Читать книгу Seduction: The Billionaire's Bride of Vengeance - Miranda Lee - Страница 16

NICOLE squeezed her eyes tightly shut against the sensations bombarding her body.

Oh, yes, she thought wildly when he sucked harder on her nipple. Yes!

Her hands closed into tightly balled fists by the sides of the seat, her bag having long slipped out of her grasp. She pressed her back against the leather and lifted her chest higher for him, inviting his mouth to take in more of her breast.

His sudden desertion dragged a groan from deep in her throat, her eyelashes fluttering open to stare up into the darkly silhouetted face looming over her.

‘As much as I’d like to ravage you right here and now,’ he said thickly, ‘ I think it best that we wait till I get you home.’

A stunned Nicole just sat there as he returned to the driver’s seat and started up the engine, several seconds passing before she realised her left breast was totally exposed, its peaked nipple still glistening with his saliva.

‘Leave it like that,’ he growled when her hand moved to cover herself up.

‘I … I can’t,’ she said, shocked by the suggestion. ‘Someone might see me.’ And she quickly pulled her dress back into place.

‘As you wish, beautiful,’ he said as he sped off.

As I wish?

Nicole’s eyes darted across to the man behind the wheel, her gaze landing on his hands first. Big they were, and strong.

What she wished was that they were on her body again. His mouth, too, on her breasts and between her legs.

Nicole shuddered at how thrilling she found that thought. How thrilling she found him, wickedly thrilling.

Oh, yes, he was wicked all right.

But oh, so passionate. The things he’d said to her back at the yacht club, the things he’d done to her just now in this car …

She was still thinking about those things when his car zoomed down into the harbour tunnel and she realised where he was taking her: to her old home in Belleview Hill. But now it had become his, for twenty million dollars …

This last thought brought her back to some semblance of sense, reminding Nicole of her recent vow never to have anything to do with rich men. Not only were a lot of them corrupt and amoral, but most were also arrogant and spoiled and far too used to getting their own way.

Russell McClain was undoubtedly all of those things. Just look at the company he kept! Hugh Parkinson was a roué, if ever there was one. As for James Logan … Nicole hoped Megan would be happy with him, but she doubted it.

So what on earth was she doing going home with him?

Nicole had never been a one-night-stand kind of girl. In the past, she’d thought of herself as a prize for the man who was pursuing her, a prize worth waiting for. She’d been taught by her once-bitten mother to put tickets on herself in that regard, to not give herself cheaply and easily.

Which she hadn’t.

She’d dated David for two months before they’d slept together.

Still, David had never made her crave him the way she was craving Russell McClain right at this moment. She could not stop thinking about it, could not wait to feel again what this man could make her feel.

His being rich was irrelevant at this moment. No doubt she would regret her impulsive behaviour in the morning. But future regrets had no chance of making her do or say anything to stop the man sitting next to her from having his wicked way with her tonight.

By the time Russell arrived at his destination, the demands of his cruelly frustrated body threatened to override his need to control this situation, himself, and her.

Nicole’s silence during the drive had given him far too much time to think about the rest of the evening, his desire for her body, plus the anticipation of finally getting even with Alistair Power through his daughter, proving an intoxicating mix. He could not wait to take her, to watch her come apart in his arms.

But that would only happen if he could control his own excruciating need for release.

Not an ideal situation.

But still his priority remained to whip her up to Power’s master bedroom, where the greatest revenge of all could begin.

‘You don’t have a girlfriend tucked away somewhere, do you?’ Nicole suddenly asked as he drove through the gates. ‘Or a wife?’

Russell’s eyebrows lifted. Hardly the question a totally turned-on girl would ask.

But typical of women like Nicole Powers. They always had their eyes on the ball.

‘Of course not,’ he said truthfully.

‘You … you wouldn’t lie to me, would you?’

Something in her voice pricked his conscience.

‘Why would I do that?’ he answered a little gruffly.

‘To get me into bed.’

He parked at the base of the front steps and turned off the engine before facing her. ‘I’ve never had any trouble getting women into my bed before, Nicole. And I haven’t had to lie.’

He reached out and touched her flushed cheek before trailing his fingers over to her mouth. Slowly, he traced her lips with a single fingertip till her mouth fell open on a low moan. He might have inserted his finger for her to suck if he hadn’t already been on a dangerous edge himself.

