From This Moment On (14 page)

Yes, the end was inevitable, Marcus thought as he drank in Nicola’s passion, her innate sensuality. But, holy fuck, everything that came before that end promised to be so incredible, so mind-blowing, that even though he shouldn’t let himself justify what they were doing as “just a couple more days,” he couldn’t turn away from it, couldn’t walk away from her.

Not yet.

He lifted his mouth from hers, but didn’t let go of her. “I’ve got to head back to Napa to take care of some things, but—” He had to stop to press a kiss to her forehead, which had begun to furrow the moment he’d said he was leaving. “—I’ll come back tonight.”

Her smile was brighter than the sun and just looking at all that happiness—happiness he was responsible for—suddenly made him feel like he could do anything, take on any challenge, if it meant making Nicola that happy.

Still, he knew he had to reiterate, “No strings.”

He thought her smile might have dimmed a little bit, but when she said, “I’m definitely not looking for a relationship,” he decided it must have been his imagination.

Even as he wondered why she wasn’t game for anything more serious, he gladly told her, “Good. I’ll keep your key and come straight here when I’m done taking care of business.” He pressed one more soft kiss to her lips before saying, “You’d better get ready to go shoot that video
."

As she reluctantly left his arms, neither of them realized he was standing on the sheet until it slipped all the way off her body.

Obviously surprised by her sudden nudity, she instinctively tried to cover herself with her hands. Marcus knew they didn’t have time to fool around, that her video shoot was likely hemorrhaging money every minute she wasn’t there, but he wanted her to understand something.

“While we’re together, kitten, I want your body to be as much mine as it is yours
."

She was already blushing, but at his words, the flush spread from her cheeks to her chest and over the swell of her breasts. For a long moment, she stood just as she was, trying to hide her nakedness from him. And then, on a deep, brave breath, she slowly lowered her hands to her sides, and said, “I want that, too.”

Knowing he was teetering on the sharp edge of control, he said, “Go take your shower.”

For a moment, it looked as if she would try to argue with him. But even though every last cell in his body wanted to grab her, throw her on the bed, and fuck her until she was hoarse from screaming climaxes, he respected her career enough to, instead, turn from her to reach for his shirt.

He heard her padding across the plush carpeting to the bathroom and forced himself to push away the feel of his cock throbbing hard in his pants, the taste of her sweet mouth still lingering on his lips.

“Marcus
?"

He steeled himself to hold onto his control for a few more seconds before turning to look at her over his shoulder. She was impossibly beautiful, standing in the shower stall, her hand on the knob as she prepared to turn it on.

“I don’t know if I can wait for tonight.”

The water came on a moment later, and his brain was instantly reduced to speechless mush as he watched her tilt her head back so that the water poured over her breasts, her stomach, the soft, slick valley between her thighs.

Fuck it.
He needed her one more time before he left. It wouldn’t take long, would barely take thirty seconds he was so damned ready to take her.

Seconds later his clothes were off and he was putting on a condom and climbing into the shower stall with her
.

“Tease,” he growled.

She nodded, smiling as she wrapped her hands around his neck and lifted herself so that she could wrap her legs around his waist. “You love it.”

“I shouldn’t,” he admitted in a rough voice as he moved them so that her back was braced against the tiled wall and he could use his hands to cup her breasts, swallowing her gasp of pleasure with his kiss as he rolled her erect nipples between his thumb and middle finger, “but I do.”

Everything she’d done since he’d met her in the club had teased his senses to the point where his control had shattered more than once with her.

Somewhere in the back of his brain, a voice told him she had to be sore from the way he’d taken her the night before, but his body was too far ahead to be stopped now. Running one hand down from her breasts to her pussy, he found her slick.

“Nicola, I can’t wait. I’m sorry.” He could hear his voice as if from a great distance, a man pleading for forgiveness, but not being able to stop himself from taking what he needed, even if she couldn’t possibly be ready to take him yet.

