Her First Vacation (16 page)

She told herself to tell him to leave her alone. She
couldn’t seem to make herself speak or move, though, as his mouth slowly came
toward her. When his lips finally touched hers, she sighed in relief. It was an
involuntary response that should have been horribly embarrassing. She didn’t
have time to be embarrassed, however. Because mere seconds after his lips
touched hers, he’d wrapped his arms around her, and she was lost to his kiss.

She clung to him as he used his tongue to tease and taste
her. She’d been kissed by him twice before. Both times she’d felt the barely
restrained passion inside him. Tonight, though, there was something more to it.
The passion and hunger was there, but it didn’t feel quite as overwhelming as
it had before.
As if he was making certain to keep it tightly
controlled.
He released her mouth and trailed kisses along her jaw, to
her ear. She stopped wondering about the restraint she felt in him when his
tongue swept across her earlobe a second before he gently sucked at it. He
abandoned her ear in favor of her neck, and she threw her head back as his
mouth moved over her. She could feel his hands gliding over her, skimming her
ribcage, then her back. It felt like he was touching her everywhere, but she
still wanted more. She tightened her hands on his arms as she felt her body
trembling with need. Then his mouth dropped to the exposed skin just above the
neckline of her dress. It wasn’t as low cut as the one she’d worn the first
night after she’d had the makeover. This one had a scooped neck that barely
revealed the very top of the swells of her breasts. That’s where Colin’s mouth
touched her, and the sensation of his mouth so near her aching breasts was
enough to make her gasp.

He lifted his head and kissed her mouth again. This time
there was no feeling of restraint in his kiss. He stroked her tongue with his
own. He licked and sucked at her with his mouth while his hands dropped to her
hips. He pulled her tight against him, and she heard him groan as his erection
was sandwiched between them. She’d never have believed she could respond to
something so strongly. Heat and moisture flooded the juncture of her thighs as
realization dawned that she wasn’t going to stop him this time. It was insane
to let him take her body while he rejected her heart and soul, but she couldn’t
make herself tell him no. When he snatched the key card out of her hand, then
reached behind her and opened the door, she didn’t object. She knew she was
going to regret this come morning. Maybe she’d be regretting it for a long time
to come. Right now, though, she was simply going to ignore the warnings and let
her body have its way.

Colin backed her into her room,
then
kicked the door closed. The room was dark, except for the moonlight streaming
in through the doors that led onto the small balcony. There was plenty of light
for him to see her clearly, and what he saw made the breath catch in his
throat. She ought to be offended that he had taken them into her room without
at least asking if that was what she wanted. The trouble was
,
looking into her eyes was all the evidence he needed to guess that she’d
already given him the answer to that particular question. She very much wanted
him in her room and in her bed. What really scared him, though, was the fact
that she didn’t appear to be nervous about it. Her eyes had gone dark with
passion, and her lips were already swollen from his kisses. She was aroused and
apparently not nearly as embarrassed by it as he’d expected her to be.
Suddenly, he found himself wondering if all his careful planning was about to
blow up in his face. He’d come too far to back out now, though. He had to push
this thing on to the end. She couldn’t be experienced enough to take what he
was going to do to her in stride. All he needed was to push her a little
further, and she’d break.

He backed away from her, tossing her key on the generic
dresser before flipping the switch by the door. He saw her squint as the light flooded
the room, then she frowned at him as her eyes adjusted.

“What are you doing?”

He gave her a smile that he knew was purely predatory. “I’m
turning on the light so I can see you.” He didn’t say anything else. He just
let his gaze slowly travel over her body. He let it linger at her
breasts,
let her see his smile widen as he studied her. Then
he lifted his gaze to hers once more.

“Come here.”

He saw the hesitation in her gaze and felt relief as he
realized she was starting to behave more in keeping with what he’d expected.
Then she surprised him again when she seemed to mentally stiffen her spine. Her
chin came up a fraction as she stepped forward. Damn, but she was stronger than
he ever gave her credit for. When she was just within his reach he lifted a
hand.

“Stop.”

