“Was I ever in your fantasies, Nicole?” he asked huskily.

  I watched, fascinated as his light-green eyes darkened, changing shades in the blink of an eye. The ability of his irises to change from light to dark made it easier for me to know what he was thinking about.

  When his emotions shifted, so did the shade of green in his eyes.

  Right now, I’d say his thoughts had gone completely wild.

  “You have,” I told him in a sultry whisper. “Don’t worry. You were an absolute stud. I felt a little uncomfortable stroking myself into an orgasm in your mother’s house—”

  “Fuck! You did it there, too? While I was in the suite across from you, trying to jerk myself off?” His eyes widened as he looked at me in question.

  I let my eyelashes flutter like a seductress, feeling so damn powerful that I could easily arouse a man like Damian. “Apparently so.”

  “You’re a very naughty girl, Nicole Ashworth,” he said.

  I sat up and pushed him onto his back. “Not nearly as misbehaved as I’d like to be,” I answered as I ran my fingertips down his muscular chest. “I want to touch you, make you as crazy as you made me.”

  He locked his hands behind his head. “I’m all yours, sweetheart.”

  My heart tripped as I looked at the gloriously naked man spread out on top of the bedspread shamelessly.

  The need to hear his hoarse cries of ecstasy overwhelmed me as I lowered my mouth to trace every one of his six-pack abs.

  CHAPTER 25

  Damian

  THE FACT THAT Nicole was a hesitant seductress did absolutely nothing to cool my fucking rampant desire.

  Her lack of experience in playing with a man in the bedroom only made her that much hotter.

  She was so damn sweet that my base instincts were urging me to pin her gorgeous ass to the bed, and bury my long-suffering, achingly stiff cock inside Nicole until we couldn’t decipher where one of us ended and the other began.

  I’d fantasized about that, but I stifled that urge as I simply…watched her.

  Christ! She was every wet dream I’d ever had come to life, but so much more vivid than a fantasy.

  Her hair was starting to dry, and the blonde strands looked like white gold streaming down her shoulders and back in a messy fall of curls.

  Her breasts were large and perfect.

  I could have easily found my own release when I’d buried my head between those soft, silky thighs, and tasted her.

  What man wouldn’t feel like the luckiest bastard on earth to be the one who coaxed this woman into the best orgasm she’d ever had?

  Certainly not me.

  There was nothing in this world I wanted more than to be exactly where I was right fucking now.

  With Nicole bent over me, her mouth ready to explore every inch of my eager flesh.

  Don’t get me wrong—I wanted to shag her until she begged for mercy, but I kept that desire on lockdown because I wanted to see what she had in store for me.

  It was sweet torture as she leisurely made her way to my chest, and sucked on one of my nipples.

  I tamped down a lusty groan because I’d never seen the male nipple as some kind of erogenous zone, for fuck’s sake.

  I nearly flinched as her luscious mouth connected with my heated skin, and her tongue darted out to swirl around, testing out the strength of every muscle in my abdomen.

  I closed my eyes as I felt the brush of her soft, silky curls trailing over my skin.

  Gritting my teeth in hellish frustration, I let her continue to explore, even though it was killing me.

  Any other time, I knew I’d be savoring every touch of her curious tongue, but I’d wanted this woman for so long, and had been tormented by that desire for such a long time, that I felt like I was laid out on a torture rack instead of a comfortable king-sized bed.

  “Nicole,” I grunted. “Sweetheart.”

  If you don’t let me fuck you very soon, I’m going to lose what’s still left of my mind.

  She stroked a soft palm down my abdomen. “I love your body, Damian. You’re so strong.”

  This time, I couldn’t hold back a groan of satisfaction.

  “Oh, my, I wonder where this leads,” she said.

  I wasn’t fooled by her innocent tone as her finger brushed over the trail of hair that started beneath my belly button, and ended where there was something better to feel than a paltry trail of hair.

