Читать книгу Having Leo's Child - Emma Darcy, Emma Darcy - Страница 6

CHAPTER ONE

NEVER had Teri Adams known such all-consuming sexual excitement. It amazed her, thrilled her, and she didn’t care that she barely knew Leo Kingston.

He wanted her-this incredible, dynamic, beautiful, sexy man—and she hadn’t known what wanting really felt like until he’d evoked it in her the very first time he’d walked into her restaurant. Instantly. Shatteringly. It was as though her body just lit up with new fields of awareness, prompting reactions and responses she had no control over. None at all.

The same thing happened the second time.

And this...the third...

She had to know it all, wanted to feel everything he could make her feel. If it was only this once...

There was nothing to hold her back. Everyone was gone; the customers, the chef, the kitchenhand. No one left to bother about, except herself and the man who’d stayed on, wanting to be with her, wanting this as madly and urgently as she did. From the moment he’d come in, ostensibly to buy his dinner, she’d felt it. This was going to be the night. He was going to act, going to reach out and pursue what was sizzling between them. And he had.

Her mouth was throbbing from the wildly erotic passion of his kiss. Her head was throbbing from the sheer volume of sensation it was trying to encompass. Her heart was pounding like some madly beaten primitive drum. Her legs were a quivery mess, so much so, in her rush to lead Leo to her bedroom above the restaurant, she tripped on stairs she had never tripped on before.

Leo, hard on her heels, saved her from falling, one strong arm swooping around her waist, holding her up, the other swiftly hooking her thighs, and she was hoisted against his chest with barely a pause in his forward momentum. On up the rest of the stairs he carried her, the pumping excitement increasing at this evidence of his power and strength.

With her arms flung over his shoulders and around his neck, her breasts squashed to the heaving wall of his chest, Teri dizzily absorbed the heat and the smell of him, a vibrant male earthiness that her fevered imagination attached to primitive instincts aroused and raging. Without even realising what she was doing she licked along the line of his jaw, compelled to taste, to saturate all her senses with him.

“Which door?” Leo growled.

“First one,” she almost sang out of sheer exhilaration, revelling in the wildness of being carried off for mating by a caveman. Except Leo was cleanshaven and the taste of him was like champagne fizzing on her tongue and through her bloodstream. A modern caveman, wanting, reaching out and taking, and she loved it, loved being taken by him.

“Here?”

“Yes.”

He kicked the door she’d left ajar, clearing their passageway, and whirled her into the bedroom. She expected him to crash onto the bed with her but he didn’t, halting beside it and releasing her legs so they swung down to hang against his, and he caught her there while her arms were still wound around his neck, his hands clutching her bottom, squeezing her into a highly erotic knowledge of how powerfully excited he was.

He arched back, emitting an animal groan of pleasure as he revelled in the soft giving of her flesh. “You have the sexiest derrière I’ve ever seen on a woman, Teri,” he declared. “And watching it twitch and sway under that snug little red skirt as you move around the tables in the restaurant...”

He dragged in a deep breath and it blew through her hair as his chin came down. Even in the semidarkness his eyes had a mesmerising brilliance, cobalt-blue, glittering with the fully released fire of desire. “I tell you it’s a diabolical tease,” he went on, his voice furred with the lust she’d inspired. “My hands have been itching to hold you like this.”

Her hands had been itching to touch any part of him, and if he had to talk about derrières, what his did to a pair of jeans was enough to make any woman start fantasising about taut and terrific flesh and muscle. Masculinity plus. And he was like that all over. But she contented herself with raking her hands through the lustrous black waves of his thick, springy hair as he kissed her again.

No one had ever kissed her like this. It wasn’t a hard mash of his mouth against hers. It wasn’t sloppy. It was a feast of sensation, his lips seductively shaping hers to be tantalised by little nips of his teeth and tingling caresses of his tongue, building excitement, then driving into an incredibly intimate sweep of her palate, electrifying every nerve-end, drawing her into a wild exchange of darting movements that brought such an intense rush of wanting, her whole body surged with need, demanding a carnal satisfaction that was shocking in its intensity.

“Phew! You’ve got me so steamed...” Leo gabbled gruffly as he lowered her onto her feet and eased back a bit. “...and I’ve barely started on all I’ve been aching to do.”