She did, though he could see the confusion in her eyes. He
let her wonder what he was going to say for a moment, before issuing a new
command.

“Take down your hair.”

Again, she hesitated, but then did as he asked. She reached
up and pulled out the clip that kept her hair swept up off her shoulders. As
she reached out to lay it on the dresser, he saw that her hand was trembling.
That was good. She was starting to second-guess herself and him. That’s exactly
what he wanted her to do. He watched as she ran that shaking hand through her
thick hair, pushing it back out of her face. She had no idea how incredibly
seductive she was, which was a good thing. If she had any real experience at
all, she’d know she was the one with the power. She just didn’t know how to use
it. Of course, if she had that kind of experience with men, he wouldn’t have to
worry about her being victimized by a bastard like Garret Palmer.

“Now the dress.”

She went utterly still. He saw the confusion in her eyes
that quickly turned to something closer to blind terror. She stammered out a
question he knew she already knew the answer to.

“What?”

“You’re stripping for me, Claire. No music or dollar bills,
but the premise is the same. I want to watch you undress for me.”

He saw the way her chest rose and fell with a shuddering
breath. He watched the pulse in the base of her throat as it started racing
uncontrollably while every inch of exposed skin flushed with her embarrassment.
The tremor in her hands spread to the rest of her body, and he felt a grim sort
of satisfaction. She was going to bolt. Any second now she was going to give in
to the rational voice inside her head that was telling her she didn’t want this
kind of sex with a man. She wanted to be loved and cherished. She would never
feel comfortable being treated as nothing more than a sex object. She might
have changed her appearance and begun to change her attitude about herself, but
there was no way she could be ready for something like this.
Which
was pretty much why he damn near gaped like a fool when she closed her eyes for
a moment before bending one wildly shaking hand behind her back to grasp the
zipper of her dress.

Claire couldn’t believe she was going to do this. Every
ounce of rationality within her was screaming at her to tell him to get out.
But there were other parts of her body that were screaming just as loudly.
Never in her entire life had anyone looked at her the way he was looking at her
now. No one had ever seen her as beautiful or desirable in a strictly intellectual
or emotional sense, much less on a physical level. But Colin did want her. He’d
never denied that. And judging from the fact that she knew he was still every
bit as aroused as he had been out in the hallway, she knew he wasn’t
pretending. It was almost more than she could take to think that she was going
to let him look at her like some prize to be claimed instead of the woman she
really was, but in the end, she finally decided that being wanted for her body
was better than not being wanted at all. So she forced herself to ignore the
self-preservation instincts that had kept her from taking any risks in the past
and took a leap into the unknown. Whatever happened, she’d find a way to live
with it.

Colin heard the slow rasp of the zipper as she pulled it
down. She had one hand flattened against her breasts to hold the dress in place
while she slowly pulled her arm out of the sleeve. She used that hand to take
the place of the other while she pulled it free of the dress as well. She was
acting out of nervousness, prolonging that moment when she was left with no
choice but to drop the dress and expose
herself
to
him. She was acting with utter innocence and total seduction. Colin could feel
his breath coming too hard and fast as his gaze focused on her breasts. She
wasn’t naked beneath the dress. He could see the straps of a navy blue bra
arching over her shoulders. He was caught in a state of breathless anticipation
as she worked up the nerve to give him what he’d asked for. When she finally
did let the dress slip through her fingers and fall slowly down her body, Colin
was immeasurably glad that her eyes were still tightly closed, because there
was no way in hell that he could have kept the shock off his face.

CHAPTER TEN

Colin stared at the see-through lace of her bra, feeling
his mouth go dry as he got a good look at the hard, dusky peaks encased in the
lace. His gaze slowly traveled lower, and he felt his hands start trembling
when he found the panties that matched the bra. He could see the dark hair
covering her mound. He could see everything through a film of lace so delicate
that he knew he could rip right through it with a single tug. God in heaven,
she wasn’t wearing underwear, she was wearing lingerie. The bra cupped her
breasts, lifting them into twin mounds that he was suddenly dying to bury his
face in. The panties rode high on her hips, and he was at just enough of an
angle to see that they disappeared into a thong. It was the sort of underwear
that was made to be seen, the kind of thing a woman wore because she wanted to
drive a man insane. Standing there in the blue lace and the heels she’d worn to
dinner, she was a living, breathing wet dream, and Colin suddenly realized that
he was in way over his head. Because whatever he’d thought he knew about Claire
Abernathy, this was proof that he didn’t know half as much as he believed he
did. Beneath all the reservation and uncertainty he saw on the surface lay the
heart and soul of a woman deeply filled with passion. And God help him, he knew
he wasn’t going to be able to walk away now that he’d seen the truth.

