Page 27 of The Billionaire's Last-Minute Marriage
‘One night,’ he repeated, his voice as dark as molasses, taunting her resolve and screaming at her to take back the terms. To take as much as she could get of him and his dominant sensuality. To give herself up to him and be damned to the consequences.
But she knew herself too well. She knew how deeply her feelings could run and how quickly that could get a girl like her in trouble. She was too soft for a man like him, she was too trusting. If he gave her an inch of his affection, she would be powerless not to hold out hope for more...and more...
She deserved more than that. Maybe some day she would get it, although she wasn’t holding out any hope it would be Xander who gave it to her. But until then, one night with Xander was her own gift to herself. One night of making the bad choice for once in her life, of being selfish and taking what she wanted and dealing with the consequences later. One night...before reality came crashing back down and she remembered all the reasons why this was a terrible idea.
She ran her tongue along her bottom lip and watched as his gaze locked on the movement. She loved how he looked at her, how his gaze tracked her and seemed to home in on every slight shift in her mood. And whatever he saw in her right now seemed to affect him instantly.
Taking her by the hand, he led her up to one of the beautiful master bedrooms, where, sure enough, their luggage had been delivered and put away. She was so busy admiring the view of Kyoto from the terrace windows, she hardly noticed Xander’s arms snaking around her waist until he had lifted her and deposited her in the centre of the giant bed. He crawled over her, keeping most of his weight on his forearms, but still she felt the weight of him pressing her down into the soft silk sheets.
But when he gently trailed a finger down her face, she stiffened, her body flinching against the unpleasant sensation.
He paused, and her heart melted a little at the flash of concern in silent question in the furrow between his brows. But how on earth was she supposed to tell him that she needed a firmer touch without it sounding vaguely kinky? She shook her head, determined to just let the moment pass and focus on the delicious sensation of his mouth moving ever closer to the hyper-sensitive skin at the tips of her breasts. But she was forgetting that this wasn’t just any man kissing her, this was Xander.
He touched her jaw, again too softly, but there was a hint of steel in his voice that made her shiver. ‘If I’m doing something you don’t like, tell me.’
She felt the breath whoosh from her lungs at that simple command. And it most definitely was a command.
‘I prefer a firm touch,’ she admitted.
‘Like this?’ he asked, his eyes following the path of his fingers as he applied a little more pressure.
Her answer was a low moan and he smiled, his lips filled with pure masculine satisfaction. ‘I’m a perfectionist,’ he murmured. ‘And that trait applies both in and outside the boardroom. I’m going to figure out exactly what you like in bed, Pandora. And then I want to do it over and over again until you can’t think any more...just feel.’
‘I like...your hand here,’ she murmured, shocking herself by placing her own hand on top of his. She closed her eyes, fighting the urge to groan at the pleasure of being touched by him this way. Just his touch... God, she was in so much trouble.
She drowned in the onslaught of pure sensation as Xander kept one hand on her neck and kissed a slow path down into the valley between her breasts. He didn’t kiss her breasts so much as he devoured them, slow and steady and with devastating precision. He held her in place as he licked and sucked each throbbing pink tip in turn and she found she was utterly powerless to look away. She felt herself grow even more aroused, imagining watching him do that somewhere else on her needy body. Imagining taking hold of his thick hair and guiding him to where she needed his mouth even more urgently.
She felt herself throb, her body begging for more. Begging for him. But still, she held back. A part of her not fully giving over to the pleasure she was feeling, a part of her still staying on alert just in case she did something wrong.
The thought made her close her eyes suddenly. She would not second-guess herself now. But her body insisted and she was powerless against the urge to switch off.
Xander murmured soothing words against her skin, but the sensations dimmed and her heartbeat slowed a little, as though her subconscious had flipped a dimmer switch. She felt him pause, heard him say her name twice before she remembered to react.
‘You with me?’ His words were part concern, part rough demand and something about the intensity in his gaze seemed to pull her back from the brink, reminding her that she was not with anyone else. She was with him. Xander.
Almost as though he’d heard her inner struggle, he moved up over her, caging her in with his big muscular body, anchoring her down to the earth once more. She felt her body relax and finally she looked up, her gaze immediately pinned by twin flames of electric blue.
‘Just...kiss me,’ she whispered and she was relieved when he immediately claimed her mouth, hard and fast.
She breathed into the kiss, into the glorious sensation of having Xander’s body on hers, pushing her down. She felt her own body awaken once more, her thighs clamping tightly around his hips so that she could move against him. The taste of him on her tongue like honey, so sweet she couldn’t get enough. She wanted to devour him.
He pulled away slowly and to her own embarrassment she let out a little growl, her body rising up to follow him, protesting against the loss of heat.
‘There you are.’ His smile was pure sin, his eyes dark mirrors of the wild desire she felt thrumming within her own chest. When he began undoing the zip of her dress, she helped him, their fingers a messy tangle of urgency. She laughed out loud when he gave up on decency and pulled it open the rest of the way with his teeth. He laughed too.
She marvelled at the fact that she was able to find humour in such an intimate moment and wondered if that was usual for a one-night deal. Maybe it was. She had always imagined a one-night stand to be something fast and thoughtless but this...this felt so right. The urge to ponder that pulled at her but she pushed it away, focusing her attention down to the fine point of contact between her abdomen and his hands. She watched him, watched his dark head lower as he peeled open the edges of her dress slowly, his big hands spreading over every inch of bare skin. She writhed, pleasure drugging her as his lips continued their slow descent along each part of her body he exposed.
‘This dress has tortured me all evening. I can’t count the times I have imagined doing this, unwrapping you like a mouth-watering delicacy.’
‘You make me sound like candy,’ she murmured, her breath catching as he paused just above the centre of her, shoving the skirt of her dress up above where her body pulsated and begged the most.
His eyes met hers for a split second, his pupils dark with desire as he drew her silk panties down her legs and his lips touched her core with the barest featherlight kiss. Then another. When his tongue joined in, she thought she might actually pass out from the pleasure. But he kept his hands firmly on hers, pressing down into her hips as he continued to devour her with relentless precision.
She felt the pressure building within her like an earthquake, small ripples followed by larger ones until she could feel her spine draw tight as a bowstring. It was too much and yet not quite enough, and the anticipation was such a beautiful torture she feared she might actually faint. Xander paused, looking up at her like a dark angel with his lips parted and glistening.
‘Show me what you need, Pandora.’
To her own shock she felt herself reach down one trembling hand to touch his jaw, moving him just the tiniest fraction to one side where the pleasure was deeper and more intense.
