The Billionaire's Virgin Temptation

Shaking off the unwanted memory, she firmed her resolve against his effect on her.

‘No, I’m not okay,’ she said, making her first sane decision of the night and stepping out of his arms to push blindly through the throng of oblivious partygoers as she rushed from the room.

A stone terrace loomed in front of her, showcasing a captivating view of the harbour beyond, and Ruby headed for it, swiftly moving some distance down a narrow terraced walkway lined with fairy lights that wound around the side of the house.

‘Wait.’

Unaware that Sam had followed her, but not surprised, she stopped, the throb of the music just a low beat now they were outside.

‘What happened back there?’ His concerned gaze caught hers, his eyes scanning her face. He was so close to her she could feel the heat and energy from his body permeating her own.

Panic was what had happened back there. Jumbled senses and racing pulses was what had happened. Need and want...

‘Listen,’ he began, reaching for his mask. ‘I think it’s time we—’

‘No!’ Ruby startled him into silence when she grabbed for his arm and prevented him from unhooking his mask. She couldn’t think of anything worse than him unmasking himself now because he’d expect her to do the same. Which would put her in the position of explaining why she had acted the way she had. It would mean she would have to explain how she’d felt so overwhelmed by the heat of his body, his touch on her waist, his breath against her skin, that she’d run. Explain how in that moment she had wanted more of it. More of him.

‘Hey...’ he murmured softly, accurately reading her inner distress, his fingers gentle as he touched her chin. ‘Look at me.’

She did, the low light of the garden casting shadows across his strong jaw and carved lips, his dark hair falling forward over his mask.

He was so beautiful. So masculine. The bronze of the mask giving him an otherworldly appearance that only added to his appeal.

Ruby’s breathing altered, becoming choppy as they stared at each other. She tried to shake her head to clear her senses but his fingers prevented her from breaking eye contact with him. She irrationally felt light-headed, drunk on the clean, intoxicating scent of musk and man. Then his other hand sought the nape of her neck and she didn’t know if he leaned down further or she stretched upwards but suddenly his lips were on hers, warm and firm and utterly compelling.

Wide-eyed, she met his stunned gaze and then she couldn’t help herself: she lowered her eyelids and opened her mouth. She heard a deep groan rumble out of his chest as he felt her submit to the inevitable and he slanted his lips more fully across hers to deepen the kiss. It burned through her like liquid fire, drugging her, consuming her, triggering an avalanche of need deep inside she was powerless to resist.

A faint voice in her head warned her that this was a mistake, that if she played with fire she’d get burned. She heard it and accepted it, but stronger than that was this fierce, unbidden need for this moment to continue, for this pleasure never to end. She didn’t know if it was the intimacy of the night, the mask hiding her identity from him or the fact that she’d denied herself any form of sensual pleasure for so long, but she knew she was as lost to his touch as she had been two years ago. Maybe more so.

His lips moved over hers, sure and confident, her senses so attuned to the feel of him that she felt when he would have pulled back from her.

‘Don’t,’ she murmured softly, her arms around his neck. ‘Please, don’t stop.’

* * *

Sam groaned and complied with Ruby’s request even though logic and instinct told him to—for God’s sake, man—rein it in. It had been like this with her two years ago. Intensely intimate, sinfully erotic. Just the touch of her mouth against his was enough to have him losing his head. Now, holding her like this, feeling her unguarded response to him was sheer, unadulterated torture.

His arms banded around her, urging her closer, the soft, desperate whimpers coming from the back of her throat driving him to move them both further into the shadows cast by a small, cut-away corner of the building.

Her arms tightened around his neck and Sam ran his hands down over the boning of her gown. She arched against him, her breasts rising and falling above the low-cut neckline, threatening to spill out. Breasts he’d longed to see, longed to taste.

Telling himself that he’d stop this lunacy in one more moment, he slid his hand along the slender curve of her arm and shoulder and down to cup her rounded flesh in the palm of his hand.

Her breath caught inside her chest and she arched higher against him. Sam sensed the need in her, felt it in his own blood, and seared an urgent path of heated kisses down the long line of her neck. Her head fell back as a shiver went through her, her body leaning more heavily against his. He braced his arm across her lower back, his feverish eyes taking in the creamy skin of her décolletage, pearl-white in the ribbons of moonlight that breached the overhanging trees.

