Читать книгу Modern Romance October 2016 Books 5-8 - Ким Лоренс, Kate Walker - Страница 16

CHAPTER FIVE

‘THIS IS ONE of the earliest squares in Salvador, laid out by the then governor. And that is the Catedral Basílica de São Salvador—one of the most ornately decorated baroque churches in Brazil.’

Lia had thought she couldn’t be more impressed than she already was, but as she followed Ben into the huge church off the beautiful square and saw how everything gleamed with gold—literally—her jaw dropped. She had to hand it to him for keeping this till last.

It was a fitting end to what she had to admit had been a very enjoyable day—after that skirmish by the side of the road.

Almost against her will Lia had found herself relaxing bit by bit as Ben showed her around the stunning city which had once been next in importance to Lisbon in the Portuguese colony. It was vibrantly colourful, with hilly cobbled streets and baroque architecture everywhere, and she’d been charmed from the start.

Everyone seemed to smile all the time, and the mix of cultures and nationalities—many of the population were descended from African slaves—added to the melting pot atmosphere. There was music everywhere, calling to a side of Lia that she didn’t indulge often.

Just as she’d relaxed when she’d sunk her feet into the sand outside Ben’s villa yesterday, something seemed to be unwinding inside her today. Everything about this place called on her to settle into a different rhythm. It was intoxicating. And Ben, surprisingly, was a brilliant guide. A natural storyteller.

He’d also proved himself to be a consummate gentleman. If he’d touched her at all it had been only fleetingly, to draw her attention to something—like when they’d stood on a bluff overlooking the city and the impressive bay. Perversely, that had seemed to have more of an effect on her than if he’d touched her with more intent.

He’d taken her to lunch to an admittedly dubious-looking restaurant on the seafront earlier. Catching her expression, he had chided softly, ‘Don’t let its exterior fool you—the owner keeps it looking like this to scare the tourists away. This place serves the best fish in Brazil, and it’s for locals only.’

He’d been right. To Lia’s surprise it had been pristine inside, and the fish had indeed been the best she’d ever tasted, served on a beautiful rooftop with trellised vines keeping the harshness of the sun at bay. The smell of the sea had only added to the taste.

She was acutely aware of Ben now, as he walked close behind her as they looked around the cathedral.

Lia stopped at the wooden altar, which was covered in a thin layer of gold. She shook her head. ‘This is totally over the top, but it’s beautiful.’

‘I know.’

She glanced up to see Ben had come to stand beside her and was looking up at the ceiling. He said, ‘They brought the stone for a lot of these buildings all the way from Portugal, on ships. The sheer industry involved is breathtaking.’

Lia hardly heard what he said. She was mesmerised by the strong column of his throat and that proud profile. The sensual curve of his fuller lower lip. She wondered about his early life. Where exactly had he dragged himself from to become such a titan of industry?

Just then someone bumped into her from behind, making her pitch forward into thin air, but within a split-second strong arms were around her and she was pressed close to Ben’s side as he accepted someone’s profuse apology over her head.

Lia’s breasts were crushed against hard muscle, and every curve she had and even some she hadn’t been aware of melted into Ben’s form as if they’d just been waiting for this opportunity. Her hands were splayed across his chest and she was very aware of the thin material of his T-shirt. She’d noticed how it had moulded to those defined muscles whenever the breeze had caught it during the day. And the way his faded jeans clung lovingly to powerful thighs and tight buttocks.

For someone who up till now hadn’t considered herself very sexual, some switch seemed to have been well and truly turned to on.

The tour group behind them moved on but Ben didn’t release her. She was filled with lassitude and a reluctance to break free. Slowly she looked up—and fell straight into those bluer-than-blue eyes.

The memory of that hot kiss in New York emblazoned itself on her mind...she wanted to reach up and feel his mouth on hers again. Feel the slick slide of his tongue against hers. Something sizzled.

‘I’m okay...’ Lia finally managed to get out, pulling herself back from the brink of humiliating herself again. ‘You can let me go now.’

For a moment Ben didn’t, and Lia’s heart spasmed with anticipation in the flickering glow of a thousand candles, and then he did, saying with a little grimace, ‘As my thoughts are decidedly unholy right now, I think it’s for the best.’

By the time they’d reached the entrance again and walked out, with Lia keeping a careful few steps behind Ben, she’d almost got herself under control. She’d just had a glimpse of how much he’d lulled her into a false sense of security, but instead of making her angry, she felt excited.