Aching...yes...it felt as though every bone in her body was aching. She wasn’t sure they were going to hold together.

He grinned a wild, wicked grin. “You know this smile printed on the red heart logo of your T-shirt? If you extend the curve upwards on either side...” He drew it with his two index fingers. “See? It goes directly to the peaks of your breasts. Beautiful geometry. Beautiful breasts...”

He circled her aureoles with his fingers, arousing acute excitement. “They’re so perky and lush,” he said huskily, his gaze dropping as he pulled her T-shirt from the waistband of her skirt and lifted it up...up...untangling her arms from his neck, tossing the garment aside, unfastening her bra, sliding the straps away. Then his hands were cupping her, his thumbs fanning her erect nipples and she could hardly breathe, so sharp was the pleasure of it.

The urge to touch him as he was touching her compelled her own hands to the buttons on his shirt, fingers travelling rapidly, parting the fabric, and his skin was as smooth as satin, hairless, tightly stretched over strongly delineated muscles. He felt wonderful, almost as though his skin was polished and her hands skimmed over him with sensual delight, amazed that a man could feel like this.

Wayne hadn’t. But she instantly banished the memory of her ex-husband, long gone. There was no comparison to Leo. How could there be? This man was perfection.

In sheer fascination with him she rolled her thumbs over his nipples. He inhaled sharply, his chest expanding, seeming to pulse at the teasing touch, and a thrill of power zinged through Teri. The sure knowledge that she could and did affect him in the same way he affected her was intoxicating.

“Yessss,” he hissed. “More...”

She slid the shirt from his shoulders and they were perfect, too, broad and strong and manly without being overly musclebound. While her hands revelled in gliding over the hard male curves of his upper arms, Leo freed himself of the constricting sleeves and hauled her close again, rubbing his bare chest against the soft mounds of her breasts, sensitising them further as he unbuttoned and unzipped her skirt.

It was so incredibly erotic...her flesh against his. She couldn’t wait to feel the rest of him. Neither could he, scooping the rest of her clothes down, tearing his jeans apart, stepping out of them, shoes flicked off. Then there was nothing between them and they were free to embrace the totality of each other, skin against skin, exploring the differences with gloriously sensual and uninhibited fervor.

“You truly are...all woman,” Leo said in a kind of awe that made Teri feel really special.

Though he was more so...everything she’d imagined he would be...complete and utter male power, sleek and strong and sure in his aggression, wanting her, revelling in her femininity, every taste and touch comprising a constant drive for more and more satisfaction in knowing her, all of her, and Teri could feel herself dissolving inside, like ice-cream subjected to heat, a thick flow of melting ice-cream, and he laid her on the bed and licked her as though he knew it and loved it and couldn’t get enough of it, right down to every possible delicious drop.

Her mouth, her breasts, her stomach, and lower, parting her legs, moving to the most intimate folds of her and she was utterly helpless, her whole body focused on what he was doing to her, enthralled by the exquisite excitement of it...Wayne had never...but Leo...dear heaven! She closed her eyes and gave herself up to the pulsing ecstasy he was stoking with irresistible power.

And then his hand was touching her, too, cupping her, his thumb reaching into her, caressing, causing her to convulse with incredible pleasure, then sliding out to give way to his mouth...his mouth!...and she writhed to the terrible, wonderful madness of it, out of control, caught in the grip of sensations that simply rolled over any caring of what was done or how it was done as long as it kept going.

She cried out when it stopped, the need for continuance screaming through her. Her eyes flew open in urgent pleading. Her arms were limp, heavy, but she lifted them, compelled to hold, to urge more from him. But he was already coming to her, his knees between her legs, and he was hastily sheathing himself with protection.

Shock momentarily slammed through her mind. She hadn’t thought...no matter...he had. It was all right. And seeing him readying himself for her, the brief cautionary cloud was instantly dispersed with a ringing chant of yes...yes...yes...all of him inside her...now, fast, hard, full-on, pounding as wildly as her heart.

He slid an arm underneath her, lifting, and her body instinctively arched to meet and welcome him, craving fulfilment of the promise, quivering with anticipation. She felt him slide into place, felt herself opening for him, wider and wider to accommodate his wonderfully solid fullness and she almost died of sheer delight as he pushed forward to the inner centre of her being.

