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‘And now you don’t have to pretend any more. You’re a rich and influential art collector yourself.’
He looked at her across the top of his glass, his eyes as smoky as his voice. ‘I’d give it all away in a heartbeat for one more night with you, darling.’
Nina nearly spilled the remainder of her wine. God, for an instant her mind had slipped a cog and she thought he actually meant it!
‘Overextravagant compliments don’t impress me,’ she said repressively.
“‘Was ever woman in this humour woo’d? Was ever woman in this humour won?”’ he murmured, leaning his chin on his hand.
‘Not when she remembers what the next line is,’ she sparked back. “‘I’ll have her; but I will not keep her long.’”
He threw back his head and laughed. ‘Caught out! I should have expected it, knowing how much you like Shakespeare. It’s one of the things we have in common.’
‘Then you’d do better to avoid any more lines from King Richard III,’ she told him, feeling a warmth in her belly that had nothing to do with the food and wine. So it hadn’t been just an irresistible physical attraction of opposites! ‘Unless you really want me to think of you as a villain.’
‘I thought you already did.’
‘Anyone who can cook the way you do can’t be all bad.’
She regretted the impulsive reply as soon as it slipped out, but instead of seizing the opportunity to put her to the blush, he merely inclined his head in lazy acknowledgment of the compliment.
The cloudless warm day had turned into a crystal-clear cold night, and as Nina carried the dishes out to the kitchen and stacked them to soak for a while in the sink, Ryan rose with his glass of wine and strolled over towards the beckoning warmth of the fire.
When she came back into the room, he was lounging at ease on the hearth, propped up on one elbow as he toasted the long line of his back, his legs extended across the flokati rug, Zorro dozing in his favourite spot by the woodpile just beyond his feet.
‘Come over and sit by the fire.’ Ryan put his wineglass down to one side and held out his hand in a casual gesture of invitation.
Nina automatically extended her hand, gliding towards him with the blankness of a sleepwalker, but then she stumbled to a stop, her eyes widening as they fixed on the shaggy, cream woollen rug on which he was lying.
‘Nina?’ he murmured, the soft caress of her name echoing and re-echoing in her mind….
His nude body looked like polished teak in the firelight, smooth and sleek, bold in its arousal, the cloud of midnight hair in his groin a dark frame for the thick shaft that rose against his hard belly and nudged against her restless thighs. His mouth was as hot as the flames that bore mute witness to their passion as it seared across Nina’s skin, leaving her swollen breasts glistening with moisture and her nipples engorged with fiery sweetness.
The thick rug generated a soft friction against her undulating back as he pressed her down against the unyielding floor, providing an erotic contrast to the sensual slide of his slick skin against hers, his entwining limbs moving over, under, around, between, seeking and finding every delicious pressure point in her eager woman’s body.
His mouth moved to capture her wild cries, enrapturing her senses while his body ravished her with ruthless pleasure, his hands sliding down to cup her bottom and tilt her hips so that he could—
‘Nina, aren’t you going to sit down?’
Her soaring passion fell to earth with a crash as the scene telescoped back into her head. Ryan had lowered his hand and was sitting up, his eyes on her glazed face.
‘Nina?’ he repeated very gently, as if afraid of jolting her out of her seeming trance. ‘What do you see?’
She couldn’t answer, her jaw locked as she struggled to conceal her ragged emotions.
He stroked his hand across the shaggy rug, threading his fingers into the long, soft strands, drawing her fascinated gaze. ‘Is it this rug? Does it remind you of something?’ His voice lowered to a husky drawl, his fingers curling sensuously into the thick, wavy wool. ‘We used to make love for hours on the big sheepskin rug at home. You loved being naked with me in the firelight, watching me make love to you with those gorgeous, sexy green eyes.
