She shivered, lost to reason, ready to open herself to whatever he wanted. Because at this precise moment in time, she knew that she and Larkin were of one accord. Though she loved playing with the soft hair on the back of his head, she wanted more. Putting the tiniest amount of distance between them, she slid her hands under his T-shirt. His skin was hot, so hot. When her fingernail raked his flat nipple, he groaned.
The rush of power she felt at seeing him so vulnerable dwindled away to nothing when Larkin’s hands shimmied up her thighs, lifting her champagne silk skirt. Breath caught in her throat. She should stop him. Any minute now. But not when he was making her feel so good she wanted to sob with the exquisite pleasure of it. He toyed with the elastic waistband of her underwear.
It was all she could do not to beg him to hurry. Long fingers delved beneath lace. Then he was touching her…intimately. At the spot where her body was soft and wet and aching for him. He probed gently, making her gasp and bury her face in his collarbone.
She heard his soft chuckle, but she knew, even then, that he was laughing not at her, but at both of them. At this incredible madness that had bloomed from nowhere. He stroked her rhythmically, building the intensity of her need. She wanted to tell him to stop, but she couldn’t. Bliss lingered just offstage, a fiery release that frightened her.
Larkin kissed her ear, traced the curve of it with his tongue while he kept up his determined torture. Suddenly, he pressed two fingers into her aching emptiness. She cried out and sank her teeth into his shoulder as her body arched into his hand and she climaxed hard.
Seconds passed, perhaps minutes. Who knew? Her brain was fogged by afterglow. Even embarrassment couldn’t intrude at that moment.
Larkin’s voice rumbled in her ear. “You’re amazing, Winifred Bellamy. Hot as a firecracker and so damned sexy you make my brain mush and another part of me hard as a steel spike.”
“No one else has ever thought I was sexy.” The truth spilled from her mouth uncensored.
He toyed with her swollen sex, sending little aftershocks throughout her body. “Then you’ve been hanging around with the wrong kind of men.”
That sobered her. She wriggled away from him and straightened her clothing. The thin open-weave sweater that matched the color of her skirt was suddenly far too hot. “Not the wrong kind of men,” she clarified carefully. “Just no men at all.”
His poleaxed expression made her wince. “You’re a vir—”
“Not technically,” she rushed to reassure him. “But you’re going to be disappointed if you think I know the Kama Sutra or really anything about how to please you. I don’t. I can’t. I should have said something sooner, but this whatever it is between us caught me off guard. Really, it’s better if we stop this now.”
“I should agree with you. I’m breaking rules right and left when it comes to you being a client.” The dark look had returned to his face. “You make me question things I thought were carved in stone.” He took her hand and placed it over his erection that throbbed, unmistakably hard and thick, through his cotton sleep pants. “But this is because of you, sweetheart. So I guess I’m saying to hell with my high-and-mighty principles. And I assure you, I’m not going to walk away just because you’re inexperienced. I’ll admit…I’ve never been with a woman who didn’t know the ropes. But I guess that makes us even. Everything between you and me will be new territory.”
“There is no us,” Winnie said, feeling desperation clog her throat at his deliberate incomprehension. “You have to forget this idea. We’re only going to be on Wolff Mountain together two or three nights. You said so yourself. It would be unbearable if we started something and it blew up in our face.”