Miranda Lee – Seduction: The Billionaire's Bride of Vengeance (страница 15)

‘Bloody hell,’ he swore after he’d opened one of the windows, then swiftly pulled it shut again. ‘It’s frigging freezing out there.’

‘Come back to bed, then,’ she heard herself suggesting with some of that boldness which she’d vowed to embrace. ‘I’ll warm you up in no time.’ Goodness! Had that sounded too slutty?

‘I’m sure you could,’ he said with a wry little laugh. ‘And trust me, I’ll take you up on that promise in about ten seconds. But first, I need to know the extent of this blackout.’

This time, when he opened the door, Nicole heard rain, great heavy drops, hitting various surfaces. The lightning had retreated for the moment, leaving the balcony—and the bedroom—in complete darkness.

‘Well, it’s not just this house,’ he informed her on re-entering a short time later. ‘The whole local area is blacked out. But the lights over in the city are still on. It’s the same with the bridge and the north shore. Which means at least James’s wedding night won’t be spoiled. And that reminds me …’

When he lifted the duvet and dived in next to her, Nicole stiffened. It was a last-minute attack of nerves, not a response to his chilled skin, but she decided to pretend the latter was the case.

‘Oh, you poor darling,’ she murmured as she forced herself to snuggle up to his side. But she struggled to keep her hand from trembling as it landed in the middle of his chest before beginning a somewhat tentative journey downwards. ‘You are cold.’

‘Not for long, I’ll warrant,’ he returned in a voice which, in the pitch black, sounded strangely edgy.

Her heart leapt when her fingers grazed the tip of his manhood. So did Russell’s, if the abrupt expansion in his chest was anything to go by.

Nicole took a deep breath. This was alien territory to her. She’d never deliberately caressed any man like this before. Or—heaven forbid—taken one into her mouth. She couldn’t imagine liking the taste or the experience.

The thought sent a weird little shudder down her spine. Not a shudder of outright revulsion, more a shudder of fear that she might make a total hash of it.

For, surely, Russell would have had scores of experienced partners who knew exactly how to perform to perfection.

Nicole’s nervous swallow was swiftly followed by an irritated purse of her lips. Don’t be such a coward, she lectured herself. Just do the best you can. Think of him as an ice cream, one of those choc-tops you used to buy at the movies and which you always tried to make last as long as you could.

When her hand encircled him, his groan startled her, her head jerking up to stare at where she imagined his face was.

‘You don’t want me to do this?’ she choked out.

‘You know I do,’ he growled back.

She hadn’t known any such thing.

The reassurance of his words, however, gave her a decided buzz. And the courage to continue.

Levering herself up into the darkness, Nicole leant over him.

Once again, he groaned. This time, though, Nicole recognised the sound for what it was.

Excitement.

She felt his flesh swell even further.

His being turned-on turned her on. Suddenly, what she was about to do no longer smacked of desperation but of desire. She actually wanted to make love to him with her mouth.

Amazing!

Russell braced himself for the first contact of her lips. But it was no use. He simply had no weapons against the feelings which had begun rampaging through him the moment she touched him.

He bit back another groan as her mouth encircled him, making his back arch up from the bed and his body break out into a sweat.

She stopped immediately, but she didn’t say anything or let him go. The room became deathly silent except for his own heavy breathing, a good twenty seconds ticking away before the sheer power of his need forced him to speak.

‘Don’t stop,’ he said in a voice that contained more plea than order.

He almost cried out with relief when she actually took him all the way into her mouth.

There was certainly nothing of the ingénue act any more, any illusion of innocence obliterated by the expertise she was now demonstrating. Russell began wondering how many other men she’d enslaved in this way.

Was she playing him like a fish?

Either way, Russell, my boy, you should be lying back and enjoying her well-practised skills, not gnashing your teeth and working yourself up into an emotional lather over her past. That is Nicole Power down there, the daughter of your enemy. What better revenge than to have her service you in this subjugated fashion?

