Touch of Heaven (25 page)

Cradling her face in his big hands, he kissed the length of her throat, nibbling and nipping as he went, making her shiver with need. All the while his hips moved against hers in a slow, measured rhythm that made her writhe desperately against him.

“Easy,” he murmured. “Don't rush this.”

Easy for him to say,
Raina thought.
He
hadn't been waiting for this moment practically all his life. But hadn't she known, after their first kiss, that he would be this way, a skilled, patient lover who would take his time pleasuring and tormenting her?

She whimpered softly in protest as Warrick lifted his head from hers. Holding her gaze, he reached for the belt of her robe and slowly, deliberately, began untying it. Raina's heart thundered, anticipation coiling in her belly.

As he slid the robe from her shoulders, the friction of the silk, combined with the warm brush of his knuckles against her skin, made her shudder convulsively. She closed her eyes and swayed against him as he leaned down, placing an openmouthed kiss on her bare shoulder.

“You have such beautiful skin,” he said huskily.

Raina quivered as he rained hot little kisses down her arm. He kissed her slowly, thoroughly, sparing no inch of skin his sensual onslaught. When his warm mouth reached the heaving valley between her breasts, her nipples hardened. Warrick rasped his thumbs over them, sensuously tracing their outline through her silk nightshirt. Desire coiled tighter in her stomach. Moisture pooled between her thighs.

Warrick brought his mouth back to hers and kissed her. A deep, carnal kiss that left her panting, hungry for more.

She opened her heavy-lidded eyes and watched as he sank to his knees before her. He gazed up at her, his midnight eyes blazing with fierce sensuality. Raina was mesmerized, completely under his spell. His for the taking.

His hands moved slowly up her legs, first grasping her ankles, then her calves, before sliding up her thighs to push her nightshirt out of the way. Without being asked Raina braced her hands on the desk and raised her hips, and he grasped her panties and slowly dragged them off her legs.

And then he just stared at her, his hungry, possessive gaze devouring the sight of her.

“Beautiful,” he whispered reverently. “So damned
beautiful.
”

Raina shook all over, feeling as if she were having an out-of-body experience. There she was, perched on the edge of Warrick Mayne's desk, her legs spread open, completely exposed to him. But she felt no shame. All she felt was a powerful, consuming need to have him buried deep inside her.

He caressed her inner thighs, gently kneading her, leaving a trail of fire everywhere he touched. A woman could become a slave to those experienced hands.
She
already was.

Holding her gaze, he let one long, thick finger wander into the neat triangle of curls between her thighs. When his probing finger reached the slick entrance to her body, Raina moaned. She was burning from the inside out, already on the verge of climaxing.

He stroked the swollen, pulsing folds of her sex, rumbling appreciatively, “Mmm. You're so wet.”

When he slid his finger inside her, Raina cried out, pleasure coursing through her. He pushed deeper, stoking the flames threatening to engulf her.

“Warrick…”
she whimpered his name helplessly. She didn't know how much more she could take.

And then he pressed his hot mouth to her, and her hips jerked off the desk as she let out a keening wail.

His strong hands gripped her waist, holding her in place, giving her no reprieve. Her eyes closed and her head fell back as she felt his tongue move skillfully across her pulsing flesh. Her heart pounded furiously against her ribs.

He murmured her name, his voice hoarse with desire and primal need.

Keeping one hand around her hip, he pushed his finger back inside her, stroking her insides as he simultaneously suckled her engorged clitoris. It was the most powerfully erotic thing Raina had ever experienced. She moaned and rocked against him, feeling an orgasm building in her loins. Warrick stayed with her, his long finger penetrating her in controlled thrusts, his tongue tormenting and pleasuring her until a burst of ecstasy shimmered through her. She sobbed his name as her body convulsed, arching tightly against his mouth.

He didn't release her right away, licking at her wetness until she stopped trembling.

Dazedly she opened her eyes and met his smoldering gaze. The expression on his face was feral, primal.

To Raina's astonishment, she felt a fresh wave of arousal. Her body had had its first taste of what this man could do to her. Like an addict, it wanted more.

She was already tugging at Warrick's broad shoulders as he straightened from his kneeling position. Desperate for the feel of his bare flesh, she began unbuttoning his shirt, her fingers fumbling in her haste.
Why are there so many damned buttons!

Cursing impatiently, she gave up the effort and yanked his shirt open, sending buttons flying and scattering across the floor.

“Sorry,” she breathed.

Warrick laughed, dark and masculine. “Believe me, I've got plenty more.”

Frantically Raina stripped off his shirt, then ran greedy hands over his hard-honed, bare chest. He was magnificent. Solid power and muscle, not an ounce of flab to be found. She delighted in the tremor that rippled through him at her touch.