The setting sun was burnishing everything with blazing orange and pink, and some musicians nearby were infusing the air with a contagious tropical beat. An old Bahian couple danced together and for a moment Lia felt reckless, giddy. Just as she had on the dais at the auction... Dangerous. Maybe the intense smell of incense had got to her inside the cathedral? Maybe it was all part of this man’s plan to break down her defences until she was just a weak, pliable mess?

Then he turned to look at her and every coherent thought left her head. She already was a weak mess. Pathetic.

Ben frowned then and plucked his phone out of his jeans pocket, looking at the screen. Lia hadn’t heard a sound, so it must be on silent, and she only realised then how much attention he’d devoted to her all day, rarely looking at his phone at all—which, in this day of digital over-connectivity, was pretty amazing. Especially for an important CEO of his own company.

Her ex-fiancé, who’d had a far less important job, had always been glued to his two phones.

Ben looked at her. ‘That was from a friend of mine who lives here in town. He’s heard that I’m here and he’s invited me to a party in his house tonight.’

Lia felt an acute sense of disappointment that their day was at an end and, terrified by that reaction, said quickly, ‘Oh...of course you should go. I’m sure I can take a bus or a taxi back to the villa...’

He shook his head at her and his eyes gleamed. ‘I don’t intend to go alone.’

Lia flushed with a mix of pleasure and trepidation. Her feelings for this man had undergone a seismic change in just one day—helped by the seductive surroundings, yes, but also because he was proving to be far more enticing than she’d expected.

She’d thought it would be easy to dismiss him. To maintain her aloofness. But right now she was hot and sticky on the outside, and inside, in secret places. Although she had the sense to know that she was no real match for a man like Ben Carter, connoisseur of women. Playboy.

‘I couldn’t intrude, but you should go.’

Ben shook his head and asked softly, ‘When was the last time you did something spontaneous and had fun?’

The question was so unexpected that Lia blinked for a moment. A kind of cold horror swept through her as she realised that she’d couldn’t remember the last really spontaneous thing she’d done. If she’d ever done anything. And as for fun...? She’d had fun with her father on their sailing trips, but they hadn’t done one of those for a long time.

As Louis Ford’s daughter, not a lot of her colleagues saw her as someone to have fun with when she was keeping an eye on things for her father—no doubt afraid she’d report back to the boss. And, her relationship with Simon certainly hadn’t been fun.

Absurdly, she felt her throat grow tight as the pathetic reality sank in. And through it all Ben just watched her with those bright blue eyes, seeing all the way through to where she was most vulnerable.

Lia fought to regain her composure and swallowed the lump in her throat. ‘Well, if you’re sure he won’t mind...’

‘He won’t.’

Ben smiled, and it knocked the breath from Lia’s chest.

‘You’ll see how things work here—it’s much more relaxed. It’s not just Luis, it’s his husband, Ricardo, too. They love being surrounded by beauty—including beautiful women, so I’ll soon be relegated to the sidelines.’

Something inside her contracted at his easy mention of these friends. And the truth was that she wanted to know more about Ben Carter—she couldn’t deny it, much as she might want to.

She pointed vaguely at her attire, dusty and wrinkled after the long day, and said ruefully, ‘I’m hardly dressed for polite company.’

‘I know a place that’ll look after us.’

Ben held out his hand. Lia looked at it for a long moment, and then an overwhelming sense of rightness made her put her hand in his. He held it as they left the square behind and walked back to the car. And Lia tried to ignore the sensation that she’d just turned a corner and she’d never find her way back.

But she couldn’t. It sat in her belly like a fizzing time bomb.

* * *

Ben had taken Lia to a friend’s boutique after she’d put her hand in his and let him lead her back to the car. Her agreement to go to the party with him had left him buoyant. Crazy how each tiny concession from this woman felt like a ridiculous triumph.

When they’d got to the boutique Ben had tensed, waiting for Lia to turn up her nose at the discreet name over the door, but she’d gone in, oblivious to his tension, showing him yet another facet of her personality—she obviously wasn’t defined by designer labels.

Within minutes he’d explained what they needed to Gaby, Esmé’s cousin and the shop’s owner, and she’d handed Ben some clothes and whisked Lia out of sight behind a swathe of velvet material. Ben waited now, having changed into smart black trousers and a shirt.