But then she was saying, “I can’t wait, either,” and it was as if the
Go
switch had been flipped on, a bright green that blinded him, that made it impossible for him to do anything less than drive his cock into her as deep as he could.

Her body welcomed his as if she’d been made to surround him. She was in such good shape and so strong as she held onto him that he didn’t need to hold her up at all, leaving his hands free to cover her breasts as his hips drove into hers. His mouth devoured hers and she devoured him right back until she dropped her head back against the tile on a gasp of pleasure that echoed against the walls of the shower
.

“Oh yes, please, just like that,” she urged him as her inner walls clenched and grasped at his cock.

Needing to get closer, needing to be as deep within her wet heat as he could, Marcus gripped her ass in his hands and fucked her as hard as he’d wanted to last night, hard enough that hopefully he could make it through an entire day without having to show up at her video shoot and drag her off into an empty room to take her.

She sobbed his name as she came and God, how he loved the way she climaxed with her entire body, every muscle tightening as she rode it out before going completely loose
.

He wanted to be completely lucid for her orgasm, didn’t want to miss one second of her release, but he just didn’t have that kind of control around her, and he had to take her mouth again in another bruising kiss as he found his own release. Just as it had the night before, his orgasm seemed to set off another set of sparks within her body, strong enough that she was whimpering against his lips, silently begging him to help her get over the second peak.

Marcus slid his hand from her ass to her pelvis and pressed it to her clitoris. Her eyes flew open as her body instantly responded to the direct sensual contact of his rough fingertips on the center of her arousal
.

He lifted his mouth from hers, knowing just what she needed, remembering so clearly how beautifully she’d responded the night before
.

“Again,” he urged her as he manipulated her between her legs. “Come for me again, Nicola.”

Just as he’d hoped, his gentle command had her eyes closing, her breath hitching in her chest, and her body giving itself over to another hit of pleasure.

This time he was glad—so damn glad—to be able to watch her come as he pumped into her with his still erect cock
.

He’d seen so much beauty at his winery in Napa, a hundred sunrises and sunsets over the vines that were each more beautiful that the next. But he would give up every sunrise, every last sunset, for the chance to watch Nicola’s skin flush, to feel her nipples pebble against his chest, to be right there with her as ecstasy took her over
.

He moved both hands back beneath her hips as her muscles went lax and her arms and legs began to slip from around him.

“I’ve got you,” he said against her ear as he sat on the built-in seat in the corner and cradled her in his arms.

“I’m really late.” She lifted her head, then, and smiled up at him. “You’re a bad influence on me.” She reached for the shampoo bottle before she could see the surprise on his face
.

Marcus had spent a lifetime trying to set a good example for first his siblings, and then his employees. And now a pop star actually thought he was a bad influence? Not, of course, that he could argue with her, considering he’d just made her incredibly late to shoot her video. If his sister knew he was the one responsible for it, she’d kill him. The least he could do was make sure he didn’t delay her any further
.

He reached for the shampoo and began to lather up her soft hair
.

“I can do that myself,” she protested halfheartedly.

“Let me have the pleasure of taking care of you
."

She nodded, saying “Okay,” before she relaxed into his hands
.

Sixty very efficient seconds later, her hair was clean and conditioned and he was just finishing washing the suds from the bar of soap off her beautiful skin. Another minute later he’d dried her off with a plush towel.

With a soft kiss on her full lips, he said, “Go knock their socks off.”

But she didn’t move out of his arms. And she suddenly looked really uncomfortable. “This thing we’re doing—I know this sounds really horrible, but I just wanted to be sure that we’re both going to be really careful to keep it just between us.”

He nodded, surprised that she felt she needed to confirm that. “Of course it’s just between us.”

“Good.” She smiled up at him a little uncertainly. “Great!”

She gave him one last smile and then she was moving faster than he’d ever seen a woman get dressed and out the door, leaving him alone in her huge penthouse suite, wondering just how in hell he was going to keep from completely losing his mind over her.

Or if he already had.