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‘Okay?’ He kissed her ear as they stilled for a moment, letting her adjust.
‘More than,’ she whispered back, and then Ben couldn’t help but move and move, until she was falling apart under him, and his whole world narrowed to the feel of her, to a pinpoint of sensation that made his body tense until it might break...
Afterwards, once enough of his brain had returned to his body, Ben rolled onto his side, pulling Luce with him so she was tucked safe in his arms. Her breathing was the only sound, deep and even, as if she were trying to bring her body back under her own control. It was too late, though. He’d already seen the wildness at the centre of her, the free parts she kept locked up tight. The hidden side of her that wanted, wanted—wanted so much.
He couldn’t let her lock that up again.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE ROOM LAY under a strange hush, as if nothing existed beyond the bed in which they lay. Luce supposed it was the snow, blanketing the world outside and deadening the sounds. But maybe it was the sex as well. After all, such a moment deserved a reverential silence, surely?
Because it wasn’t just sex. Luce felt a stab in her chest at the realisation, and she must have flinched, because Ben’s arm tightened around her, pulling her closer into that magnificent chest. She felt his mouth brush against her hair, soothing, comforting. As if he was trying not to startle her.
‘Freaking out?’ he asked, his voice a murmur. But the grip on her body told her he wasn’t letting go even if she was.
‘A little,’ she admitted, and cursed herself even as she spoke. The last thing she needed Ben to know was that sex had reduced her to a gibbering wreck.
Except it wasn’t the sex. The sex had been phenomenal, taking her everywhere she’d needed to go and then some. Her whole body was thanking her for the sex in its own languid, melted way. No, the sex was just fine.
It was the feelings that went along with it that caused the problems.
She wasn’t deluded enough to think that Ben would break his one-night rule for her. But, lying in his arms, it was hard to imagine how she would tear herself away the next morning.
But she had to. Because Ben wasn’t a man looking for responsibility, family, a wife. And she knew herself. She wasn’t Nest, for all that she’d been taken from Cilgerran Castle and bedded tonight. She had a family she had to take care of, and Ben would never be able to bear to have anything take affections away from him. If she were to fall in love, to find someone to make a life with, it had to be someone who supported her, helped her, understood that she had other responsibilities.
Ben Hampton was not that man. Ben was so far from being that man it was almost funny. Or hugely depressing.
The best she could hope for with Ben was an occasional night together when he happened to be in town and it suited him—and even then never more than one night in a row. And that wasn’t enough for her. He wanted her to think about her own needs? Well, she needed more than that from a relationship.
‘What can I do to help you relax?’ he asked, his voice soft and seductive.
Luce felt her body reacting even though every muscle in it was already exhausted.
‘I’m never going to be able to sleep if you keep thinking so loud. Normally a woman is more relaxed after I finish my work.’ He sounded faintly put out at that.
Luce bit her lip. She had to leave tomorrow morning. She knew that. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t make the most of her one night.
Shifting in his arms so she was facing him, Luce let him pull her flush against him, her breasts brushing against the hairs on his chest, his right leg pressing between her thighs.
‘Maybe you haven’t finished work for the night, then,’ she said, and watched his eyes darken as he smiled.
Yes, if she only got one night with Ben Hampton, Luce was going to make sure every moment counted.
* * *
According to the clock on the bedside table, it was late morning when Ben awoke, but the room remained dim and close. Guess it hasn’t stopped snowing, then. He supposed he could get up and look, see what they were dealing with. But the bed was so warm, and when he shifted Luce snuggled closer into his arms.
Yeah, he wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry.
And neither, he realised, was she. Not if the snow was as heavy as it had looked before they’d retired to the bedroom for the night. If he hadn’t been able to get the car all the way up to the cottage yesterday afternoon, they’d be lucky even to get back to it this morning. No point even trying.
Not, of course, that logic meant she wouldn’t need some convincing of that fact. Ben smiled. Given how responsive she’d been to his ‘convincing’ the night before, he didn’t see it being a particularly arduous task.
