A Prize Beyond Jewels (8 page)

His gaze flicked up to her face, studying her for long timeless moments before he nodded his satisfaction with whatever he saw in her expression. ‘In that case, I think it only fair I should be naked too, don’t you?’ he murmured as he stepped back, arms held slightly away from his body in invitation.

Nina had never undressed a man before. Those two previous encounters had been hurried and unsatisfying, when neither she nor either of those two men had even been completely undressed. Her fingers shook slightly as she removed Rafe’s bow tie before unfastening the buttons of his shirt, pushing the white silk down his arms as she gazed her fill of the bareness of Rafe’s wide shoulders and muscled chest. His skin there the same olive tone as his face and hands, with a sprinkling of dark hair that covered the flat bronze coins of his nipples, and formed a vee as it tapered down the muscled flatness of his abdomen before disappearing beneath the waistband of his trousers.

‘All of it, Nina,’ he groaned achingly as he stepped out of his shoes.

Her hands shook even more as she unfastened his trousers before sliding down the zip and allowing them to fall to the floor, gasping as she saw the long bulge of his shaft pressing impatiently against his black boxers. She glanced up at Rafe, before quickly looking away again as she saw the increased heat of the desire burning in those golden eyes.

She could do this. She needed to do this. Needed to be with Rafe, to touch and caress him.

She dropped smoothly to her knees in front of him, Rafe’s skin warm to the touch as she hooked her fingers into the waistband of those black boxers, before easing them down and off, baring his arousal.

Rafe was so utterly beautiful, his body as perfect as a huge bronzed statue.

Nina placed one of her hands on Rafe’s thigh, the other about the thickness of his shaft as she lowered her head, her tongue flicking out to lap, to taste the salty sweetness of the moisture coating the engorged tip. Encouraged by his low groans of pleasure as his hands moved out to grasp her shoulders, she parted her lips and took him completely into her mouth.

Rafe could barely breathe past the pleasure that engulfed him the moment he felt the lushness of Nina’s lips parting before she took him inside the burning heat of her mouth, and then deeper still, taking him to the back of her throat, before moving back again until just the bulbous tip remained imprisoned in that burning heat, her tongue a torturous caress about the rim just below the exposed head, only to repeat that pleasurable lapping of her tongue as she sucked on him greedily, taking Rafe further, deeper down her throat, with each successive motion.

She repeated that caress again and again, humming softly beneath her breast as she lapped and sucked, the pleasure becoming overwhelming, until Rafe knew he couldn’t take any more, that he was on the edge of exploding in her mouth.

‘No more, Nina!’ he groaned achingly as he gently eased her away from him, laughing gruffly as he saw the pout of disappointment on her lips as she looked up at him. ‘It’s going to be over too quickly for me if I allow you to continue doing that,’ he explained huskily as he bent to sweep Nina up in his arms before carrying her over to the bed.

‘It’s my turn to explore and taste you now,’ he assured as he laid her gently down onto the brown pillows and bedcover. Nina appearing a creamily skinned red-haired goddess against that darkness as Rafe moved onto the bed beside her.

Nina’s back arched invitingly off the bed as Rafe’s head lowered and his lips parted to capture one hard, engorged nipple before suckling that hardness deep into the heat of his mouth, his hand moving to cup and caress its twin, causing a gush of heated moisture to dampen the swollen lips between her thighs as Rafe’s other hand moved caressingly, unerringly, down to her parted thighs to stroke the swollen engorged nubbin hidden there, the dual assault on Nina’s senses causing her to cry out as an orgasm immediately ripped through and over her in burning, rippling waves.

Rafe continued those caresses as Nina arched into her climax, suckling deeply on her nipple, deepening the stroke of his fingers as he felt the gushing of her juices against them, lightly squeezing her clitoris between his fingers as he continued to milk and prolong that orgasm until he was sure Nina had taken, enjoyed, every last gasping shudder of her pleasure.

She was so responsive, so open to him as Rafe slid down her body to rest his shoulders between her parted thighs, his hands moving up to capture, caress, pinch her nipples as he lowered his head to lap up the nectar of her juices. The lips there swollen and open, begging for the thrust of his tongue inside her, and causing that channel to ripple and contract as a second, more intensely prolonged orgasm now caused her to arch her thighs into the deep thrusting rhythm of his tongue. Nina groaned his name over and over again as she came against his mouth.

