The Flaw in His Diamond(16)

'Do you want something more, Eva?'

'You know I do.'

'Then you must tell me what it is you want.'

But that seemed so bad. 'No...' Her voice was shaking with frustration.

'Yes.' Roman's voice was pitiless.

'How can I tell you when I don't know?'

'I'll never hurt you. Take it from there, Eva.'

How could she think when her heart was firing like a machine gun? This was all completely natural to Roman, but for her-

She drew a sharp breath in when he slipped a pillow beneath her hips.

'Knees clenched like nutcrackers? Not a great start,' he murmured  wryly, smiling up at her. 'Relax, and then tell me how you feel.'

She turned her face away. 'Shy,' she blurted. Determined, she tried  again. 'Self-conscious...' Her lips pressed down as she thought about  it. 'Excited. And extremely frustrated,' she admitted on an awkward  laugh. 'And exposed-but I don't want you to stop.'

Roman laughed. 'So you trust me at last?'

'It would appear so.' The old fire was back in her voice, but there was a smile in her eyes now.

'Brava, Eva Skavanga,' Roman's warm breath caressed her ear. 'So is this what you had in mind?'

'Oh, yes...'

'And this?'

One skilful fingertip traced a line of fire exactly where she needed  him- Well, not quite. It was always close, but not quite touching...

'You're very responsive, Eva.'

'But I shouldn't-'

'You shouldn't what?' he said as she turned her head away. 'You  shouldn't allow yourself to feel pleasure? You shouldn't lose control?'

While she was hesitating over her answer, he removed her tiny thong.

'You don't really need this,' he explained with a smile when she gave a  shaking cry. 'And I wouldn't worry about losing control if I were you.  That's going to be something you'll have to get used to.'                       
       
           



       

'If you say so.'

'I do say so. My rules, remember?'

'I love your rules-in this context only,' she quickly said. She loved  the way he cradled her as he fondled her, parting her lips and working  with one finger, so delicately and skilfully, in a way that almost  instantly brought her to the edge.

'Good,' he murmured as she sucked in a great shuddering breath.

She moaned with pleasure, needing this so badly, and so unutterably  grateful that Roman knew everything there was to know about pleasure and  how to please her.

'Look at me, Eva. Yes. Look at me.'

'If I promise to look at you, will you touch me again?'

'Are you making bargains with me?' He smiled into her eyes.

'Would you prefer me not to? Would you prefer me to accept everything  and be meek and mild, or would you rather I was true to myself, Roman?'

'I wouldn't know you if you were meek and mild,' he admitted. 'But I do have just one question to ask.'

'Which is?'

'Whose rules do you think will bring you more pleasure, Eva? Yours? Or mine?'

Her rules? Pleasure me, endlessly. How? I'm not sure. I'm no good at this-

Or his rules? Pleasure me endlessly. You know exactly how-

'Your rules. At least for now,' she tempered.





CHAPTER TEN

'RULE NUMBER ONE: you do exactly as I say. Rule number two: you don't lose control until I tell you that you can.'

Rules? Seriously? Her mind was shooting splinters into the ether just  at the prospect of release. If those were his rules she would sign up  now.

'Only when I tell you,' Roman repeated as if he knew the innermost  workings of her mind. 'It might not be as easy as you think.'

'I'll risk it.' He knew she was on the edge. He knew she wouldn't need much pushing.

'Don't even think it. Take your mind somewhere else.'

'But how am I supposed to-?'

'To stop yourself?' Roman supplied. 'You'll do that easily when you remember that I won't touch you again if you don't.'

She nodded tensely.

'Do as I say and the pleasure will continue as much as you want for as  long as you want. Disobey me, and it will stop immediately.'

'I'll obey you in this one thing,' she made clear.

'And gladly, I would have thought,' Roman murmured, a sexy smile  playing round his lips. 'As for the rest?' His stare grew frighteningly  dark and compelling. 'It's all up for grabs.'

Hmm. Roman was a maestro and she was the orchestra he had chosen to  direct. The ache inside her had reached crisis point. She was in no mood  to argue. 'I agree to your conditions.'

'We're both adults. Everyone's at the wedding, so you can be as noisy and as uninhibited as you like.'