When he heard a noise behind him he turned around and for a second his brain froze. Lia stood before him in bare feet, her hair tumbling around her shoulders. And her dress...her dress took his breath away.

It was a long silk wraparound dress in a deep royal blue colour that made her eyes pop like two gems. He could see a tantalising slit in the material that revealed one long shapely leg. He could see even from where he stood that in the space of two days her skin had taken on a faint golden glow, and he knew that there was already a spread of light freckles across her nose.

He felt robbed of breath. As if someone had punched him.

The vee neckline of the dress was a tantalising enticement to pull the material aside. It would be so easy to expose a lush breast and then cup its weight—

Lia started to turn away, saying, ‘I knew it. It’s too—’

Her voice cut through the haze in his brain. ‘No!’ His voice sounded too harsh to his ears.

She turned around again, slowly. Amazingly, she looked unsure.

‘It’s perfect,’ he managed to say, sounding only half coherent.

Gaby appeared then, and caught the end of their conversation. ‘Ben’s right! It’s just perfect for one of Ricardo and Luis’s parties. And on you, my darling, it is perfeito. Come, let’s find you some shoes to wear.’

Ben was glad of a moment alone to gather his wits again. What the hell was wrong with him? He’d seen plenty of women in far less clothing and it had never made him feel as if he was teetering on the brink of some kind of meltdown. And usually seeing women in clothes he’d bought them came after he’d slept with them.

So far his relationship with Lia was the most chaste he’d ever indulged in. He wasn’t necessarily proud to admit that, for him, relationships with women were less about really getting to know them and more about slaking the desire he felt for them, which was usually fleeting.

He had a sense that where Lia was concerned his lust wouldn’t be so easily slaked.

For the first time he had to wonder if he’d done the right thing, bringing her here... But then she emerged again, wearing strappy silver sandals, and that last thought was blasted apart by another surge of desire.

He instructed Gaby to put all the items on his tab and took the bag she gave him containing the clothes they’d been wearing earlier. Outside, Ben opened the car door for Lia to get in. He could see her biting her lip, looking concerned.

She stopped with her hand on the door and looked at him. ‘I’ll pay you back for the clothes.’

Confirmation of the fact that she wasn’t spoilt. Another blow to Ben’s misconceptions.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ he said gruffly.

Lia slid into the passenger seat, her dress gaping slightly as she did so, affording him a glimpse of the curve of one perfectly rounded breast encased in delicate lace.

Gritting his jaw, Ben closed the door and strode around the other side of the car, praying for the strength to restrain himself. He’d never needed it more than right now.

* * *

Ben’s friends were an exuberant couple who swept Lia into their embraces and their stunning baroque mansion, high on a hill overlooking the entire city, within seconds. Much to her amusement, Ben had predicted their reaction accurately: he was all but ignored as they grilled her.

‘But where have you been all our lives?’

‘This is a scandal! You can’t live in cold, grey England—move here! We need more beautiful women!’

In truth, they were a little overwhelming, both at once, and soon Ben took advantage of more guests arriving, skilfully manoeuvring them to where long tables covered in pristine white linen groaned under the weight of more food than Lia had ever seen in her life.

Every delicacy was available. and she found herself gravitating towards the local fare, much to the chef’s obvious pleasure, as he explained exactly what everything was.

Ben took their plates and Lia picked up their drinks. He guided her over to one of the many small round tables laid out for guests to eat at with ease. It was idyllic, with hundreds of candles flickering and the sparkling lights of the city below them. A jazz band played on a dais in the corner.

After they’d eaten a little, Ben sat back. ‘You can admit it—you won’t self-combust, I promise.’

She looked at him and knew instantly what he meant. A small, slightly smug smile was playing around that far too gorgeous mouth and something inside her just...melted. Also, far more disturbingly, that giddy reckless feeling was back. In the white shirt, open at the neck, he was astonishingly handsome. And the fact that he hadn’t pushed her was working in his favour. Damn him.

She picked up a small morsel of cheese from her plate and threw it at him, saying grudgingly, ‘Fine. Yes, I’ll admit it. I’m glad I came to the party and I’m enjoying myself.’

He flicked the cheese off his shoulder and leaned towards her. ‘It’s polite to say thank you, you know.’

She could read very well in his expression how he might suggest being thanked, and for a second Lia desperately wished she had the confidence to pull him closer, so she could explore that mouth... She snapped her gaze back up to his, feeling hot. The thought made a spike of pleasure arrow between her legs, and she said, far too breathily, ‘Don’t push it, Ben.’

