Her eyes dilated, and her breaths came in little pants.
“You’re being disgusting.”
“No. I’m telling how much I want you. I burn inside for you.” He cupped her cheek and tilted her head back.
“I’m not a thing, Richard.”
“I know. You’re so much better.” He claimed her lips and went straight to heaven. For the next week at least she’d be all his, and he didn’t want to waste any second arguing with her. He broke from the kiss. “See, you respond to me, and I want you so damn badly.” Richard teased her mouth open and swooped in, his tongue tasting hers. The earth stopped. Her arms wrapped round him. His leg inserted between her thighs, and he pressed up as far as her pencil slim skirt would allow. He wanted the heat of her cunt on his leg. He wanted to feel her cum leaking out.
He growled and tore the jacket from her body. Her br**sts heaved over the edge of her blouse. Those luscious mounds begged for his touch. Richard, fired by the lust shooting through his body, pulled her hair out of the band constraining it. Tonight, he’d get to find out if she was a real blond. Unless she shaved it. His knees went weak. Everything he wanted was in touching distance. For the past year he’d been left wanting, and in a few minutes he could have it all. Scarlet, na**d and open, begging for him to f**k her.
Her silky strands cascaded around his fist, and he tightened his hold producing a gasp from her.
The sounds she made were going straight to his groin. He had to have her.
“Stop,” she moaned even as her fingers pulled his head back for more. Her soft lips were undoing him. His fingers fumbled with the zipper of his trousers. Cursing the person who invented clothes, Richard suddenly felt like a horny teenager with no experience.
“Please, wait,” she gasped out.
He stopped what he was doing with a hand against the wall. “Please tell me you haven’t changed your mind?” he asked. The contract had only been his means of getting her to this point, not in keeping her.
“This is going too fast. I need time. I have to wash, and – please, if you care about me a little, you’d give me time to—”
Richard pressed his finger to her lips. “Don’t say anything. I want you to be happy while you’re here.” He meant the words.
A deep breath later he took one of her hands and led her through to the bedroom. “I want you to be comfortable, and so this is your room. I don’t want you to feel obliged to sleep with me.”
“You want me to have sex with you but not sleep in the same bed?”
His heart constricted at her words. Why did he want her to feel more for him? Maybe Wayne was right; maybe he did feel more for Scarlet. No, he refused to believe it. The men in his family didn’t love anyone. Richard would never force a woman into a full-time relationship with him knowing how he couldn’t love anyone.
“Sleeping holds a certain intimacy you might not be agreeable to,” he said.
“But sex doesn’t? Because last time I read sex between two people was supposed to be the ultimate intimacy.”
“Is that what you found with Harry’s dad?” he asked.
She paused, and he watched the tears form in her eyes. “That’s none of your business. If you want this to work, you don’t mention Harry’s father.”
“Every kid deserves a dad,” Richard said. Not that he was any expert.
“You had a father growing up?”
Richard nodded.
“Look where it got you. Forcing women to sign a contract to get them in your bed. If a father is the kind of man who raises a son like that Harry is better off without one.” The passion and fire of moments ago had been lost. Richard cursed as he saw a tear fall from her eye.
“I’m sorry. I can be such an ass**le at times. You’re right. I don’t know your circumstances, and I swear I won’t ever challenge your judgement again.” She jumped when he placed his hands on her shoulders. “The bathroom is right through there.”
He watched her go, her ass still grasping his attention. The door clicked shut, and he looked in the mirror and stared at his reflection. “You’re going to screw this up.” Shrugging his shoulder he grabbed the box off the kitchen counter and took the red negligee he’d bought several months ago and splayed it on her bed.
Richard couldn’t tell anyone about the trinkets in his safe. Ever since Scarlet had turned up in his office looking for a job the obsession had begun. Necklaces he’d walked past displayed in designer windows or the odd present from a store. When she’d left her jacket one evening, he’d collected the size and begun buying items of clothing he thought Scarlet would look good in. The negligee had been an impulse decision. The silk fabric would feel great against her skin. He left it on the bed and walked through the suite to his office where he kept the large safe behind a picture.
In a small box lay a diamond engagement ring. He didn’t know why he’d bought it, but for some reason he couldn’t explain he went into the jeweller’s that day. Richard picked the box up and opened it to stare at the small diamond-encrusted dolphin. He’d noticed the picture frames and the odd necklace she wore with the print of a dolphin. Still, he couldn’t believe he’d brought this. Especially when he didn’t intend to use it.
He flipped it closed and placed the box back in the safe.
Whisky, he needed a really strong whisky.
Chapter Five
Scarlet lay back against the door and breathed a sigh of relief. Her heart pounded in her chest, and her cheeks were on fire. She went straight for the mirror above the sink. The woman staring back at her, she didn’t recognise. Her lips were partly open, and her hair was falling around her shoulders. This was a woman on the brink of womanhood about to partake in her true sexual experience. How ironic that the mother with a child considered tonight the night she’d lose her virginity forever.
She ran a bath and poured in some lavender bubble-bath. Through her search she found some scented candles and dotted them about the room.
Very rarely did she get the treat of a long hot bath, and for tonight she’d treat herself. Her clothes were removed quickly. The fabric was itchy against her skin. She glanced in the mirror and wondered what Richard saw in her.
Her br**sts were big and the ni**les large with a dark red colour tone to them. Her shape narrowed at the waist but expanded out, revealing large hips. On some of the celebrities where they could put their hands on their h*ps and practically be touching fingers, there was a wide gap for hers. The round belly gave proof to her once pregnant state including a few faded stretch marks.