‘I want you inside me, Rafe,’ Nina gasped as she reached down to entangle her fingers in his hair, mindless with that need after experiencing, not just her first ever orgasm but also a second one, her channel still contracting greedily as it hungered for more.

‘I need you inside me,’ she demanded, groaning achingly at the sight of her own juices slicked across Rafe’s lips as he raised his head to look up at her.

She whimpered softly in her throat as he rasped his tongue lingeringly over her sensitive nubbin once more before moving up her body, the silky hair on his chest rasping across the swollen nubbin between her splayed thighs, and then her sensitive nipples, as he laid his weight on her, his elbows either side of her head as he looked down at her searchingly.

‘So, so beautiful,’ he groaned, his hands cradled either side of her face as he kissed her again, deeply, hungrily, the erotic thrust of his tongue filling Nina’s mouth with the taste of her own juices even as she felt the nudge of his shaft against her , parting her as his hardness slid inch by slow inch inside those sensitive tissues, the stretching, filling sensation an exquisite pleasure in itself, before he began to stroke slowly inside her, causing Nina to break the kiss as she gasped at each successive slow thrust, the pleasure building, rising, overwhelming in its intensity.

Rafe buried his face in her throat, lips grazing her flesh, his breathing ragged as he continued those slow and measured thrusts. He was threatening to drive Nina insane with the ache building higher and higher inside her.

‘Harder, Rafe!’ she gasped. ‘Oh, please, harder!’ she groaned as her nails dug into Rafe’s shoulders, her legs curving over the backs of his thighs, pulling him into her as she met his hard thrusts, her body contracting about the long length of him as he filled her completely, her inner muscles squeezing, milking that length as he withdrew, causing Rafe to groan through clenched teeth with each new plunge, until he finally lost control and thrust faster, harder, into that slick heat.

Nina gave a guttural scream, her head thrashing from side to side on the pillow as she felt another release tearing through her, more intense, more overwhelming even than the last two. She heard Rafe’s harsh groan as her muscles tightened about him, clenching, squeezing the long length of his shaft as she convulsed in climax. His back arching, head thrown back, dark hair wild about his shoulders as the intensity of that golden gaze captured and held hers as his own release exploded into her in hot, thick jets, intensifying and prolonging Nina’s own release as that heat hit the opening to her womb, filling her, completing her.

* * *

Rafe woke the following morning with the feel of the warmth of sun shining on his closed lids, and a smile on his lips. Nina was the reason for that smile as he remembered the night of passion they had just spent together. Hours and hours of making love, their hunger for each other seemingly insatiable.

He had gathered Nina’s boneless body up in his arms after the first time, before drawing back the bedclothes and cuddling her beneath them as they fell asleep in each other’s arms. But they had woken and made love twice more during the night, slowly, deliciously, wildly, each time becoming more attuned to each other’s needs and desires, murmuring encouragements and gasps as they shared their pleasure in each other.

An intensity of pleasure Rafe knew he had never experienced before, with any woman.

A remembered intensity of pleasure that now made Rafe’s smile widen as he thought of spending the morning in bed with Nina, or maybe the whole day. He was nowhere near to satisfying the intensity of the desire he felt for her.

Breakfast first, though. He needed to ensure Nina was fed if they were going to make love all day. Besides, Nina would look sexy as hell walking about the apartment wearing one of his white silk shirts.

As it was, the lack of movement on her side of the king-sized bed told him that she was still sleeping deeply. No doubt she was exhausted after all that nocturnal activity!

Rafe’s smile deepened at the thought of waking her, of slowly kissing those luscious lips while caressing that long, lithe body before thrusting deeply, languidly, into the welcoming heat of her sensitive and caressing body until they both gasped out their release.

He rolled over in the bed. ‘Nina, I— What the...?’

The other side of the bed was empty, only the indentation in the pillow and the slight warmth of the sheets to show that Nina had been lying there beside him a short time ago.

‘Nina?’ Rafe called softly as he threw back the bedclothes and got out of bed, padding barefoot and naked out into the hallway as he received no answer from the adjoining bedroom. ‘I’m supposed to be the one to make you breakfast,’ he teased as he entered the kitchen.

