Chapter Fourteen

Valentina looked down to find Smith staring up at her, his eyes even darker than normal, and so intense that her heart skipped a beat in her chest.

She could see the desire on his face, knew hers matched it in equal measure, and yet past the desire was something that tore at her heart...a longing, a need she'd worked so long and hard to hold at bay in herself. One that went far beyond making love.

It went to cold nights wrapped up together under a blanket on the couch.

To tears dried by someone you knew you could trust with your deepest, darkest secrets.

To afternoons on rocking chairs holding hands while grandchildren played at your feet.

Tenderness rose up in her just as swiftly as pleasure had and she pulled him back up over her to give him a kiss that was even sweeter than any that had come before. Just as sweet was the next warm rush of pleasure as his hands explored her na**d skin from curve to curve while his tongue teased hers. She could taste herself on him and shivered at the incredibly potent memory of Smith between her legs, lapping at her as though she was the sweetest treat he'd ever been given.

She wasn't surprised by wanting him, not when Smith was so incredibly desirable, and sexy. But she was surprised by just how deeply her need for him ran...and by the fact that she already wanted more, even before she'd had all of him.

So much more.

Which was why, even though she'd barely come down from her first orgasm, when he slid one hand down over her breasts, then down to the vee between her legs, it was the most natural thing in the world to open her legs for him, and to lift herself into the wonderfully deep strokes of his fingers inside her.

"God, Valentina." He licked at her neck, before sucking her skin in between his teeth and lips. "You're so wet. So damned wet, and hot, for me."

With every thrust of his hand, his palm rocking over her sensitive flesh, he took her higher and higher. So incredibly high, she found herself actually bracing for it to all come tumbling down around her. Because how could she possibly fly so high without knowing for sure if she'd make it back to earth in one piece?

"Smith."

She didn't know what she was trying to tell him. Didn't know if she was begging for more, or pleading with him to have mercy on her. Her eyes fluttered open and she knew what she saw in his gaze - the hunger, the emotion, the desperation - was there for him to see in hers, too.

"I'm right here," he said when he felt her tense, soothing her with his touch, even as he sent her flying higher and higher into uncharted territory. "Come for me, Valentina. Let me have all of you again."

And oh, how she wanted to be completely his, if only for one perfect night.

Just that quickly, her defenses dissolved beneath his touch, his mouth on hers, the slick of his tongue against hers. And as waves of pleasure crashed up and over her again, she was surprised to feel neither emptiness, nor the slightest shame at the way she writhed against him, as purely sexual a being as she'd ever been.

Just as he had after her first orgasm, Smith took her all the way through, then past the delicious peak of her cl**ax. Safe, yet oh-so-heady, warmth surrounded her as he rained kisses over her breasts, then across her ribs, over her stomach, then down past her sex to press soft kisses on the inside of each leg. At the same time that his mouth roamed her, his large hands stroked down over her muscles, the length of her arms, her back, and then down both legs, making her so incredibly relaxed.

It had been fun, sexy, exciting, to be na**d beneath him, over him, while he'd still been fully dressed. But an ever-growing need to have all of him, too, made her impatient and she was soon pulling off his shirt with little care for buttons popping off or the sound of one sleeve tearing.

She loved the way their hands looked together as he helped her unbutton and unzip his jeans, his big and tanned, hers slender and pale. It was what she'd always felt around him, more feminine, more sensual, than she'd ever allowed herself to be with anyone else.

Not, of course, that she'd allowed herself to be that woman with him, not even tonight. Smith had simply demanded that sensuality from her from the first moment they'd met.

Valentina wasn't promiscuous, but she hadn't been a nun for the past decade, either. And yet, being with Smith felt like making love for the very first time. They were more than a man and a woman who couldn't resist coming together...they felt like a miracle.

Or, at the very least, she thought as he threw his shirt onto the floor, kicked off his jeans, and grabbed a condom from a drawer in the bedside table, he was a miracle.

Because she'd never seen such a beautiful man in all her life.

She'd known his face was near perfection, but the breadth of his shoulders, the lean muscles that rippled over his arms and across his stomach, his strong h*ps and thighs, all wrapped in tanned skin...

