Sinful Nights(18)

Why the outraged expression?' he demanded calmly. I can't be the first naked man you've seen.'    

 



 

He was the only one, but Sapphire wasn't going to tell him that.  Hardly,' she lied, shrugging aside the frisson of awareness the sight  of his naked body had given her.

And we are married  … '

Maybe, but it isn't the sort of marriage that involves parading around naked in front of one another.'

What a pity.' Genuine amusement glinted in Blake's eyes as he teased  her, and Sapphire had to fight against responding, against remembering  how much joy there had been in loving him before she discovered the  bitter truth. Blake had always been able to make her laugh, and even now  she could feel the corners of her mouth twitching in response to his  droll expression. The towel was firmly in place around his hips now, but  to her chagrin that didn't stop Sapphire from visualising the taut  shape of masculine buttocks and long hard thighs.

Something smells good.' Blake's voice jerked her out of her reverie,  and Sapphire bent her head to hide her guilty flush of colour. What on  earth would he think if he knew what had been in her mind?

Fortunately he didn't, she assured herself as she gestured to the bed  and suggested that he sit on it. This time she didn't allow herself to  dwell on the supple texture of his skin or the masculine formation of  muscle and bone that lay beneath it, finishing her self-imposed task  with a haste she was surprised Blake didn't pick up on.

When the dressing was in place, she stepped away from him, tensing  nervously as his fingers curled round her arm, preventing her from  moving.

Blake, let me go.' Her voice sounded sharp and nervous even to her own  ears, and her anxiety increased when Blake refused to accede to her  demand.

I haven't rewarded you yet,' he told her softly, the hard grip of his  fingers pulling her inexorably closer to him. All ministering angels  deserve a reward, don't you agree?'

Whatever she might have said was lost as she felt the warm heat of  Blake's body. She put out a hand to push him away, but the sensation of  warm, sensuously silken male skin beneath her fingertips was so  intoxicating that her resistance melted.

Dimly she was aware of Blake pulling her down on to his lap, and of the  single bed creaking protestingly under their double weight.

She struggled to pull away out of his constraining arms, but Blake  simply toppled her over on to the bed, imprisoning her against it with  the superior weight of his body. His thighs pinned her lower body to the  mattress, his chest hard against the softness of her breasts.

Sapphire felt vulnerable and helpless and yet the sensations coursing  through her veins and along her nerve endings whispered sensuously of  pleasurable excitement rather than fear. Even so, she felt moved to  protest shakily, Blake, let me get up, the dinner  … '

Soft laughter brushed against her skin. Right now I'm hungry for more than just food.'

Then perhaps you ought to give Miranda a ring,' Sapphire suggested  tartly, struggling to push him away. She was glad she had said that,  until that moment she had been dangerously close to giving way to the  insiduous pull of her too vulnerable senses.

Why should I need another man's wife, when I've got one of my own?'  Blake countered outrageously, following her squirming movements and  refusing to let her escape. His towel, Sapphire realised, had become  dislodged, and weakening darts of pleasure relaxed her muscles into a  sensuous lethargy as she felt her body reacting to the male provocation  of Blake's body.

Kiss me, Sapphire.'

She looked at him with desire-hazed eyes, barely comprehending the  softly whispered command as she fought to subdue the treacherous  impulses of her body.

No.' She mumbled the denial huskily, knowing that it was far more than a  kiss that Blake wanted from her. She wouldn't, she couldn't play  substitute for Miranda.

Yes.' The silky affirmation was whispered against her lips, the warmth  of Blake's breath stirring to life a thousand tiny drumming pulses.  Against her will Sapphire felt her mouth soften, her breathing suddenly  ragged as Blake touched its soft contours with the tip of his tongue,  expertly teasing light kisses into the corners, tormentingly stroking  her sensitised skin, until she reacted with a feverish protest, lifting  her arms, and locking her fingers behind his neck, her body arching  instinctively into the hard heat of his, as her mouth opened to capture  the marauding torment of his tongue. The sudden fierce pressure of his  mouth, searing into her skin, took Sapphire by surprise, making her  realise the extent of Blake's self-control. The kisses he had given her  before had been so lightly teasing that she had been lulled into a false  sense of security, and yet there was a wild elemental pleasure in  responding to Blake's hunger; a knowledge that they were meeting as  equals, not child and adult.    

