One More Sleepless Night Read online

  Beneath his scrutiny, a shudder rippled through her and then she went so hot she wouldn’t have been surprised to look down and find that the lace of her strapless bra and knickers had gone up in flames.

  ‘What now?’ she asked, perfectly happy to have him take charge when it made her feel like this.

  ‘Sit down.’ His voice was satisfyingly hoarse and she smiled at the thought that despite his attempt to resist her, he was as much at the mercy of this as she was.

  ‘Where?’ she asked, because the only chairs she could make out in her very fuzzy peripheral vision were the kitchen bar stools and they didn’t look nearly sturdy enough for what she hoped was about to happen.

  He scanned the living space. ‘The sofa, I think.’

  With her pulse kicking with anticipation, she smiled, then turned and made her way over to the wide, deep chocolate-brown sofa, feeling her body moving languidly and her hips sashaying in a way that had nothing to do with any conscious thought on her part and everything to do with a primitively innate desire to attract.

  She sat down before her knees could give way and looked up at him. ‘How do you want me?’

  ‘Sit back.’

  With desire and heat making the blood racing through her veins sluggish and her limbs heavy, Nicky languorously sank back against the soft velvet and inched her knees open a fraction.

  ‘Is that better?’ she said huskily.

  ‘Much.’

  ‘So what are you doing still over there?’

  ‘Contemplating exactly where to start.’

  As her mouth went dry and heat pooled between her legs Nicky thought that he’d started already. ‘Will you be long?’

  ‘I might be.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I’ve just discovered a hitherto latent fascination with revenge.’

  She shivered deliciously. ‘Revenge?’

  He nodded. ‘And I think I could be getting a taste for it.’

  ‘Are you planning to make me pay for that disaster of a first kiss?’ she said a little raggedly.

  ‘I might be,’ he said and the look in his eye told her that there was no ‘might’ about it.

  Wicked excitement spun through her. ‘How?’

  ‘By making you beg.’

  Oh, heavens. ‘I’ve never begged for anything in my life.’

  ‘You will.’

  Her heart thumped so hard her ribs ached. And then, just when she didn’t think she could stand the tension much longer, he pushed himself off the counter and began to prowl towards her, not taking his eyes off her as he approached.

  He came to a stop in front of her, loomed over her for a moment and then dropped to his knees. He pushed her legs apart and inched forwards and her excitement ratcheted up so dizzyingly it was all she could do not to grab him and pull him first up and then down on top of her. Achingly slowly he leaned into her and the spicy scent of him wound up her nose into her head and made a mess of her brain.

  When his mouth finally brushed over hers, Nicky moaned and nearly passed out with relief because for a moment she’d thought she was going to have to start begging right there and then.

  But he didn’t linger. Instead he moved his mouth down over her chin, her neck and the skin of her upper chest, leaving tiny trails of fire wherever it touched, and at the same time he slid his hands up her thighs. The muscles beneath his fingers quivered and the skin beneath his mouth burned and then his teeth grazed her nipple beneath the lace of her bra and she gasped.

  As he tugged her hips forwards and carried on kissing his way down her body Nicky closed her eyes and let her head drop back because it was all getting too much for her poor battered senses and, unlike some of her previous lovers, Rafael didn’t seem to need instruction.

  Quite the contrary, she thought briefly as he dotted a trail of kisses over her stomach and then lower, and ran his tongue along the edge of her knickers. He knew exactly what he was doing.

  And then she gave up thinking altogether in favour of biting her lip and arching her back and clenching her fists against the cushions to stop herself grabbing his head and pushing it where she so desperately wanted his mouth.

  She whimpered and felt him smile against her skin and then he was lifting her hips, hooking his thumbs over the sides of her knickers and drawing back to slide them down her legs. He pulled them off and began stroking and kissing his way up over the inside of one of her knees, up along her inner thigh and then he was there. Right at the heart of her where she was burning and aching and so, so hot. He spread her legs even further apart, exposing her completely, and she let out an involuntary little moan. And then just when she thought she might be ready to beg after all, he licked along the length of her and a burst of pleasure exploded inside her.