"I need a second to appreciate you now," she told him as he came back over her.

Lifting a hand that trembled with both need and excitement, she ran the tip of one finger lightly down the deep line at the center of his abs. Tilting her face up to press a kiss to his skin, with her lips and tongue, she went back over every inch of perfection that she'd just touched.

His muscles flexed and jumped under her hand and mouth as she whispered, "I might even need two."

"Take as long as you need."

His voice was raw with desire, and she loved knowing she'd done this to him. She would never be his physical equal - no one would - but she could match him passion for passion, need for need, kiss for kiss.

Only, her ache for him went even deeper, so deep that her hands shook as she ran them down over his torso until she couldn't take any more time at all and had to pull at the waistband on his boxers to drag them over his erection. Thank God, a moment later Smith had a condom on and then he was back over her, her hands in his on either side of her head.

He didn't move, didn't push inside her, didn't even kiss her again. Instead, he simply stared into her eyes as if there was an answer he'd find if he only looked hard enough for it, and had the patience to draw it from her.

"Valentina."

The way he whispered her name with such desperate hunger had her closing her fingers tightly over his, and lifting her head so that their mouths could meet in a beautifully brutal kiss, both of them biting, sucking, taking from each other what they needed, and giving just as much back.

She couldn't get over her amazement at finally feeling the heat of his skin, the dark hairs on his chest, his muscles moving against hers...and to know that all those secret fantasies she'd had about him since the day they'd met were finally coming to life.

And, oh, she'd never felt so alive as she did when she opened herself to him and he finally came into her. The stretch of her inner muscles over his thick, hard length made the pleasure so intense that her eyes fluttered closed, and her h*ps lifted automatically to take him deeper, her ankles linking together behind his h*ps to bring him closer.

Completely connected now, she could practically feel his heart beating inside her as he said her name again, and it was almost enough to have her coming apart around him. But before she could make even the slightest sound to let him know just how close to the edge she was, his mouth covered hers in a kiss so heartbreakingly sweet, so gentle even as continually rising passion drove her to wrap her legs around his h*ps tighter still.

And moments later, when he finally lifted his mouth from hers, everything inside of her rebelled at letting him go.

For weeks, she'd pushed her feelings for Smith into the shadows. It had been a secret she was trying to keep from everyone, especially herself.

Tonight, carefully guarded secrets were no match for desire.

Valentina threaded her hands into his hair and pulled his mouth back down to hers. She wasn't just offering herself for one night anymore...she was demanding he take everything from her. It had never been like this for her. She had never been this ravenous, this insatiable.

In perfect sync, they moved together, her h*ps colliding with his, her body begging for every deep, hard thrust. Sinfully sweet became beautifully dirty as they both spiraled out of control in each other's arms.

* * *

Valentina couldn't remember ever feeling so good, so languid, so satisfied, even though Smith's heavy weight was pressing her into the mattress, and the tangled sheets were bunched up under her calf.

"We made a mess of your sheets," she murmured against his neck, licking at the salty sweat just below his ear. "They're all tangled now."

"Good."

She couldn't miss the deep satisfaction in his voice, nor the fact that all it took was the vibration of his chest through to hers as he spoke to bring her sated body back to life beneath him.

Knowing she was safe as long as the night still surrounded them, and wanting to make the most of every single one of the stolen hours, she said, "I'm ready for dessert now."

Smith lifted his head and smiled down at her. "I thought that was dessert."

She pressed her mouth to his and loved getting lost in his kiss. "No, that was just to make sure we worked up an appetite for cupcakes."

She loved the sound of his laughter, loved even more knowing that she'd pleased him. Because oh my, how he'd just pleased her. Again and again, with every touch, every kiss, every stroke of his body against - and into - hers.

"The cupcakes are over here," she reminded him as he walked beautifully na**d across the room to his dresser. He opened a drawer and pulled something out of it.

As satisfied as she'd felt just seconds ago, Valentina's heart was now beating hard and fast as she wondered what Smith had planned for her. Especially when he said, "Close your eyes."