He just looked at her for a long moment. ‘I won’t...for now.’

And right then Lia’s belly swooped, because in all honesty she wasn’t sure if she could hold him back for much longer. Or if she wanted to.

* * *

‘He’s quite a specimen, isn’t he?’

Lia jumped, and blushed when she realised that she’d been spotted ogling Ben—who was standing head and shoulders above everyone else in the crowd—by one of their hosts, Ricardo. The impressive sight of Ben had stalled her momentarily.

The handsome grey-haired Italian who she’d discovered owned several of Brazil’s most luxurious hotels was looking at her now, assessingly.

‘I...yes, I guess he’s handsome,’ Lia said weakly.

The other man snorted inelegantly. ‘Cara, he’s certifiably one of the sexiest men on the planet, and right now I am jealous of you.’

Lia hid her discomfiture and smiled. ‘Better not let Luis hear you say that.’

Ricardo waved a dismissive hand. ‘Lusting after someone isn’t a crime.’

Lia was curious now. ‘How do you two know Ben?’

‘Oh, we’ve known Ben since he started out, more or less. When he first set up his company we were among his first clients. We’ve always been interested in fresh new talent, and we’d seen some of his work in Manhattan. It’s really amazing what he’s achieved, considering the fact that he was once heir to one of America’s biggest fortunes.’

Lia frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

He looked at her, incredulous. ‘You don’t know?’

‘Know what?’

Ricardo looked at her as if she’d grown two heads. ‘Ben was born into American royalty—more or less. His father was Jonathan Carter, the man who practically owned Wall Street until it was revealed that he’d been defrauding clients and the market for years. Ben went from living in a mansion on the Upper East Side to a one-bedroomed shack in Queens overnight.’

Shock and disbelief reverberated through Lia as she looked across the crowd again at that broad back. Of course she knew who Jonathan Carter was—his name was synonymous with the global financial crisis, and much of the blame had been apportioned to him.

Just then Ben turned around, and his blue gaze lasered straight onto her. She felt the pull all the way across the room.

From beside her, Ricardo said mournfully, ‘What I wouldn’t give for him to look at me like that.’

Lia forced a smile and made her way back across the room, feeling seriously confused after Ricardo’s revelation. She thought back to when it had happened and figured that Ben must have been only in his early teens—if that.

When she got closer, she saw that a very glamorous woman beside Ben had a hand on his arm. She embodied dark-eyed sultry Brazilian sexiness, with generous curves that defied gravity. Immediately Lia felt a surge of something almost violent, and when Ben pulled her close to him with his free arm she found herself revelling in the proprietorial gesture.

The other woman’s eyes flashed with displeasure, but she blasted Lia with a fake smile and walked away. Suddenly aware that she was acting very much out of character, Lia tried to pull away—but Ben wouldn’t let her, turning so that she was pressed to his front.

‘What are you doing?’ She looked up at him. What Ricardo had told her was making her feel off-centre. He really had built himself up from nothing. After having had everything.

‘I’m thinking that it’s time to go home.’

Lia looked around, momentarily disorientated, and realised that the crowd had thinned out substantially. It was a lot later than she’d realised. She looked back to Ben, feeling hot when she noticed the growth of stubble on his jaw. He was so masculine. And there was so much more to him than she’d ever given him credit for. He wasn’t the only one who was guilty of prejudice.

‘Okay.’ Her voice was husky. ‘Let’s go.’

He took her hand to lead her out, and as they said goodbye to their hosts Lia felt genuine emotion at the thought that she probably wouldn’t meet them again. She’d enjoyed herself more than she’d expected. She’d had fun.

Once back in Ben’s Jeep, she kicked off her sandals and stretched out her feet. She couldn’t help sneaking glances at his profile, stern in the shadows of the car.

As they left the city behind them, Ben asked lightly, ‘So, what were you and Ricardo talking about?’

Lia tensed, feeling guilty even though she knew it was irrational. She could have found out about his past if she’d dug a little deeper. Her own innate sense of honesty made her say, ‘I didn’t know that your father was Jonathan Carter.’

Ben’s hand on the steering wheel tightened, his knuckles showing white. ‘I should have guessed Ricardo wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to gossip.’

Lia turned in her seat and rushed to defend the man. ‘It wasn’t like that. I asked him how he knew you and he happened to mention—’ She stopped, recalling the exact words. Maybe Ben’s friend had been a little gossipy.