  Holding her in place, he licked and sucked and nibbled and stroked and within seconds Nicky’s head was swimming and her body was on fire and all her senses zoomed in on his tongue and the chaos it was creating.

  After such a long time of nothing she was a writhing mass of sensation. As he continued to lay siege to her body shudders racked her. Need clawed at her insides. Her muscles filled with tension.

  He slipped a finger, then two, into her wet heat, found her g-spot with deadly accuracy, and what with the relentless onslaught of his tongue, the feel of his fingers inside her and the ecstasy spinning out of control deep within her, it was all just too much.

  Far too soon everything tangled into one great jumble of feeling, soaring and swelling until it hit a peak and, with his name on her lips, she shattered, breaking wide apart and spinning off into delirious oblivion.

  When the stars eventually stopped exploding behind her eyelids, when her heart finally slowed and when the strength eventually returned to her limbs, Nicky let out a long shuddery breath and opened her eyes.

  ‘Been a while?’

  She lifted her head and glanced down to find Rafael staring up at her, his eyes glittering with desire, satisfaction and a hint of surprise.

  ‘You could say that,’ she said huskily, then added because it seemed appropriate, ‘Thanks.’

  ‘It was my pleasure.’

  ‘No, no, the pleasure was all mine. Literally.’ And embarrassingly, she thought, feeling a blush steal into her cheeks at the memory of how abandoned, how vocal she’d been.

  Rafael grinned. ‘Yes, well, don’t worry. There’ll be plenty of time to even up the score.’

  ‘You mean there’s more?’ she asked, widening her eyes with disingenuous innocence as a ribbon of fresh desire wound through her.

  ‘Much more.’

  Nicky smiled and stretched. ‘I’m glad to hear it because you haven’t even got naked yet.’

  He looked down over her once again with that heated gaze and her stomach melted. ‘Technically neither have you,’ he said.

  Arching an eyebrow and giving him a saucy little smile, Nicky reached behind her back, unclipped her bra and tossed it over the back of her sofa. ‘Situation remedied,’ she declared. ‘And now, in the interest of fairness, it’s your turn.’

  Rafael’s gaze dropped to her breasts and a muscle began to hammer in his jaw. ‘Since you’re so good at it,’ he murmured, ‘why don’t you do it?’

  ‘Bedroom?’

  ‘Conventional. Who’d have thought?’

  She shrugged. ‘What can I say? I’m a fan of horizontal surfaces and space.’ Although upright on the sofa wasn’t such a bad alternative.

  ‘In that case,’ he said, holding out his hands, taking hers and pulling them both to their feet, ‘the bedroom’s this way.’

  ELEVEN

  Oh, yes, thought Nicky, standing beside the bed, letting her gaze drift over Rafael and wondering where she was going to start. Coming to Madrid had been such a good idea and she was going to have so much fun with him because for this afternoon at least he was all hers, and she felt like a kid in a sweet shop, her fingers itching to delve and her mouth watering with the need to sample the wares.

  ‘Are you j
ust going to stand there and look?’ said Rafael, and she looked up to see his face was dark and tight. ‘Because I am this close—’ he held up his thumb and forefinger a millimetre apart ‘—to tossing you onto the bed and ravishing you, and, believe me, finesse will not feature heavily.’

  And there’d be nothing wrong with that, she thought, her heart jumping as desire shot through her all over again. But now that she’d got her mojo back—and how—she wanted to indulge every newly awakened sense.

  So with her breath catching in her throat she put her hands on his stomach and slid them up, lifting his T-shirt as she did so and feeling his muscles twitch beneath her palms. He raised his arms to help her and she stood on tiptoe to pull the T-shirt over his head and up over his arms. She let it drop to the floor and then ran her hands back down his lowering arms and across his shoulders and then down over the broad tanned expanse of his chest.

  Unable to resist, she leaned forwards and flicked her tongue over his nipple. Rafael inhaled sharply and she could feel his body tighten. With restraint. With desire.