"Why?"

He grinned at her. "Trust me, you're going to like it."

His easy use of the words trust me had her quickly sitting up in bed and her gut clenching. She could give her body so much more easily than she could give her trust to a man.

But as she looked up into Smith's eyes and saw the careful way he was watching her, she was amazed - shocked, actually - to realize that she did trust him. At least for this one night, when she could be absolutely certain that nothing, and no one, would come between them.

On a long exhale, she let her eyes close, and a moment later, she felt something soft being wrapped around her eyes. Before she could ask him why he was blindfolding her, Valentina smelled sugar and chocolate.

"Take a bite."

She bit into the cake pressed softly against her lips and every one of her taste buds came completely alive. "Mmm." She started to lick at the frosting she could feel on the corner of her upper lip, but Smith's tongue beat hers there.

"Delicious."

He moved the chocolate back to her lips and she took another bite. Dessert had never tasted so good before and she was more than ready to feel Smith's mouth on hers again when he surprised her with the sensation of something cold across the tip of one breast and then the other a beat later.

"Did you know there was filling inside the cupcake?"

She was so lost in the heady anticipation of what he was about to do that she could barely get out the word no.

"I can't tell what flavor it is. Maybe you can help me?"

"Smith. Please."

He'd reduced her to begging yet again, but she didn't care, not when she could feel his warm breath on her skin and then his tongue moving over her as he licked greedily at her incredibly sensitive nipples. She clutched blindly at his shoulders as he moved to clean off her other breast in the same powerfully seductive, wickedly perfect way.

Only when every last drop was gone did he move his mouth to hers and kiss her again. When she was completely breathless, he said, "Tell me, Valentina. What flavor was it?"

Love.

He tasted like love.

The forbidden four-letter word popped into her head unbidden, not just once, but twice, startling her into going stiff in his arms.

Instantly sensing her distress, he pulled the tie he'd used as a makeshift blindfold from her eyes and ran his hands slowly down her arms. "I promised I wouldn't do anything you didn't want me to do tonight," he said in a soothing voice. "Was it the blindfold?"

It wasn't, of course. She had liked that part very, very much.

She reached for him and wound her arms around his neck. "You didn't do anything wrong."

And he truly hadn't. She was the one who was going to have to work like crazy to protect herself again come morning. Which was why she should be glad for the small slip. It was the perfect reminder that even as she gave him her body, she needed to hold back her heart.

Trying to recapture the playfulness from just moments before, she said, "But I do feel kind of sticky now."

His dark eyes held hers for a long moment, until her prayers that he'd let her strange behavior go were answered. He swept her up into his arms and carried her into his bathroom.

As he started the water running, his hands roamed over her skin, his mouth playing at the curve where her neck met her shoulder. She arched into him and there was barely twelve inches of water in the bottom of the tub when he said, "I need you again, Valentina."

"Yes," she said as she slid with him into the shallow water. "Again."

Somehow he found a condom and had it on just in time for her to come down onto him at the exact moment that he plunged inside. She'd have thought this second time would be wonderful, but not anywhere near as special as their first time.

And yet, when he pulled nearly clear of her before driving in so deep and fast again that she had to cling to him tighter, and as she cried out with pleasure at gentle bite of his teeth and the sweet pull of his lips over her breasts, along with the tight hold he had on her h*ps with his big hands, Valentina knew that their lovemaking could never become ordinary, nor simple.

Not even if they had decades together in each other's arms, instead of only one night.

Afterward, when they were both clean and dry again, and she felt more exhausted than she ever had before, Smith gently brought her back to the tangled sheets on his bed, tucked her in, and pulled her against him.

She had never slept well while sharing a bed with anyone, not even her sister on the nights when Tatiana had had childhood nightmares and climbed in with her. And Valentina's decision to spend the night with Smith hadn't included sleeping like this with him. Only sex.

But with Smith's strong, warm arms around her, and one of his hands wrapped around hers so that both rested on top of her heart, she simply didn't have it in her to fight the darkness of sleep...or the sweetness of being with Smith like this.