Say It With Diamonds (17 page)

Will went still. ‘No,’ he muttered, his jaw tight with the effort of holding onto that infernal control of his. ‘You didn’t.’

‘Would you like to know?’

‘Now?’

‘It’s relevant, believe me.’

‘Fine.’

She planted a hand on the back of his neck, lifted her head and whispered in his ear. A few short words. Highly descriptive. Highly explicit. Leaving him in no doubt whatsoever about what she wanted from him right now.

She drew back and looked into his eyes and saw that her words had had exactly the effect she’d hoped for. Gone was the infuriatingly rigid control. Gone was any memory of slow and smooth. Instead she saw nothing but raw, naked need in his glittering gaze.

Bella arched an eyebrow, gave him the hint of a suggestive smile, and then with a low growl Will was pulling out of her, flipping her over, gripping her hips and then plunging back inside her so hard, so deep that she nearly climaxed right then and there.

She leant on her elbows and pushed back against him, going completely mindless as he drove into her and hit her G-spot over and over again while trailing kisses up and down her spine.

Her blood pounded in her ears, her heart thundered, and pleasure and heat coiled low in her stomach. Will snaked one arm around her, pressed his hand against her and stroked her clitoris, and her breathing quickened.

He leaned over her, murmuring how good she felt, telling her exactly what she was doing to him, and his voice, so hoarse and rough, scraped over her nerve endings, ratcheting up the delicious tension coiling deep inside her.

And then he was sitting back, taking her with him, pulling her tight against him and slamming into her as deep and as hard as he could, and without warning Bella splintered. As pleasure exploded though her, shooting through her veins,
making her shudder and tremble and whimper, Will wrapped his arms around her, and she heard him groan, felt him tense and pulsate deep inside her as she clenched and squeezed and quivered around him.

She could feel his heart hammering against her back, feel the heat of his body seeping into hers and as her trembling subsided she relaxed against him and tried to keep the wide smile off her face. But it was hard not to grin when he was stroking her breast, rubbing his thumb over her nipple and kissing his way along her shoulder to her neck. Feeling deliciously wanton and languid, Bella shuddered and felt him twitch deep inside her in response.

‘So that was what I wanted,’ she murmured as evenly as she could, eventually easing herself off him and twisting round to kiss him on the mouth. ‘Now why don’t you tell me what
you’d
like for
your
birthday?’

She took care of the condom and pushed him back so that she could lie flat on top of him. With a soft ‘Oof’ Will landed on the pillows and slid his arms round her. ‘My birthday isn’t until March,’ he said, giving her a faint smile as he ran his fingers lightly up and down her back. ‘And I wasn’t exactly doing you a favour.’

She tilted her head and determinedly didn’t think about how there’d be no more of this come March. ‘Then perhaps there’s something I could do to apologise for comparing you to a plant.’

A flicker leapt in the depths of his eyes and she felt him stirring against her thigh. ‘Well, if you absolutely insist.’

‘I do.’ She nodded. ‘I’m all for equality.’

‘What did you have in mind?’

Giving him a wide smile, Bella arched an eyebrow and began to slide her way down his body. ‘If you really can’t think of anything, I’ll be forced to take matters into my own hands.’

She wrapped her fingers around his growing erection and Will blew out a long shuddering breath. ‘That’s absolutely fine with me.’

So much for attrition, thought Will some time later, his eyes closed as he listened to the soft sound of Bella’s breathing.

There he’d been, confident he was in the driving seat, that he was in control, when she’d whispered what she’d like him to do to her, and all control had vanished. His mind had gone completely blank and all that had remained was the primitive all-consuming need to possess her.

So who exactly had worn down whom?

Not that it mattered any more. Over the course of the past couple of hours they’d worn each other down—and out—in a highly satisfactory manner, and he was back to thinking that an affair with Bella was the best idea he’d ever had and thanking God that she’d managed to change his mind.

‘I think we should establish some sort of boundaries, don’t you?’

