The Engagement Deal (11 page)

‘Sleeping arrangements.’

‘Subject closed.’ The prim line of her mouth quivered ever so slightly when she encountered his eyes; just beneath the surface humour there was a throat-drying, knee-trembling
sizzle
.

‘Are you sleeping with Quinn Tyler? Is that why you’re holding me off?’

The hard question came so totally out of the blue, she could only stare at him.
‘Quinn?’

‘Because if that is the case, I have to tell you that your loyalty is misplaced,’ he told her in a cold voice. ‘If the situation were reversed, he wouldn’t do the same. Take my word for it—I
know
Quinn.’ There was hard, cynical light in his eyes.

‘With a friend like you, a man doesn’t have to go out looking for enemies, does he?’ she gasped. ‘Do you always slag him off?’ Her expression grew suspicious. ‘Or has he done something to annoy you?’

‘I’m not saying anything to you I wouldn’t say to Quinn’s face.’

‘My choice to not share your bed has nothing to do with Quinn.’

‘You haven’t answered my question,’ he said, looking at her from narrowed eyes.

‘Noticed that, did you?’ she breathed with a sweetly provocative smile. ‘Makes you think, doesn’t it, that it could have something to do with the fact that it’s none of your damned business who I sleep with?’

God, it was ironic that he seemed to think she had a whole legion of casual lovers. Whereas in reality, since her first never-to-be-forgotten disastrous introduction to the mating game, she’d led a nunlike existence. It was mortifying to acknowledge that in those days she’d been so pathetically grateful and flattered by the first plausible man who had said he wanted her that she’d imagined herself deeply in love.

She’d woken up when she’d discovered he’d used the same identical lines that had temporarily enslaved her with at least four other students she knew;
they’d
laughed at his corny chatup skills. Did it make it worse that in the end it turned out she wasn’t the only gullible idiot? He’d been bedding at least two other equally naive girls at the same time as her!

‘If it’s me, it is.’

Holly lost her balance and her crouched position as his words registered. She ended on her modestly upholstered behind, gawping up at him.

‘It won’t be.’ Her hoarse words didn’t carry as much conviction as she’d have liked. ‘I know I’m substituting for Rowena, but I’m not prepared to go all the way,’ she told him, resorting to crudeness. She felt the sour taste of bitterness rise up in her throat.

Niall, it seemed, could cope with crudeness and respond in kind. ‘Earlier on in the car, I got the distinct impression that that was
exactly
the destination you had in mind.’ He watched the colour seep dramatically from her remarkably creamy skin.

Holly felt dizzy as this sly little reminder ricocheted around in her head. ‘I suppose,’ she sneered distantly, ‘it was only a matter of time before you brought that up.’

‘Glad to see you appreciate the restraint I’ve displayed so far.’

Holly gritted her teeth at his self-congratulatory tone. ‘Ever the little gentleman.’

Niall shook his head slowly from side to side. His lean fingers curled firmly around her slender wrists as he drew her back up to her knees, until her body was within the strong barrier of his thighs.

‘Compliments will get you nowhere, sweetheart,’ he rasped against her ear as he placed her hands firmly around his neck. ‘I’ve been wanting to do this…’

Holly gasped as one large capable hand tugged down the bodice of her slinky, shimmering gown. He gave a deep satisfied purr of pleasure as his eyes moved greedily over the flushed, heaving contours of her small bosom. Her heart pounded against the confines of her narrow ribcage as desire, hot and sweet, flooded through her entire body. The flood of heat between her trembling thighs made her weak and hopelessly needy. Did it matter that Niall didn’t love her? He
needed
her, didn’t he? And by God she needed him!

‘…since the first time I saw you wearing this. Sweet little witchy woman. Do you taste this good all over?’ he enquired, lifting his head from her neck and looking at her with passion-glazed, smoky blue eyes.

His fingers brushed against the youthfully resilient firm flesh on the outside of her right breast before his thumb touched the aching, hard, rosy bud. Holly gave a deep anguished whimper of pleasure as the contact sent ripples of pleasure through her entire body.

He pushed his fingers into the fiery nimbus of curls that covered her head and examined her dreamily aroused face with hungry eyes. ‘That’s it!’ he declared decisively. ‘There’s no way you’re sleeping on this thing tonight.’

