Susan Stephens - The Acostas Box Set - The Shameless Life of Ruiz Acosta / The Argentinian's Solace / A Taste of the Untamed / The Man From her Wayward Past / Taming the Last Acosta / Christmas Nights with the Polo Player

‘Would you have me any other way?’

‘Absolutely not,’ she admitted. And then, because she was a glutton for punishment, she added, ‘How about me?’

‘Stop hiding behind the column,’ Ruiz said frankly.

‘And live a little?’ Holly suggested.

‘No.’ He paused. ‘Live a lot.’

Her body responded urgently as Ruiz kissed her again. She loved the feel of his arms around her and the touch of him beneath her hands. She loved the taste of him and the smell of him, warm, clean and musky with rampant maleness. ‘I’m so glad you invited me.’

‘Don’t play prim with me.’ His lips tugged in a grin. ‘I know what you want.’

‘Seriously, Ruiz.’

‘Seriously?’ he queried, stopping her with a kiss. ‘I know what you want. And you should know by now that I’ll call you any way I have to, as loudly as I have to, from as far away as I must.’

She wasn’t used to this feeling, this safe, sure, happy feeling. Maybe Ruiz was right and this was living. It was certainly risking everything for one man. And it was better this way. She stared into the dark amused eyes and knew then that for her this was the only way.

‘Now stop trying to kid yourself and me,’ Ruiz told her in a husky voice. ‘We both know you’re a very bad girl. So, what’s holding you back, Holly?’

‘Nothing,’ she said, moving down the bed.

She took her time tracing the lines of Ruiz’s muscular thighs. Then, pulling up his top, she traced the band of muscles across his belly. As her fingers trailed lower she had the satisfaction of hearing him suck in a fast breath. ‘Was the belt really necessary,’ she murmured. Cupping the arrogant swell of Ruiz’s erection over the fabric of his jeans, she directed a teasing stare into his face. ‘Is all this for me? You shouldn’t have.’

Holly gasped out as Ruiz swung her underneath him. ‘But I have and I will,’ he promised as he began unbuttoning her shirt. ‘And if you can’t give me a very good reason for keeping me waiting for this, I shall just have to pleasure it out of you.’

‘Oh, no. Please don’t do that,’ she murmured, watching as Ruiz reached back to tug his top over his head. Tracing the formidable muscles on his chest, she turned her attention to his jeans. ‘You are massively overdressed,’ she complained, wrestling them off him. And massively erect, she discovered with excitement.

‘And you are as forward as I remember.’ Ruiz paid her back by whipping her top off and tossing it away.

‘Lie on that bed, Señor ,’ she warned, stripping down to bra and pants. ‘There is some unfinished business requiring my immediate attention, and it cannot wait.’

‘Go easy, señorita ,’ Ruiz growled. ‘I’ve been waiting a long time for this.’

‘Are you saying the renowned playboy has lost his self-control?’ she taunted, kneeling over him.

‘I’m saying that with you it might be impossible to hold on.’

‘Don’t touch,’ she warned when Ruiz reached for her breasts. Currently threatening to spill over her bra, her nipples were deep rose pink and erect.

‘Do your worst,’ Ruiz encouraged in a husky Latin whisper.

‘Don’t worry, I will,’ she promised, slipping her fingertips beneath the waistband of his boxers. It was Holly’s turn to suck in a fast, excited breath when she had removed them. Ruiz was magnificent in every department and most especially in this. She dipped her head to take him in her mouth, relishing his smoothness and the sheer size of him as she traced the veined surface with her tongue. She tasted and suckled gently, before licking him while cupping him with her hands. She wanted to hold him now, to feel the promise of pleasure beneath her hands. She needed both her hands.

‘That’s enough,’ he exclaimed suddenly, swinging her beneath him.

‘Can’t you hold on?’ she challenged him.

Ruiz’s eyes were equally wicked. ‘Let’s find out, shall we?’ he teased.

‘Oh, yes. Let’s,’ she agreed with enthusiasm as Ruiz lost no time removing her remaining clothes. Nudging her legs apart with one powerful thigh, he tested and positioned her, using a pillow to raise her hips to an even more receptive level. After protecting them, he eased inside her with infinite care.

‘That feels so good.’ She breathed out a shuddering sigh as Ruiz lifted her.

‘And now you can see,’ he said.

She hummed, pretending that didn’t matter to her. But it did. And now Ruiz had started to move his hips from side to side, so skilfully massaging he stole the breath from her lungs. Would it ever be possible to breathe normally again, she wondered, while Ruiz was inside her and stretching her so incredibly?

‘This feels so good …’ he said as he continued to roll his hips.

The pleasure was incredible and she gasped when he combined the massage he was giving her at the end of each stroke with a deep and steady movement back and forth. What made it even better was the way he withdrew completely each time, only to repeat the action again and again, until who would lose control first was no longer in doubt. ‘Keep your legs wide,’ he said, helping her to do so by placing the palms of his hands flat against the inside of her thighs and pressing them apart. ‘I want you to do nothing, think nothing. All you have to do is feel, Holly, feel me …’

All she had to do was accept this steady pulse of pleasure growing inside her, while Ruiz worked to a dependable rhythm. A soft wail escaped her throat as the tension began to build to an unsustainable level. She tried to lie still as Ruiz had told her, but she couldn’t blank her mind to what he was doing to her and knew it couldn’t be long now … Perhaps one stroke, perhaps two—

He was ready for her, and when the strength of her climax threw Holly into his arms, he held her firmly as she bucked against him lost in pleasure. This felt so right. She felt perfect. Cradling her in his arms, he stared deep into her eyes to watch the fire rage and subside again into a series of pleasurable waves, each of which brought a groan of contentment from her lips. ‘I think you liked that,’ he murmured. His mouth tugged in a grin as he dropped a kiss on her parted lips. ‘I think you liked that a lot …’

‘I did,’ she confirmed groggily. ‘But now you have to keep that standard up.’

‘You know I have very high standards.’

‘And there’s only one way to maintain them,’ she murmured.

When he queried this with a raised brow, she murmured again, ‘Regular practice.’

‘Then I can only be grateful I rescued you from the samba club when I did.’

‘You never told me how you knew.’

‘Gabe called me at the gym,’ he confided in a whisper against her mouth. He was already hungry for her again.

‘Of course,’ she whispered. ‘So, what did he say, exactly?’

‘He said that the pretty little thing he’d seen me with at the club was having trouble with some men.’

‘Pretty little thing?’ Holly queried, pulling back her head to stare at him. ‘Are you sure he was talking about me?’

‘Size is a matter of scale, isn’t it?’ he said, smiling against her mouth. ‘Or in your case, Holly, it’s all in your mind.’ He lavished an appreciative look down the length of her naked body.

She stretched extravagantly, no longer self-conscious or inhibited. ‘You are rather large,’ she said. ‘I might hang onto you to keep me looking small.’

He laughed. ‘You do that. Now, have I answered all your questions? Or would you like to talk some more?’

‘Talk? No. Talking can wait,’ she said, reaching for him. ‘Don’t be selfish,’ she complained when he teased her by pulling away. ‘You can’t show off goods like that and then deny me the pleasure of them.’