Bella’s husky voice cut across Will’s musings and he opened one eye and glanced down at her, his eyebrows snapping together in a frown.

Hmm. Boundaries. Good point. Slightly strange that it had been brought up by her when he was always the one to dictate the terms of his affairs, generally before they’d even started, but never mind. Whoever had brought it up was irrelevant. Establishing boundaries was the priority and he rather thought he’d be interested to see what she came up with. A novel approach for him, perhaps, but then everything about his dealings with Bella was novel.

‘What do you suggest?’

She caught her lip and hmmed. ‘A time limit would be good. At the very least.’

Ah, his favourite kind of boundary. ‘What were you thinking?’

‘Well, I don’t know really … How long is the collection on display?’

‘A month.’

‘Great. Then how about we stop when it does?’

Will twirled a lock of her hair around his finger and watched it change colour in the dim light as he contemplated her proposal.

A month ought to be fine. It was longer than some of his affairs, not as long as others. Perfectly reasonable, and would give him plenty of time to satisfy his craving for her. ‘That sounds sensible.’

‘Of course if either of us wants to get out before then, maybe if you get bored or something, then we can stop.’

Will felt his eyebrows shoot up. ‘You really think I might get bored?’ That didn’t seem likely from where he was lying.

She smiled up at him. ‘It could happen.’

He rolled her over, his body tightening as he stared down at her and lowered his head. ‘Then we’ll just have to get inventive, won’t we?’

CHAPTER TWELVE

B
ELLA
was about to get very inventive indeed.

But not because she was bored. Far from it. She and Will had been seeing each other every night for the last fortnight. Some lunchtimes too, and she was loving every minute of it. Deciding to have an affair with Will was without doubt the best idea she’d ever had.

They’d been out for dinners and met up for walks in the park. They’d stayed in and she’d cooked. Last week he’d dropped by her shop. He hadn’t even said hello, had just flicked the sign on the door to closed, then fixed her with a gaze that had her heart thundering, taken her hand and pulled her into the workshop at the back. He’d lifted her onto her workbench, bunched her dress up and given her the quickest, hottest sexual experience of her life. When she’d finally managed to get her breath back, she’d dragged him up to her flat and they’d spent the rest of the afternoon there, testing out the strength of various pieces of her furniture and discovering that while her sofa was sturdy, the bar stools in her kitchen were less so.

So she was far from bored.

No. The reason she was marching through Soho, heading in the direction of a very specific shop, was while the sex was fabulous and more thrilling than she could ever have imagined, Will’s reluctance to talk about himself, the reasons
for his aversion to commitment in particular, was driving her nuts.

On the rare occasions she had broached the subject, or any subject of a personal nature for that matter, he’d employed more effective countermeasures than an intercontinental ballistic missile. If they were out, he’d shoot her a dazzling smile that scrambled her brain to such an extent that she forgot what she’d been asking. If they were in he’d give her a look that had her horizontal and writhing beneath him within seconds.

She’d tried to work it out for herself but had drawn a blank. That something had caused it was obvious. It was all very well not wanting to be tied down at the age of, say, twenty-one, but to be single at thirty-six, when Will was gorgeous and intelligent and sometimes really quite funny, simply wasn’t normal. Under normal circumstances he’d have been snapped up years ago.

But what was at the root of it remained a mystery. He was as reluctant to chat now as he’d been keen to before the launch party, and that she found strange.

Arriving at the shop and pushing the door open, Bella reminded herself yet again that it shouldn’t matter. Their fling was temporary so she had no need to know why Will was so averse to commitment. But knowing that she had no need to know anything that personal about him didn’t stop her
wanting
to know. It didn’t stop her wanting to know what made him the man he was. What had caused the shadows in his eyes that she caught glimpses of from time to time.

Wanting to know everything about him, in fact.

Her heart stumbled and she jerked to a halt in front of a display stand. She frowned while her head swam. Uh-oh. That didn’t sound too good. That sounded kind of dangerous. Emotionally dangerous.

