As his body subsided within hers, Ran still held her, stroking her hair, brushing his lips against her forehead, whilst she breathed in the hot, satisfied male scent of his skin.
‘It’s been a long time,’ she heard him saying unevenly as his heartbeat still thundered against her body.
‘Yes,’ she agreed quietly. There was no need for her to lie, to pretend; even if it was only temporarily, the barriers between them had been swept to one side by what she had experienced. Oddly she almost felt proud of the truth, of loving him so intensely that she had never been able to share herself with anyone else.
‘I’m not... Sex for sex’s sake just isn’t for me...’
There was a brief silence. She lifted her head and looked uncertainly at Ran. What was he thinking? Was he wishing she had been less open and honest, that she had pretended that what they had just shared meant nothing, that he meant nothing? But when she looked into his eyes they were too dark for her to be able to read his expression properly. All she could see was his faintly twisted smile before he touched her face gently and told her, ‘I meant that it had been as long a time for me, Sylvie...that I hadn’t...couldn’t... I was trying to explain...to excuse the fact that...that I wasn’t as controlled as I should have been.’
‘You were...you felt good to me,’ Sylvie told him simply and truthfully, compelled to add, ‘But then, I don’t have...you have...’
‘Been less thankfully in control on either of the occasions we’ve been like this...?’ Ran suggested ruefully. ‘You’re very kind, Sylvie, and...’ His body suddenly tensed and when he moved she could see in his eyes something that made her own stomach muscles lock in sensual expectation.
‘And I’m afraid I am likely to give you another demonstration of just how lacking in self-control you make me,’ he told her with a soft groan as he took hold of her hand and placed it on his body, commanding her huskily, ‘Feel.’
Instinctively Sylvie let her touch become a soft caress, her heart thudding as she felt him grow and harden still further beneath her fingertips.
‘Oh, God, Sylvie, Sylvie,’ she heard him protest, and he took hold of her, kissing her passionately as their bodies immediately and instinctively moved closer together.
* * *
It was fully daylight when Sylvie eventually woke up, her face flushing with hot colour as she opened her eyes to find Ran propped up on one elbow watching her.
‘How long have you been awake?’ she asked him, nervously clutching hold of the bedclothes, her colour deepening as she started to remember in full the events of the previous night.
‘Long enough to know that you snore,’ Ran told her ungallantly.
‘Snore? I do no such thing,’ Sylvie protested indignantly, letting go of the duvet in her ire.
‘No? Well, then, you growl...’ Ran teased her.
‘I do not growl! I don’t make any kind of noise at all,’ Sylvie protested.
‘Oh, yes, you do,’ Ran told her immediately, his manner completely changing, the amusement in his eyes replaced by a look of shockingly burning intensity as he leaned closer to her and half whispered against her mouth as his fingertips brushed the tip of her breast.
‘When I touch you here you make a little sound deep in your throat, and...’