Miranda Lee - Australian Affairs - Taken

His return to gentle kisses surprised her at first, then entranced her. She sighed under their soft sweetness. Gradually, however, the pressure of his mouth grew stronger. When his teeth nipped at her lower lip, she gasped, and his tongue slipped inside once more, Jess moaning softly as it explored the sensitive skin of her palate. She gasped again when a hand covered her right breast, playing with her nipple in ways she’d definitely never experienced before: soft rubbing with his palm interspersed with quite painful pinching till it was on fire.

And all the while he kept on kissing her, his tongue alternately snaking deep, then withdrawing before plunging in again. When his hand moved across to her other nipple, she felt momentarily bereft for the abandoned one. If he could have played with both at the same time, she would have been in heaven. Or hell. Jess could not work out if she was in agony or ecstasy. Not that she cared, as long as he didn’t stop.

He stopped, both the kissing and the nipple pinching, leaving her moaning in dismay till she realised why he’d stopped. Already he was down there with that knowing mouth and tongue of his, making her groan and squirm as he licked and sucked and showed her that all her other lovers had been seriously ignorant of a woman’s body. Ben knew exactly what to do to bring her to the brink of coming, not once but several times. How he knew when to back off, she wasn’t sure. Maybe it had something to do with his fingers being deep inside her all the while. Maybe he could feel the way her muscles tightened when she came close to coming.

His head lifted at last. ‘Enough, I think,’ he muttered, then collapsed on his back beside her, breathing very heavily.

She levered herself up onto her elbow and stared over at him. ‘You’re not stopping, are you?’

‘Just for a few seconds. I need a breather, and then I have to get a condom on. I put two in that top drawer this afternoon,’ he said, nodding towards the bedside chest next to her. ‘Get one for me, would you, Jess?’

Jess wondered if Ben always used protection, even when his girlfriends were on the pill. She had a feeling that he did. Maybe he was worried that one of them might try to trap him into marriage. Seriously rich men would have to worry about such things, she imagined. If this Amber wanted to marry him enough, it wouldn’t be beyond her to do such thing.

‘Put it on for me,’ he said after she extracted one from the drawer.

Oh, Lord, Jess thought as she opened the foil packet and turned back to him. She had put a condom on before. Just not whilst she was in such an excited state. She found it extremely difficult with her hands shaking so much. When Ben groaned, she shot him a worried look.

‘Am I hurting you?’

His smile was both tortured and wry. ‘Oh, honey, you’re killing me. But not in the way you think. Would you mind being on top?’

‘You want me on top?’ she echoed. Whilst it was her favourite position, she hadn’t imagined it would be Ben’s. Earlier on, he’d seemed keen to be the one in control. And whilst it had turned her on, being ordered around, she was happy to have their roles reversed for a while. Though the position had been his idea, come to think of it.

‘I would have thought you’d like being on top,’ he said.

‘I do quite like it,’ she confessed.

‘Then what are you waiting for?’

What, indeed?

Ben’s stomach tightened when she moved to straddle him, his heart thundering in his chest when she took hold of him and presented the bursting tip against the entrance to her body. He could feel the heat and the wetness of her, but he couldn’t see it. She wasn’t one of those girls who totally denuded herself of body hair, her sex protected by a smattering of soft dark curls. Ben rather liked that. It was different. She was different. In every way. There was no pretence about her. She was sweet and very natural, and he wanted her as he’d never wanted any woman before. His excitement was so great that he had no patience with playing games tonight. He wanted her now!

A groan escaped his lips as she pushed him inside, her flesh slowly swallowing his with a silky snugness which was incredibly pleasurable. He braced himself mentally against what it would feel like when she moved. He didn’t want to come too soon. Hell, no. That would never do!

Jess had been right. It felt incredible with him deep inside her, filling her totally. He obviously liked it too, judging by the look on his face. Though was it rapture she was seeing, or torture? A mixture of both, she imagined. Men could be very impatient at this stage. So she kept her movements slow and gentle at first, lifting her hips only slightly before lowering herself down again. But it wasn’t long before her own desire for satisfaction took over, urging her to lift her hips higher, then to plunge down harder. She tried not to think about anything but her sexual pleasure, valiantly ignoring the emotional responses which hovered at the edges of her brain. This wasn’t love, she told herself firmly. This was just sex. Great sex, yes, with an utterly gorgeous man. But still just sex. Enjoy it, girl. Because you could go the rest of your life without finding a lover like Ben.

Their coming together distracted her totally from any thought of love, her own orgasm so intense that all she could think about were the physical sensations. The electric pleasure of each spasm, plus the wonderful relief from the tension which had gripped her all evening. Finally, when it was over, every pore in her body succumbed to a huge wave of languor. She collapsed across him, totally spent, sighing a long, sated sigh when he wrapped his arms around her, his lips in her hair.

‘That was fantastic,’ he whispered. ‘ You’re fantastic.

‘No, don’t move,’ he said when she tried to lift her head. ‘I want to fall asleep like this, with me still inside you. My only regret is that we can’t do it again. I’m just too damned tired all of a sudden. But I’ll make it up to you tomorrow. I promise. Just stay where you are, you delicious thing. Stay,’ he repeated, his voice slurring a little.

Within thirty seconds, he’d fallen asleep.

Less than a minute later, she followed him.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

BEN WOKE TO the smell of bacon cooking, plus no Jess in bed with him. Hell, he’d really passed out last night. And slept for a good ten hours, he realised with amazement as he glanced at his watch. And whilst he regretted not waking—he hadn’t intended sex with Jess to be so short and swift—the long sleep had done him a lot of good. His shoulder was one hundred percent better and he felt marvellous.

Ben fairly leapt out of bed, calling a hurried, ‘Good morning,’ out to Jess before bolting for the bathroom. After a very quick shower, he wrapped a towel around his waist, then made his way to the kitchen, anxious to see Jess again. She glanced over her shoulder as he walked in, her lovely eyes lighting up at the sight of him.

‘You look good in a towel,’ she said, smiling.

‘And you look good in anything,’ he returned, his gaze raking over her from top to toe. She was wearing the same fitted black trousers again, but her top was different, a simple scoop-necked sweater in a bright-green colour which suited her dark hair and olive skin. She wasn’t wearing any make-up and her hair was up, secured on top of her head in a rather haphazard fashion. On closer inspection, he could see she’d wrapped it around itself in a knot, a few bits and pieces already escaping. Her lack of artifice continued to enchant him. Amber was always fully made up and her hair groomed to perfection before showing herself in the morning.

Jess made Amber look terribly shallow. And impossibly vain.