  My body shuddered when she reached the end of the line, and let her fingertip stroke up the shaft of my cock. “You’re into the promised land now,” I said in a strangled voice.

  “I think I like it here,” she said with a sexy sigh while she ran all of her fingers over the velvety skin that covered one very erect staff.

  “Feel free to stay,” I rasped.

  “Thanks. I think I will,” she answered amiably as she lowered her head.

  Bloody hell!

  Not that.

  Not now.

  I’d never fucking live through it.

  In the end, I couldn’t stop her, nor did I want to keep her from something she wanted.

  I simply released a tortured groan as I felt her warm mouth suck my beleaguered cock inside of what I could only describe as complete and utter bliss.

  “Nicole. Holy fuck! Don’t. Oh yeah, just like that.” The words tumbling out of my mouth didn’t make sense, but it didn’t matter.

  Every bit of my attention was focused on how it felt to have those luscious lips wrapped around my cock. When she tightened her hold by sealing and sucking, the top of my head nearly blew right off.

  “Fuck, yeah, sweetheart,” I encouraged her as I buried a hand into the mass of blonde curls on her head.

  I guided her mouth up and down on my cock. Not that she really needed any help. She’d been doing just fine on her own. Maybe it was me who needed to feel like I was helping her.

  I let myself drown in the erotic pleasure for a couple of minutes, relish and record what it felt like to have Nicole go down on my cock like it was the most delicious thing she’d ever encountered.

  I couldn’t stop myself.

  How fucking long had I waited?

  Maybe it had only been a few weeks.

  But it felt like a goddamn eternity.

  “Nicole,” I mumbled mindlessly, falling into a pleasurable abyss that I didn’t really want to escape. “You feel so damn good.”

  My balls began to tighten, and I quickly closed my eyes.

  I couldn’t watch her greedily devouring me anymore.

  The sight was too damn erotic.

  I was way too close…

  This isn’t the way I want this to go!

  I shook myself as I emerged from the veil of sexual euphoria that had kept me trapped inside it.

  Even though it killed me, I tightened my hand in Nicole’s curls and pulled gently. “No, baby,” I protested huskily. “Not like this. Not this time.”

  No matter how much I wanted to let her finish what she’d started—and fuck, how I wanted her to finish—I had to end this a different way.

  With both of us sweaty, panting, and completely satiated.

  I had to be inside her to satisfy the rampant beast that demanded I find a way to make this woman mine.

  “Did I do something wrong?” she asked, her tone confused.

  “Not at all,” I assured her. “It was way too right.”

  I stretched to open the drawer of my bedside table, because even though I’d never had a woman in my own bed, it just seemed like the right place to put condoms.

  Her eyes grew wide. “Oh,” she said in a hushed whisper as she realized I was beyond desperate to shag her. “You want…that.”

  Fuck yeah, I wanted that, and I wasn’t stopping until I could feel her coming around my cock.

  I fumbled like a damn teenage boy as I rolled on the condom because I could see the need in her eyes responding to my desperation.

  “Ride me, Nicole,” I said in a tone that didn’t really make my words sound like a request. It was more like a gruff command.

  She hesitated for a millisecond, and then slung one of those long legs over me until she was mounted to ride me like her favorite stallion.

  “Thank fuck!” I let out the grateful expletive as I realized that, after a few weeks of near insanity, I was finally going to drive home to some kind of normality. Yeah, I knew this woman was always going to make me crazy, but certainly that madness would let up a little after this.

  That was what I thought, anyway—until I fell into a pair of ocean-blue eyes that made me feel like I was never going to be rational again.

  CHAPTER 26

  Nicole

  MY BREATH SEIZED in my lungs as Damian’s eyes met mine, and I felt like they were capturing my soul.

  At that instant, we were both vulnerable, wide open for the other to see.

  I probably looked wild-eyed and brash, because that’s exactly how I felt right now.

  It didn’t matter that I had no idea how to ride a man into oblivion, because I knew Damian would be there to show me how it was done.

