There was too much honest need.
“There is a school of sexual thought that claims there are four different areas of the foot that are particularly sexually stimulating. Did you know that?” he asked as he gently pressed into one that sent a sensual frisson straight up her inner thigh and into her core.
“No, oh…ohhh…” Her answer tailed off into a moan as he found another.
“I’m an eclectic learner,” he said almost conversationally, but the forceful desire in his dark metallic-gray eyes removed any casual feel to the words.
“Ye-esss?”
“I studied the pressure points of the body with a master of Dim Mak who had made it his life’s work to also discover the unexpected areas of the body that could give the most pleasure.”
“Aren’t pressure points about pain?” she asked uncertainly.
“Knowing them is as important for avoidance as knowing those touches that can bring the greatest pleasure. I will never take you over that edge between pleasure and pain, though sometimes the ecstasy is going to be so great, you will wonder how close you are.”
“Oh.” She stared at him in shock, which she knew reflected her own innocence. “You studied how to have sex?”
“Not just sex, dorogaya, but amazing, mind-melting sex.”
“The kind that makes you feel like you’ve had an out-of-body experience.” She could remember that from a year ago and they hadn’t even had intercourse.
His smile was both pleased and predatory. “Yes.”
“But you’re a Corporate Tsar. When did you have time?”
“Everyone needs a hobby. Naturally, my teacher also trained me in traditional kung fu.”
No wonder his body was so buff. “It was part of your exercise regimen then.” Even so, it was a little mind-boggling that Max had made a study of sex.
“Yes.”
“That’s a lot of work for part-time lovers.” Her words rose and fell several octaves as his touch grew more intimate, moving up to her inner thighs.
He shrugged, but she saw something in his eyes.
And she had her answer. Or at least part of it. Just as she was excited by him taking control, Max got something out of it, too. “Your pleasure comes from controlling that of your partner.”
“Part of it, yes.”
Of course it would. A man like him, whose whole life was focused on control. Sex would be no different.
“Maybe you were just practicing for me?” She liked that thought more than that he’d given this part of himself to others before her.
It was hers. She wasn’t sure where that possessive thought came from, but she did nothing to squelch it. Evidence to the contrary, it wasn’t as if he could read her mind anyway.
His sexy chuckle didn’t sound even a little mocking. “I think perhaps you are right.”
When he bypassed her most intimate flesh to move up her body, she wasn’t surprised. He’d done this a year ago. Built her pleasure until she was aching for touches her innocent body had never known.
Even so, she couldn’t hold back a sound of protest.
“Shh…” His caress moved up her waist, his expression so hot it burned. “We will get there, but you only have one first time.”
He was going to tease her more than before?
She realized the words had come out in a plaintive wail when he shook his head decisively. “I am not teasing you, dorogaya. I am pleasuring you.”
“Tom-ay-to, to-mah-to,” she gasped out as his thumbs skimmed over her rigid nipples.
Her breasts were small, but they had discovered together that the peaks were extremely sensitive.
“No, no, no…it is not just a different way of saying the same thing,” he assured her. “To tease is to make your partner wonder if you will ever give the bliss craved and you know I will.”
“On your time frame,” she gasped out.
“That is my way.” He said it with that Russian pragmatism she found both appalling and ridiculously appealing by turns.
“Sometime, maybe you should let me use the blue scarves.” Oh, gosh…every word required effort as his caresses grew more and more tantalizing.
He stopped, his entire being arrested by her comment. He looked down at her, an unreadable expression on his face. “I have never been open to another lover doing so.”
“But me?” she asked, knowing his answer mattered very much, though not at all sure why.
After all, she didn’t really want to use the scarves on him; she much preferred it the other way around.
“Yes.” Their gazes locked, as intimate as any caress. “Sometime, yes.”
Elation filled her, but she just knew if he saw it, he would mistake it for triumph. Which isn’t how she felt at all, so she did her best to simply nod and say, “I think I might like that.”