The groan from deep in his throat sounded anguished as he left the bed momentarily to rid himself of the last of his clothes. His eyes were like bolts of green lightning, zigzagging over her body, shooting electric tension into all the high spots, raising tremors in all her muscles, making her pulse race at the promise of intense stimulation to come.
He looked magnificent, smooth and dark and so sexually male, her heart quailed at the terrible soul-wrenching need to keep him to herself. The yearning to possess clutched at her stomach. Her breasts ached with it. A wild cry broke from her throat as he brought all his dynamic aggressive energy down to her, the full body contact making her arch into him and driving her arms and legs to wind shamelessly around him, demanding an instant appeasement of the fierce hunger inside her.
It came, hard and fast, a wild rocketing plunge that steamed straight through her moist heat, pounding its urgency to claim the innermost depths of her, not once, not twice, but a wild barrage of possession—a blisteringly primal coupling that drove them both to the edge of intolerable yet torturously exquisite tension.
His eyes blazed a highly dominant basic challenge at her—determined on holding control, maintaining the forceful rhythm until she broke it by shattering into climax. The dark strain on his face, the thin-lipped grimness of his mouth, the jut of his chin—all spoke of what it was costing him, but cost was no object when it came to winning for Nick. Most notably with women.
For Tess this was a soul-deep contest. She refused to be an easy lay for him. Let him wait. Let his limits be tested. Let his arrogant confidence in his sexual expertise take a knock for once. She revelled in the sense of teetering on the brink of orgasm, holding on as long as she could, working her inner muscles to squeeze him into surrendering to her first, fizzing around him with wickedly voluptuous provocation, gritting her teeth against the mounting waves of tumultuous sensation, hanging on because it bound him to her so intensely there was no room for thought of anything or anyone else.
He was hers.
All hers.
And with that ecstatic thought tap-dancing all over her tightly focused concentration, Tess lost the battle, her muscles rippling convulsively along the powerful length of his shaft, the out of control flutters swirling into a swamping tidal wave of pleasure that lifted her to an incredible crest of creaming bliss and spilled her into sweet heavenly contentment.
She heard him cry out and it sounded like the triumphant shout of a winner who’d completely spent himself in winning, making the victory more deeply prized, but she didn’t feel beaten as she felt the erratic spasms of his release. Her nerve-endings tingled with an exultant awareness of their ultimate fusion, giving her the sense of a very exclusive sharing…a richer, deeper, mutual fulfilment than could ever be achieved with anyone else.
Tess clung to that belief as the physical intensity of their intimacy eased into a languidly comfortable nestling, Nick’s arm around her shoulders, her head resting on his chest, their soft breathing attuned to a relaxed togetherness.
‘I’ve heard it said that the secret to a successful marriage is lots of sex,’ Nick murmured, the deep timbre of his voice rumbling up from his chest, resonating in her ear.
Other people might have said loving each other, Tess thought, the dreamy happiness in her heart fraying around the edges as his reality chewed on it.
Would a constant barrage of making love keep Nick satisfied with his commitment?
She hadn’t yet consented to marry him but the temptation to give in and take what he was offering—if only for the pleasure no other man had ever given her—was very strong. She feathered her fingers over his tautly packed flesh and felt the faint quivers under his skin, knowing he was excitingly sensitised to her touch, revelling in the knowledge.
‘I don’t see myself as a wife who would have headaches,’ she said whimsically.
As her hand drifted below his hip-bone, towards his groin, he plucked it off him and carried it to the pillow beside her head, rolling her onto her back, taking command of the situation.
‘To have and to hold from this day forth,’ he intoned, his eyes glittering purposeful satisfaction in his domination. ‘No messing with that vow, Tess?’
‘It goes both ways, Nick,’ she reminded him, not conceding anything.
‘Fine. As long as you’re ready for it. It’s a very powerful weapon—desire—and women like testing it, but don’t ever stir it unless you’re prepared to match what you stir. Understood?’
Power…the idea of having any sexual power over Nick hadn’t entered Tess’s head. It amazed her that he felt she did have it. She’d viewed her whole association with him as being entirely the other way.
‘Tease…and I’ll take it as an invitation,’ he ran on, the glitter changing to a hard, ruthless gleam as he added, ‘Try bartering with it and I’ll walk.’
No bartering with sex.
Tess mentally wrote the rule in her mind although it seemed to run contrary to everything she thought Nick had stood for. Surely it was how his world worked—selling everything with sex.
‘Understood, Tess?’ he repeated, his eyes boring into hers so intensely, he left her in no doubt this was a prime requirement for a workable relationship between them.
‘Yes,’ she agreed.
He released her hand and moved his to trace her lips with feathering fingertips. ‘Power is a fine balancing act,’ he murmured.
He wanted it in his hands, Tess thought.
Then he bent his head and kissed her, and she didn’t care if he always had sexual power over her.
As long as she remained desirable to him.
Uniquely desirable.
The one and only woman he wanted.
This might only be a dream—a foolish dream that couldn’t possibly last—but Tess wanted to hang onto it as long as she could.
CHAPTER EIGHT
FROM the time Zack woke them the next morning, Nick started operating on the presumption that Tess would marry him, no question about whether it was actually settled between them. Watching him with their baby son—his pleasure in sharing this new life—Tess could not bring herself to disabuse him of the idea.
Let it ride for the moment, she decided.
See how long Nick’s keenness for it lasted.
He did not leave until after breakfast, and only then with the declared intention of returning within an hour or two, once he’d collected the legal forms they had to fill out and have officially filed in order to get married.
Tess waved him off in his flash silver Lamborghini, wondering in a somewhat bemused fashion if he’d drive back in a sedate family sedan. The air seemed to be crackling with changes coming so fast, she was grateful for the respite from Nick’s presence, needing some time and space to come to grips with a proposal she would have declared impossible yesterday.