Ben said dryly, ‘Do go on.’

Lia swallowed. ‘He just mentioned that he thought it was amazing, all you’d achieved, considering how your family had lost everything.’ When Ben didn’t respond, Lia said, ‘It’s not exactly common knowledge.’

He glanced at her. ‘You mean because it didn’t come up when you did an internet search on me?’

She turned back to face the front and said hotly, ‘That’s hardly fair. You knew exactly who I was when you asked the matchmaker to set us up.’

Tension thickened in the intimate space of the car, and then Ben said with evident reluctance, ‘The reason why my past doesn’t always come up is because people choose to forget what’s not relevant any more. It’s old news.’ His lips twisted. ‘Especially after my father had the temerity to die in relative squalor and solitude with my mother following him a year later. I guess they figured he’d paid his dues.’

Sensing he wouldn’t appreciate platitudes, Lia just asked, ‘How did they die?’

‘My father drank himself to death. He’d always been a heavy drinker—albeit of fine whiskies, when he could afford them. The cheaper stuff didn’t suit his system so well. And my mother had a heart attack. She couldn’t come to terms with what the real world looked like.’

Lia was silent, absorbing the enormity of what he’d just revealed. ‘That’s why you don’t drink?’

He nodded, the lines of his face stern. Lia figured it was no surprise, after seeing his father poison himself. She knew enough about him now to know that he would consider that an immense failing in personal control.

She could imagine him as a young boy—handsome and privileged, no doubt attending the best schools, with his future mapped out. The world at his feet. Only to have it ripped apart and the grim reality of how things really were revealed. No wonder he’d thought he had her all summed up.

Sensing he’d appreciate a change in subject, she asked, ‘So why Brazil? Do you have a special connection to here?’

Ben glanced at her again and she caught the gleam of something wry in his expression. ‘Did Ricardo stop gossiping long enough to answer your actual question?’

Lia frowned. ‘He said that he’d seen some of your work in Manhattan...’

‘Yes, and then he approached me with an offer to bid for the work on one of his hotels in Brazil. It was just when my company was starting to break even.’

‘How old were you?’ Lia asked.

Ben shrugged minutely. ‘About twenty-five.’

Lia held in her shock. Some achievement, indeed. Clearly he’d been very driven, and questions abounded in her head as to what had happened after his mother had died. She knew what everyone else knew, about the foster homes, but how had he crawled out of that to achieve such meteoric success?

Ben continued. ‘I went down to Bahia to see the site, and after a meeting Ricardo signed me up then and there. After completing the job I realised I’d come to love the place—it was like a breath of fresh air. Different, vibrant. Unstuffy. So I decided that I’d build a holiday home there. My family used to have a house in North Shore on Long Island. The community there, who had once been like family, completely ostracised us when my father lost everything. But as soon as I started to make a name for myself, some of my father’s old cronies came out of the woodwork, as if nothing had happened. The last place I wanted to be was back in that stuffy environment.’

Lia could hear the bitterness in Ben’s voice and read between the lines. Where had those ‘friends’ been when he’d been alone and defenceless?

Lia said lightly, ‘Sounds like you made the right decision.’

She could feel him looking at her, but she didn’t want him to see the mix of emotions she was trying to hide. She’d felt off-kilter from the moment she’d laid eyes on this man, and now it was even worse.

When Ben drove through the gates leading to his villa a short while later, Lia realised she’d been engrossed in her own circling thoughts. Ben got out of the driver’s side and came around to help Lia out—the perfect gentleman. She only realised her feet were still bare when they hit the sharp gravel and she let out a squeak.

Before she knew what was happening she was being lifted into Ben’s arms and he was striding into the villa as if she weighed nothing.

‘You don’t have to carry me,’ she said, but it was too late. They were inside, and he was putting her down.

Her head was whirling. She couldn’t look at him, overwhelmed with some nameless emotion.

But Ben caught her chin with a finger and tipped her face up. He frowned. ‘What is it?’

The fact that she felt absurdly close to tears was horrifying. She bit her lip, and then said, ‘I don’t know... I’m just... I’m sorry for what you went through. I can’t imagine how awful it must have been.’

Ben’s expression became shuttered in an instant, and he let her go so fast that she almost lurched forward.