And then she pulled herself together and told herself not to be so absurd. She wasn’t in any danger, emotionally or otherwise.
She hadn’t lost track of what she ultimately wanted. And she hadn’t fallen into the trap of hoping that Will might be able to provide it, or that, despite her assurances to Phoebe to the contrary, she might be able to change him.

No, she thought, eyeing up the racks of merchandise as heat began to race through her veins and desire hummed in the pit of her stomach. It was curiosity. Simple as that. And as she was pretty sure Will was never going to tell her what she wanted to know of his own accord, she was going to torment him into talking.

It was just as well he had a reliable capable team running his business over in the Cayman Islands, thought Will, striding along the pavement towards Bella’s shop, his body tight with anticipation and desire pounding through him. Because if it had been solely down to him, he’d be heading for bankruptcy.

Work? What a joke. Since their affair had started he’d barely been able to focus on anything other than Bella and when he’d next be seeing her. She was amazing. Insatiable. Utterly intoxicating, and he couldn’t seem to get enough of her. She had him thinking about things he couldn’t have and behaving totally out of character.

Why else would he have ditched the meeting he was supposed to be having in response to her phone call an hour ago? Why else would his body have leapt to attention when she’d suggested he meet her here in half an hour? Why else would he have made himself sit on his chair and coolly tell her to make it an hour when every cell of his body urged him to make it five minutes? What on earth had he been trying to prove by doing that? That he did in fact have some sort of masochistic streak? That he was in some sort of control over this?

Will stopped at her front door and pressed the buzzer. That was even more of a joke. He’d lost control over this the minute
she’d stared up at him at the museum and told him she wanted an affair with him.

Which could well be why the idea of her not being around for his birthday in March was beginning to feel distinctly unappealing. Why he was beginning to get the feeling that at the end of the month he might not be able to let her go.

Will froze as something punched him in the stomach. His heart skipped a beat. And then he gave himself a quick shake and forced himself to relax.

Not be able to let her go? That was ridiculous. Of course he’d be able to let her go. Because that was the agreement. That was what they both wanted. And basically because he didn’t have any choice. And come March he’d be … well, who knew where he’d be? But wherever he was Bella definitely wouldn’t be with him.

Whatever was going on in his poor perplexed brain, one thing was clear. They only had another two weeks and he intended to make the most of every minute.

‘Come on up.’

Starting now. Her voice, lower and more sultry than he remembered from this morning, had lust pounding through him so hard and so fast that all thoughts of where Bella might be in March vanished. All he was interested in was where she was right now.

He pushed the door open and attacked the stairs two at a time. He got to the top to find the door to her flat ajar and for some reason his pulse began to race.

‘Bella?’ he said, stepping over her threshold, shrugging out of his coat and dropping it on the chair.

‘In here.’

Her voice came from the direction of her bedroom and Will strode along the passageway and threw open the door.

And nearly passed out. He stopped, his breath shooting
from his lungs and the bolt of lust thundering through him almost slammed him back against the wall.

Bella was lying on her bed, reclining against a bank of pillows and wearing nothing but a kind of black lacy corset, black stockings, black high heels and a very sultry smile.

All he could do was stare at her, desire punching him from the inside out, his mouth dry as his eyes roamed over her.

‘Hi,’ she said huskily, her eyes dark and inviting and promising things that made his stomach clench.

Will swallowed. Coughed. Wondered if he’d ever be able to speak again. ‘Hi.’ Hmm. Barely.

She rose off the bed and swung her legs to the floor and stood up. The corset pulled in her waist and made her breasts swell over the top. Her heels made her legs look endlessly long. She sidled over to him, her hips mesmerising him as they swayed from side to side.

Unable to take his eyes off her, Will couldn’t move. His feet seemed to be glued to the floor. He clenched his hands into fists to stop himself from reaching for her and thrust them into the pockets of his jeans just to make sure. She’d clearly put a lot of thought into this seduction routine and who was he to spoil it?

‘So how’s your day been?’ she said, standing right in front of him, placing her hands on his chest and planting a hot wet kiss on his mouth.