A Delicious Mistake (2 page)

Once
again he kissed her, as gently and sweetly as before. This time a tinge of fire
enticed her. She felt herself being led somewhere and she followed. He swept
her up and lowered her to the modest, spare bed that stood close to the fire.
Soon enough, she lay on her back underneath him. She moaned when his skin
touched hers.

Hot. So hot
.

His
body felt like black fire against hers. She moaned and dug her fingertips into
his powerful shoulder blades. She wiggled her hips, rubbing her slickness
against him. His firm muscles felt like corded steel beneath her hand, and she
felt wonderfully vulnerable beneath his dominant maleness. She had never been
with such a man before, ever. She had never been with
any
man, but she
had dreamed about someone who would be this powerful and gentle and almost too
virile to be real. Those erotic fantasies, images she had conjured up whenever
she pleasured herself, faded against the onslaught of the reality of Benjamin.
She had never dreamed someone like him actually existed.

Yet,
here he was. He was very,
very
real. He seemed to take great care not to
hurt her. In fact, Benjamin showed a kind of rare gentleness made even more
striking by the sharp contrast to his large, powerful frame. His hands roamed
over her body, the touch of his long, callused fingers surprisingly delicate,
as he caressed every inch of her skin. When he cupped her breasts, Sarah could
not hold back a gasp. There was just something incredibly erotic about feeling
his rough fingertips on her.

Benjamin
leaned down and sucked the sensitive skin on the side of her neck into his
mouth. He bit down and Sarah let out a moan. His traced a path down the length
of her throat, over her collarbones, and then along the outskirts of her right
breast, and then closed his lips around one pale pink nipple. Sarah dug her
nails into his skin. He expertly teased her already hardening nipple until it
tightened and peaked. Lifting up, he gently plucked the hard peak with one
last, lingering sucking motion, before shifting his attention to its needy
twin.

Sarah
whimpered and gasped, “Benjamin…” She heard herself moan.

His
warm breath on her breast was almost enough to drive her wild. He made her
writhe with sheer ecstasy as he kissed and suckled her breasts. His hands
worshipped her body.

Benjamin
set the pace for a dance of sensual harmony, and Sarah gave in, more than ready
to do anything with him. She had never dreamed pleasure could feel this good.

He
took his time, but it wasn’t very long before she melted into pliant, burning
desire. She knew she was ready for him to claim her. Rising up over her, his
arms framing and trapping her, she locked gazes with him. The look in his
smoldering eyes left her breathless. He rocked back. Ever so gently, he trailed
his hands in a feather-light path down her body, following the curves of ribs
and hips and stomach until they reached that part of her to which Sarah had
never granted access to anyone. His fingertips found her clitoris and began to
tease in such a tantalizing way that soon enough she wasn’t quite sure where
was up and where was down anymore. Head thrown back, she moaned and her hips
bucked up into his hands, begging for more.

She
had been raised like a lady, an English one at that, but even ladies have needs
and she had been exploring those ever since she hit puberty. She had grown
skilled at pleasuring herself, but never had she felt anything even remotely
like this. Like him. Benjamin ran his fingers in circles and swirls, teasing
her clitoris and lips in a way that drove her mad. She thought it couldn’t get
any better—until he inserted two fingers inside of her. He seemed to know
exactly what to do to drive her to the brink of orgasm. Every time she teetered
on that edge, he pulled back, leaving her mewing and begging with small touches
against his hard chest for more. It was a merciless kind of teasing and she found
herself already madly addicted to it. She ached for him, and longed for him to
fill her with the erection that brushed against her thigh, teasing her with
small drops of leaking cum.

Bending
over her, he kissed her lips passionately, pushing his tongue deep into her
mouth. He pulled back, eyes gleaming and once again locked stares with her.
Gently he parted her pale, slender thighs. He pushed his erection into the wet
slit between her legs and let out a moan as he entered her. .