The empty kitchen.

And the rest of the apartment proved to be just as empty as Rafe moved from room to room in search of her.

‘Damn it!’ he finally muttered angrily as he re-entered the bedroom and realised that Nina’s clothes and shoes were no longer on the floor where they had been discarded last night, that there wasn’t a single item of her clothing in the bedroom to show that she had ever been there at all.

Because she’d left the bed, the apartment, and Rafe, before he had even woken up.

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘W
HAT
THE
HELL
did you think you were doing?’

Nina’s fingers stilled in arranging her father’s jewellery collection in one of the open cabinets as she heard the sound of Rafe’s rasping and angry voice behind her. She stood up slowly, her gaze wary as she turned to see that Rafe was indeed angry, if the furious glitter in his eyes and the nerve pulsing in his tensely clenched jaw were any indication.

There wasn’t so much as a hint of the passionate and indulgent lover she had spent the night with.

A night of such an intensity of mind-blowing pleasure that it had been an absolute revelation to Nina. It made a complete nonsense of her two previous experiences; she definitely knew what all the fuss was about now!

Rafe had been a tender, fierce and erotic lover, bringing her to climax after climax as he explored and claimed every inch of her body, in the same way that he had allowed, encouraged her, to explore and pleasure every inch of his.

Nina blushed now just remembering the intimacies the two of them had shared during the night. No part of her, not a single inch, left untouched, unsatisfied, by Rafe’s caressing hands and mouth, and she was sure she now knew his body more intimately than she knew her own.

‘It’s okay,’ she huskily assured Rich and Andy as she saw they had stepped forward protectively, heads turned towards Rafe as he stood in the doorway of the gallery looking every inch the wealthy and sophisticated Rafe D’Angelo. He was dressed in his custom tailored charcoal suit and pale grey shirt and tie, the darkness of his hair curling silkily onto his shoulders. Much as he had looked the first morning they met. Just three days ago in actual time, but a lifetime away in the changes those same days had made within Nina.

And she wasn’t just referring to the physical pleasure she had experienced with him last night.

These last few days with Rafe, and the things he had said to her last night when they argued, had made Nina once again question her own life, and the way in which she lived it.

Heaven knew, she never ever wanted to hurt her father. He had been hurt enough, but some of the things Rafe had said to her last night had settled deep within Nina, breaking open the fragile shell she had placed about her own hopes and dreams for the future, and forcing her to question as to whether or not, after all these years, it really was still necessary for her to live her life under the constant shadow of the past.

Surely there had to be some way of compromising? Some way of reassuring her father as to her safety, while at the same time being able to pursue her own dreams? Of being able to live her life without feeling as if she were in a gilded cage?

‘It is not okay,’ Rafe snarled as he spared a warning glare for the two burly bodyguards now flanking Nina. ‘We’re going up to my office to talk,’ he rasped as he stood to one side to allow her to precede him out of the gallery.

Nina knew by the glitter in Rafe’s eyes, his tight and thinned mouth, tensed jaw, and the angry flare of his nostrils that he was barely holding his temper in check.

A temper Nina hadn’t even realised he possessed until this moment, Rafe’s usual mood seeming to be one of laid-back charm and private amusement at the world.

Neither did Nina understand the reason for his current mood. The two of them had been out to dinner together yesterday evening, after which they had spent the night together, enjoyed each other to the full—as the pleasurable aches in Nina’s body testified!—so what was Rafe’s problem this morning?

Surely this was the way the game was played? No strings, no attachments, no expectations, on either side? Rafe’s past history with relationships certainly said that was the way he liked to live his own life. And it was the way Nina had decided she would treat their relationship.

‘I’m busy, Rafe.’

‘Now, Nina!’ he bit out harshly, a nerve pulsing in his tightly clenched jaw.

‘I don’t think you should be talking to Miss Palitov in that tone of voice, Mr D’Angelo.’

‘Stay out of this!’ Rafe turned fiercely on the bodyguard. Rich or Andy—they were interchangeable as far as he was concerned!

He was just relieved to have something else—someone else—to vent his frustrations on.

Rafe’s imagination had run riot once he accepted that Nina had left his apartment without so much as saying goodbye. He wondered if in the clear light of day she was angry or upset about last night, or maybe a combination of the two.