If he’d stopped then, Teri would have been content, swimming in a sea of ecstasy. As it was, he paused long enough to gather her up and kiss her, heightening the sense of mutual possession, of melding with each other, arousing levels of awareness that exulted in the unifying force of this intense, physical mingling.

Stirred by the flow of his strength, Teri wound her arms and legs around him and he took her with him on a tumultuous ride that broke every barrier of experience she’d known until now. She was swamped with roll after roll of exquisitely sweet sensation as he immersed her in the beat of his mating, the powerful pacing of it pounding through her, consuming every bit of sexual knowledge from her marriage and imprinting a new encyclopaedia of sensory perceptions, all of them measuring far beyond the realities she’d accepted before this.

Not that Teri was actively recording anything. It was simply happening to her. Leo was making it happen... Leo Kingston...and never in a million years was she going to forget how it was with him. And even when he climaxed he didn’t let her go, didn’t let the pulse of excitement seep away. He cuddled her, stroked her, kissed her, murmured what he wanted from her, guiding, and she abandoned herself to following his lead, revelling in his encouragement, his fierce responses, the supreme sensuality he drew from her.

How many times they coupled, how many ways... Teri had no idea. Leo seemed to know endless paths of pleasure though no matter how aroused he was, there was always care for unwelcome consequences, always another sheath of protection against their wild excesses, allowing absolute freedom to indulge themselves wherever desire took them.

There was no ultimate time of satiation, though eventually exhaustion did drug them into languorous periods of sleep from which they stirred when the entanglement of their bodies inadvertently caused movement and another awakening. The hunger for what they gave each other never abated. Even when dawn came they found a new fascination in making love in the softly faltered light, seeing, watching, gloating over their visual discoveries.

Leo’s vivid blue eyes caressed her with warm pleasure as he trailed his fingertips around her breasts in deliciously teasing circles. He was hitched onto his side, one hand propping up his head, and his face wore a relaxed, happy expression. Such a handsome face, Teri thought, though it was really more than handsome.

His black eyebrows had a wicked arch to them, making his eyes a riveting feature. His nose was strong and straight, with a slight flare to his nostrils that drew attention to a mouth any woman would envy, lips that were sharply defined, sensually curved, and perfectly balanced. These attractions were heightened by an innate stamp of authority, an aura of self-confidence that said his thirty-something years had not been wasted. This was a man who went after what he wanted and got it.

She didn’t match him in looks. Her hair was dark but hardly spectacular, cropped short for convenience. She liked her eyes best. They were large, light grey, with reasonably long lashes to emphasise them. Her nose, slightly tilted at the end, was invariably labelled cute. Her mouth was a touch wide and her lower lip was too full for Teri’s liking.

She was certainly not strikingly beautiful but she was passably attractive and there was nothing wrong with her figure. In actual fact, there was a lot right with her figure. Ever since her teens it had drawn attention from the opposite sex, but she’d been with Wayne most of her life, so such attention was irrelevant. She wasn’t interested. She was even less interested after her marriage had failed. A body was simply functional. That was all. Until Leo.

He smiled at her, a slow, lazy, satisfied smile. “Feeling good?”

“Mmmh...” She felt like the proverbial cat who’d fed gluttonously on cream.

“So am I. Better than I’ve felt for a long, long time. You’re a marvel to me, Teri.”

She smiled, thinking all the marvels came from him. “The same for me, Leo.”

“The thing is...” he started, then gave vent to a long sigh, withdrawing his touch which was a chillingly obvious sign of separation from her.

Teri instantly had the sense this was decision time. Morning had come. Where to next? Nerves that had been beautifully lulled, started twitching with apprehension. However physically intimate they’d been, Leo was virtually a stranger. He’d come prepared for sex. Did he make a practice of one-night stands?

His mouth tilted in apologetic irony. “I don’t want to mislead you...”

She tensed, preparing herself for the worst-case scenario. Leo Kingston had given her something very special so she had nothing to complain about, even if it was to be only a one-off experience. Yet she couldn’t help hoping this was the start of something more with him.

“...I love what we’ve been sharing...” he went on, his voice projecting strongly positive appreciation.

But...her mind supplied as her heart cramped. This was surely the carrot ahead of the stick. All along she had assessed him as too good for her, a high-flyer with class stamped all over him, which was why it was so amazing he’d wanted her, a working-class girl in a service industry. Silly to have any expectations of a deep and meaningful relationship.

