Читать книгу A Very Merry Temptation: 'Twas the Season / Mistletoe in Memphis / Second-Chance Christmas - Farrah Rochon, Pamela Yaye - Страница 11

Chapter 4

The ride up the hotel elevator was mercifully empty and as Max ushered Nikki inside, his glance stole over her.

She was nervous, he could tell.

He refrained from hauling her sexy body close to his. Barely.

She was shy and lived with her grandmother, he thought, an unknown smile tugging the corners of his mouth as he recalled the many things he knew about Nikki Danes.

But right now, her excitement was the most relevant thing about her. Her excitement for him.

When he’d been unable to take any more of the hot glide of her sweet body against his, the subtle way she was grinding against his shaft, Max had known the time had come. He’d felt her reaction to him. She was as turned on as he was.

Her reaction had only confirmed what he’d felt from the moment he’d met her: she was shy yet there was...fire, untapped for sure, just below the surface.

He felt like a little boy in a candy shop, mentally rubbing his hands together at the thought of what it would feel like to have her beneath him, to be the man to blow across the embers of her sensuality and release the heat.

He wanted to be the man to do the job.

She kept her face down, shyly, away from his. Instinct was guiding him with her, as it did for everything.

Everything that mattered, he thought.

He shoved that thought aside, as for a moment the relevance she had for him was...new. Something he’d never experienced.

He’d examine that later. Right now it was all about having passionate sex with her.

Again he ignored the inner voice warning him it was more than just sex. He was marking his territory, an instinctual need to claim what his subconscious had marked as his three weeks ago.

He reached for her and brought her closer to his body. He knew that he needed to keep her grounded to him, that like the little hummingbird she appeared to be at the moment, it wouldn’t take much for her to take to the air and fly away.

She was shy, he got that. She didn’t seem to have much experience and there was no telling what was going on in her mind.

She seemed to have a war going on inside her, one he’d give any amount of money to get a true view of. He found that the more he was around her, the more...vested in her he was becoming.

But if he had his way about it, by the end of the night—the weekend, as he’d booked the room for Friday night through Monday morning—his little hummingbird’s wings would be firmly and decidedly clipped.

Without thought he reached over and brought her close, giving her no time to react. He wrapped his arms around her slight body, bringing their bodies into tight alignment, and slanted his mouth over hers.

Max couldn’t deny himself the feeling of her lips, the softness of her touch, for another moment.

* * *

When she felt the smoothness of his firm lips against her mouth, Nikki melted against him.

Not sure what to expect after the suddenness of the kiss, she braced herself for the sensual assault he’d given her on the dance floor.

Her hands fisted the fine cloth of his shirt and she held her breath. He softly kissed her, feathery strokes teasing her mouth, his tongue snaking out to lick her lips.

As he kissed her, he kept a hand on the back of her head, keeping her steady, but without pressure. She moaned into his mouth, the gentleness of the kiss her undoing.

Soothing her. Guiding her. Like an animal in the wild stalking its prey...before it pounced.

The ghost of a warning rang in the back of her mind, but she forced it away.

When the elevator came to a halt, he pulled away, his hands still holding her. An enigmatic smile graced his sensual lips.

Again he held out a hand and wordlessly she placed hers in it, giving him silent permission to guide her into whatever the night had in store.

She followed him out of the elevator, her nerves taut. It wasn’t until he stopped and turned to face her that she glanced around, surprised to find that they were inside the room.

“Is this what I think it is?” she asked, and felt foolish the minute she did, laughing lightly.

If she’d been in the right frame of mind, she would have recognized that they were going to the top floor when he placed the key in the slot on the elevator panel that gave access to the top floor. The penthouse.

She glanced around, surprised, but trying her hardest to be the picture of cool sophistication as she took it all in.

“Wow,” she blurted, and felt inadequate and gauche the minute the words left her mouth. The very antithesis of cool sophistication, she thought, and rolled her eyes at herself. But it was such a spectacular room, so vast, so elegant and beautiful that wow was the only word she could come up with.

She jumped when she felt his big hands land on her shoulders and felt slightly embarrassed by her nervous reaction. He turned her around to face him.

He smiled lightly, but in his eyes the fire from what they’d started, what was burning, lingered. Yet he tilted his head to the side, considering her.

She felt the nervousness that began in her gut bubble and churn, and she swallowed down the sudden anxiety.

What the hell was she doing with this man? She knew next to nothing about him and had simply decided that he would be the one to “clean out her cobwebs”? Her doubts about her mission began to war with the light buzz from the alcohol.

“I don’t want you to do anything you aren’t ready for, but I want you,” he said, his deep voice sending shivers over her body. He brought her close so she could feel the evidence of his arousal. “But only if you want this.” He brought his mouth down to touch hers lightly, his firm lips covering her mouth as he lightly bit down. Not hard enough to hurt, not at all. But enough that she felt the sting.

Her pussy began to throb.

“I know you enjoyed the party,” he said when he released her, a small smile toying with the corners of his sensual mouth. “It’s what I wanted, why I planned it. But again...I don’t want you to do this if it’s not what you want.”

He brought his hand up and caressed the line of her jaw, the small smile still lurking in his deep green eyes.

It was as though he read her mind. Again.

Nikki knew she couldn’t and wouldn’t blame it on the alcohol.

She reached up and traced a finger down the line of his aquiline nose until her finger reached his lip, brushing over the hard yet sensual line of his mouth.

He took the tip into his mouth, sucked on the digit, eliciting a moan from her.

“I want you to want me as badly as I burn for you. As badly as I’ve wanted you from the first time I saw you in the elevator,” he said, and tugged her toward him.

The tug was slightly...rough. Matching the tone in his voice. She knew he was holding on by a thread. Yet he wanted to make sure she was comfortable with her decision.

For whatever reason that calmed her, even as her passion for him grew.

“But...only if you want it,” he said, and with that he took her hand in one of his while the other unzipped his slacks. Deftly, he brought his shaft out and he boldly used her hand to cover his hard, thick, long dick.

“Oh, God...yes,” she moaned, closing her hand around him. He lifted her into his arms and carried her across the room toward the king-size bed. She reached a hand up and said softly, “It’s been a while. Please be...careful with me.”

She saw a flare of something flash in his beautiful green eyes before he nodded his head. He whispered softly against her mouth before covering it with his own, “As though my life depended on it.”