Heat and fire coursed a dangerous path inside him, burning up all rational thought as sensation overwhelmed him. A vessel blew its horn somewhere out on the harbour, someone laughed gaily as they jumped into the pool. Sam barely heard a thing, the sounds receding beneath the heaviness of his own thundering heartbeat.

Ruby’s lips were soft and yielding beneath his, feeding off his with the same violent hunger that turned him harder than stone. He shifted closer, bringing their bodies into perfect alignment, taking her soft moan deep into his mouth.

‘Damn, you taste good,’ he murmured, his lips moving to the sensitive skin beneath her ear. She writhed in his arms, her greedy hands growing more restless and bold as they ran over his shoulders and into his hair.

His mask was in the way and he was about to wrench it off when she pushed his jacket back and he had to shuck out of it. Then her sharp little nails raked his skin as she tugged his shirt out of the waistband of his trousers. Hunger bit deep and he hauled her upwards, his mouth returning to hers with a primal need.

Sam had been with many women in his thirty-one years, pleasured more than he could remember, and he knew he was a good, giving lover, but this...touching Ruby, hearing her soft cries of pleasure as he discovered what pleased her, was a sensual delight he hadn’t reckoned on. He was completely at the mercy of his senses and he not only wanted to take everything she had to offer but he was also prepared to give her everything in return.

‘More,’ she begged, leaning into him and kneading his back muscles like a hungry kitten might a downy quilt. Sam swore under his breath and gave her what she wanted, urging her back against the vine-clad wall of the house and putting his hands all over her. Moulding her hips and her ribs, the soft swell of her round breasts. Breasts he had to see. Had to touch.

Somewhere in the back of his head an alarm bell was ringing but it was competing with the soft sounds of their mutual need, and really, what was one more minute of madness?

Lifting her so they were at eye level, Sam leaned forward and kissed the rounded swells of her breasts and then forced the top of her gown to give so that one pert nipple popped free.

‘I want to taste you.’ His voice sounded guttural with urgency and he didn’t wait for her response, lowering his head and taking the tight pink bud deep into his mouth. He flicked her aroused flesh with his tongue, relishing the soft keening sounds that told him she was as lost to this madness as he was.

‘Oh, God.’ She arched into his hold, her fingers threaded through his hair. ‘I need you,’ she said on a rushed breath, her fingers fumbling as they moved to his belt buckle.

Knowing he should stop, but unable to, Sam gathered the yards of fabric between them and skimmed his hands along her thighs. A tiny, flimsy scrap of silk was all that separated him from paradise and with one tug it gave, falling to the ground between them.

A low growl radiated up from his chest as his fingers found her soft and wet. He wanted to drop to his knees and taste the sweet honey coating his fingers but she was already rising against him.

‘More, please, I want more.’

He caught her mouth and propped her against the wall. Part of his brain tried to kick in, tried to remind him that he was a civilised man who did not have sex with women outside at important parties, but the hot throb of her body shredded his sanity and made a mockery of his self-control.

All he could think about was replacing his fingers with his throbbing shaft and making her his. Something she obviously wanted just as badly because she was tearing at the zip on his trousers and then he was free and she was open and ready, her thighs cradling his hips intimately against his body.

That first contact of his flesh against hers gave him pause because he didn’t have a condom on him. Cursing himself for his lack of preparation he was about to tell her when her lips cruised down the line of his neck and she bit the tendon between his neck and shoulder.

A shiver went through him, a groan dragged from deep inside as he forgot all about reason and responsibility and gave into a need that was stronger than he was, entering her on one hard, perfect thrust.

She was so tight. So snug... His body tensed as he fought to control his most basic urge to possess her.

‘Relax for me, angel, and this will go easier.’

Sweat beaded his forehead but before he could fully process that there was something untutored to her movements Ruby angled her body upwards and took him deeper, scattering his thoughts.

‘Slowly,’ he urged, holding her hips steady between his hands. ‘That’s it, let me all the way in.’ He groaned as her silken muscles rippled around him, holding him tight. Careful not to crush her, Sam placed a hand against the wall to support them both, his legs shaking as he strove to hold off his own release until he felt hers first.