He had become even more frustrated when he realised he didn’t even have a personal telephone number on which he could contact her, and he had been in no mood to speak with her father to get to her, either. No doubt the older man would have been informed, and have an opinion, on where his daughter had spent the previous night.

Not that Rafe gave a damn how Dmitri Palitov felt about that. He just wanted to talk to Nina, and he was pretty sure, after the previous warning Dmitri had given him in respect of his daughter, that the older man wouldn’t be in the least helpful in that regard.

Showering quickly before dressing and driving over to Nina’s apartment hadn’t been in the least productive either. The two men manning the reception desk—obviously yet more of the Palitov security—refused to tell Rafe anything other than Miss Palitov was ‘currently not at home’.

An ambiguous answer that caused Rafe to question whether or not Nina really wasn’t in her apartment, or just not at home to him, in particular?

Annoyed, frustrated, and more than a little concerned as to the reasons Nina had decided to leave so abruptly, and with no way of knowing and no one to answer those concerns, Rafe had driven to Archangel, deciding he would contact Nina again later today. Only to be told when he entered the gallery that Nina was here, as she had been for the past three days, working in the east gallery organising the display of the Palitov jewellery collection.

Rafe had gone straight to the east gallery, where he found Nina down on her hands and knees calmly arranging her father’s jewellery collection in one of the display cases—as if last night hadn’t happened. As if she hadn’t left Rafe’s apartment this morning before he had even woken up, as if he hadn’t been worried as to why she might have done that! It had turned his churning emotions, his worry and concern, into a burning fury.

A fury that he realised was all the more deeply felt because he had opened up to this woman last night. Let his guard down, confided things in her, in a way he had never done with any other woman.

He was certainly in no mood to deal with her two overprotective, over-muscled security guards. ‘We can have this conversation here, Nina, or we can have it upstairs in my office,’ he bit out coldly. ‘It’s your choice.’

Nina wasn’t at all reassured by the anger she could see blazing in Rafe’s eyes. Although she was still puzzled as to the reason for it; she had thought he would be relieved when he woke up alone in his bed, that it was the way these things were done.

But she did accept that continuing this conversation in front of Rich and Andy wasn’t a good idea. The two men looked ready to physically attack the other man, if they deemed it necessary. And that challenging glint in Rafe’s eyes said he would welcome a show of the aggression.

‘Fine.’ Nina removed the thin cotton gloves she had worn for her work. ‘You had better stay with the collection,’ she instructed Rich and Andy. ‘I’ll only be a few minutes,’ she assured them lightly.

‘I wouldn’t count on it,’ Rafe muttered as she passed him in the doorway.

Nina gave him a frowning glance, her own anger stirring as Rafe continued to look grim as he fell into step beside her. Her anger deepened as he made no effort to explain himself, either outside in the hallway, or as they walked up the stairs to his office.

All of that changed the moment they had crossed through his assistant’s office and closed Rafe’s office door behind them. Nina suddenly found herself with her back pressed flush against that door, with Rafe towering over her, his hands either side of her head as he glowered down at her.

She frowned her displeasure as she felt imprisoned, both by Rafe’s hands placed either side of her and pinning her in place, and his close proximity. A proximity that her traitorous body instantly reacted to by becoming achingly aroused, her nipples tightening into swollen, aching buds beneath her T-shirt, that familiar dampness gushing between her thighs.

‘What’s this all about, Rafe?’ Her voice was sharp with irritation, at her physical response to him rather than Rafe’s incomprehensible behaviour.

His eyes narrowed. ‘You left.’

‘What?’

‘Why did you leave this morning, Nina?’

She gave a puzzled shake of her head. ‘I don’t understand the question.’

‘Do I take it from your answer that you’re in the habit of sneaking out of a man’s apartment, without so much as a goodbye, after spending the night with him?’ he grated harshly.

Nina’s eyes flashed. ‘I didn’t sneak.’

‘What the hell else would you call it?’ Rafe snarled.

‘I would call it your still being asleep when I woke up and my needing to get back to my own apartment to shower and change before coming in to work!’ she snapped back dismissively.

‘Without saying good morning or goodbye?’

She shrugged. ‘As I said, you were asleep.’

‘And we had just spent an incredible night together. You didn’t consider waking me before you left?’