Suddenly
he stilled and his eyes widened in surprise. “You’re a virgin?”

Sarah’s
face heated. “Um…yes?” She wet her lips, insecurity and even more heat washing
over her.

He
smiled and leaned down to kiss her once. “It’s all right.” He pushed back
errant strands of hair from her face. His fingers tangled and she stared at the
play of red in her hair against the faint red in his dark, dark skin. “I’ll be
delicate.”

Sarah
returned his smile, thankful he didn’t think of her as a freak for being a
virgin at twenty-four. “I know you will.”

Benjamin
held himself still.

“It
may hurt a little, but after that, it’s all good. I’ll make it good.”

Sarah
nodded. Her heart pounded. She pulled in a startled breath. She had never done
anything like this—and this wasn’t what she had come here for. But how could
she not trust Benjamin? She had longed to do so for days. She had wanted him to
tell her the truth—and convince her that he still was the boy she had known so
long ago. But was this really her sorrow leaking out in a crazy way—in any way
that would let her feel something again? She didn’t know, and she wasn’t quite
sure what to expect from what would happen next. Her friends back in England
had told her horror stories and fairy tales of first times, and not knowing which
it would be for her suddenly left her trembling. Benjamin eased in and finally
thrust in deep. It hurt, but she felt a pop inside. She cried out, surprised at
the sharpness of the pain. But Benjamin soothed her face and whispered to her
and kissed her. Soon the pain receded, leaving room for the ecstasy and for
Benjamin. He filled her. He pressed into her and stretched her and she’d never
felt anything so amazing.

She
had tried to imagine this moment a million times before. It turned out to be
everything she had imagined and yet so much more. Nothing could have prepared
her for this. Not her wildest fantasies or a thousand of her friends’ stories.
Her heart beat wildly and loud in her chest, so much so that it was hard to
breathe. Impossibly excited, she could feel her juices spewing copiously,
wetting that delicate passage within her as Benjamin plunged into her.

Sarah
responded to his movements at first filled with shy uncertainty, but soon
enough she learned the rhythm. Closing her eyes, she allowed her hips to match
his thrusts. He pushed deeper into her, taking her, making her his own. She
lost herself in the persistent drumbeat of their naked bodies, in the
overwhelming sensation of skin pulsating on skin, and in every fluttering note
played by the flute of Benjamin’s passion. They moved in unison as they
rhythmically met one another in the silken glide of rippling flesh upon flesh.
It felt to Sarah as if her hips were truly dancing. Moaning, she knew she had
fallen under some sort of spell where every part of her body became supple and
seductive without her even needing to try. Her body knew what to do—her body
knew how to please.

Benjamin’s
breathing caught and hitched with every sensuous rise of her thighs against
his, and with every luxurious arching of her hips.

“What
have you done to me?” he whispered.

Or
had she had imagined it? Whether he had truly spoken that sentence or not, she
didn’t know. Sarah smiled. It felt impossibly exhilarating to know she had so
much power over a man—particularly
this
man.

Wave
after wave, she rode her ecstasy and submerged her body into his—the pressure
built inside her, irresistible and unstoppable. Sarah’s moans filled the night.
Perhaps she should have worried about being heard, but she couldn’t bring
herself to care. In that moment, nothing and no one else mattered. The
crackling fire between them rose in a passionate crescendo—fast and faster and
high and higher, until it suddenly and somewhat unexpectedly reached its peak.

The
climax hit her, washed through her, charged with such electricity and power
that she cried out. She hung onto Benjamin, spent, her heart twisting with
emotion. She knew he would break her heart if she wasn’t careful. Sarah had
planned on being as careful as humanly possible, but she had the feeling that
was already shot to hell. When it was over, she collapsed back against the one
pillow on Benjamin’s cot. There was no strength left in her. She felt
wonderfully, blissfully spent. Even as Benjamin traced a burning path of
passionate kisses along the length of her throat, she couldn’t find the energy
to return those gestures. She contented herself with the delicate vibration of
pleasure that ran down her spine and settled in her belly.

