Plans. That must include more of the trappings of romance. They’d eaten their strawberries and drunk champagne on the deck. Preston had fed them to her the way she imagined Roman demigods feeding their goddesses on Mount Olympus.
The romance of their relationship seemed important to him. “Are you okay with this being my first time?” she asked.
He raised one eyebrow in question.
“I mean, I know it makes you uncomfortable.” She didn’t want to have another solo orgasm. She wanted to experience all of Preston.
“As you pointed out, you are a big girl.”
“Why do we have to wait?” she asked, ready to make love to him now. Even on the deck of this boat.
“Because you deserve soft candlelight and flowers—a romantic fantasy.”
“What about you? What do you deserve?”
“Less than you are giving me,” he said.
“I don’t need the trappings of love,” she said.
“No, you need the real thing.”
“Don’t you?” she asked. It was the first time he’d come even close to admitting love might exist.
“I need you, Lily,” he said, tossing his sunglasses on her cover-up. He stepped down on the attached dock and dove cleanly into the water. He surfaced a few feet away but didn’t say anything else.
He needed her.
What had it cost him to admit it? She knew he’d deny the sentiment behind those words if she pressed him on it. But he did care for her.
Lily dove in after him and let him tease her into playing games that were fun but light, when what she really wanted was to hold him close to her and assure him that he deserved everything she had to give.
“Close your eyes,” Preston said. Lily, who’d been an enchanting temptress all night, did as she’d been asked. Unable to resist the creamy length of her back for another moment, Preston bent and dropped a kiss on the center of her spine. He was ready to explode.
Dinner had been a nice affair, but he couldn’t remember what they’d eaten. Lily had smiled across the table from him all evening, making him feel as if he did indeed deserve her love.
Knowing that Lily had never made love to another man, he’d wanted to give her something special today. But all of the teasing touches and innocent activities had whipped him to frenzy. His control was hanging by a thread. Could he hold on?
“Pres?” she asked. Everyone else addressed him formally. Always had. He wasn’t sure how she’d given him a nickname, but it made him feel special…part of her circle of intimates. He wanted that, but at the same time feared it. This gift Lily was giving him had strings she didn’t even realize it had. But he didn’t dwell on that tonight.
His bed lay on the other side of that teak door, and he longed to have Lily under him. “Right here, angel.”
“Can I open my eyes?”
“Not yet.”
He opened the door to the master stateroom and led her inside. “Take off your shoes.”
“Just my shoes.”
“Any other articles of clothing you want to remove are fine with me.”
She laughed. But she sounded nervous. Scrupulously she kept her eyes closed as she stepped out of her high-heeled sandals. She teetered for a moment, and Preston stepped forward to support her.
“Thanks,” she said, her voice soft.
Preston led her forward. The carpet had been sprinkled with rose petals. He’d kicked off his own shoes. The petals were soft but not as soft as Lily’s skin.
“This feels nice,” she said.
“Open your eyes.”
The room had been made to look like a romantic lover’s dream. Candles lit every surface, flowers were laid in between and her negligee had been placed on the bed.
“Oh, Preston.”
He loved hearing his name on her lips. He pulled her back in his arms, unable to wait another second to touch her. She sighed and put one hand on his back, the other behind his head.
“Thank you for doing all of this.”
“I know the romantic fantasy is important to you.”
“How?”
He brushed his lips against hers. He didn’t want to talk. She tasted like sin itself—sweet, hot and tempting. And like the sinner he was, he took her mouth in long, drugging kisses, convinced he could stop after one. But he couldn’t.
She writhed against him. He slid his hands down her back. He took her bottom in his hands and brought her closer to his aching erection. He’d been hard for so long. He didn’t think he could slow down.
She pushed his dinner jacket off his shoulders, and he let it drop to the floor. “If we don’t slow down now…”
“I don’t want to, Pres, make love to me.”
“Yes,” he said, lifting her in his arms and carrying her to the bed.
He settled her in the center and undressed himself quickly. Lily’s breath caught as she looked at him naked for the first time. She looked a little hesitant when she saw the size of him.
“Trust me,” he said.
“I do,” she said.
“Will you take off your dress?” he asked. He was afraid to touch her. She slid her dress down her body and kicked it to the end of the bed. She lay in the center of his bed, where he’d wanted her for the longest time, clothed only in the skimpiest pair of red lace panties he’d ever seen and that toe ring.
The color inflamed him. He fell to the bed, his hands caressing her pale body, his mouth suckling her breast and his erection rubbing softly at her humid warmth through the layer of lace.
She moaned and grasped his shoulders. Her nails bit into his skin, but he scarcely noticed the sting. Levering himself up on his elbows, he slid his mouth down her body. She tasted as sweet as he’d known she would. Not just of the innocence she projected but of something more. Something that he’d never tasted before. Something so hard to identify that he gave up.
Her pretty round breasts begged for his attention. He caressed her nipples with his fingers, and they hardened under his touch. He couldn’t wait any longer. Bending to her slim body, he suckled her.