He should not have been worried. He should have been triumphant. But as his swollen flesh teetered on the brink of release, Russell could not get past the thought that he was in danger of becoming the victim here, not her. This would be his humiliation, not hers.

But, oh … the sensations she was evoking were intoxicatingly seductive. All he had to do was surrender and the most mind-blowing climax would be his. He was close now. Achingly, agonisingly close, his eyes squeezing tightly shut as his flesh strained towards release. He felt her lips tighten around him.

It was no use, he accepted with a raw cry and gave up his struggle for control.

Surprisingly, Russell experienced no sense of humiliation, only ecstasy, followed by the most blissful peace.

‘That was amazing,’ he heard himself say afterwards, echoing what she’d said to him earlier.

More amazing was the strange wave of tenderness which washed through him when his hand drifted down to play with her hair.

‘No, don’t move,’ he said. His body was totally spent, his mind was already close to shutting down, and sleep was beckoning.

‘Beautiful,’ he murmured just before the curtain came down.

CHAPTER TWELVE

NICOLE didn’t realise for a while that Russell had fallen asleep. Her brain was somewhat befuddled by what had just happened. Talk about a mind-blowing experience!

She still could not believe how much she’d loved doing it to him like that. Did that happen to other girls? Or only besotted ones?

Which she obviously was. Besotted, bewitched and, yes, somewhat bewildered.

Even now that he was asleep, the temptation to wake him again was strong. She could do it, her being with Russell having tapped into a side of herself which had obviously been dormant before. She’d suddenly discovered what it was to be a woman in the most primal sense. But to rouse him from sleep to satisfy her own surprisingly fierce need would be a totally selfish act.

He was obviously exhausted.

Not so herself. She was more awake and more alive than she’d ever been in her life.

Nicole decided that the best course of action would be to get out of this bed and away from temptation.

Very slowly and very carefully she left him, the bed and the room.

Her destination was the kitchen, where all the candles were kept. Given the speed of her mother’s departure from this house, Nicole didn’t think she would have taken such incidentals with her. From the looks of it, the only things she’d taken were clothes and jewellery.

The candles were sure to be there in the kitchen cupboard, along with matches. At least that would give them some light. Who knew how long this blackout would last? From the sound of the wind and rain outside, Sydney was being lashed by quite a storm.

Unfortunately, all the lightning seemed to have stopped and there wasn’t a hint of moonlight. Everything was pitch-black as Nicole inched her way down the stairs, shivering a little from the drop in temperature. With no electricity, the air-conditioning wasn’t working and the air was becoming fresh, even inside the well-insulated walls.

Thankfully the candles were still where Nicole remembered, one half-burnt white candle already in a candlestick with a box of matches next to it. This she lit, using the light from its rather meagre flame to search the rest of the kitchen cupboards for more candlesticks. In the end she selected a three-pronged candelabra from her mother’s huge range of silverware, inserted three unused candles from a box of six and lit them before blowing the original candle out.

She didn’t head back upstairs straight away, however, curious now over just how much her mother had left behind.

When Nicole had stayed in the house the other night, she hadn’t looked in all the kitchen cupboards. Once she discovered that the pantry had been emptied of food, and the fridge contained nothing but ice cubes, she’d ordered in a pizza that night, then had had Kara take her down to a local café for breakfast in the morning.

Everything was still there, she soon discovered. All her mother’s very expensive dinnerware, all the crockery and cutlery and glassware. Really, when you took into account the contents of this house, Russell might have actually got a bargain!

Not that Nicole wanted any of it. She didn’t.

Selecting a heavy-based whisky glass, Nicole was moving over to pour herself some water from the tap when she had a sudden thought: if Russell had moved in—which it seemed he had—maybe there was some juice in the fridge.

No, she quickly saw. But it wasn’t completely empty. There were four bottles of light beer and a single opened bottle of white wine, with a silver stopper in it.