, and she was startled to see dull colour flare on his face. ‘See what you do to me, angel-face.’
She could not fail to notice the betraying bulge beneath his briefs, and the evidence of his arousal turned her insides to liquid. He made her feel beautiful and, still holding his gaze, she hooked her fingers in the top of her panties and pulled them down so that they fluttered to the floor.
Jarek growled something that might have been a prayer, and Holly gave a confident smile as she put her hands on her hips while he stared and stared at her naked body.
His breath hissed between his teeth. ‘Witch. I knew you would be the death of me.’
He did not try to hide his desire for her, and the stark hunger in his eyes made her heart beat as hard as a drum when he held out his hand to her. It was anticipation, not trepidation, that shivered through Holly as she put her hand in Jarek’s. He pulled her down onto the bed and stretched out beside her, tracing light circles with his fingertips around her navel before stroking his hand over her stomach.
Fire ignited in her belly and shot lower to between her legs when he ran his fingers over the neatly trimmed vee of dark hair that covered her womanhood. She could feel the molten heat of her arousal, but however much she desired Jarek she could not simply pull him down on top of her and take him inside her.
He must have felt her stiffen because he murmured, ‘Holly...angel-face...what’s wrong?’
‘I hate my body. I wish I was normal.’
The words tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them. The truth that she had denied to herself for years finally revealed. She tried to look away from Jarek, but he cupped her cheek in his hand and stared at her with an indefinable expression in his eyes that caused her heart to clatter.
‘Then it is up to me to prove to you that your body is utterly perfect,’ he said softly.
He laid his finger across her lips when she made an angry sound of denial.
‘It’s perfect because it’s you, Holly, and I would not change a single thing about you. But instead of talking let me show you how lovely you truly are.’
He moved so that he was kneeling beside her on the bed, and took both her hands and lifted them behind her head so that her fingers brushed against the bars of the headboard.<
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‘Hold on,’ he ordered softly, with a sultry gleam in his eyes that caused butterflies to leap in her stomach. ‘We’re going to play a game. I’m allowed to touch you wherever I want to, but you’re not allowed to touch me.’
‘That’s not fair—’ She caught her breath when he stroked his fingers across the soles of her feet before moving up to her ankles.
‘That’s the rules, angel-face.’
Jarek continued to skim his fingers up her legs with a light touch that nevertheless felt as if he was branding her skin. Holly tried not to tense when he stroked his fingers over the insides of her thighs, but to her surprise he did not touch her intimately, just moved up to her stomach and then higher so that his hands were just below her breasts. She swallowed and silently urged him to caress her breasts, and her nipples that were tight and hard.
But once again he avoided touching her where she longed to feel his hands and instead trailed his fingers lightly over her arms and shoulders, tracing the line of her collarbone and exploring the sensitive spot behind her ears. And all the while he watched her with his brilliant blue eyes, laughing huskily when he stroked the sides of her breasts but still didn’t touch the rosy peaks of her nipples that jutted provocatively and ached for him to roll them between his fingers.
Holly felt as though every centimetre of her body was on fire, and she gave a moan when Jarek smoothed his hands over her thighs once again but made no attempt to touch her there, where she was so desperate for him to caress her.
‘Please...’ she whispered, lifting her hips towards his hands. She felt boneless, more turned on than she had ever felt before, and he had not even caressed her in any sexual way yet.
She realised that he was being true to his word and absolutely would not rush her. His patience as he aroused her body was allowing her to relax and put her trust in him utterly, and she couldn’t restrain a gasp of pleasure when finally he bent his head and took her nipple into his mouth. The sensation of him sucking hard on the tender peak before he moved across to her other breast evoked a flood of molten heat at her feminine core.
If he didn’t touch her there soon she thought she might die, but he ignored her soft plea and moved so that he was lying on his back and she was straddling his legs.
‘Now it’s your turn to touch me. Remember nowhere is off-limits,’ he murmured. ‘I’m all yours, angel-face.’
Her heart gave a sharp pang, because she knew he wasn’t hers in the way she wanted him to be. But he was hers for this night, and he had given her free rein to explore his body. She would use her hands to imprint his male beauty onto her mind in the same way that a visually impaired person used braille, Holly decided as she ran her fingers over his face, along his sharp cheekbones and down to trace the contours of his sexy mouth.
She caught her breath when he drew her finger into his mouth and sucked. How could such an innocuous action be so erotic?
‘It’s my turn to touch...you’re not allowed to touch me,’ she complained.
He grinned. ‘Ah, but I make up the rules.’
His gentle teasing gave her the confidence to be bold, and it was her turn to laugh when she skimmed her hand over his flat abdomen before tracing her fingers over the front of his briefs. He became instantly and impressively erect.
‘I don’t think I can be patient for much longer. I want to make love with you, Jarek,’ she confessed, in a husky voice that did not sound like her own.
CHAPTER TEN
JAREK DID NOT understand what was happening to him. When Holly had admitted that she hated her body, the shimmer of tears in her eyes and the faint tremble of her mouth had ripped him apart. He’d been impressed by her courage when they had been caught in the avalanche in Austria, but her honesty tonight must have taken a hell of a nerve and he admired her more than ever.