Next she attacked his belt, hurriedly unzipping his pants and tugging down his dark briefs. She gasped as he sprang into her hand—long, thick and gloriously hard. Her womb contracted in eager anticipation. He was every bit the superb male specimen she'd imagined he would be.

He sucked in a harsh breath as her hand closed around his throbbing erection, stroking up and down the rigid length until he groaned, moisture beading the swollen tip. Raina wanted to taste him, wanted to wrap her mouth around him, but suddenly he caught her wrist and shook his head, his eyes glittering dangerously.

“Not now,” he said, a low, savage growl.

Raina nodded, heady with the knowledge that she could arouse him as easily as he aroused her.

Warrick reached out, dragging her nightshirt over her head and tossing it aside. She trembled as his dark gaze swept over her naked body, staring at her breasts with a hungry reverence that took her breath away.

He hauled her into his arms, a deep shudder racking their bodies as they came together, chest to breasts, skin to skin. He seized her mouth with his, kissing her fiercely and possessively. When her nipples puckered against him, he drew back and gently cupped her breasts in his palms. The feel of his rough, masculine fingertips against her flesh made her shiver.

“Ahh, Raina,” he groaned huskily. “Every inch of you is exquisite.”

She felt a thrill of pleasure at his words.

Then he dipped his head and drew an erect nipple into his mouth, and a jolt of sensation ripped through her.

Warrick kicked off his pants, then cupped her bottom and lifted her tight against him, his erection probing the slick entrance to her body. Raina clamped her thighs around his hips.

Their gazes locked. He thrust into her, stretching her, and she cried out hoarsely. Warrick swore under his breath, closing his eyes as if he were in excruciating pain.

Raina knew the feeling. He felt so good inside her, so big and thick that the pleasure was almost unbearable. Their bodies fit perfectly, hand in glove. As her inner walls contracted around his penis, she knew she wouldn't last very long.

Legs braced wide, Warrick began thrusting into her. She held on
to his shoulders, her fingertips digging into the hard pad of muscle and sinew. As he plunged in and out of her, she felt every swollen, incredible inch of him.

His mouth sought hers, their tongues tangling erotically.

His strokes deepened, sending her breasts bouncing up and down. Pressure built inside her.

Their breathing grew ragged, harsh. As sweat broke out on their bodies, Raina tightened her legs around his waist so she wouldn't slip from his embrace. He cupped her butt in his hands, his powerful body slapping against hers, pounding into her until she moaned uncontrollably.

She could feel her orgasm building, even more explosive than the first one.

Warrick drove into her, ruthless and demanding, fueled by the same urgent need that gripped her. She felt the tension mounting in his body, knew that he, too, was on the verge of release.

They erupted, the orgasm tearing through them at the same time.

Together they cried out, shuddering and whispering each other's names. As Raina's muscles clenched around his throbbing shaft, she felt the vibrations deep in her womb, like the aftershocks of an earthquake.

And as she and Warrick stared into each other's eyes, their bodies locked in a profound moment of ecstasy, Raina knew her life would never be the same again.

W
ith a soft, dreamy smile on her lips, Raina awakened in Warrick's bed the next morning. She felt boneless, thoroughly and deliciously sated, as memories of last night drifted lazily through her mind. After their passionate coupling in the study, Warrick had taken her upstairs to his bedroom, where they'd made love long into the night, making her glad she was on the pill.

Raina might have thought she'd dreamed the entire thing if it weren't for the masculine arm draped possessively across her waist, the solid warmth of the male body fitted snugly against hers.

She should have been mortified by the total lack of guilt she felt. But she wasn't. Because no matter how wrong it was, no matter the obstacles that lay between them, she'd thoroughly enjoyed making love to Warrick. And though she searched, she couldn't find it in her to regret what had been the most spectacular night of her life.

For several moments she didn't move, simply basking in the rightness of waking up in his arms, something she'd fantasized about long before she probably should have.

Sunlight filtered through the draperies across the enormous
bedroom suite, which featured rich, masculine furnishings and a terrace that provided a panoramic view of the sprawling estate.

As Warrick stirred behind her, Raina carefully lifted her head from the pillow and glanced over her shoulder at him. His eyes remained closed, his thick black lashes resting on his cheeks. Unable to help herself, she let her gaze roam over him, taking in the dark stubble that shadowed his jaw, the sensual curve of his mouth, the broad expanse of his shoulders. He was beautifully, brutally male. And last night, at least, he'd belonged only to her.

As if he'd sensed her appraisal, those dark, piercing eyes suddenly opened and fastened on her face.