  I didn’t care if I’d refused to get on top in the past.

  I wanted this.

  Damian wanted this.

  And I was filled with a frenzied instinct to put both of us out of our misery.

  Now.

  Immediately.

  I rose up, and guided his cock where I wanted it to be, and then sank down slowly.

  I closed my eyes, trying to imprint the heady sensation of Damian filling me into my long-term memory, so I’d never forget the first time the two of us were fused together like we’d never come apart.

  “You’re so damn tight,” Damian growled, his face a mask of barely leashed control.

  It had been a while since I’d had sex, and it had never been like this.

  He was a big man, but I was wet with need. Sweat was beading on both of our bodies when he was finally seated completely inside me, and I released a thoroughly satisfied sigh.

  Our gazes were still locked, and I felt open in a way I never had before.

  “Fuck, yes!” Damian’s hands gripped my hips. “Take it all.”

  My body tightened as I started to move, losing myself in the rhythm of my body merging with Damian’s.

  His powerful hips surged up to meet every downward motion I made, the two of us perfectly synchronized with every satisfying thrust.

  Every lunge moved me closer to freedom, and I relished that escape from the woman I used to be.

  No more self-doubt.

  No more self-consciousness.

  No more worrying about not being a petite, adorable female.

  I was wholly desired by this man, and that knowledge set me free.

  “Take what you want, Nicole,” Damian rasped.

  I panted, my inner muscles deliciously stretched, my body on fire with the need for release.

  “All I want is you,” I cried out. My gaze tore away from Damian’s as I closed my eyes. “Fuck me, Damian. Please.”

  I squeaked as he rolled us over and pinned me to the bed. He was still deeply embedded inside me as he asked urgently, “Like this? How do you want me, Nicole? Because I’ll fucking give you whatever you want.”

  My heart was already racing, but it skipped a couple of beats as I opened my eyes and saw his fierce expression. “It really doesn’t matter,” I said breathlessly as tears formed in my eyes. “Any way you want it.”

  I just needed Damian, and I didn’t give a damn how we accomplished that.

  “I like it this way, too,” he said, his heated breath caressing my face. “Wrap those fantastic legs around me, baby, and hold on. I want to watch you come for me.”

  I immediately complied, realizing that I liked it when Damian was in control of our pleasure.

  “I trust you,” I told him honestly as I wrapped my arms around his neck.

  For some reason, in the middle of this madness, I needed him to know that.

  I love you.

  The words bubbled up inside me, but I closed my mouth.

  I couldn’t say that, but I desperately wanted him to know that, too.

  I gasped as Damian began to move, and every forceful drive of his hips left me needier than the one before.

  He moved, changed positions slightly until he dragged a hungry moan from my lips. “Please-oh-please-I-can’t-take-any-more.”

  My fingernails dug into the skin of his back, and I kept clawing while my climax hurtled toward me.

  In seconds, I was coming in deep, pulsating waves, different than the first one, but no less frightening.

  “Damian!” I cried out, feeling a little like I was dying.

  “You’re mine, Nicole. Say it!” Damian demanded harshly.

  “I am yours,” I muttered. This man had my soul, and at the moment, I didn’t really care what he did with it.

  “I’ll make damn sure you never want to be with anyone else.”

  His possessive promise was like an aphrodisiac to me, and my inner muscles clamped down and spasmed around his cock until I milked Damian to his own powerful orgasm.

  “Fuck! Nicole!” he called out as he was coming, and I watched as the muscles in his throat and jaw clenched and released, every semblance of his control completely shattered.

  His mouth crashed down on mine, and I returned the frenzied kiss.

  His chest was still heaving as he rested his forehead on my shoulder.

  Our bodies were damp with sweat, and neither one of us spoke as we tried to catch our breath.

  Finally, he released a masculine sigh, and said, “You’re going to kill me one day, woman.”