‘No.’ Her chin rose challengingly as she reminded him, ‘You told me Michael would be arriving today.’

‘This evening, not this morning,’ he rasped impatiently. ‘Besides which, I doubt my brother would go into shock at finding a woman in the apartment.’

‘Probably not, no,’ she drawled, sure that it was an occupational hazard for the three charismatic D’Angelo brothers, if they shared the same apartments around the world.

Not so much for Gabriel, of course, now that he was married, but Nina had no doubts that the brothers were used to stumbling across each other’s lovers in the morning. Even the aloofly austere Michael, although no doubt more discreet about his relationships than his two younger brothers, was too charismatically handsome not to have a succession of women in his bed. That very austereness with which he surrounded himself was a challenge to any red-blooded woman.

‘I would prefer it if he didn’t find me there,’ Nina added decisively.

Rafe looked down at Nina searchingly for several long seconds before pushing away from the door to move sharply away from her and stand in front of the window with his back towards the room. He thrust his clenched hands into the pockets of his trousers as he resisted the urge to grasp hold of her shoulders and shake her.

He was more than a little annoyed with himself because he wanted to kiss Nina again, make love to her again, rather than continuing with this less than satisfying conversation.

And it was playing havoc with his self-control that Nina still managed to look so damned fresh and alluring, despite the lack of sleep during the night of pleasure they had just spent together. Low-rise skinny black denims rested low on her hips, below a T-shirt the same green as her eyes. Her fiery red hair was caught up in a ponytail at her nape, her face appearing bare of make-up, and revealing those endearing freckles across the bridge of her nose.

Rafe, on the other hand, now had irritation to add to the blackness of his mood, the worry he had suffered after waking and finding Nina gone obviously completely unnecessary. ‘Why did you leave, Nina?’ he repeated harshly.

Nina frowned as she looked across the room at the stiffness of Rafe’s back, her own anger at his behaviour now still burning low in her stomach. ‘Is that what all this is about?’ she questioned incredulously. ‘Because I dared to leave Rafe D’Angelo’s apartment this morning without his say-so?’

He turned abruptly, a dark scowl on his brow. ‘You didn’t need my permission to leave.’

‘No?’ Nina challenged, hands on her hips. ‘That isn’t the impression I’m getting right now!’

Those golden eyes narrowed. ‘And what impression are you getting right now?’

She gave a scornful smile. ‘That Rafe D’Angelo is usually the one who does the leaving. That it’s all right for him to sneak out of a woman’s apartment the morning after, but damned infuriating for a woman to dare to do the same thing to him!’

That there was some truth in her accusation didn’t help Rafe’s current mood of frustrated anger. Going to bed with a woman, spending part of the night with her in her apartment, had never been a problem for him, but he rarely—in fact, never!—stayed the whole night. He always left before he had to go through the awkwardness of sitting across a breakfast table, trying to make conversation with the woman he had just had sex with.

Nina had been different. Not only was she the first woman he had ever confided in, but she was also the first woman he had taken back to the family-owned apartment. He had actually been looking forward to making her breakfast, to talking and laughing with her as they shared that breakfast, in bed or out of it. Just as he had been anticipating how sexy she would look dressed only in one of his own shirts, before he carried her back to bed and made love with her again.

That he had never wanted that intimacy with another woman only made Nina’s leaving all the more frustrating. Finding her calmly working at Archangel, as if nothing had happened between them last night, certainly hadn’t improved his mood. Nevertheless...

‘I never take women back to my apartment.’

She blinked. ‘You don’t?’

‘No.’

‘And yet you took me there?’

A nerve pulsed in his jaw. ‘Yes.’

‘Why?’

‘At this moment I have absolutely no idea!’ he rasped coldly.

‘Oh.’ Nina eyed him uncertainly.

‘Yes,’ he bit out succinctly.

She rallied determinedly. ‘That’s still no reason for you to have behaved like a Neanderthal downstairs!’

‘A what?’ Rafe prompted incredulously, eyes wide beneath his raised brows.

‘A Neanderthal,’ she repeated. ‘Primitive man. As in “you woman, me man”.’

‘I know what it is, thank you,’ Rafe drawled, some of his anger evaporating, to be replaced by amusement at hearing Nina accuse him of behaving like a caveman.