 



 

When he eventually released her mouth it felt bruised and slightly  swollen, and yet the sensation was a pleasurable one, her lips acutely  sensitive to the light kisses he caressed them with as he murmured  softly, Let me take this tee-shirt off, I want to feel you against me,  Sapphire.'

His hands were already gripping the edge of her tee-shirt, and to her  shame Sapphire knew a wild impulse to help him. Once she had fantasised  about seeing their bodies intimately enmeshed; the paleness of her fair  skin against the gold-bronze of his and now, treacherously, that memory  resurfaced making her protest only a token one as Blake tugged the  stretchy fabric up over her body.

Her figure had changed in the intervening years, she knew; her shape no  longer that of a young girl. Her waist had narrowed, but her breasts  were fuller, more mature, crowned with deep pink nipples, at the moment  veiled from Blake's intense scrutiny by the lacy fabric of her bra.

Beautiful,' he murmured huskily, his thumb stroking caressingly along  the edge of the dainty lace and down into the hollow between her  breasts.

Desire seemed to explode like fireworks deep inside her, stunning  Sapphire with its intensity. She had desired Blake before, but surely  never with this consuming, all-important depth, that pushed aside every  other emotion as trivial and not to be considered. She wanted to respond  to him with every feminine nerve ending; she wanted to feel his hands  and mouth against every inch of her skin; and she wanted the freedom to  caress and know him in exactly the same way. The knowledge that she  could feel like this was shocking and yet exciting; freeing her suddenly  from the fear she had always had that somehow she was not quite 100 per  cent feminine; that the deep inner core of her was cold and  un-functioning. No other man had made her feel like this, certainly not  Alan.

Alan! She tensed, suddenly shocked back to reality. Blake's fingers were  curled round the lacy cup of her bra, his eyes so brilliantly gold as  he stared down at her that she found herself blinking, half-dazzled by  their glitter.

Blake, I don't want  … ' She shivered as he cut off her protest by  bending his head and brushing his lips provocatively along the delicate  skin exposed above the white lace.

A tumult of sensations poured moltenly through Sapphire's veins. She  made a small sound, meant to be a protest, but which emerged as a soft  cry of pleasure as Blake's fingers eased back the lace and his lips  followed the path they made until they found the aching centre of her  breast, being teased into wanton erectness by the caressing movement of  his fingers.

Awash with pleasure Sapphire was barely aware of Blake unsnapping her  bra, and exposing her other breast until he repeated his tormenting  caresses on it with a nerve-racking delicacy that left Sapphire  shivering and aching beneath an onslaught of pleasure she hadn't  believed could exist.

You respond to me as though no-one's ever touched you like that  before,' Blake muttered rawly, cupping her breasts possessively as he  looked up at her. I expected you to be more blasé.'

As she shuddered in reaction, he moaned thickly, Don't do that, you  make me go up in flames, just thinking about  … ' His sudden tension  alerted Sapphire to the sound of a vehicle arriving in the yard.

Damn,' Blake swore softly. The last thing I feel like right now is leaving this bed.'

His words brought Sapphire back down to earth, making her shrink in  self-disgust from her own behaviour. How could she have behaved so  foolishly? She was lucky that Blake didn't appear to have guessed how  much she still cared about him  …  Stunned, Sapphire stopped what she was  doing. That wasn't true, she didn't care about Blake at all  …  But if  that was true, why had she reacted to intensely to him  …  why had her  body welcomed him as its lover? She didn't still love him; she couldn't  …   but deep inside Sapphire knew that she was only deceiving herself. If  sex was really her only motivation she could have found that with anyone  of a dozen or more attractive men whom she had dated since leaving  Blake, but she hadn't wanted to. She had remained sexually cold to them.  She still loved Blake all right, and deep down inside her she must have  known it all along, even though she had tried to hide from the truth.