She nodded agreement as if she understood, but she was wondering if  Roman was always so calculating-there was no other word for it. Was he  incapable of feeling? She had imagined her first real sexual experience  would be very different from this. She had hazily imagined some romantic  encounter with an ordinary man, rather than a high-achieving sexual  athlete. Was this what she wanted?

As she thought about it Roman was holding her in a loose embrace, and  her hand somehow strayed to the fine gold chain he wore around his neck.  She pulled back to take a better look at it. He removed her hand. Don't  touch. She got it. But why?

Did she have to know everything about Roman? What did she want out of  this? Wasn't the fact that he was experienced enough for her? So he had  nothing more to give other than pleasure? That wasn't so bad, was it?  Was she such an expert in returning normal human affection? They both  had boundaries they refused to cross-

'Are you still a virgin?'

'What?' She was startled by the question hitting her out of the blue.

'Maybe not a virgin,' Roman said thoughtfully. 'But as close as it gets...'

She laughed as if she knew all about it. 'How can you be close to being a virgin? You either are or you're not, surely?'

'You should have told me,' Roman said, drawing back.                       
       
           



       

'Told you what?' she asked defensively, but she knew. 'I can just imagine that conversation.'

Roman frowned. 'What's so difficult about telling the truth?'

She couldn't answer him, and after a long moment he shrugged and  brought her back into his arms. She didn't wait this time. She didn't  want any more questions or explanations, she just wanted him to touch  her, and when he did her screams of release could probably be heard in  the village.

* * *

'Good?' he murmured when she had quietened a little.

'What do you think?'

'I think more,' he said.

'If I must,' she whispered, glancing up at him. Her hips were already working against his hand.

'Once is never enough,' Roman agreed, moving down the bed.

'What are you doing?' She barely got the question out before she  reacted fast and violently to the touch of his tongue and his lips and  his hands and his-

'And again?' he suggested.

'Definitely.' She was still panting for breath, but instead of feeling sated she was gasping for more.

Her eyes shot wide as Roman slipped one finger inside her. 'Does that hurt?' he whispered.

She needed a moment before she could speak-a moment to get used to the  sensation...the invasion, the shock. And during that moment Roman began  to stimulate her with his other hand, so in seconds she had forgotten  why she had been frightened.

'Good?'

Like she never wanted it to end good. 'Yes...'

'And now?' he said, slipping another finger inside her.

'Yes... Oh, yes.'

While Eva gained in confidence and grew used to the new sensation, he  kept her arousal high. He was in no hurry. They had all night. She soon  forgot her fears and rose against him, seeking more, and as she did so  his free hand slipped round her back to support her and he felt the  scar. It wasn't small, and it wasn't deep, but it was a ragged expanse  of damaged skin that didn't strike him as the result of falling out of a  tree as a child, or even a more serious accident that would have  required treatment in hospital. It was perhaps a burn, or a severe  grazing episode that had been coped with at home. He wondered about it,  but said nothing. This wasn't the time, not for either of them, but it  gave him another piece of the jigsaw that was Eva Skavanga.

Perhaps the scar answered everything. Eva was a beautiful woman who was  neither completely innocent nor experienced. She had kept the world at  bay, maybe because she had been hurt badly at some time. Whatever else  he had discovered about her tonight, she brought out his protective  instincts.

Was this the start of a relationship?

Forget that. He would have to learn to care long-term-to risk his  heart, his pride, his slumbering emotions-and he just wasn't cut out for  that.

'What are you doing?' Eva exclaimed when he reached into a bedside drawer.

'Protecting you,' he said, ripping the foil. 'Would you like to-'

Her face turned grey.

'Would I like to what?' she whispered.

'Would you like to put it on for me?' he offered, pressing the packet into her hand.

'I don't think so.'

Her confidence died a little more as he threw back the sheet.

He waited. And waited. Finally she huffed a laugh, but it sounded  brittle to him. She didn't want to take things any further. He didn't  need it spelling out. He doubted she had taken things this far in the  past. His concern for Eva took a huge leap. If a man took her at face  value Eva could find herself in serious trouble at some point down the  line. 'Don't know how to?' he suggested.