Ruthless Russian, Lost Innocence(24)

But Vadim seemed to only have eyes for her. She could not help but find his attention flattering, and as the night progressed and the champagne flowed she began to relax and enjoy herself. Dancing to the funky club classics was fun, and dancing with Vadim, held close against his chest while he moved his pelvis sinuously against hers, sent molten heat coursing through her veins.

‘Enjoying yourself?’ he drawled, his blue eyes gleaming as he glanced down at her flushed face. The music had slowed and they were drifting around the dance floor, hip to hip, while his hand strayed up and down her spine in a sensuous caress.

‘Yes,’ Ella admitted honestly. There seemed no point in denying it when she felt more alive and exhilarated than she could ever remember feeling.

‘Good.’ Vadim lowered his head slowly towards her, and she could not restrain a little shiver of excitement when he slanted his mouth over hers and initiated a slow, drugging kiss. His lips were firm, demanding her response, and she gave it helplessly, her whole body trembling when he slid his tongue into her mouth and explored her moist warmth with devastating efficiency until she sagged against him, so lost in this new world of sensory pleasure that the people around them on the dance floor faded, and there was no one but Vadim.

It was three a.m. when they finally left the club, and as they stepped outside the blast of fresh air made Ella’s head spin.

‘This isn’t your car,’ she mumbled, when a sleek black limousine pulled up next to them and its chauffeur sprang out to open the rear door.

‘I never drive after I’ve had a couple of drinks. I arranged for my driver to take the Aston Martin back to my hotel and come back to collect us in the limo.’ Vadim frowned as he watched Ella wobble precariously on her high heels. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Of course I’m okay. Why shouldn’t I be?’ She bent to climb into the car, misjudged the height of the door fame and winced as she hit her head. ‘I’ve never felt better,’ she assured him brightly. It was true; several glasses of champagne had replaced her usual reserve with brimming confidence, and she felt sexy and uninhibited and desperate for Vadim to kiss her again. She stared at him hopefully and instinctively traced her lips with the tip of her tongue, anticipation shivering through her when his eyes narrowed and gleamed with feral hunger.

But it was warm in the car, and the smooth motion of the engine had a soporific effect on her, so that her eyelids felt heavy and her head drooped onto Vadim’s shoulder. She looked about sixteen, he brooded impatiently. Tendrils of hair had escaped her chignon, and he carefully released the clip on top of her head so that the silky mass tumbled around her shoulders.#p#分页标题#e#

The type of woman he usually dated would have spent the journey home stroking her hand over his thigh as a prelude to a night of mutually satisfying sex-not snuggling up to him like a sleepy kitten. There was something about Ella that tugged at his conscience, and not for the first time he wondered if he had made a mistake by pursuing her-especially since he had discovered that she carried a truckload of emotional baggage which seemed to be linked with her unhappy relationship with her father.

Emotions were complicated, which was why he did not deal in them. He had failed Irina and broken her heart, and he refused to ever be responsible for another woman’s emotional security.

Ella frowned when the comfortable pillow beneath her neck moved, so that her head lolled unsupported. Someone gripped her shoulder and shook her, and an impatient voice sounded in her ear. ‘Ella, wake up. We’re back at Kingfisher House.’

Her heavy lids lifted and she stared into Vadim’s startling blue eyes. His face was inches from hers, his mouth so tantalisingly close that she moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue in unconscious invitation.

Hot sexual excitement uncoiled in Vadim’s gut, and for a few seconds he was tempted to ignore the nagging voice of his conscience, which warned that Ella seemed far more innocent than he had first thought. She was a consenting adult, and she wanted him, the voice in his head argued. Her grey eyes were smoky with desire, and her soft parted lips were just begging for him to possess them. But she’d had a couple of glasses of champagne on top of the wine and cocktails they had drunk with dinner, and he was sure she was not used to drinking alcohol. He had done many things in his past which he regretted, and he refused to add taking advantage of a naïve girl who reminded him too much of his dead wife to the list.

‘Come on, I’ll see you inside,’ he said abruptly, when she scrambled inelegantly out of the car and stood beside him on the gravel drive, swaying slightly.