Claire had no idea what Colin was doing. She was shaking so
much that she could barely keep her teeth from chattering. She’d kept her eyes
closed because she wasn’t sure she’d be able to drop the dress if she was
looking at him. Now that she’d done it, though, she suddenly couldn’t bear not
seeing him. She opened her eyes and sucked in a sharp breath as she saw the way
he was looking at her. The almost smug prowess was gone. In its place was a
hunger so raw that it made her want to moan. He lifted his gaze to hers, and
she saw the need he felt.

“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

It should have sounded like a lie. It was an incredibly
trite thing to say. But there was no way she could dismiss the compliment while
she was looking into his eyes. He kicked off his shoes then, and shrugged out
of his jacket. It took her several seconds to realize that he was giving her
the same thing she’d given him. Her eyes dropped to watch as he unfastened the
buttons of his shirt. Inch by inch, the fabric parted to reveal what lay
beneath, and she felt her fingers curl instinctively as she focused on the mat
of dark hair she could see peeking through the opening. Then he tugged the
shirt out of his pants and pulled it off. She felt mesmerized as she watched
the ripple of his muscles beneath his skin. She’d known he was in good physical
shape. She’d touched him enough to feel it through the fabric of his clothes.
She’d never realized just how impressive his physical form would be, though. He
was perfect. He could have been a male model in underwear ads. She felt her
mouth go dry and shot her tongue out to moisten her lips. His hands had moved
to his belt, but they faltered, and she lifted her gaze to meet his.

He didn’t say a word. Instead he finished opening the belt
and then the pants. He shoved them down, taking his underwear and socks with
them and then he straightened, and Claire knew she was way out of her league.
He stood before her completely
naked,
his arousal full
and hard, and there wasn’t even a hint of embarrassment in his eyes or face.
She, on the other hand, was shaking with uncertainty. Not about him. Not even
about what she knew they were about to do. She’d already made that decision, and
she refused to doubt it right now. But she was scared to death that she would
be so inexperienced that she’d disappoint him. She wanted more than just to
give him her body. She wanted to somehow reach out and touch him in ways no
other woman ever had. She wanted to please him so that he would never forget
her no matter how many other women he took to his bed. With that thought in
mind, she reached back and unfastened the clasp of her bra.

Colin never would have dreamed that she could be so bold.
Not in a million years would he have expected her to drop the bra, much less
hold his gaze as she did it. He didn’t maintain the eye contact for long,
though. He couldn’t. He had to look at her, to let his eyes feast on the creamy
mounds she’d bared just for him. They weren’t huge, but they sure as hell
weren’t tiny, either. Small and firm, they were perfectly proportioned for the
rest of her slender frame. And he was damn near dying with the need to touch
them. She started to hook her fingers in the waist of her panties, but he shook
his head.

“Not yet.”

She stopped,
then
watched him as
he moved to the bed. He bent to jerk back the covers,
then
sat on the mattress before turning to lift a hand to her. She came to him,
placing her hand in his and moving to sit beside him. He turned around to reach
up and rest his hand against her neck. She was still trembling, still scared of
what she was doing. But she didn’t shy away from his gaze or his touch. She’d
committed herself to this and was determined to go through with it. He decided
then and there that whatever happened tomorrow, he would give her this night.
He’d give her what she deserved. He couldn’t tell her the truth with words, but
he could give it to her in his touch and his kiss. Eventually the real world
would rush back in on them, and he’d have to hurt her. For now, he was going to
pretend that time was standing still for them.