Author: Bella Andre

Growing threads of emotion tugged on the tenuous hold he had on his control, threatening to snap it. Marcus knew that he’d better do something, and quick, to get the night back on track.

Back on his track.

He’d always been dominant in the bedroom, enjoying taking care of a woman’s pleasure at least as much as his own. Jill hadn’t liked giving up control to him, though, and during the two years they were together, their sex life had been almost completely vanilla.

He was ready for a different flavor. And based on the heat that had been between them since the very first moment, he had a good feeling that Nicola was, too.

“For nearly twenty-four hours I’ve been imagining you without any clothes on.”

She shivered against him as he cupped her stunning face in his hands and kissed her, long and slow, taking the time—finally—to learn the corners and crevasses of her sweet mouth. She trembled when he dipped his tongue into the corners where her upper and lower lips came together, then gave a low moan as he nipped her lower lip between his teeth and sucked it inside.

Without giving her any warning, he moved his hands from her face to the bottom of her thin tank top and pulled it up over her head. She started to cover her breasts and he stopped her hands with his.

“No."

Her eyes were dilated and her breath was coming fast as he slid his fingers through hers.

“I don’t want you to hide yourself from me."

From where he was holding her hands, he could feel her swift intake of breath—along with her rapid heartbeat.

“Take a step back so that I can look at you.”

He could see how uncertain she was, but it only made him more determined to push past it. He could scent her arousal, knew how much she wanted him. He needed to know how she would respond to his natural sexuality, to the innate dominance he’d controlled for too long.

“Now, kitten.”

Her eyes flared with surprise—and heat—at the endearment even as she took a step back. But as Marcus made himself let go of her hands, Nicola blushed furiously.

From what he could recall of seeing flashes of her on TV and pictures on magazine covers, he knew she often wore next to nothing on stage. And yet, if he didn’t know better, he would swear she’d never gotten naked with another man. She was that shy.

“Show me how beautiful you are, Nicola.” He didn’t understand why this was so hard for her, but since it obviously was, he instinctively softened his voice. He was gentle, soothing, as he urged her, “Show me how much you want this. How much you want me.”

The silence throbbed between them for a long while until—finally—she dropped her hands from her chest...and the hit of lust that knocked into him nearly took him down to his knees on the carpeted floor of her penthouse suite.

But even as he was on the verge of losing his mind over her beautiful body, he realized that she was shaking.

“You’re not scared of me, are you?”

She shook her head. “No.” But the way she dropped her gaze from his and lowered her head gave him an entirely different answer.

“You and I,” he said as he moved closer to tip her chin up with his fingertips so that she had to look at him, “we won’t ever lie to each other."

Again, it wasn’t a question. It was simply a truth that had to be.

When she nodded her agreement, he asked again, “Are you afraid of what’s happening between us tonight?”

“I’m not afraid of you. I just—” She made a move to re-cover her breasts with her hands and when he took them in his to stop her once again, she only shook harder.

“Tell me why you’re scared, kitten.”

But instead of telling him, she said, “Why do you keep calling me that?”

Despite how badly he wanted her, despite the fact that he was working like hell to rein in the caveman inside, he found himself smiling. “Because that’s how you slept on my lap. Like a contented kitten.”

Her eyes softened and her trembling stopped. “I want to rub myself all over you like one,” she whispered shyly.

Oh yes, he wanted to feel all those soft, smooth curves sliding against him. But if she did that he’d be a goner. And she hadn’t yet told him why she’d been trembling.

“I want you to do that, too,” he told her, “but first I want you to tell me what’s wrong.”

“I haven’t—” She stopped, took a deep breath before admitting, “It’s been a while for me.”

Ah, that explained why she was so nervous. “We’ll take it slow,” he promised her in a husky voice. “Slow and easy.”

“Okay,” she said and the trust in her eyes nearly undid him. “But what if I want fast and hard, too?"

In an instant, the thin threads of his control snapped as he lifted her into his arms.

A bed. He just needed to get her to a bed and then he could stop, think, plan what he was going to do with her.

He was almost there when she shifted so that her face was softly pressing into his neck. He could feel her warm breath, and then her lips moving along the cords that ran down to his shoulders. But it was the soft lick of her tongue against his skin, followed by a nip of her teeth, that broke him.

Barely two feet from the bed, he bent his head and took one of her breasts in his mouth.

She was so sweet, and so responsive. He felt his hold on sanity loosen as she moaned his name and he had to shift her weight so that her other breast was there for him to suckle on, too.

Knowing he’d never experienced anything as erotic as the way her body responded to his touch, Marcus made himself move those final feet to the bed, and lowered them both so that he was sitting on the edge of the mattress. Her fingers were in his hair now, her neck arched back so that she could give him better access to her breasts. He knew if he left her there to squirm and wiggle around on his lap, he was going to explode before he was anywhere near getting inside her.