  ‘God, I’d forgotten how tantalising undressing a man could be,’ she murmured.

  ‘Done it often?’

  ‘Once or twice.’ Although never with someone quite like him. Relieving him of his clothes had to be one of life’s greatest secret pleasures because he was physically quite magnificent.

  Swallowing hard, she moved her hands down, undid his belt, the button of his shorts and then slid down the zip, relishing every glorious second.

  And to think that that day he’d kissed her by the pool she’d had ample opportunity to admire the body on display. To ogle and want and touch. And she’d ignored it. What a waste.

  Well, she wasn’t ignoring it now. And she wasn’t going to waste a second.

  She slid her hands beneath the waistband of his boxers and moaned in anticipation as she eased them and his shorts over the thick, hard erection that she could feel beneath. He stepped out of them and she took a step back to simply admire. God, his body was incredible. It was all lean, hard muscle and taut restrained power and she couldn’t wait to have the full force of it unleashed on her.

  ‘Lie down,’ he said in a voice that wasn’t altogether steady.

  Nicky’s heart thumped madly as she did as he said and lay back on the bed, because, oh, there was definitely something to be said for a gorgeous man who knew how and when to use his power and liked to be in control.

  And right now, with the way his eyes were burning over her, she was quite willing to submit herself to whatever delicious torment he had planned. There’d be plenty of time for payback later, she decided, and felt a wide wanton smile steal across her face.

  ‘That smile looks dangerous,’ he said, his eyes blazing down at her.

  ‘Could be.’

  ‘Sirens,’ he muttered. ‘I’m doomed.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Sirens.’

  ‘What about them?’ she said, and stretched in what she hoped was an enticing manner because there was drawing things out and indulging her senses and then there was just plain being sadistic, and the way she was lying spreadeagled on the bed while he still remained upright and beside it definitely fell into the latter category.

  ‘They had a tendency to lure sailors to their deaths with their song,’ he said.

  ‘Lucky you’re not a sailor and I can’t sing, then, isn’t it?’

  ‘You have plenty of other attractions.’

  ‘So are you just going to stand there and look at them?’ she asked, recalling his earlier words to her and deciding to hurry things up a bit. ‘Or are you planning to do the decent thing and join me, because I am this close—’ she held up her thumb and forefinger a millimetre apart ‘—to pulling you onto this bed and ravishing you.’ She paused and smiled and batted her eyelashes up at him. ‘And, believe me, finesse will not feature heavily.’

  That seemed to do the trick. Rafael let out a strangled groan, jerked forwards and, planting his hands either side of her head, came down heavily on top of her. At the sudden urgency of his actions Nicky’s breath shot from her lungs and lust spun through her.

  ‘You know, I’m coming to the conclusion that finesse is vastly overrated,’ he said roughly.

  ‘You have no idea how glad I am to hear you think so,’ she said softly, loving the feel of his weight on top of her and wrapping a leg around his waist.

  And then his mouth was on hers and she couldn’t remember what she’d been glad about because his hands were in her hair, his tongue was in her mouth and both were rendering her to a mindless tangle of electricity, desire and delicious, delicious tension.

  She ran her hands over the tight muscles of his shoulders and his back and dug her nails in, which took the kiss to another, more frenzied, more desperate dimension in which clashing teeth, melding moans and writhing limbs dominated.

  Her head was so foggy, her brain so utterly destroyed, she was only dimly aware of Rafael pulling one hand from her hair and sliding it down her neck and then over the agonisingly sensitive skin of her upper chest.

  But when it came to a rest on her breast all that electricity, desire and tension shot through the roof. Nicky groaned into his mouth and arched her back as his hand cupped her and he rubbed his thumb back and forth over her nipple and a burst of white-hot pleasure exploded deep inside her.

  He dragged his mouth away and shifted a little, and she gulped in a shaky breath as it closed over her other nipple.

  Biting her lip to stop herself from crying out at the stabs of ecstasy that were jabbing at her, she pressed her fingers into his head and tilted her hips to grind into his erection. She writhed. She whimpered. She simply couldn’t help it.

