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A cold, black, bottomless abyss which he’d fallen into once before—and which he had vowed never to fall into again.
‘Where did all those people come from?’ Rye said as he fumbled with the keycard, one hand gripped on Maddy’s. ‘And why did they all have to pick our lift?’ Finally the green light blinked and he hauled her into the suite. ‘We must have stopped at every damn floor.’
He pulled her round to face him, pressed her back against the closed door, trapping her body against his and feeling her shudder of response. ‘Remind me never to get a suite on the top floor again,’ he quipped in a strained voice.
Her eyes were wide and unfocused, her face a little pale, and she’d barely spoken a word since she’d walked out of the Ladies Lounge. But then he hadn’t given her much chance, he’d hauled her into the lift so fast.
Bracing his hands against the door, he buried his face against her neck, the erotic scent of her making him harden as she shivered.
‘This has been the longest evening of my entire life,’ he murmured, the thin leash on his control stretched to breaking point.
He kissed the pulse point on her collarbone, exposed by the off the shoulder gown, skimmed his hand down satin-clad curves, then bent to grasp the hem of her dress. He groaned as he ran questing fingers up the silky skin to the apex of her thighs.
She jumped as he pressed the heel of his palm against the thin silk of her panties, and then writhed as he plunged into velvet heat.
‘Please stop, Rye.’ She shrank back, her hands flattening against his chest.
He didn’t hear the words at first, his heart thundering in his ears, the painful arousal pulsing against his fly. He had to be inside her, had to be seated deep so he could ride them both to orgasm and calm the frantic beats of his pulse.
He moved back to release the straining erection.
‘Don’t, Rye.’ She grabbed his wrist to still his hand on the zip. ‘We have to talk.’
He lifted his head, the words registering this time but not making any sense. ‘Later.’
But as he bent to kiss her, she twisted away, forcing him to draw back.
‘No, now,’ she said, her eyes dark with arousal but shadowed with regret. ‘We have to talk now.’
Damn, she was serious.
‘What’s so important we’ve got to talk about it right this second?’ he said, struggling not to snap. Not easy when he had an erection the size of Mount Everest in his pants and panic was skittering up his spine.
She flinched, her emerald eyes widening.
He stepped back, trying to get a chokehold on the need and frustration.
‘I want to make love to you, Maddy,’ he said, lowering his voice. ‘And it’s pretty obvious you want to make love to me. So what’s this all about?’
She shut her eyes, a sad little sigh issuing from her lips. The dejection in the pose had apprehension twisting in his gut.
‘But you wouldn’t be making love, would you?’ she said, her voice firm but fragile. ‘You’d be having sex.’
‘What does that mean?’ he rasped.
Her eyes opened and he tensed, seeing hurt and accusation.
‘I know what you went through,’ she said. ‘After your accident. That you couldn’t perform sexually for a while.’
Horror came first, followed swiftly by denial. ‘What?’ he croaked.
She straightened, squared her shoulders as if she were gathering her courage. ‘You never really cared for me at all, did you? This was always just about the sex.’
He could hear the unhappiness in her voice, see the aching vulnerability in her eyes, and the terrifying abyss widened to an enormous chasm beneath his feet.
Maddy saw him recoil, his face blank with shock before the shutters slammed down.
‘What exactly am I supposed to say to that?’ he said, his voice hoarse.
