Susanne James - Undressed by the Billionaire

‘So reality like this doesn’t trouble you?’ Ethan wiped one hand roughly down the scars on his chest.

‘Please don’t insult me.’ As she turned her face up she was aching with the need to wrench the demons out of him. Placing her palms against his chest, she kissed her way slowly across it.

‘Don’t,’ Ethan said, tensing, but she wouldn’t stop, and finally he dragged her to him.

Those scars, terrible though they were, didn’t even begin to scratch the edges of his power. Ethan was like a gladiator in some ancient etching, wounded but triumphant, and she was hard pressed to think of anything with more sex appeal than that. But inside his heart there was nothing, Savannah’s tender inner-self warned her. Yes, she answered back, Ethan’s heart was cold, but she had to hope that in time her love would warm him. ‘I want you,’ she murmured, staring up at him.

‘I want you too … more than you know.’ And that was true, Ethan realised as he teased Savannah with almost-kisses. She was tender and precious, young and vulnerable, and he would never hurt her. And maybe her innocence was the last hope he had to heal those scars he couldn’t reach.

‘So, are you coming to bed?’ she whispered. Holding his hand, she sank back on the pillows and threw back the covers. ‘Don’t be shy.’

He laughed. She was so funny and sweet. She had stripped herself bare for him in every way, proving she trusted him, and he would never betray that trust.

As Savannah snuggled lower in the bed, waiting for Ethan, knowing he might change his mind again at any moment, she started having fears on a more practical level. His size alone filled her with apprehension. He must have sensed it, for as he stretched out on the bed at her side he said, ‘I think you’re nervous.’

‘A little,’ she admitted, in a shaking voice that betrayed her true feelings.

‘There’s no need.’ He stroked her arm into quivering anticipation, and as she looked into his eyes he promised, ‘I would never hurt you, Savannah.’

How could he not? Ethan was so much bigger than the average man—bigger than most men—plus he possessed the power and the stamina of a natural athlete. She’d been around a farm long enough to know that nature allowed for this sort of unlikely coupling, but she wondered now if in some extreme instances such things weren’t possible. This was without doubt an extreme instance. She might be plumper than she wanted to be, but she was small and soft compared to Ethan. There was nothing soft about him. He was huge and hard.

Expecting to be soothed and reassured, she was surprised when Ethan moved so quickly to pin her beneath him. And now he was straddling her with his powerful thighs, and she was completely at his mercy while he murmured erotic, outrageous suggestions in her ear that made her squirm with excitement.

‘Better?’ His lips were curving with amusement as he stared into her eyes.

There was passion in his eyes as well as humour, and she was reassured to a point beyond fear. ‘Much better,’ she admitted. With Ethan’s thighs pressed close against her sides, there was nowhere else on earth she’d rather be. But still she asked for one last reassurance. ‘You won’t hurt me, will you?’

His answer was to kiss her tenderly until she relaxed, and then he deepened the kiss, which made her want to do anything but relax. Lacing her fingers through Ethan’s hair, she tried telling him by her eagerness alone that her nerve endings were screaming for his attention.

‘There’s a lot more to you than meets the eye, Ms Ross,’ Ethan murmured, smiling against her lips.

Savannah stared boldly at Ethan’s mouth, shivering with sensation as his kisses migrated down her neck. ‘What are you doing?’ she asked, writhing with pleasure when he reached the most sensitive hollow above her shoulders.

‘Exploring,’ Ethan murmured.

The feeling when he teased her nipples was beyond description, and while he suckled and teased the sensation travelled through to the core of her being, until it was impossible to remain still. Ethan could have done whatever he wanted with her, and yet he never once made her feel vulnerable, other than to put her at risk of overdosing on pleasure. Bucking against him, seeking contact, she moved restlessly on the pillows as she assured him, ‘I can’t take any more of this.’

‘So, shall I stop?’

‘Just you dare,’ she warned him, seeing the laughter in his eyes.

‘What’s your hurry?’ he demanded when she pressed against him.

‘You,’ Savannah complained fiercely. ‘You’re my hurry.’

‘Then it’s time for you to learn a little patience.’

‘I don’t want to learn patience.’ She shivered with delight as he ran his hands down her naked body. ‘But, if I do,’ she proposed, ‘can we do this again?’

‘If you’re good.’

‘I’ll be very good,’ she assured him. And as he pulled away to look at her she pulled him back. She didn’t have sufficient strength to compel Ethan to do anything, but for now the pleasure machine was at her command. ‘No more teasing,’ she warned him.

‘What, then?’ His lips were tugging with amusement.

‘Make love to me …’ And she was deadly serious.

HE PROTECTED them both, and then touched her in a way he knew she would like. As she moaned beneath him, inviting more of these touches, he feathered kisses down her neck.

He hadn’t guessed he could be quite so gentle, or Savannah half so passionate. She brought out the best in him, more than he’d ever known he had, and as she clung to him, crying out his name, moving against him and driving him half-crazy with desire, he held back, knowing he had found someone who could reach him at a level no one else could.

That it should be a young girl like Savannah both surprised him and stirred his conscience. This was the start of a new chapter in Savannah’s life as a woman, but when tonight was over he would have to end their relationship. But for now …

Listening to her beating time with her voice to the music of their pleasure, he knew he had never known such extremes of sensation. Gathering her into his arms to stare into her eyes, he brought her to the brink and tipped her over, staying with her through the ecstasy as she enjoyed the release she had been searching for. When she quietened and snuggled in to him, he felt sure as he gazed into her drowsy face that time was playing tricks on them and that they had known each other much longer than one night. It was a short step from there to knowing Savannah should be with someone who could give her the kind of life she deserved.

‘Ethan, where are you?’ she murmured, reaching up to touch his face.

‘I’m still with you,’ he murmured.

‘No, you’re not,’ she argued softly, with barely the strength to open her eyes.

She was right. He was in a dark place he wouldn’t take her. Dipping his head, he kissed her deeply, and before she had a chance to question him further he made love to her again.

Savannah lay awake for the rest of the night, pretending to be asleep in the early hours when Ethan left her. She didn’t know him well enough to call him back. That struck her as funny and a little embarrassing, because she might not know him but she loved him. And loving him meant she understood his need for space. What had happened between them, what they’d shared, had been so much more than either of them could have expected. Of course, Ethan would need space to consider the changes this must make to his world. The changes to her world were immeasurable. Ethan was her man and her mate, and she had welcomed him inside her body with triumph and excitement. Ethan knew everything about bringing her pleasure, and they had been as one until pleasure had consumed them.