He backed away, his lip curling. ‘What? You’re feeling sorry for me now because the poor little rich boy lost everything and had to slum it? Suddenly everything’s more palatable now that you know I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth?’

Horror that he could think such a thing, and hurt, made Lia put out a hand. ‘No! I didn’t mean it like that at all—’

But he cut her off, saying harshly, ‘It was the best thing that could have happened to me. It woke me up to reality before I could get too cushioned by life. I knew not to take anything for granted, as my father had done. Not to grow complacent. I learnt the value of hard work and building something with your own hands—something that won’t collapse.’

‘I can understand that,’ Lia said quietly, hating it that he’d misunderstood her.

* * *

Ben looked at the woman in front of him, her hair tousled and that glorious dress falling to the floor where her bare feet peeped out. She was all slender curves and pale skin.

He knew he was wrong about her—that she wasn’t a snob. And he knew what he’d just said hadn’t been fair. But right now he was filled with something that was threatening to push him over the edge. He’d never revealed so much to anyone. Never spoken about his past like that. About his father’s drinking. His mother’s weakness.

Lia stepped forward, her hand out, her eyes wide and full of something Ben didn’t want to decipher.

‘Ben, I’m sorry, please let me explain—’

He tipped over that edge. ‘No,’ he said harshly. ‘You don’t need to explain anything because I’m not interested in talking any more. All I’m interested in is this...’

Before she could say another word Ben had closed the distance between them, taken her face in his hands and was kissing her. Kissing her the way he’d been aching to kiss her again. For a long second she was frozen in his arms, and then she was moving closer and reaching up. Pressing her body against his.

Everything was forgotten as she twined her arms around his neck. Their angry words were decimated in the heat of this passion. Their mouths fused for a long moment, as if the intensity was too much to break, and then subtly Ben coaxed her to open her mouth to him. When his tongue touched hers he was lost, drowning in a sea of sensation and growing lust as he demanded a response, which she gave willingly.

He moved his hands down her back and settled them on her hips, hauling her closer. Close enough so she could feel what she was doing to him, where he ached most of all. Lia gasped into his mouth but he didn’t let her break away. He never wanted to let her go again...

* * *

Between Lia’s legs she felt damp and hot. Her breasts ached, pressed tight against his chest. But somehow a tiny sliver of sanity returned and she tore her mouth away from Ben’s, breathing as if she’d just run a marathon.

They’d combusted. That was the only word for it. She’d never felt anything like it. She hadn’t even known she was capable of this much feeling.

‘I can’t—’ she gasped incoherently, too far gone to be embarrassed. ‘This is too...too much.’

The look in Ben’s eyes was hot and feral. ‘It’s not nearly enough.’

He caught her hand and led her deeper into the living room. Lia’s body throbbed in time with the blood pumping to every erogenous zone. Ben took her over to one of the couches and made her sit down. She was glad, because her legs were shaking.

He stood above her, looking down with a kind of intensity that scared and excited her in equal measure.

‘You’re so beautiful...’

She went to pull the edges of her dress together, feeling exposed, thinking of that buxom Brazilian beauty earlier. ‘I’m not...’

He came down on his knees before her then, taking her by surprise. He put his hands on her thighs and gently pushed her legs apart, moving between them. His eyes burned into hers.

‘Yes, you are. And I’m sorry for lashing out just now...you didn’t deserve that.’

His apology struck at the heart of her. ‘That’s okay...’

He put his hands on her hips and pulled her towards him so that she lay back on the couch. She whispered through her erratic heartbeat. ‘What are you doing?’

He smiled, but it was the smile of the devil. Dark and decadent. Sexy. ‘Something I’ve wanted to do from the moment I saw you in this dress.’

He leant forward, putting delicious pressure on her between her legs, and slowly but methodically pushed her hands out of the way so that he could pull apart the neckline of her dress, all too easily. Lia remembered his look in the shop, and instead of feeling self-conscious, something scarily exultant moved through her.

Her delicate underwired blue lace bra opened very conveniently from the front. Ben undid the catch and pushed the lace material aside. He cupped one full breast with his hand, making it pout upwards. Lia’s breath stalled as shards of pleasure raced through her body. Excitement fizzed in her veins. And then Ben bent his head and tongued her nipple, bringing it to tingling hardness before he sucked it into his mouth.

Lia had a moment of sheer disbelief that this man could possibly want her this much before sensations she’d never felt before swamped her and removed her ability to think. Without even registering the movement, she found her hands were in Ben’s hair and she was clutching him to her breast. Eyes shut, heart pounding...