She moaned again. A deep, husky sound that brought him even closer to the edge. He trailed his lips to her other breast and sucked her nipple deep into his mouth. She writhed on the bed and held his head to her body. Arching up under him. He slid one arm behind her to hold her to him.
“Preston…”
He’d die hearing the sound of his name on her lips. He couldn’t wait any longer. He lowered her to the bed and slid his hand down over her smooth, slightly curved stomach to the nest of red curls hidden beneath red lace. Never had anything enflamed him more.
She was warm and wet to his touch. Impatiently he shoved her panties down her legs. She kicked free of them. Preston reached for the condoms he’d put on the nightstand before dinner.
He sheathed himself, glancing up to find Lily staring at him. He wondered what she was thinking. She smiled at him. That sweet, innocent grin that made him want to protect her from the world and from himself. But not tonight. Not while fierce desire pumped through his veins and testosterone robbed him of the ability to be rational.
“Spread your legs, angel.”
She blushed and separated her thighs by the smallest inch.
“Don’t you want me?”
“More than I’d believed I could.”
“Then make me feel welcome.”
She opened her arms and her legs. “Come here, Preston.”
He did. He slid into her tight body carefully because he didn’t want to cause her pain. But she was so incredibly tight. He waited tensely for her to relax around him, then thrust slowly, gathering momentum only as she started to move with him. That toe ring of hers scraped along his thigh, bringing him closer to the edge. Then he heard her breath catch and felt her body tighten around him, and she was calling his name the way she had that night on his sofa.
His consciousness dimmed and he thrust heavily until release washed over him in waves. He held her close in the dim candl
elight, rolling to his back and keeping her pressed to him, their bodies still joined. He held her tightly and hoped she didn’t feel the desperation pouring through him. Hoped she didn’t realize how deeply into his skin she’d crawled. Hoped he wouldn’t hurt her too much when he pushed her away, because he knew if he didn’t she would leave on her own, and he’d only just realized how much that would hurt.
Ten
Lily had never experienced anything like what she’d shared with Preston. He was quiet but held her fiercely to him, and it worried her that he hadn’t said anything. Was he trying to pretend she was just another woman? Like that blond society woman she’d seen him pictured with in New York.
Her soul insisted that the emotions she felt for him were too strong not to be reciprocated, but her mind wasn’t as easy to convince.
He’d challenged her to convince him to love, promised her her heart’s desire, and she’d only just realized those two were intertwined. That she would never have one without the other.
Preston shifted her to his side and left the bed for a minute to dispose of his condom. Her thighs ached a little from accommodating him but she found she wanted him again. The fierce ache started at her center and spread outward.
“You okay?” he asked as he settled back into bed and tugged her close again.
“Yes. It was wonderful for me.”
“Me, too,” he said, his words special to her because he so rarely revealed what he was feeling.
“Did you get my notes earlier?” she asked, unsure of herself for the first time with him. From the moment they’d met he’d made her uneasy, but not like this. She’d always been sure of herself—that she could handle the situation and being in bed with him. Her body still dewy from his possession made her…uncertain. She remembered that love was giving.
“The one on the pillow?”
“Yes.”
“You think love lasts longer than gold?”
“You know I do.”
“That didn’t convince me.”
“There are so many poor people who are happy and love each other,” she said.
“The fact that they have someone to share their pitiful existence probably creates that feeling of affection.”
“Preston.”
“Lily.”
She knew that he was a tough, cynical man, but sometimes he made her want to scream. This love dare was taking everything she had to give, and Preston wasn’t even close to acknowledging real love might exist in the world much less in his life.
“Let’s forget about love for tonight and concentrate on each other. I’ve wanted you for so long.”
“Me, too,” she said, softly.
Preston pulled her closer to him. Silence built between them as he rubbed her back from neck to backside. She squirmed closer to him. He smiled down at her, that wicked seducer’s grin, and she pinched his side.
“Stop teasing me.”
He caressed her again, this time a deeper touch that furrowed between her legs to her feminine flesh, still sensitive from his earlier possession.
“I’m teasing myself,” he said.
“Well then, I might do some of the same.” Preston needed a lover who was bold. Someone who wouldn’t cower and be afraid of him. She could be that woman. She was that woman.
“I’d welcome it.”
She walked her fingers along the line of dark hair that tapered over his chest and stomach. It was springy and warm and smelled faintly musky. She leaned closer, wanting to taste him. She’d been so passive when they’d made love. She’d been unsure of what she was feeling and afraid to explore. But now, in the dim glow of the flickering candles, she wanted to know Preston.
“Can I kiss you?”
He nodded.
Leaning forward she dropped a soft kiss on his hard stomach. He sucked in his breath, and she used the edge of her teeth to trace the line her fingers had just followed. His manhood stirred. She tilted her head and glanced up his body at him.
“You like that?” she asked.
“Just a little.”
“Want some more?”
“Only what you’re comfortable with.”
“You make me feel very sensual, Pres.”