‘There’s no need for me to lie to you,’ Russell lied as he let his hand drop away. ‘You’re an adult woman, Nicole. You’ve come here with me willingly, so let’s not play games with each other. Let’s just enjoy tonight for what it is. A man and a woman totally in tune with each other. Come on, let’s get out of here and go somewhere a lot more comfortable.’

She didn’t protest when he took her hand and led her up the curving staircase into the master bedroom. But she did look a little shell-shocked, her eyes widening when they landed on the bed, which he’d fortunately had the foresight to make that morning, complete with its French lace duvet.

‘You can’t expect me to sleep with you in my mother’s bed,’ she choked out, her bag clutched defensively in front of her.

‘My bed now,’ he said, removing that infernal bag and tossing it onto the bedside table before pulling her into his arms again. She went, but rather reluctantly, which was not what he wanted. He wanted her mindless, as she’d been back in his car.

‘Come, now, Nicole, you’re … how old?’

‘Twenty-five.’

‘Old enough not to worry about such things, then. Your mother is a woman of the world. Do you really think she’d care?’ he finished as his head began to descend.

No, Nicole realised just before he kissed her. She probably wouldn’t. All her mother cared about these days was the good life. It didn’t even bother her that her husband was unfaithful.

But still … being in her bed didn’t feel right.

Any qualms she had about where Russell made love to her, however, were obliterated within seconds of his lips meeting hers, that incredible craving returning with an urgency which brooked no excuses or objections. Soon, all she cared about was that his mouth was back on hers again. His hands, too.

A small degree of panic resurfaced when he stopped kissing her long enough to turn back the duvet. She whispered a feeble protest when Russell started undressing her, but he just said, ‘Don’t be silly,’ and kept on stripping her till she was totally naked, except for her jewellery.

His stepping back and just staring at her at that stage brought a rush of dark excitement, the like of which she’d never known before. Although not in any way ashamed of her body, Nicole had never been an exhibitionist. Having Russell’s hungry eyes raking over her bare skin, however, sent her head spinning, her nipples peaking under his hot gaze, her belly tightening with the most delicious tension.

‘Take the jewellery off,’ he commanded in a desire-thickened voice.

She managed to unhook the drop earrings and put them on the bedside table, but fumbled with the clasp of the pendant.

‘I’ll do it,’ he ground out, and strode round behind her.

She shivered when his fingers grazed the nape of her neck.

‘Was this a present?’ he asked as he slid the released necklace from around her throat.

‘Yes,’ she choked out.

‘From a besotted admirer, no doubt. No, don’t bother to answer that. I haven’t brought you here to discuss your past conquests,’ he said as he dropped the necklace next to the earrings then turned her round to face him.

‘Frankly, I prefer you without adornment of any kind,’ he said, his eyes narrowing as they travelled slowly over her totally exposed body.

Nicole didn’t know what to say or do. So she just stood there and let him look at her, her mouth bone-dry, her heart racing behind her ribs.

He didn’t make any move to touch her, just continued to stare at her till the air in the room grew a lot warmer and her head a lot lighter. When she swayed, he caught her by her shoulders, spun her round then yanked her hard against him. Once there, he released her shoulders and snaked his left arm tightly around her waist, holding her solidly captive while his other hand was left free to do as it pleased.

And it finally pleased to touch her, his widely splayed palm rubbing back and forth over her fiercely erect nipples till she didn’t think she could bear any more.

‘Oh, please,’ she whimpered.

A flash of lightning accompanied by a huge clap of thunder brought a different cry to her lips.

That tantalising hand stopped abruptly, the room suddenly very quiet except for his heavy breathing. Nicole stiffened when another loud clap of thunder rocked the room.

‘You’re frightened of storms?’ he asked, his mouth hot against her ear.

‘Yes,’ she choked out.

‘I love them.’

‘What’s there to love about them?’

‘They usually herald rain. Farmers’ sons love rain.’

When his hold on her suddenly slackened, Nicole wriggled round in his arms and looked up into his flushed face.

‘You’re a farmer’s son?’ How did you become one of the most successful real-estate agents in Sydney? she thought.

‘Once upon a time,’ he said wryly, his eyes growing distant as they turned away to glance around the room. When they eventually returned to hers, his face had cooled, his expression no longer that of a man in the throes of passion.

Yet when he smiled, a strangely erotic shiver trickled down her spine.

‘Enough of this chit-chat,’ he said, and abruptly scooped her up into his arms. ‘Time to get down to business.’