The Billionaire Bodyguard(13)

Encroaching sleep was  stalled by the sudden tension in her body, and  Jay stifled a sigh. Why  could women never let you sleep? Didn't they  know that a man was  empty-literally empty-after orgasm? That he had  lost part of his body  during the act and needed to recoup his strength?  But he guessed he owed  her more than that … she had, after all, been so  very, very sweet.

He  raised his head, his eyes dazed and smoky, about to murmur his   appreciation when he saw her look of utter confusion and he frowned.   Please don't come the we shouldn't have done that trip on me, he prayed   silently.

He stared down at her gravely, his fierce expression warning her not to go down the route of pointless regret.

'Do you always look so uptight afterwards?' he observed softly.

Something  in his unspoken censure made her do what she hadn't planned  without  stopping to think about the consequences. And she told him.

'I'm  not sure.' She saw his look of confusion, but it didn't come even  close  to her own. 'That was the … my … my first time,' she admitted  shakenly.

Jay froze. Oh, dear God, no-not that. 'You sure didn't act like a virgin,' he stated disbelievingly.

If  she had been watching a film the scene might almost have been funny.   But it was real, and it was happening to her, and funny was the last   thing it was.

She shook her damp hair. 'That wasn't what I  meant-of course I'm not a  virgin.' But she might as well have been, for  all that the other times  counted next to this. Her body felt as though  it had been steeped in  sweet, sticky syrup, but she felt totally  defenceless-as though he had  touched a part of her that had been a  mystery until now.

His eyes narrowed. His thinking wasn't at its best at times like this. 'Your first time?' he repeated carefully. 'What was?'

'My first orgasm,' she said in a small voice. 'Or, rather, my second now.'





CHAPTER SIX




FOR  a moment there was complete silence, save for the hissing and  spitting  of the fire and the thunder of Keri's heart-so loud that it  deafened her  and surely must him too, when they were still so close and  he was still  intimately joined to her.

'Say that again,' he instructed softly.

To  admit it once had been bad enough, and twice would be toe-curlingly   awful, but she guessed it was too late in the day to play coy.

She  attempted a shrug, but the truth in this particular case was bald,  and  no words could infuse it with a soft glow. 'I've never had an  orgasm  before.'

He withdrew from her abruptly and reached over to haul  some blankets  from the heap, throwing one over both of them, but he  didn't pull her  back into his arms, just levered himself up onto his  elbow and surveyed  her with steady, unblinking eyes.

'You're kidding?'

'You think my sense of humour is that warped?'

'I guess not,' he said slowly.

He  leaned over and caught a strand of her hair which was dangling over  her  cheek. He looped it behind her ear and, stupidly, her stomach went  to  mush. She was missing him touching her, she realised. Wanting all  over  again that closeness which had seemed closer than she had been to  anyone  else-but that was an illusion, brought about by pleasure. She  had not  been close to him, not really-only in the physical sense, and  that  wasn't the way which counted.

'How come?' he murmured, seeing the  brief tremble which shivered her  skin, and he took her into his arms  again, sensing that this was more  complicated than he had thought.  Though when he stopped to think about  it he hadn't exactly been doing  much thinking-had he?

'I'm sure you don't want a catalogue of my  disastrous love-life,' said  Keri, resisting the urge to snuggle right  into him, as though that was  an intimacy too far.                       
       
           



       

'Well, not a  blow-by-blow account, that's for sure!' But it was a  mistimed attempt at  humour. 'Hey,' he said, his voice softening, for  her lips were a soft  pucker that he found himself wanting to kiss all  over again. 'Come  here.'

For a moment she was rigid in his arms, like an ice-cube  refusing to  melt, but then reaction kicked in and she began to dissolve  under his  touch, and for the first time in her life she realised the  true  supremacy which could be wielded by a man who brought a woman such   heart-stopping pleasure.

The last thing he wanted was some kind  of heavy scene on his hands. He  dropped a soft kiss on the top of her  head. 'You don't have to say  anything-not a thing-if you don't want to.'

He  was lightly skating his fingertips over her back now, an almost   innocent gesture which should not have aroused her, but Keri had tasted   pleasure and she was greedy for more.

But that was crazy. Once in  the heat of the moment could be  understood-but doing it again would be a  whole different ball-game.  Wouldn't it?

Almost imperceptibly she  shifted away from him, so her breasts were no  longer pressing into his  chest, and Jay felt the tug of desire subside.

'It's just never happened before,' she whispered.

'I  find that hard to believe.' He traced the line of her lips with a   thoughtful finger. 'Someone as gorgeous as you. I thought men would be   busting with a kind of macho pride to show themselves as great lovers.'


Someone  as gorgeous as you. Keri supposed that a lot of women might  have  preened at that, but she had spent her whole adult life having   compliments paid about her looks. Overkill-which resulted in them   meaning nothing.

And would someone like Jay even begin to  understand that what was  perceived as physical beauty often got in the  way? Men often regarded  her as a possession-like a piece of priceless  porcelain which must be  treated with reverence and respect. And  porcelain was cold, whereas she  was warm flesh and blood. Or so she had  just discovered with him.

Maybe if she hadn't been lying naked  with him in front of a fire she  might have clammed up, closed the  subject completely. But the sudden  rattle of the wind against one of the  windows reminded her that outside  a storm was still blowing and they  were completely cut off, blanketed  against the outside world, cocooned  against the snow in this  fire-darkened room. Could anything touch her  here except for pleasure  itself?

'I think that men are  intimidated by me,' she admitted, growing hot  with remembered rapture.  Her voice was suddenly breathless as she  turned her head to look at him.  He certainly hadn't been intimidated.  'Which makes what just happened  all the more amazing.'

There was a long pause while the  implications of that hit him like a  sledgehammer. 'You mean the lowly  driver and the beautiful model?' His  tone was dry, mocking. 'Not so  unusual, I think, Keri. Literature is  full of examples of unsuitable  couplings-the high with the low, the  rough with the smooth.' He ran his  fingers over her belly with masterly  possession, feeling her shake  beneath their practised touch.

'So what was it that really turned  you on?' he drawled. 'Are you one of  those women who like a bit of  rough-with the kind of man you wouldn't  normally meet? Or was it the  Navy connection-maybe you dream about a  man in uniform? A lot of women  do, you know, and you may be one of  them.'

How had she been so  short-sighted as to imagine that she was cocooned  from pain and hurt in  this place when his words were as wounding as  arrows? She tried to push  his hand away. 'Stop it-how dare you say  those things?'

But he  gripped her fingers, curling his own around them in a sensual  trap and  bringing his face close up to hers, his breath warm and sweet  and  wine-scented.

'It wasn't meant to be an insult,' he amended on a  murmur. 'Just a  problem you might like to solve, and then hopefully it  won't happen  again.' He grinned. 'Or, rather, it will!'

That hurt  even more, and for a moment she couldn't figure out why-and  then she  realised that she had given herself to him passionately and  freely, and  now here he was, helping her to work out where she had gone  wrong  before, talking already about a future which did not include  him. But it  couldn't-she knew that, and so did he. Their lifestyles  were oceans  apart, their interests probably similarly separate. All  they had was a  physical compatibility which was almost cruel in its  random  unsuitability.

'Hey,' he said softly. 'Problems always have solutions, you know-don't look so sombre.'