The Billionaire Bodyguard(12)

Keri's  breath shuddered to a slower pace while she alternated between  the  drenching bask of pleasure and the shaken sensation that this was  what  had eluded her all along. So this was why sex turned people's  lives  upside down and inside out and back again.

And it had taken a virtual stranger to show her.

A  great bursting ache of pleasure seeped its warmth through her body,  and  as he came to lie over her again she breathed one heartfelt word.

'Beautiful.'

He smiled, and touched his lips to her nose. 'Yes, you are.'

'That wasn't what I meant.'

'I know it wasn't.' He brushed a strand of hair away from her damp cheek. 'Now, look at me.'

Cautiously,  she opened her eyes, terrified of what she would find  written in his.  What would he think of her now? So wild and so free and  with such little  provocation? But there was no censure on his face,  though the shadows  thrown up by the firelight onto those cheekbones  made him look faintly  formidable. And his mouth was as soft as his  eyes-if only she knew what  colour they were-as if he were about to  enjoy a delicious feast, and she  felt strangely shy, the power of what  had just happened to her making  her realise just how inexperienced she  really was. Especially compared  to him. And now? What now? Could there  be more, and as good as that?  Suddenly her starved body was greedy.

He touched his lips to  hers. She could taste herself on his mouth, and  that felt so  unbelievably intimate that she sighed, snaking her arms  around his neck  to pull him closer. She could feel the hard, flat  planes of his body,  and the cradle of him, where he was harder still.

'That's good,'  he murmured approvingly. He ran his hand over the skirt,  which was  rucked up almost to her waist. 'Is it warm enough to take  this off, do  you think?'

The fire was blazing, and her skin was still glowing  in the aftermath,  but it seemed that his question had not really  required an answer. He  was pulling off his sweater with a practised hand  and tossing it aside.

Underneath, a slim-fitting dark T-shirt  moulded itself to the muscled  sinews of his chest and he peeled that off  too. She saw the rich, tawny  skin, the sprinkling of hair which arrowed  down to the waistband of  his jeans. Oh, but he was magnificent! The way  she had always known  that a real man should look.                       
       
           



       

She trickled  her fingertips over the oiled silk of his torso. And he  felt the way  that a real man should feel too. 'You are so beautiful,'  she said shyly.

He  smiled as he observed her rapt preoccupation with his skin. For a   moment there he had thought she was going to be a selfish lover-taking,   never giving. Wanting only pleasure for herself without wanting to give   any back. And thank heavens he had been wrong.

She was coming  back to life, and the contrast between this near shyness  and how wild  she'd been earlier was making him feel as weak as water.  Then he glanced  down and saw the clean lines of her slim body, reminded  himself that  she was shaved-and how many women did that? So it figured  that the  shyness was probably just a show, to salve her conscience, to  make her  feel less guilty about what she had just let him do to her.

'Want  to take my jeans off for me, Keri?' He ran her hand down the  shaft of  his thigh and glittered her a provocative look. 'I'm just  putty in your  hands.'

Insecurity threatened to swamp her as she felt like a  complete novice  in the light of his obvious and breathtaking experience.  She dared not  say no, but her hands were trembling so much that she was  afraid she  might make a complete mess of such a simple act.

He saw the shaking fingers and smiled. 'Don't hurt me now, will you?' he drawled mockingly.

'I … I'll do my best.'

Jay  gave a low laugh-weren't the English the masters, or the mistresses  in  this case, of understated irony? She had just had the most  mind-blowing  orgasm and now she was fumbling around like a sweet young  virgin.

Somehow  she managed to get his jeans off, and everything else too, her  heart  beginning to thunder again when he was finally naked, lazily and   assuredly naked, save for the narrow plaited band at his wrist. But she   didn't have time for second thoughts, because he was skimming the rest   of her clothes off until she, too, was naked. He pulled her against  him,  wrapping his long, strong limbs around her, the sensation of his  warmth  and his strength driving every thought from her mind other than  the  realisation that she wanted-no, needed him to make love to her.   Properly.


'Oh, Jay.'

'What is it?'

How had this  happened, and when? Her head fell heavily to his shoulder  as he began  to stroke at her breasts, and wherever he touched her it  was though he  burned into her, making her nerve endings shriek aloud in  recognition.  'You make me feel … ' The words trailed off, for there were  no words for  the way he made her feel.

'Wanton?' he prompted, his words molten  whispers against her cheek.  'Because that's the way I want you to feel,  Keri. And now just feel me.  Go on, sweetheart-feel how much I want  you.'

She touched him, feeling him spring against her, so hard  and so virile,  and it was as though she had never been intimately  acquainted with a  man's body before.

And maybe she hadn't. Not  like this. Filled with a sudden need to  explore him. As if she wanted to  touch and kiss and caress every single  centimetre of his body. She  reached down to encircle him in her hand,  curling her fingers around the  rocky shaft, and some instinct made her  writhe her hips against him  even while she bent her head to tease and  graze at his nipple with her  teeth.

Jay shuddered beneath her touch. God, she was passionate!  Too  passionate, because suddenly he knew that he could not wait, that  this  was good, but not good enough. He had never felt so full, so hard,  so  ready to burst, and he wanted more. Everything. The real thing.

Decisively  and irrevocably he moved over her, and Keri's eyes snapped  open in  alarm. 'You will … you will use something, won't you?'

It was a  sensible question, and one which did not need to be asked,  since his  hand was already reaching out for the pocket of his jeans-yet  it  irritated the hell out of him and he wasn't sure why.

But he  found what he was looking for and gave up thinking, sliding the  condom  on and then sliding straight into her. He groaned because she  was so  tight-oh, so beautifully tight-that it was almost over before it  had  begun, until he reined right back.

As he moved he lost himself in  her heat, hearing her gasp in time with  each exquisite thrust, and he  heard some deep, primeval sound dragged  from deep within his own lungs.  Maybe it was because it had been too  long, or maybe because this was  like an unexpected gift, but his senses  seemed more highly tuned than  normal. This was the closest you got to  heaven, he decided through the  achingly sweet mist. And the furthest  place from hell. This, this, this …

She  cried out just before he did, tightening her arms around his neck  and  pulling his head down to kiss him, so that at the moment of  abandonment  they were locked together in every way that counted. She  revelled in the  feel of him inside her, the sensation of someone so big  and so strong  being momentarily helpless, caught in the grip of  passion which made his  powerful body shudder, and she thought she had  never known anything  quite so heart-stoppingly beautiful.                       
       
           



       

Emotions were funny  things-they pounced on you at unpredictable  times-but a woman was  especially vulnerable after lovemaking, and Keri  especially so just  then. She felt rocked in the aftermath of  debilitating pleasure, and  then in flooded doubt, insecurity and an  aching wistfulness which began  to gnaw away at her dreamy state. How  heartbreaking that it should have  taken her until now to experience  something as beautiful as this. She  bit her lip.

Jay drew his mouth away and dropped his head heavily  onto her shoulder,  feeling empty, sleepy. He yawned against her skin  and closed his eyes.

Keri felt the steady slowing of his  breathing and her heart sank. She  wasn't holding out for comfort or  reassurance-she just wanted him to  say something-anything-even if it  wasn't true. For what could she say  to him, when what had just happened  was completely outside her  experience?