One Night With Morelli (9 page)

She opened her legs in silent invitation and when he moved over her, she lifted her hips to open herself for him. The first deep thrust took her breath away but as he started to move she realised there was more…and with each successive measured thrust of his hips he drove her deeper and deeper into the heart of the heat that burned inside her, until she was the heat.

The climax when it hit her was so intense that her cry rivalled the feral moan that emanated from his chest.

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘W
HAT
ARE
YOU
DOING
?’

Eve glanced towards the bed and immediately regretted it as he was looking magnificently rumpled. ‘Getting dressed,’ she mumbled.

‘So why are you wrapped in the duvet?’

‘Because I’m cold.’ She would be after a cold shower.

‘Right, because for a minute there I thought you might be going coy on me.’

She felt the embarrassed heat climb to her cheeks. Draco was right: it was absurd. He had got out of bed stark naked earlier and been totally relaxed, but the idea of him seeing her naked in daylight had sent her under the duvet. ‘Don’t be stupid,’ she scorned.

‘Considering there is not an inch of your body I have not explored…of course if I missed anywhere…’

He hadn’t; he had even kissed the small fresh scar from the mole removal and told her they both had one. His, she had learnt, was from a skiing accident. She had kissed it too… She pushed the memory away, but she couldn’t push away the warmth that remained low in her pelvis.

‘Look, last night happened and I’m not trying to pretend it didn’t,’ she said. The second time they had made love had been even more intense than the first as he had encouraged her to explore his body while he had tutored her in how to please him in a voice that embodied sin. ‘But—’

‘You regret it?’ His tone was sharp.

‘No, but today is another day.’

He loosed a long whistle through his teeth ‘Wow, now that really
is
profound.’

Responding to his aggravating sarcasm—
only aggravating if you let him get to you, Eve
—she turned her head sharply, intending to deliver an acid response. At the same moment, like a lazy big cat, he stretched. Disastrously distracted by the ripple of taut muscle in his ribbed belly and perfectly defined chest, she almost dropped the quilt.

‘You still haven’t explained how I’m your first lover.’ How a woman who was as innately sensual as Eve had reached this point without having taken a man to her bed defied logic and his powers of deduction, but he wasn’t going to complain as it was to his benefit. ‘Did it not occur to you that it is the sort of thing a man might like to know upfront?’

‘I didn’t think you’d notice.’ Keeping one hand on the quilt, she stalked back to the bed. ‘What’s so funny?’

He looped his hands behind his neck, drawing her eyes back to the muscles of his lean torso. ‘You are…’

Her scowl refused to stay in place, he was so incredibly gorgeous.

‘But deflections aside—’

‘I was not trying to deflect anything.’

‘It’s a simple question, Eve.’ He grabbed her arm and Eve sat down on the bed. ‘Better,’ he murmured, easing closer until their faces were close. ‘Nobody is a virgin at your age by accident.’ He tugged the quilt, holding her eyes as it slid down to her waist.

‘I’ve not had time for r-romance.’

‘Last night wasn’t romance, it was sex, Eve.’ The best sex he had ever had.

She lowered her chin to hide the hurt anger she knew was written on her face. When she lifted it again she was smiling. ‘You really don’t have to spell it out to me, Draco. I hardly thought it was the start of a deep and meaningful relationship.’

Her laugh grated on him. Her entire attitude grated on him; it wasn’t as though he was looking for deep and meaningful any more than he’d been looking for a virgin to take to his bed. A virgin…! Eyes half closed, he relived that moment when he had known…and felt again the equally powerful surge of possessiveness that had been too primal to deny and still was—he was her first.

‘You’re a passionate woman, Eve.’

She shook her head, not able to admit even to herself her secret fear of losing control with a man, that she might lose some of herself at the same time… Her eyes lifted, a furrow appearing between her brows as she wondered what it was about him that made it all right to lose control.

‘I’ve been b-building a b-business.’

His dark brows lifted. ‘That is a reason?’

She nodded.

‘It is possible to have sex and run a business at the same time, I promise you,
cara
.’