He watched her. His gray eyes hard as diamonds, but she thought she saw a sparkle there that hadn’t been present before. “Show me.”
She bit her lip. This was what she’d wanted. “I will.”
She’d show him more than physical attraction, more than what they’d experienced earlier—she’d show him love. She caressed his chest. His pecs were hard and flexed when he moved his hands to lift her over him.
His erection pressed urgently against her thigh, and she felt control slipping further and further from her grasp.
“No more touching, Pres.”
“You’ve got to be kidding, angel.”
“I’m not. This time I’m calling the shots.”
“You’re in the driver’s seat.”
“Yeah, but it’s a remote control car.”
He laughed and she felt it everywhere they touched. He hugged her close and kissed her hard on the lips. It took her a moment to realize he wasn’t touching her.
She started at his head, traced the shape of his ear and bit on the lobe. His neck smelled of the expensive cologne he wore, and she burrowed nearer to him. She touched her tongue to the pulse she could see beating in his neck and watched his Adam’s apple bob as the center of her body brushed over his erection.
She did it again and this time he tensed and sucked in his breath. She couldn’t wait much longer to feel him inside her again. To feel him filling her where she’d always been empty. To feel she’d come home when she’d been journeying for so long.
“Can we make love again?” she asked.
He grunted.
She grabbed a condom from the box by the bed and slid down, resting on his thighs. She tore open the package and covered him with it. He gritted his teeth, his breath hissing out. “Come here, angel.”
“I’m still in charge.”
“I know.”
She slid over his body and decided being in charge wasn’t what she wanted. She didn’t think she could impale herself on him. Wasn’t sure how to proceed, and that disappointed her. She wanted to be Preston’s equal, but—
“Lily?”
She nodded. He positioned her over his erection and thrust upward while driving her hips down. It seemed as though he went deeper than before. Her head fell back and she moaned. She rode him harder until she felt that unique feeling begin again deep inside her. Preston’s hips moved faster and as her body tightened and lights swirled behind her eyelids he called her name and ground his hips against hers.
She’d never felt anything half as real as what she’d shared with Preston and knew he’d have to acknowledge that love had begun to grow between them.
The tickling of feminine fingers walking along his spine brought Preston out of sleep. He’d been enjoying a vision of himself on an island with just one other person, no phones, no faxes, no demanding meetings. Only two naked bodies on sugar-fine sand with a warm tropical breeze blowing over them with the waves nearby.
“Wake up, sleepyhead,” Lily said in his ear. Her soft voice brushed over senses already aroused. Gentle biting kisses dotted his neck. Heat shot to his groin, and he started to reach for her but stopped. Lily would be sore this morning.
He knew that they shouldn’t make love this morning. She hadn’t protested when he’d rolled her beneath him in the early morning hours and taken her again, but he knew that accepting him had been painful for her at first before passion swept through her and brought her to completion.
He had never been a woman’s first lover before. But it had felt right to be Lily’s. There was an odd possessiveness running through him as if he had branded her in some way that made her his for all time. It was ridiculous, of course. He was a man who always moved on, but for the first time the thought of other men touching what had been his was unacceptable. H
e had to find a way to bind her to him. Sex was great for creating intimacy, but this morning he’d have to find another way.
“You’re not one of those cheerful morning people are you?”
“Only when the morning is this glorious.”
He smiled. Lily enchanted him in a way that made him want to believe in love, or at least tell her he did, but he never lied. He’d been on the receiving end of one too many “good-natured” white lies to ever do that to anyone.
“I’m almost tempted to open my eyes.”
“What would lure you, Pres?”
You, he thought, but didn’t say it out loud. Instead he rolled to his side and captured the fingers that had been caressing him. Her eyes were deep and serious, filled with the emotions she hadn’t learned to hide, and it made him ache for her. She believed in love, and he’d bet his newest hotel she believed herself in love with him.
The unacknowledged part of his soul hungered for affection from her. Wanted to hear some avowal of her feelings for him, but the other part, the weary man who’d been left time and again, knew they wouldn’t come. Not without a price tag.
He’d pay the price for Lily and not regret the money. Though he’d be disappointed if she asked him for jewels or real estate, at least he’d be able to deal with her. Instead she came to him with her sweet innocence and sultry passion. Setting his body on fire and making his soul long for something his mind had proof didn’t exist.
Time to get out of the bedroom and back to the real world. Back to a place where he could think on his feet and find some workable answers. In bed with Lily he was enticed into believing the fantasy—that love existed for him. “I’d get out of bed for breakfast.”
She snaked her hand down under the covers to his stomach. He remembered her mouth on that same spot last night. Maybe they wouldn’t be getting out of bed today. There were many ways to make love.
“I knew Grandmother was right when she said the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach.”
Though he knew she’d been teasing, her words put a damper on his ardor. His heart. The muscle had been beating strongly for years but she wanted to reach his other heart. The seat of his soul where all of his vulnerabilities lay.
The Tycoon's Temptation (HQR Silhouette Desire) Page 10