They stared at each other for an endless moment.

“Good morning.” Warrick's sleep-roughened voice spiked her pulse.

“Good morning.” As Raina turned to face him, he kept his arm around her waist, as if to keep her from escaping. Which was the absolute last thing she wanted to do.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Mmm-hmm. The best I've slept in a long time, although it couldn't have been more than a few hours.”

His mouth curved. “You can take a nap later, after the party.”

The only thing Raina wanted to do after the party was make love to him again. In every room in the house, if possible.

“Are you hungry?”

“What?” Had he read her mind?

“I was thinking we could eat breakfast out on the terrace.”

“Sure. That would be nice.”

His eyes probed hers. “Are you having second thoughts about last night?”

Raina hesitated, then shook her head. “I wanted to be with you.”

“And I wanted to be with you,” he said with quiet intensity. “More than you can imagine.”

Her knees trembled beneath the covers. Lowering her gaze, she admitted, “I don't know where to go from here. There's so much—”

Warrick leaned forward, his lips tenderly brushing hers. It wasn't a kiss meant to stir passion, but her belly quivered just the same.

“We'll take it one day at a time,” he murmured.

She nodded slowly. “All right.”

Suddenly there was a firm knock at the door. “I'm sorry to disturb
you, sir,” Mr. Gibbons said, his voice raised to be heard across the vast expanse of the room, “but I wanted you to know that you have company downstairs.”

“Company?” Warrick frowned. “What time is it?”

“Noon, sir.”

Warrick and Raina stared at each other and mouthed,
Noon?

“The party doesn't start until four,” Warrick called back to Mr. Gibbons. “Who's showing up so early?”

Even before the butler responded, Raina felt a premonition of doom, which was understandable after the fiasco at the restaurant yesterday.
Please,
she prayed,
don't let it be another one of Warrick's spurned lovers!

It was even worse.

“It's your family, sir,” Mr. Gibbons elaborated. “Your uncle, mother, sister and niece. They flew out here to surprise you.”

The look on Warrick's face told Raina that he was surprised all right. Surprised—and braced for impending disaster.

 

“How could you bring that woman into this house?” Bertrice Mayne demanded furiously an hour later.

She had cornered Warrick in his study, where he'd been chatting with his older sister and bouncing his three-year-old niece on his knee. Seeing the deadly look on her mother's face, Yasmin Mayne had grabbed her daughter's hand and beat a hasty retreat just as Randall entered the room.

Ignoring his mother's question, Warrick rose from his desk and wandered over to the window, drawn by the sight of Raina. He watched as she walked across the sprawling lawn with his housekeeper, who had arrived early that morning to oversee preparations for the party. Evamay Watts had taken an instant liking to Raina, and as Warrick watched the two women consulting with the vendors that were setting up the party equipment, he wondered what it would be like to have Raina there on a permanent basis, as the mistress of his home.

A scenario that would have been unthinkable a week ago now seemed rather…intriguing.

When Raina tossed her head and laughed, Warrick's mind was filled with another image of her, head flung back, lips parted on a breathless cry as he thrust into her. As his body stirred, he remem
bered that he'd made love to her without protection, something he'd never done in his life. Over the years he'd had multiple sex partners, but he'd never, ever forgotten to use a condom. It was reckless and irresponsible, and a man in his position couldn't afford to take such stupid risks. But when it came to Raina, all bets were off. She made him lose control, like an animal heeding only its primal instincts to mate. After days of fantasizing about her, he'd been too ravenous to concern himself with using protection. And maybe a part of him had feared Raina would come to her senses if he stopped what they were doing to go hunt down a condom. He'd wanted her so bad he'd refused to give her a chance to reconsider sleeping with him.

Behind him, his mother's shrill voice interrupted his reverie. “Answer my question, Warrick!”

Before Warrick could respond, his uncle interjected impatiently, “Damn it, Birdie. Leave the boy alone. It's
his
house—he can invite whomever he wants.”

“Not her! Not that
girl!
”

Even after all these years, Birdie Mayne refused to utter Raina's name, as if it were a vile blasphemy.

“That's not your decision to make,” Randall growled.

“The hell it isn't!” Birdie raged. “He's my son—”

“And he's a grown man!”

As their bickering continued, Warrick glanced down at the floor and saw one of the buttons that had popped free of his shirt in Raina's frantic haste to undress him last night. Inwardly he smiled.

Everywhere he looked there were reminders of her. The shelf with the snow globe. The desk where they'd made love for the first time. Nothing would ever be the same again.
He
would never be the same again.