But he was getting in too deep, a voice inside him warned. There were numerous reasons why he should not take his involvement with her any further, and none of them were to do with the rare syndrome she had been born with, and which he sensed affected her emotionally even more than physically.
When she had stripped for him, and teased him by taking her time to reveal her gorgeous body, he’d been so turned on that he’d had to restrain himself from ripping the shirt off her.
He tugged her down so that she was lying next to him and felt a hard kick of desire in his gut as he studied every beautiful inch of her body, from the delicate flush of rose on her cheeks and the darker pink of her nipples that contrasted with the pale cream of her breasts. He moved his gaze lower to the indentation of her waist and the sensual curve of her hips, before coming to rest at the tantalising junction between her soft thighs.
He wanted nothing more than to worship her with his hands and mouth, show her that she was Aphrodite, incomparable, the only woman who made him shake with need. But his needs were unimportant. All that mattered was Holly.
He was shocked by the surge of protectiveness that swept through him. The diagnosis of her medical condition when she was a teenager must have been devastating. It had let to a period of depression, but Holly had sought help from a counsellor and gone on to train as a psychologist and psychotherapist so that she could help other people overcome emotional trauma.
She was nothing short of amazing, Jarek brooded. He wanted to see the shadows in her eyes disappear, and he did not care to dwell on why making her happy was so important to him. He bent his head to her breast and captured her nipple in his mouth, smiling when he heard her soft gasp.
He forgot the tangled web of his life, the possibility that his name was not Jarek Dvorska and the intangible horror of his nightmares that he feared hid the truth about his parents’ deaths. He forgot everything and dedicated himself to giving Holly more pleasure than he was sure she’d ever experienced with her crass ex-boyfriend.
The realisation that he hated thinking of her with other men should have set alarm bells ringing, but he shut his ears to everything but the thin cry she made when he sucked hard on her nipple before he moved across to her other breast and flicked his tongue over the taut peak at its centre.
He had assured her that they were in no rush, and he took his time to explore her body and encouraged her to explore his—although when she slipped her hand into his briefs and stretched her fingers around his burgeoning erection he had to stop her while he still had enough self-control.
‘We want this to last, angel-face,’ he growled, when she tugged his briefs down and ran her hands over his buttocks. ‘Remember we’re playing by my rules and you have to do as I tell you. Open your legs,’ he ordered softly, and grinned as a scarlet stain spread across her face. ‘If you’re hot now, you’ll be burning up by the time I’ve finished,’ he promised.’
‘You’re so arrogant,’ she choked, sounding appalled, although she allowed him to arrange her to his satisfaction, with a pillow beneath her bottom and her legs hooked over his shoulders.
‘I’m so good,’ he assured her, and proceeded to demonstrate that it was not an idle boast.
He tasted her feminine sweetness and used his tongue with devastating effect on her clitoris before he drew the tiny nub into his mouth and sucked. Holly plunged her fingers into his hair and held on as if she was anchoring herself while she threshed beneath his relentless onslaught. Suddenly she gave a guttural cry, and the sound of it made Jarek’s gut twist.
While she was still shaking and trembling in the aftermath of her orgasm he gently ran his finger up and down her opening and slowly eased his smallest finger into her. At the same time he kissed her mouth, slow and deep, until he felt her relax. She released her breath slowly.
‘Does that hurt?’ he asked her.
‘No, it feels good.’
She smiled, and Jarek felt something tug in his chest. His body was aching with the force of his desire, but he was determined to be patient and make sex a good experience for her.
He withdrew his finger and replaced it with his thicker middle finger while he rub
bed his thumb pad lightly over her clitoris until Holly trembled.
‘How about that? Does it still feel good?’ he murmured.
‘Yes, so good. Oh...’ She moaned when he swirled his finger inside her. ‘Jarek, I’m ready now,’ she said, with an urgency in her voice that almost made him come there and then.
‘Are you sure? I don’t want to hurt you...’
He felt as if he was going to explode—especially when she slid her hand down and clasped his thickened shaft tightly in her hand.’
‘You won’t hurt me.’
She pushed her hair off her face. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were deep, dark pools.
‘I want you,’ she said fiercely, and Jarek knew then that he was never going to survive.
Holly made him feel things he hadn’t believed he was capable of feeling, and she made him wish he was a different man from either of the men he thought he might be—a lost prince without a memory, or a feral boy scarred by his memories of a brutal war.
‘I want you, Jarek,’ she said again, softly this time, whispering her words against his lips as she cradled his face in her hands and urged him down onto her.
‘I left a packet of condoms in my trouser pocket.’ He remembered just in time, and kissed away her pout as he lifted himself off her.
There was something in her eyes—a flicker of hesitation...he didn’t know what—before she murmured, ‘It’s okay. I won’t fall pregnant. And it’s safe. I haven’t had a sexual relationship for over a year, and you said you have always been careful to use protection with other women.’
The fact that contraception hadn’t entered his mind when he had been about to make love to Holly on the beach was a warning Jarek chose to ignore. He guessed since she had assured him it was safe that she was on the pill, or had protected herself against unwanted pregnancy some other way.
He ached to possess her—and it was not just his body, he realised, aware of a deeper ache in that empty vessel he had assumed was his heart.
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