Benjamin
continued to touch her, his movements languid with a seemingly surfeit-induced
slowness. Exhausted, she felt torn between the urge to sob and the desire to
laugh. Now it was her turn to wonder what exactly had
he
done to
her
?
The pleasure brought on by the unexpected sexual experience they had just shared
had been as deep, intense, and joyful as she’d always wanted. But as her mind
slowly lifted back into her, Sarah gradually returned to her senses. Something
else came along. An ache. A strange sense of unfulfilled nostalgia filled her
and left a hole inside. She stared up at Benjamin and she thought of other
things.

Her
childhood. Luke. Her darling, older brother.

Sarah
wanted nothing more than to find that undying trust she had once felt toward
Benjamin again. Where had that gone? She had once trusted him with her life as
she followed him around the Serengeti. At first she had wanted to believe in
him—but she had had so many doubts. There were so many facts staring at her.
Why couldn’t she dismiss the possibility that he was responsible for the crime
that had brought her back to Africa all the way from England? Why shouldn’t she
find it an absurd notion? She wanted nothing more than to trust him, utterly
and completely like she had done in the past, like she had just done with her
body. But this was about Luke. She couldn’t betray him or his memory. Too many
factors didn’t add up. Too many suspicions still remained. Too many doubts. Too
many questions.

And
she might have just fucked herself quite literally out of ever getting an
answer to any of them.

She
had tried to resist, really she had. At the very least, Sarah told herself, she
had
wanted
to resist. She had wanted to resist
him
. But
Benjamin’s power hadn’t been that easy to sidestep. His technique had not been outward—it
had been subtle, perfidious. He had known just how to tempt her—and just how to
touch her. He’d caused her body to go in full mutiny mode right from the heart.
As her brain slowly but surely roused itself from the afterglow, Sarah knew
this could turn out to be the biggest mistake she had ever made in her life. It
could mean her ruin. It could also mean a salvation of all she wanted to
believe in. But, just like all mistakes, it could never, ever be undone.

Sarah
knew she would soon have to face the consequences that came with having allowed
her body’s hunger—and her desire for Benjamin—to weaken her mind and spirit.
Irrational yearning had caused her to betray all of her moral codes. But her
inner compass had always been true, spot-on—inescapable. Had her body known
what her mind could not accept—that Benjamin was still the boy who had
protected her when she’d been a child? Was his brilliant smile honest and not a
cover for more devious plans?

She
had never strayed from what was right before. But now she had done so in a
spectacular, irreparable way. She thought she knew herself and who and what she
was. Right now, however, she wasn’t so sure. Not anymore. And she still had the
burden of learning the truth about what had happened to Luke.

Chapter Two: Akin to a Brother

Three
weeks ago…

               
Luke Hutton believed that man was drawn to nature by some inner, ancestral
bond—that he searched for communion with nature because he
was
nature,
even though mankind tended to forget this. Some men could live all their life
never looking for themselves in the mountains, or by the ocean, while others
simply could not stand to ignore the wild that called to their inner self. Luke
Hutton knew he was such a man. All his life he had longed to feel at one with
nature, and he had found that the place where he could do that—the one place on
Earth where his inner self truly responded to the call, were the endless plains
of the Serengeti. He thought it was no coincidence the Maasai had dubbed the
area “
siringet—
or
the place where the land runs on forever
. That
sense of infinity gave Luke everything he longed for in life.

He
smiled as he drove his favorite Ranger Jeep over the rough terrain of the
plains, heading toward the foothills of the National Park. The heat was dry and
intense, but it didn’t faze him. Luke had grown used to it. He had been at ease
in the sweltering temperatures ever since he could remember. He felt way more
like himself under the scorching African sun then at the mercy of the cold rain
in London.