His arrogant certainty stirred the last stubborn dregs of her resistance. ‘Says who?’ The lustful thrust of his tongue into the warm welcome of her mouth destroyed any last shreds of sanity she had left.

Mouth still attached to hers, he lifted her into his arms and walked towards the bed. They were inches away from their destination when he encountered the unexpected obstacle of one spikily heeled sandal she’d carelessly kicked off when she’d first entered the room.

He let out a sharp curse as he tripped and they were both catapulted headlong onto the bed. The impetus drove them through the partly drawn drapes and straight onto the bed. Holly’s light body sank deep into the soft mattress. She was so lost to decency and consumed by lust that it flickered wickedly through her head that she wouldn’t have minded at all if it had driven Niall deep into her! It didn’t; at the last second, with a display of startling co-ordination and reflexes, he managed to take his weight on his braced arms.

‘Sorry. Are you all right?’ he asked anxiously as he pushed the thick curtain of copper curls from her face.

‘F-fine.’ Breathless didn’t begin to cover her condition. She made an ineffectual and, under the circumstances, deeply silly attempt to pull down the skirt of her dress, which had rucked up around her middle. How fortunate someone had thought to turn the bed down, she thought irrelevantly, when she realised she was lying on soft sheets.

Niall rolled away from her, which she found was something she didn’t entirely approve of. She’d rather enjoyed it when, hands either side of her head, knees tucked snugly up against her thighs, her world had been dominated by a close-up view of his awesomely powerful body.

‘A shoe.’ He turned accusingly back to her.

Holly propped herself up indignantly on one elbow, an action which caused the bodice of her dress to slither all the way down to her waist. ‘It’s not my fault you weren’t looking where you were going!’

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as amusement crept into his eyes. Looking at his mouth, all Holly could think of was how firm his lips had been, how velvety smooth and skilful his tongue had been; dreamily, she ran her tongue over her dry lips, still able to taste him.

The sultry but artless gesture made Niall’s eyes darken. The inky blackness of his pupils expanded to almost obliterate the electric blue. He let his eyes drop to wander obviously over her semi-naked body. It made the ache in his groin intensify to critical levels to see the way her nipples hardened and swelled. And he was just looking: if he
touched
…She was so incredibly sensitive, the possibilities were endless…

Her belligerent face was flushed and she was breathing hard and fast by the time his eyes reluctantly shifted from their lengthy contemplation.

‘You wouldn’t let me breathe, let alone look where I was going.’

‘Are you saying there’s something wrong with the way I kiss?’

‘Do I look like a fool?’ He saw her expression and shook his head. ‘Pretend I didn’t say that?’ he pleaded with a wry smile. ‘You kiss like an angel—the fallen variety,’ he reflected with a deep, very flattering sigh. ‘But you’re a bit of a slob on the neatness front. However, I’m prepared to take full responsibility, if it will make you feel happier,’ he offered generously.

‘I’m perfectly capable of taking responsibility for my own actions,’ Holly told him, with a brave attempt at haughtiness. Anticipation was sliding through her, stretching each fine muscle fibre in her slender body so tight, it hurt—wanting to touch Niall hurt.

Abruptly Niall dropped down beside her and hauled her towards him until they lay there, thigh to thigh; the similarity ended there. Her thigh was slim and softly rounded; his was hard and, even through the dark fine wool of his trousers, visibly muscled. She wanted badly to reach out and feel how hard his body was. Holly had never dreamt that such obvious contrasts could be such a major turn-on.

‘I’m glad to hear it.’ His eyes as they sought hers were unexpectedly sombre. ‘And you’re sure…about
this
…?’

‘It doesn’t sound as though you are!’ she responded, perversely annoyed by this display of caution. She was way past caution; she’d entered the realms of inevitability.

He leant over and gently pressed his face into her burnished hair.
‘Oh, I’m sure.’
To Holly’s sensitive ears, he sounded pretty grim about it.

He shrugged off his formal jacket and discarded this fine example of bespoke tailoring carelessly. Midway down his chest, the buttons of his shirt had come adrift; she could see the interesting sprinkling of dark hair against delicious firm, olive-toned skin.