  Since he didn’t seem all that worried about his demise, I said, “No I won’t. I’ll rescue you.”

  “You better,” he grumbled good-naturedly. “Don’t move. I’ll be back.”

  Damian disappeared into his bathroom, most likely to trash the condom.

  I stretched a little, like a cat enjoying the warmth of the sun, certain I was incapable of getting off the bed.

  Damian was back in less than a minute, and I almost purred when he pulled my spent body into his arms.

  “I think I’m ruined,” I complained as I burrowed into his warmth.

  “I didn’t exactly steal your virginity,” he said, his voice vibrating with wicked humor.

  I punched his bicep playfully. “Not ruined in that way,” I clarified. “You once told me that I’d miss having an orgasm when I was having sex if I ever had one. I think you were right. I’d miss it now. So I’m ruined.”

  “That won’t ever be an issue if you stick with me,” he answered.

  I smiled against his shoulder. “Are you saying that it could be like that every single time?”

  “Better,” he replied playfully. “Now that we’ve gotten those first orgasms out of the way, I can work on multiple.”

  “I think that’s a myth,” I told him. “And I’m not sure I could handle any more.”

  “It’s not a myth,” he denied. “Just wait and see.”

  My slowly decreasing heart rate sped up again as I realized that he obviously didn’t plan on this fling ending anytime soon.

  Don’t get your hopes up, Nicole. You knew going into this that it could never be more than a sublime experience that would eventually come to an end.

  “You’re a little arrogant about your skills,” I teased.

  “Not arrogant,” he said gruffly. “Just willing to make your pleasure my priority.”

  His comment nearly brought me to tears.

  Damian was always willing to do almost anything to make me happy, and that tendency he had to take care of me almost broke me sometimes.

  Had I always been with selfish men, or was Damian truly a rare kind of guy?

  Maybe he wasn’t exactly a unicorn, but he was special.

  “Hey, don’t go to sleep,” Damian said as he prodded me a little. “We need to eat.”

  I sighed. “I’m starving. And I stink. I need a shower.”

  “I think we both do. And you don’t stink.”

  God, I adored him for saying that, but I knew it wasn’t the truth. “Food, then shower? Or shower, then food?”

  “We’ll save time if we shower together,” he suggested hopefully.

  I giggled. I actually giggled. “You do have more than one shower in this enormous palace.”

  I’d never actually counted, but the bathrooms in this place had to outnumber the bedrooms.

  “Ah, but the shower in this master bedroom is special.”

  “Is it?” I said doubtfully.

  “Massage capability with a variety of shower heads.”

  I pulled back to look at him. “Same as my shower.”

  “There’s a rain shower,” he mentioned.

  “There’s one in the other master, too.” I was pretty sure what he was getting at, and the ends of my lips started to kick up.

  “There’s one other difference.”

  My smile widened. “Do tell, Your Grace.”

  “My naked body will be in mine, not in yours.”

  I struggled to sit up. “Okay, you win. That makes yours very special. Let’s go.”

  He sent me a mischievous look that kicked up my heart rate again. “I knew you’d eventually see it my way.”

  I rolled my eyes, held out my hand, and let him lead the way to his shower.

  By the time we came out for dinner much, much later, I had to give it to Damian.

  It was the most incredible shower I’d ever had.

  CHAPTER 27

  Damian

  “ARE YOU SERIOUS?” Nicole asked with an astonished look on her face. “You haven’t been on this thing since it opened twenty years ago?”

  I shrugged as we stepped into one of the large capsules on the London Eye. “I’ve never been particularly fond of heights,” I told her. “Mum took all of us during the new millennium opening. I saw no reason to do it again.”

  She moved closer to me. “Are you going to be okay? I had no idea you were afraid of heights.”

  Nicole looked so concerned that it was like a swift kick in the gut to realize she was actually worried about…me. “Not afraid, really,” I tried to assure her. “I’d just prefer to avoid them most of the time.”