He lifted his mouth from Nicola’s soft skin just long enough to reposition her so that she was standing between his spread thighs. Her legs were unsteady and he held onto her hips, moving her small but curvy frame into just the right place.

Her hands stayed in his hair, and the desperate little sounds she was making as he licked and sucked and nipped at her sensitive flesh had him suddenly wanting the night to be so much longer than just a handful of hours.

Chapter Ten

Nicola had never felt this out of control. Her brain, her body, none of it was connected together anymore. Between Marcus’s kisses and his hands on her skin...she lost hold of everything that held her down to earth as in one smooth move he slid her shorts and thong off so that she was completely naked.

As he dragged her mouth down to his for another soul-changing kiss, her hands automatically went to his pants to start unbuttoning and unzipping so that she could get him naked, too.

One of his big hands covered both of hers. “Not yet. Not until you come for me."

Still holding her hand, she was more than a little shocked when he slid both of their fingers between her thighs.

“Tell me how it feels,” he said in a low voice.

“Good.” She could barely breathe. “So good.”

Her thighs were shaking and he held her steady with his free hand as he had them rub their combined fingers over her aroused flesh.

“Marcus."

She gasped out his name as jolts of pleasure zipped through her. His eyes flared with lust a split second before he leaned forward and captured one of her breasts in his mouth again. She whimpered her pleasure as he had them pressing harder and harder circles with their fingers. She was right there, she was so close, she held her breath as—

“Just my hand now.”

She barely registered his words before he was letting her hand go.

“Come for me. I want to see it. I want to feel you explode.”

Oh God, she wanted to, and his naughty words had her clenching on him in a mini-orgasm. She was so close, but the closer she got the more her legs shook. She wanted to relax all the way, to stop being so shy, to fully give in to all the wonderful things Marcus was making her feel, but one thought kept stopping her.

If she embraced this wildness with Marcus, did that mean she really was the wild slut Kenny had painted her to be?

As if he’d felt her hesitation, Marcus moved his hand from between her legs. She opened her mouth to protest, but before she could, he was lifting her from the floor so that he was lying back on the bed and she was straddling him on her knees.

His hands stroked her back and she realized that he was going to be true to his word.

Slow and easy.

And that was when she realized it didn’t matter what the world thought of her. Right now, in bed with Marcus, all that mattered was what she was feeling. All that mattered was the intense pleasure that he’d already given her.

Bending over to kiss him, her tongue met his wildly, her desperation making the kiss so intense it was on the verge of being rough.

Somewhere in their kiss, she realized he’d slid his hand back between her legs. A low, pleasured moan escaped her as she realized this position made it easier for her to rock against his hand.

“More,” she begged.

“Not yet,” he told her, but she could tell from the raw tenor of his words that he wanted to give her more just as much as she wanted to receive it.

She lifted her head up so that she could look into his eyes. “Please, Marcus.” She felt a sob of need rise up in her as she worked to drive him deeper.

She watched him war with himself, a muscle jumping in his chiseled jaw, and then he finally gave her what she wanted. And as her inner muscles tightened on him, he whispered, “Kiss me,” a breath before he tangled the fingers of his other hand in her hair and took her mouth with his.

A hundred wonderful sensations blurred, and as he moved his free hand to cup her breasts, she felt it coming. Pleasure as big as a tidal wave. So big she didn’t think she could handle it.

No, she knew she couldn’t handle it.

She broke their kiss and was putting her hands flat on his chest to try and pull away, when his voice broke through her panic. “Nicola. Look at me. I’m right here with you.”

She somehow managed to focus on him as wave after wave of pleasure started to break over her, through her, inside of her.

And when he whispered, “Let go for me,” the way he was watching her, as if he’d never seen anything as beautiful—as mesmerizing and magical—in his entire life, was the final key the lock on her body needed to break all the way apart.

* * *

Never in his life had Marcus been with a woman this made for pleasure, who came with such wild abandon.

Sweet lord, he never wanted it to end. He never wanted to forget the way she pulled away from their kiss so that her sweat-slickened body could buck and arch over his as she continued to ride out her release. He never wanted to forget the desperate little sounds she made as she kissed him, gasps that turned into moans. He never wanted to forget the beautiful sounds of her begging for more of his touches, his kisses, for him to take her all the way over the edge.

But he already knew he would never forget those sounds, the incredible sight of the most beautiful girl in the world losing herself to pleasure in his arms.

Finally, she stilled above him, her taut muscles now loose and pliant, her head dropping to his chest. She was panting and he could feel her lungs working hard to pull in air as she lay across him. Even though he was still fully clothed—and rock hard—he loved the way she curled and nuzzled against him.

Still, he’d have to let her recover from that orgasm another time. Because he wasn’t even close to being finished worshipping her. She’d have the rest of her life to recover from tonight. They both would.

From now until the sun came up, she was his.

Giving her no warning, he flipped her onto her back and rose over her stunningly beautiful naked body.