Randall was saying apologetically, “Believe me, War, if I'd known you were taking Raina home this weekend, we wouldn't have come. The last thing I want to do is intrude—”

“Intrude?”
Birdie echoed incredulously. “
She's
the one who doesn't belong here. She's not his family—we are!”

Heaving a harsh sigh, Warrick turned from the window and faced his mother with all the enthusiasm of a condemned prisoner facing a firing squad.

Birdie sat in one of the visitor chairs across the room. Her long,
slender legs were crossed, and one sandaled foot tapped angrily in the air. Her skin was the color of melted caramel and just as smooth. Her hair, as always, was impeccably groomed and cut in short, stylish layers that accentuated her fine-boned face. At fifty-five years old, she didn't look a day over forty. She'd had Warrick when she was nineteen, and had often seemed more like an older sister to him than a mother. She was stubborn and temperamental, and had a predilection for dramatic outbursts. She also had a sharp tongue that could cut a man off at the knees—as she'd demonstrated on numerous occasions.

Warrick considered himself fortunate that he'd rarely, if ever, been on the receiving end of his mother's notorious temper. She'd doted shamelessly on him, to the point where his siblings had often accused him of being her favorite.

Warrick loved his mother dearly, but that morning she was severely testing his patience. Right or wrong, he'd been enjoying Raina's company, and while he'd always welcomed visits from his family, this time was the exception. He'd wanted Raina all to himself for as long as possible, and he resented having to explain himself to his mother, resented the way she'd turned up her nose at Raina as if she were something Warrick had dragged in off the street. Raina had every right to be there, yet he knew she would go out of her way to avoid his family for the rest of the weekend.

“We were supposed to be visiting Yolanda this week,” Birdie was ranting at him. “You promised we could go together as a family when Yasmin and I got back from our cruise yesterday. But I guess you forgot all about that when you decided to run off to be with that despicable child!”

Warrick closed his eyes briefly against a pang of guilt. He hadn't forgotten about visiting his sister, but admittedly it hadn't been high on his list of priorities that week. Everything, it seemed, had taken a backseat to Raina. Including his sanity.

“Now we'll have to wait until
next
week to see Yolanda,” his mother complained bitterly.

“I'm sorry,” Warrick murmured.

“You should be! How could you do this to your sister? You know how much she always looks forward to seeing you. If you still lived in Houston, she
never
would have told us not to visit her so often.
You've always been able to cheer her up. How could you choose that little liar over your own flesh and blood?”

“Ma—”

“Where's your loyalty to your family?”

Something snapped inside Warrick. “Don't you
ever
question my loyalty to this family!” he roared. “Everything I've ever done has been for you and my brothers and sisters. Everything! No one loves this family more than I do.”

Birdie gasped, her eyes widening in shock.

Warrick had never uttered a disrespectful word to her, let alone raised his voice. But, damn it, she'd pushed him too far.

He glowered at her for a moment, then turned back to the window, fighting to rein in his temper.

“Everyone just needs to calm down,” Randall said wearily. “We came here to spend time together as a family, not tear one another apart.”

“
I'm
not the one who's tearing the family apart,” Birdie snapped.

Warrick shot her a warning glare.

“Well, it's true!” she said defiantly. “When Yolanda finds out that you've been carrying on with that woman—”

“Her name is Raina,” Warrick snarled, whirling from the window. “Whatever feelings you may have about her, at least have the courtesy to call her by her name. Let's not forget that there was a time you welcomed her into our home and treated her like one of your own daughters.”

“And look how she repaid me,” Birdie hissed. “By stabbing Yolanda in the back!”

“Maybe she regrets that!” Warrick fired back, surprised to hear the words leave his mouth.

Until that moment, he'd never considered the possibility that Raina might regret testifying in court against his sister. Raina had been a scared teenage girl, overwhelmed by the legal ramifications of what her best friend may have done. Maybe she'd spent the past twelve years blaming herself, punishing herself for not defending Yolanda. Maybe if Raina had to do it over again, she wouldn't have caved to pressure and testified against Yolanda. Instead of asserting that Yolanda hadn't been at the party, maybe Raina would have allowed for the possibility that she and Yolanda had simply missed each other.

Or maybe your sister lied to you.

As if she'd intercepted the traitorous thought, Birdie shook her head at Warrick, her lips curled in disgust. “I never thought I'd live to see the day that my own son would sell out his family for a piece of ass.”

“That's enough!” Infuriated, Randall rounded on Birdie, his dark eyes blazing. “Damn it, woman, you just never know what to say out of your mouth, do you?”

“Of course,
you
would defend Raina!” Birdie exploded, leaping from her chair. “She's always had you wrapped around her little finger. And now, apparently, she's done the same thing to Warrick. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.”