He was reaching right down inside her and unlocking the door to all the insecurities she’d buried deep. And she couldn’t stop him. Because the pleasure was eclipsing any fear she might be feeling—if she was even capable of being rational right now.

When Ben finally lifted his head from her tender flesh she opened her eyes, and it took her a second to focus and realise that she held his head in a death grip.

She let go immediately, horrified. But Ben just smiled. He lifted a hand and brushed some hair back off her cheek in a surprisingly tender move, even as she felt the hard length of his erection near the apex of her legs. She was aware that if she moved slightly it would create the friction she suddenly needed.

Who was she? What had she become?

‘You look deliciously...undone.’

Ben’s voice was gravelly. Lia looked at him, feeling twin desires: to move and pull her dress around her again, and also just to lie there and offer herself up to him.

He started to press kisses down her torso, his hands reaching around and finding where the dress was tied, undoing it easily, the silk like water in his hands. Soon he had her dress pushed apart completely, and he looked down at her blue lace panties.

Immediately Lia had a memory of her ex-fiancé, recoiling in horror when he’d first seen that she didn’t shave all over, and she tried to sit up awkwardly, putting a hand down to cover herself.

Ben caught her, though, stopping her hand with his, looking at her. ‘What is it?’

Now she felt horribly rational, and exposed and sane. Her ex-fiancé wasn’t remotely in the same league as Ben, and if he had found that part of her a turn-off...

She looked away. ‘I’m not...’ She forced herself to look at him. ‘I’m probably not like your usual lovers...’

Ben looked down between her legs and then back up, incredulous. ‘Because you don’t shave?’

Lia gulped. God, this was excruciating. She nodded. His face flushed and he took her hand and brought it down until he could place it over the bulge between his legs. The very hard bulge. Now she flushed.

‘Sweetheart,’ he growled, ‘when I make love to a woman I like to know she’s a woman. And right now I need to taste you, more than I’ve ever wanted to do anything else. Will you let me taste you?’

Something scarily exultant ripped through Lia. He wasn’t turned off. He wanted to taste her. Did that mean he wanted to do what she’d seen Simon doing to his secretary when she’d walked in on them that day? The thought sent her mind reeling. It had looked so decadent to her at the time. And she’d never got over the jealousy that he’d been moved to do that to this lover, not to her... And now this man was asking her—

Before she could lose her nerve, Lia said huskily, ‘Okay.’

Ben reached for the sides of her panties, expertly pulling them down and dropping them near her feet. She was bared completely now, the silk of the dress falling away as he pushed her thighs apart even more.

Lia closed her eyes and bit into her fist as Ben’s head dropped and she felt his mouth on her soft inner thigh, pressing kisses and nipping at her skin gently. She was in danger of hyperventilating again, especially when his mouth moved higher, closer to the apex of her legs.

She didn’t think he could spread her any wider but then he did, his big hands high on her thighs.

As if reading her mind, he commanded, ‘Look at me.’

Reluctantly she opened her eyes. Ben had taken off his shirt and his chest was bare and massive. She couldn’t breathe as he bent forward and pressed his mouth to her, his tongue hot and wet as he dragged it up the secret folds of her body.

Lia’s breath returned and she hitched in big gulps as that dark head bobbed and moved between her legs. His hands looked massive on her pale skin.

Ben looked up, ‘Touch your breast.’

Feeling dizzy, even though she was all but lying down, Lia brought a hand to her breast, trapping a nipple between her fingers.

‘Now, squeeze...’ Ben instructed softly.

She did, and gasped as an arrow of pleasure went straight to her groin. Ben smiled and it was wicked as he bent his head again and tortured her with his mouth and tongue.

When he pushed a finger deep into the heart of her she arched her back off the couch, and then it became two fingers, thrusting in and out as his mouth and tongue lapped at her with fierce intensity.

Lia couldn’t hold on. The coil of tension inside her snapped and she cried out as pleasure exploded her into tiny pieces. Waves of after-shocks rocked through her body for long moments, and she only became aware of her surroundings again when she could open her eyes and blink to focus, realising that Ben had lapped all that pleasure from her body and was now pressing lazy kisses to her inner thighs.

She felt undone. Turned inside out. Totally exposed but too spent to do anything about it. She realised that she was still squeezing her breast, almost painfully, and let go.