The #1 Bestsellers Collection 2011(126)

“Open for me.”

At his bidding she lifted her hips and let her legs fall open. He slid within her in one slick delicious movement. Her inner muscles tightened and released against the length of him as he pushed deeper until he was buried inside her. She luxuriated in the sensation of oneness with him, the deep sense of rightness in how they fit together. He’d had her heart for far longer than he knew, or would ever know, and now he had her body. She’d never felt drawn to another human being the way she was pulled to this man. Admitting how much she needed him both thrilled and terrified her. How would she cope when it was all over?

She sighed, the breath erratic, as he slowly withdrew before resettling back so deeply in her body she thought she’d pass out from the exquisite fullness of him. This was nothing like their first encounter where everything had been driven by the heat of the moment. This was making love on a completely different level. She could almost feel his heartbeat, hear his blood rush through his veins, breathe each breath he drew through his lungs.

Spirals of pleasure increased in intensity and urgency as he moved and she moved with him, sensually lifting to meet his every thrust, tilting away as he withdrew only to lift again to welcome his return.

The transition of time suspended, they were the only two people who existed. Locked in a cocoon of pleasure and need and, finally, satisfaction as they cleaved together in a joining that left them depleted yet still alive with exhilaration. Intimately locked together, Holly wrapped her arms about him as he rolled onto his side. She nestled against his chest, inhaling his male scent, committing it to memory as with a deep sense of sadness she remembered this could never last.





The persistent buzz of a telephone finally penetrated the fog that enveloped his brain. Who on earth would ring at such an hour? It couldn’t be morning yet, Connor thought irritably as he attempted to roll over. Yet his mobility was impeded by a warm, lush body curved against him, by a swathe of black hair over his shoulders and by long silky legs entwined with his. Gently he extricated himself and padded, naked, to where his suit jacket lay discarded on the plush navy carpet. He extracted his phone and flipped it open. He found the remote for the curtains and as they pulled open he stretched his back and noted the dull overcast sky.

Typical, he thought irritably. Another muggy, wet Christmas morning. Christmas morning! Remembrance dawned with sharp clarity just as his father’s voice bellowed in his ear. “Connor! You’re on your way soon, yes?” “Merry Christmas to you too, Papa.” “You’re still bringing that secretary of yours?” “Holly. Yes, I am. See you soon. Ciao, Papa.” He disconnected the call and looked across the room at the enticing sleeping form draped across his bed. What a shame he couldn’t take his time in waking her as he wanted, despite his body’s instant reaction. He shook her bare shoulder gently, enjoying watching awareness dawn in her denim-blue eyes as he chased sleep away.

“Come on, my father is expecting us and we still need to stop by your place so you can change.”

A wry smile twisted his lips as she shyly pulled the sheets about her, obscuring her breasts from view.

“Just give me a couple of minutes to gather my things.” Her voice, husky and thickened with sleep, lit a flame within him he knew only one thing could extinguish.

“Shy?” He tugged persistently at the sheet until it fell away, exposing her. Already she was like a drug invading his senses. With damning clarity he knew one night with Holly would never be enough. So what if they were late, he decided as he pushed her back against the rumpled bedclothes.

They were running more than a little late when they drove out to her home so she could change into more suitable clothing. As they turned a corner into her street, Connor managed to hide his surprise when he saw the rundown housing area that Holly had reluctantly given as her address. Sure, in a few years, developers would be renovating the old state-built houses and making a killing, but right now that future seemed a million miles, and several million dollars, away.

“You can pull in here.” She indicated a driveway on the cold, southern side of the road. Exposed as the dreary house was, it would get little natural sunlight through its tiny windows, he noted. He couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to live like this. Certainly she could do better.

“How long have you owned this place?” he probed.

“I rent.”

She chose to live here? Connor mentally reviewed the well-above-average sum he knew he paid her. Surely she could have rented somewhere more up-market. Or at the very least, he thought, as he cast a doubtful eye at the large party carrying on a few doors away where even at this hour patched gang members already spilled drunkenly onto the footpath, somewhere safer.