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‘Of course.’ He tipped his head. ‘Goodnight, Gwen.’
She held her breath as he leaned forward but the kiss never came. He just brushed aside a strand of hair that had fallen in her eyes before he straightened up. There was nothing even vaguely erotic about his action but she was trembling as she walked towards the house, too ashamed to respond to his soft goodnight.
CHAPTER EIGHT
AFTERTWOHOURSof trying to bury the fact that the smell of Gwen’s hair had aroused him to the point that even ten minutes of standing in a cold shower didn’t work, Rio gave up trying to sleep. It wouldn’t be buried and his ache just wouldn’t go away.
In the end, he grabbed a pair of shorts and walked out into the warm, humid night. Ignoring the pool, he headed for the beach; he knew the tides quite well and felt safe swimming in the sea.
The repetitive action of swimming up and down eventually had the soothing mind-and-body-numbing result he had hoped for. He had forgotten to take a towel but the walk over to the house dried the moisture off his skin and he was dragging his hands through his sable hair to remove the excess water as he approached the house. He took the shorter route that cut past the pool, its turquoise depths still lit by the solar-powered underwater lights.
He was almost tempted to swim again but his body had achieved a level of relaxation that might enable him to actually get some sleep.
He was about to turn back to the house when he saw her, and all the benefits of thirty minutes of open-sea swimming vanished in a heartbeat.
Wearing a silky-looking cream nightshirt, Gwen was standing on the edge of the pool balanced on one foot, her other extended so her toes were dangling in the water. Presumably she hadn’t been able to sleep either, maybe for the same reason he couldn’t?
The possibility sent a fresh pulse of raw desire through his body.
She looked up suddenly as if she sensed his presence and he instinctively pulled back into the shadow of the overhanging trees but then stopped himself. It felt too voyeuristic to watch her when she didn’t know he was there.
He swallowed and stepped forward instead. ‘Are you thinking of swimming?’
‘No, I’m just looking.’ Gwen couldn’t stoplookingand there was nothingjustabout it!
Rio looked like a bronze god walking towards her, all rippling muscles and golden skin. He looked primitive, the very essence of maleness, his every move displaying a grace and raw strength that was simply mind-blowing. Anticipation made her heart thud, her legs were shaking... She was shaking all over, in fact.
He stopped a couple of feet away from her and by this point she could barely breathe, let alone think. She was simply suffocated by lust; her skin prickled with it, drawing the nipples of her round breasts into taut, tingling peaks. She wasn’t in the water but she felt as though she were drowning.
‘This would be crazy.’ Her voice sounded as if it belonged to someone else.
A nerve clenched in his cheek. ‘I don’t care.’
She was shaking with excitement and as her passion-glazed eyes connected with his, the blatant sensuality of his stare sent a heavy throb of need through her body.
She gave a smile that sparkled with reckless energy. ‘Neither do I.’ Holding his eyes, she took the hem of the nightshirt she wore and pulled it over her head, tossing it away, oblivious to the fact it landed in the pool.
Watching through a haze of desire, he groaned and lunged, not in any specific order. One muscular arm banded around her ribs, the other behind her head as he lifted her until their faces were level.
Her lips parted eagerly under the pressure of his mouth, inviting the sensual invasion of his plunging tongue, and as he tasted her she felt as though he would drain her.
He lifted his head and she could see there were dark stripes of colour along the crests of his cheekbones. ‘Trust me.’
‘I do.’ Crazily it was true.
He skimmed his tongue over the surface of her lips. ‘I want to see you lose control,’ he slurred against her lips.
She whimpered and panted as he put her down and slid down her body, his hands on her breasts while his mouth traced a path between them. The muscles of her belly quivered as he slid even lower, then as her legs gave way he pulled her down to join him, rolling her underneath him, pausing only to remove his shorts.
His hands were pressed against hers stretched high above her head as he kissed her, his hips moving against her soft belly, letting her feel the strength of his arousal as his erection grazed her stomach. But it only made her more frantic to feel him properly, with all of him inside her.
‘Did I say that out loud?’ she wondered.
He lifted his face from where it was pressed into her neck. ‘You shouted it. Call mecariadagain.’
‘Cariad...’she whispered obediently even though she didn’t know she’d already said the Welsh endearment once. Her eyes drifted closed as the mixture of sensations was just too much to absorb. The long, hot, drugging kisses were draining her of any remaining strength of will and they were just making her ache for even more.
‘I want to touch you,’ she gasped.