Holly tucked her tongue between her clenched teeth—it would look bad if she actually started slobbering. He flinched as she placed a curious finger against the bare warm flesh and then, taking her wrist in one hand, he used the other to impatiently flick the remaining buttons free. Spreading her fingers, he placed them flat against his chest.

‘Is that what you want to do?’ he grated.

Want?
Her vocal cords had seized up completely. She nodded her head vigorously. ‘Want’ hardly seemed an adequate description for the swirl of conflicting sensations that ripped through her as she touched his skin and heard the deep vibration of his steady heartbeat beneath her fingertips. She felt so much, it scared her; emotion brought a sheen of hot tears to her dark eyes as she gazed at her own hand, very pale against his darker skin. She was almost too frightened to move her fingers.

‘Among other things,’ she confided huskily, with a sly, sultry peek up at him from under the sweep of her copper-tipped lashes.

Niall swallowed.
‘Other things,’
he purred. ‘You interest me greatly. Tell me more…’ he encouraged throatily, placing two strong hands either side of her narrow hips and drawing her hard against the straining swell of his restricted manhood.

‘Stop talking,’ she pleaded hoarsely, ‘and just kiss me!’

Niall’s vibrant laugh was one of male triumph and delight as he did his best to obey her imperious command. His best was pretty good!

‘Oh, gosh!’ she gasped when he finally lifted his head. She felt well and truly ravaged—no, she decided wiping the sheen of sweat from her brow,
beautifully
ravaged! ‘I thought I was in love with you, when I was sixteen.’ Her tingling lips felt tenderly swollen as she ran the tip of her tongue along the outline.

Niall exhaled sharply as his eyes followed the tiny gesture. He half levered himself up and ripped the shirt from his back. ‘I know.’

‘I knew you knew,’ she murmured in a distracted voice. His impressive rippling torso, all hard sinew, firmly sculpted muscles and smooth satiny skin, was deeply distracting. She didn’t need medical training to know she was looking at perfection. ‘It was very humiliating,’ she confided frankly. ‘Of course, I’ve been over it—you—for years and years.’ Now wasn’t the time to reveal what a catastrophic relapse she had had—there probably never would be a good time for that!

‘Feel better now you’ve firmly established the fact you’re not in love with me?’

Holly knew that the clipped tone in his voice was somehow significant, but the realisation slipped away from her as his hands began to move ever so softly over the rigid peaks of her engorged breasts. Her nerve-endings formed new and marvellous connections as her entire body came alive. The ache between her thighs became more acute.

‘No,’ she lied unselfconsciously. ‘Just ever so slightly in lust.’ She arched her back as he knelt over her and, threading one arm through the curve in her lower back, hauled her relaxed body upright until her face was on a level with his.

‘Your frankness, little one, could wound a lesser man.’

Holly looped her arms around his neck and plastered her naked upper half against him, squirming to get maximum contact from the manoeuvre. She gave a gusty sigh of deep pleasure—he felt quite marvellous. ‘All right,’ she conceded with a sigh. ‘At this moment, a lot in lust!’

The sombreness lifted from Niall’s face to be replaced by a fierce hunger as he laughed out loud. ‘You never say what I expect you to.’

‘Is that a good thing?’ she purred throatily. His eyes were incandescent as they scanned her aroused face.

The fact that this perfect sample of rampant maleness was shaking—fine tremors were visibly running through his greyhound-lean frame—made her feel suddenly strong and in charge. I’m irresistible, men are putty in my hands: it was a very potent delusion. It lasted all the way up to his next kiss, which was frenzied and urgent, she felt the salty tang of blood on her tongue.

‘Let’s get you out of these, shall we?’

Holly closed her eyes as he lay her down. She hoped he wasn’t expecting any help, because she was incapable—incapable of lifting a finger. Incapable too of rational thought, or any thought at all, save the blind mating instinct that told her this was the man she was meant to be with forever. Tragedy was, he didn’t know about the forever part, so she’d have to settle for now—and now he was hers!

After he’d peeled the last scrap of clothing from her trembling body—fortunately, he hadn’t needed any assistance—he stopped…Stopped touching her, stopped talking: she might even have suspected he’d stopped breathing if she hadn’t been able to hear the harsh sound of his laboured exhalation.