  ‘Ready to beg yet?’ he said hoarsely against her breast.

  God, probably, she thought dazedly, but in a bit because she wanted more and could take more. ‘Not nearly,’ she said, and then added in the hope it would make him double his already sensational efforts, ‘You’ll have to try far harder than that.’

  So he did.

  His mouth resumed its devastating assault on her breast and his hand slid lower and lower until it reached the juncture of her thighs and then his fingers were parting her and sliding into her and the feeling was so electrifying she would have jackknifed upright had he not been pressing her down.

  He stroked her, relentlessly, expertly and her insides wound so tightly she felt they might snap at any moment. Heat coiled in the pit of her stomach. Tremors began to rack her body and shivers raced through her veins as the excitement swelled and spread into every cell of her body. She was hovering on the brink, a nanosecond away from splintering, clenching around his fingers and hurtling off into oblivion when suddenly he stilled and his head lifted.

  Nicky groaned in protest as her orgasm instantly ebbed. ‘Why are you stopping?’ she said, her voice rough and raspy.

  His green eyes gleamed down at her. ‘Beg me,’ he muttered.

  What? Oh, his timing was good, she thought as a stab of such intense longing shot through her that she nearly did as he asked. Or very very bad, depending on your point of view. She didn’t know which hers was.

  ‘Sadist,’ she murmured.

  ‘Beg me,’ he said again.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Masochist.’

  ‘You’ll pay for this,’ she said, reaching down, taking him in her hand and stroking. She felt him tense and shudder so she rubbed her thumb across the tip and gently squeezed.

  ‘I have a feeling we both will,’ he said raggedly, stopping her hand, then abruptly rolling slightly and twisting away.

  Nicky watched as he rummaged around in the drawer of the bedside table and pulled out a condom. He ripped open the packet, slipped it on and then he was back on top of her, his eyes blazing down at her and his erection nudging at her entrance. Hovering. Waiting. Wanting her completely and utterly at his mercy, which she was.

  She opened her legs wider. Tilted her hips higher. And then he was driving into
her with a rough groan and she thought that she was about to die and go to heaven.

  ‘Oh…’ she said, letting out a long shuddery breath as she felt him fill her.

  ‘Incredible,’ he muttered, going utterly still for a second before beginning to move. Deliberately slowly, ruthlessly measuredly and maddeningly in control.

  And while there was certainly a time for languid and leisurely, right now she was in the mood for fast and frantic because the friction was becoming unbearable, the tension excruciating, and the pleasure relentless, and it wasn’t enough. The climax that had remained so tantalisingly out of reach when he’d stopped and asked her to beg still hovered at the edges of her consciousness.

  He was holding it off, holding them both back, and no matter how much she writhed and rubbed against him he didn’t relent. She pulled his head down for a searing kiss and felt sparks shoot through her at the touch of his lips, his tongue, but none of it made the slightest difference. The only thing that all her efforts achieved was her own torment because with each tilt of her hips, with each twist and turn of her body and with each kiss she simply grew more and more frenzied until she was way beyond the point of any kind of control.

  ‘Oh, God,’ she mumbled, hearing the desperation in her voice and not caring one little bit. ‘Please…’

  And then a second later his control seemed to dissolve and a wildness took over his movements and Nicky found she cared even less, because gone was maddeningly slow and ruthlessly measured, and he was now thrusting into her over and over again, going deeper, harder, faster until she didn’t think she could bear it any longer.

  The delirium inside her escalated with each thrust, sweeping her up in it, higher and higher until the great ball of pressure inside her erupted and she hurtled over the edge, her body exploding into a thousand tiny fireworks of ecstasy.

  She shook, convulsed and trembled in his arms, the tremors shuddering through her nearly breaking her apart and then she felt him bury himself deep inside her one last time, groan and pulsate into her, and unbelievably she came all over again.

  For several long, long minutes neither of them moved. Nicky wouldn’t have been able to even if Rafael hadn’t collapsed on top of her because she felt utterly sated and utterly drained. As weak as a kitten, and quite extraordinarily good.