‘Oh, God.’ She clutched at him, her little nails scoring the nape of his neck. ‘I...I...’ Her body squeezed his, small lake-like ripples pulling him in deeper and harder as her body sought, and found, the ultimate release.

As soon as he felt her peak Sam let go, moving inside her with controlled power as his own climax raced through him like never before.

He didn’t know how long they stayed like that, their bodies joined in the most fundamental way, their lungs heaving. Gradually he became aware of their surroundings: the way his shirt stuck to the damp skin on his back, a cicada making a racket in a nearby bush, the low throb of the music coming from far inside the house.

He lifted his head from where it was buried against Ruby’s sweetly curved neck, his legs so weak he had to fight to hold them both upright. He felt her shift against him and the enormity of what they had just done, of how out of control he had been, hit him hard.

He cursed softly and lowered her to the ground. He didn’t regret many things in his life but taking Ruby with all the finesse of an untried schoolboy just might turn out to be one of them. He wanted nothing more than to wrap her up and take her home so that he could do that all over again. In a bed this time. ‘Are you okay?’ he prompted softly, knowing that he felt as dazed as she looked.

‘Water.’ She blinked up at him, her mask slightly askew from his fingers. He wanted to rip it off, yank off the wig and let all her long, golden hair tumble free. ‘I’m so thirsty,’ she croaked. ‘Do you mind?’

Sam raked his hair back from his forehead. No, of course he didn’t mind getting her a glass of water, but first he wanted to apologise, tell her he hadn’t meant for things to go that far. At least not outdoors, at a party of all places! He cursed inwardly again. ‘Sure, water.’ The apology could wait. ‘Just...stay put until I get back.’ Hesitating, he glanced down at her, his brows pulling together as he took in her trembling mouth. ‘You’re sure you’re okay?’

She nodded, fussing with her voluminous skirts so that she wouldn’t have to look at him.

Leaving his jacket on the ground Sam strode back the way they had come, blinking as he rounded a corner and his eyes met the brighter lights of the terrace, small clusters of partygoers thankfully ignoring him as he stalked inside.

Quickly fetching a glass of water, he rehearsed a short speech in his head on his way back, trying to come up with some plausible explanation for what had just happened between them, only to find the place he had left her empty.

Worried, he spun around, searching out the shadowy garden for any sign of lavender silk. It took him a full minute to realise that she wasn’t there. Then another to realise that she’d done a runner. Worry gave way to guilt that he’d taken things so far with her, and finally to fury that she wasn’t still waiting where he’d left her.

Did she do this kind of thing all the time? Pick up a man, have unforgettable sex with him and then ditch him when his back was turned? Was that why she had insisted that they keep things anonymous?

Jaw clenched, Sam yanked off his mask and tossed it to the ground. He couldn’t quite bring himself to believe that she had used him in such a way, but if she thought he wouldn’t pursue it she couldn’t be more wrong.

CHAPTER THREE

‘RUBES, IF YOU don’t hurry up you’ll miss yoga,’ Molly called from outside her bedroom door.

Still in bed, Ruby rolled over and wondered if she could pretend to be asleep. Considering that she hadn’t slept all night, she felt heavy enough to pass it off as real.

‘Ruby?’ Molly opened her door and poked her head inside. ‘Are you ill?’

Yes, she was. She had just told a man she didn’t even like that she needed him the night before. While they’d been having sex. Outside. At a party. The very thing she had warned her younger sister not to do!

Sex?

Was that really all it had been? It felt more like a cataclysmic event that had changed everything for ever from this point on. Certainly it had been the most erotically charged event of her life. In fact, before last night she had never understood how anyone could get so carried away with a man that they didn’t stop when their common sense asserted itself. Unfortunately if her common sense had asserted itself she hadn’t heard it.

It was the way he had looked at her and touched her that was the problem. He made her feel so special and so hot she literally lost her mind in his presence. Not that she was special. How could she be when he hadn’t even known her name?

‘Ruby?’

Or that she’d been a virgin? Although there was a moment of hesitation where she’d wondered if he had guessed at her inexperience. It had been cowardly, but the fear that he would question her about that, coupled with his soft curse of regret afterwards, had been the reason she had run when he’d gone to get her water. Not her finest moment, for sure, but when faced with the alternative of unmasking herself and saying ‘Hi, it’s me, Ruby. Great sex, by the way, thanks for the initiation’ she’d chosen the easier, less confronting option. And didn’t regret it for a second!