‘I don’t want a full-time relationship and I’m not into one-night stands.’ A bit late to remember that, Eve. ‘And even if I was in the market, men who share my aims and ambitions are hard to find.’

‘There is nothing stopping you looking for one of them while you have sex with me. But, believe me, one night with you would not be nearly enough for any man,
cara
. Actually,’ he mused, smiling to himself at the blush that had spread to all parts of her body, ‘I think you’ll find you can go to bed with a man who shares your aims and ambitions and wake up with a man who is not even faintly interested in your mind… Most men will say anything to get you into bed.’

‘But you’re different, I suppose?’

‘As a matter of fact I am. I am exactly the sort of man you need.’

‘Is that meant to be a turn-on?’ Eve had no idea if this arrogant pronouncement was intended to arouse her, but it did.

‘Think about it. I can give you great sex—and it was great—with no strings, no emotional upheaval, just satisfying sex. You may have no time in your calendar for romance, but I think a clever girl like you could fit in great sex.’

‘That sounds…’

‘Perfect?’

‘Immoral!’

His husky laughter rang out. ‘Stay with me long enough, angel, and I will corrupt you; you do have a body made for sin.’

Dropping the quilt, she rose from the bed, swept her clothes up into a bundle and marched into the bathroom.

As the door closed on her beautifully rounded little bottom he gave a loud groan. There were in his experience few certainties in life, but he found himself faced with one total certainty: he had to get Eve back in his bed or die trying.

* * *

Eve always arrived at the office first. She enjoyed those few minutes alone with no interruptions to plan out her day and get her thoughts together. Today she had arrived when her assistant was already at her desk with sympathy, a herbal tea she said always worked for jet lag and a wistful expression she always wore when she talked about weddings.

Eve accepted the sachet of tea and told Shelley she hadn’t taken any photos.

‘None?’ The girl couldn’t hide her disappointment. ‘I suppose you were too stressed about today to enjoy yourself and let your hair down.’

Eve lifted a hand to her head just to satisfy herself it was neatly subdued. Unlike her imagination.
Just glorious;
I want to wrap myself in your hair
… The flashback, the throaty, sinfully sexy voice was so real she could almost feel his warm breath on her neck.

Swallowing, she lowered her eyes, willing the flush to stay below neck level as her fingers tightened hard enough around the herbal sachet to make the contents spill out.

‘I’ll just…’ She took a step towards her office then stopped, a frown pleating her smooth brow as she turned back.
‘Today?’

Her assistant blinked and brought up a chart on her tablet. ‘There hasn’t been
another
delay, has there? They are still letting you know this morning…?’

Eve struggled to conceal her dismay behind a cheerful smile that made her face ache. She had a point to make or at least a reputation to preserve—a reputation for being calm and unflappable in a crisis.

‘No, it’s still this morning.’

Inside the office she closed the door and leaned against it. This was not just a disaster, it was a… What the hell was it?

She had forgotten!

How could she have forgotten?

For six months her every waking moment had been focused on this deal; she had invested all her time and energy on it; she had lived and breathed it, focused on a goal and gone for it. She told herself that failure was not an option but she knew it always was, and that knowledge had made her wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night on more than one occasion.

And now on the very brink, she glanced down at her watch, and then lifted a hand to her face in shock. Within minutes she’d be receiving that crucial decision and she’d completely forgotten about it!

What did they say? Pride came before a fall… She had gone back to her flat that morning to change feeling pretty smug. Well, actually more
relieved
. Eve knew she wasn’t like her mother or any of the other women she knew who lost the capacity to be objective when there was a man in their bed, but there had been a niggling doubt—what if great sex stole her self-respect and made her willing to compromise all her principles?

Well, she’d had great sex; to her shock, the sort of mind-bending, head-banging sex that she’d had really did exist outside novels! Her body still ached from it—in a good way—and for a short time she’d stopped being the Queen of Caution and allowed her impulses full rein. It had turned out to be a totally liberating experience. Draco was an incredible lover but equally importantly in the cold light of day he was still an arrogant pain in the neck, which might for all she knew be what made him a great lover; the point was, she knew he was. She wasn’t making excuses for his shortcomings; she wasn’t about to put him on a pedestal or keep her mouth shut when she knew he was wrong.