“...but I’m not into marriage, Teri. I’ve been there, done that, and it wasn’t good.”

Marriage! She hadn’t given a thought to any such future possibility. Now...with him...had completely dominated her mind.

“You’re divorced?” she asked. Although he had declared himself a guy on his own the last time he was here, Teri wanted to know if his wife was still around.

“Very much so,” he answered sardonically.

“So am I,” she confessed. “No fun, is it?”

“None whatsoever.”

“So what are you saying, Leo? You’d like an affair with me as long as I understand wedding bells are out?” she prompted, hoping she had the affair part right.

That idea didn’t upset her at all. If he was considering it. And she appreciated his honesty in warning her off any marriage aspirations. It was best to know where one stood. With Wayne, the sorting through where both of them wanted to go had been long and painful and the sense of failure a deep and scarring torment.

“Are you okay with that, Teri?” Leo asked, searching her eyes very seriously.

She wondered what scars he carried from his marriage. Needing some insight into where he was coming from, she asked, “Why don’t you spell out what you do want, Leo?”

His face lit with an irrepressible grin. “What we’ve just had. Over and over again. As long as it’s good for us.”

Her heart kicked with a wild surge of happy relief. She wanted that, too, as many times as he’d give it to her. Having lived twenty-nine years without experiencing half of what Leo had touched off in her, she’d be mad to pass up the opportunity to feel all this again. Nevertheless, he hadn’t told her much. Only that their pleasure was mutual, which she already knew.

“So we’re talking strictly sex, are we?” she lightly probed, careful not to scare him off.

He frowned, clearly cogitating the equation he wanted. “That sounds rather bald,” he said slowly. “I like you, Teri. Very much. And I don’t want to offend you.”

“Honesty won’t offend me, Leo,” she assured him. “I’d appreciate not being fooled in any way whatsoever.”

God knew she’d fooled herself with rosy expectations going into her marriage with Wayne. She’d sworn never to enter another relationship without pinning everything down. Having her eyes wide open and seeing straight left one a lot less susceptible to miserable disappointment.

It had also narrowed the field of possible men she’d accept in her life so drastically, Leo was the first who’d passed the barriers she’d put up. Though he hadn’t precisely passed them. He’d burst through them. Which made her all the more fascinated by him. She studied his face—the self-knowing intelligence and determination so evident on it—as he answered her.

“I simply don’t want the kind of relationship that hangs a whole lot of emotional blackmail on either of us, Teri. I don’t have the time or the stomach for it.” A flash of bitterness there, almost instantly softened by an appealing, whimsical smile. “I guess I want things free and easy between us. Which is probably completely selfish...” He shrugged, not caring that it was. It was how he wanted it.

“You mean no accountability. Just take it as it comes,” she interpreted.

He nodded. “I travel quite a bit in my business. I can be away for weeks at a time, so don’t expect some kind of regular arrangement. It won’t happen...” His eyes hardened. “...and I won’t be pressured into it.”

It was clear their affair would proceed on his terms or he’d call it quits. Teri wasn’t sure how she felt about that...the total disregard for whatever needs she might have. Though he certainly fulfilled one need. He was top of the pack on that score. Absolutely top.

Her gaze glided down his magnificent physique and the lust for more of him gripped the pit of her stomach. No love involved here. Once she would have thought herself...sluttish...for feeling as she did now, but love had only brought her disillusionment Why not take what she could get from this man? At least it was something good. Better than good. Fantastic!

She’d been working hard, establishing her restaurant business, virtually to the exclusion of everything else except visiting her family now and then. She’d earned a bit of spice in her life. Hot spice! She couldn’t help grinning at the thought and her eyes danced back up to his.

“Okay,” she agreed. “No commitments. Just when it suits both of us.”

Relief and sparkling delight shone from him. “Great! You’re a woman in a million, Teri. Finding you is like winning the lottery.”

She laughed. “Maybe I got a bottle of champagne in you, Leo.”

“Then celebration is in order,” he said with a purposeful gleam.

He kissed her and the champagne fizzed so beautifully, Teri had no regrets over the bargain it sealed with Leo Kingston.

Pure pleasure.

No harm in that.

As long as she didn’t attach anything else to it.