The fact that Sam Ventura would never know she had been the one he’d had hot vertical sex with was the one saving grace that made her confident she could face the day.

‘Ruby, you’re scaring me.’

Ruby glanced up to find Molly’s worried brows knitted together. ‘What? Sorry.’ She forced her mind back to the present.

‘You don’t look well. What happened last night?’

‘Nothing. I’m fine.’ Ruby pinned a smile on her face, hoping that one day it would be true. ‘Give me five minutes and I’ll join you for yoga.’

‘You sure you’re up to it?’

No. But it was better than lying around in bed thinking about how stunningly erotic sex with Sam had been and how she was unlikely ever to experience anything like that again.

‘I’m sure.’

Her sister looked unconvinced. ‘I’ve made coffee, so hurry.’

As soon as Molly closed the door Ruby dashed out of bed. She knew from texting her sister last night that she’d met with the director and after some convincing he’d agreed to give her a call to set up an audition. Thankfully, Molly hadn’t cared that Ruby had left the party without her, happy to continue on with the thespian crowd after successfully completing her quest.

And yoga was the best thing that she could do. It helped re-centre her enough to keep her mind off her excruciatingly bad decision on Friday night and stopped her from conjuring up future disasters as a result of her uncharacteristic indiscretion. Future disasters like the fact that she’d had sex for the first time in her life with a man who didn’t even know her name. Like the fact that if Sam had still worked for the same firm as her, and ever found out it was her and told someone, the gossip would be all over chambers before she’d finished swiping her key card in the office lift.

Fortunately he lived in LA, so he was as likely to find out it was her he’d had sex with as she was of flying to the moon.

Small mercies, she conceded as she ducked out of the Monday morning summer rain and into the coffee shop she regularly haunted before work. She’d almost convinced herself that she’d pushed the whole Friday night affair from her mind when a tall, broad-shouldered man entered the coffee shop behind her, shaking the morning drizzle out of his dark hair.

With her heart in her mouth Ruby waited for him to turn towards her and as he did she felt a sense of unreality come over her when she realised it wasn’t Sam.

The man gave her a small smile as she continued to stare, and Ruby made an apologetic face and swung back to the barista fixing her coffee. She felt jumpy all of a sudden and that just wouldn’t do. She wasn’t going to run into Sam in the middle of George Street. If anything she’d call Miller later in the day, find out how long Sam was in town and then avoid him for the duration.

If only the sex hadn’t been quite so good.

Not good. More like amazing, mind-blowing, incredible. Other phrases that came to mind were: over, never to be repeated, and stop thinking about it!

Determined to listen to her saner side, she nodded at the dark-haired man whose attention she still inadvertently had as she strode out of the coffee shop and crossed the road to her office. The sooner she started work and felt normal again, the better.

‘Hey, Ruby.’ Veronica, her upbeat secretary, called out as she held the lift door open. ‘How was the Herzog gig Friday night? Did you meet anyone nice?’

Why was everyone so interested in her love life all of a sudden? ‘The Herzog party was fabulous.’ She knew if she didn’t show the right amount of enthusiasm that Veronica would prod her for more information. ‘How was your weekend?’

‘Took the kids to the zoo and saw the baby panda. So cute. So was there anyone interesting at the party? A celebrity or two?’

‘Not that I noticed. We were in masks, don’t forget, so that made it harder to recognise anyone.’ Thank God. ‘Why are you getting off at the third floor?’ Their office was on the fourth.

‘There’s a meeting in the big conference room. Didn’t you get the memo? Mr Kent Senior is making an announcement. We all received emails about it on Friday night.’

Ruby had come straight from court on Friday night and even though she remembered seeing the internal memo in her inbox she had forgotten to read it as she was rushing to get ready for the party. ‘When is it?’

‘Now,’ Veronica said. ‘Aren’t you coming?’

‘Of course.’ Ruby stepped out of the lift, mentally reorganising her morning while juggling the file she’d been reading, her leather briefcase, hot coffee and her phone.

‘Want me to hold something for you?’

Ruby shook her head. ‘I’m good. Any idea what the meeting’s about?’

‘Rumour has it that our firm is about to merge with a big-shot outfit from the States.’

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.