It was a relief to have her theory confirmed. It wasn’t sex that turned women into willing slaves; it was love. She didn’t love Draco, and the very idea of falling in love after twenty-four hours made her lips twitch into a fleeting ghost of a smile.

Love… To be honest, she didn’t even like him that much. If she never saw him again, she wouldn’t lose any sleep. That was why in some ways he was right. He was perfect as a lover—there was nothing between them but unbridled lust, nothing complicated by emotions. It had just been sex—very good sex, to be sure—but there were a lot of men out there who were not Draco, men whose hands weren’t so skilful perhaps… An image of his long fingers gliding over her skin drifted into Eve’s head, igniting heat low in her pelvis until she pushed the image away and reminded herself that she was in no hurry to repeat their night of passion. Another uncomplicated moment might happen but she was not going out looking for it.

Uncomplicated or not, the unwelcome fact remained that a night spent with him had knocked the contract that she’d worked so hard for completely out of her head…

Maybe I’m the exception that proves the rule—the woman who can’t multitask.

It’s business success or sex; I can’t do both.

Failing to summon a smile at her humour and not willing to acknowledge she was uncertain on this unfamiliar ground, Eve took a seat at her desk. She released a deep sigh, but the calm that the minimalist arrangement usually inspired, with no photos or personal items cluttering her working space, just the essentials, failed to materialise. She touched the row of pencils, taking comfort from the symmetry.

She needed to clear her head and focus.

Before she could do either, the phone bleeped and that was it. She gritted her teeth and lifted it, trying not to think of the people who had told her that she was running before she could walk.

Ten minutes later she replaced it.

She was shaking.

The deal was closed, and it was only now she could admit that there had been moments, though she had never said it out loud, when she had doubted the wisdom of her Australian trip. But the groundwork had paid off, and the exclusive department store chain with outlets all over the southern hemisphere was going to take her line.

This was the moment she had been working towards, pushing herself towards, the moment she had dreamed about.

A tiny furrow appeared between her brows. So where was the high…the euphoria…the glow of achievement? Instead it was almost an anticlimax, but that, she told herself, was only to be expected. To be really appreciated this was the sort of good news that deserved to be shared, and a line in Charlie Latimer’s wedding speech came back to her:
Success means nothing
unless you have someone to share it
with—I have the best person in the world: my wife.

Eve had not tasted the wine in her glass or joined in with the spontaneous ripple of applause and her eyes had remained dry but, his insincerity aside, didn’t he have a point?

Who would be happy for her? Her mother was on her honeymoon and her best friend was busy being a pregnant princess.

She pushed away the sudden sharp stab of something she refused to recognise as self-pity, and thought, Buy a cat, Eve.

Or take a new lover.

There was still some mileage in the one she had, she thought wryly…or did she still have him? The situation was so far out of her comfort zone that she was still feeling her way…
all over his warm satiny textured skin
.

She looked down and saw her fingers stroking the desk. The dreamy expression clouding her eyes vanished and the furrow between her brows twitched back into life as a comment Draco had made came back to her.

She had no idea what time it had been when she’d woken, not in her own bed, but in a strange bed held down by the weight of a man’s thigh thrown across her hips, his head between her breasts. The initial adrenaline-fed panic surge had made her struggle for a split second but then she’d realised where she was and relaxed against his warm chest.

He’d unconsciously voiced her inner doubts out loud.
What are you doing? Stop analysing—just enjoy. There’s no tomorrow, just here and now, you and me. I don’t want you to reach me emotionally. I just want you to touch me…please.

The tortured plea had made her feel empowered, hot and out of control.

She laughed softly as she got to her feet. She wasn’t even a little jealous of her friend; the last thing she wanted was a baby. She was far too busy with her career right now, but perhaps in a few years’ time…? Her body clock had barely started ticking and she’d only just discovered sex.

She straightened the row of pencils on her desk one last time and, humming softly under her breath, headed for the interconnecting door to her PA’s office. Shelley had really put in the extra hours on this one; actually, not just her PA, but everyone had, and though friends and family would say well done it was only the small team who really understood what this success meant to her.