His Reluctant Lover (10 page)

He leaned back in his chair, savoring her reaction to his presence.  “A college buddy is a member of Parliament.  They asked me to take a look at some land, see if it could be developed and how to go about doing it.”

Georgette simply stared at him for a long time, not sure she still believed he was here, sitting in front of her.  “You’re not following me?” she demanded. 

He laughed.  “I could ask the same of you when I saw you over at Westminster Abbey.  But then I thought I was just seeing things.”

She leaned forward slightly, surprised to hear that her mind wasn’t going crazy.  “You were there?” she asked urgently.

“Yes.  Why?  Did you see me as well?”

“Yes!” she replied with a laugh, leaning back in her chair.  “Good grief,” she said and picked up her glass of wine.  “I thought I was losing my mind.”

Dylan took a sip of his liquor as well.  “So you’ve been dreaming about me?”  He saw the truth in her eyes.  He also saw the lie forming on those luscious lips and stopped her.  Leaning forward, he captured her gaze before she could say anything else.  “I’ve been dreaming about you too.  Want to share dreams?  I’ll tell you what you’re doing in mine if you’ll tell me what I’m doing in yours.”  He saw her pale cheeks flame with color and laughed softly.  “It appears that your dreams were much more salacious than mine.”

“Oh, like your dreams weren’t all about sex too!” she snapped.

He threw back his head and laughed.  “Yes.  Some of them.  Others are just you sitting there across the table, talking to me and not being afraid of me.” 

She opened her mouth then shut it.  Not sure what to say.  “You just want to be friends?” She should be relieved to hear that.  So why wasn’t she? 

“Yes.  And lovers.” 

She’d almost breathed a sigh of painful relief at that first word.  But he ruined it with the last two.  But they also melted a layer of ice she’d carefully formed around her heart.  “We’re not going to be lovers,” she asserted, leaning back, her sketch pad pressed against her chest.  She could feel her nipples rubbing against her dress and it was an almost erotic feeling.  Georgette was relieved to have her sketch pad to hide her reaction from him, but suspected he might have already seen it.  The man was just too darn observant. 

He didn’t respond but accepted the menu the waiter handed to him.  “What are you eating tonight?”

She contemplated telling him to go away, that she wanted to eat alone.  But the words wouldn’t come out.  Secretly, she loved sitting across from him.  She loved the way he sat so confidently in the chair, looking like every woman’s dream guy.  And he wanted her? 

Was she crazy to even contemplate having dinner with him?  She’d had lunch with him in New Orleans with her boyfriend sitting across from her and look what had happened then?  The phone calls and questions from all of her friends had been relentless. 

But no one knew them here in England.  She was completely anonymous.  Maybe she could just enjoy a night of passion with Dylan, get him out of her system and move on with her life. 

She’d always thought that her husband would be her first lover, but maybe she’d put too much emphasis on that.  Other women had affairs with men before getting married.  And she’d never felt like this with any man before.  She bit her lower lip and considered her next words carefully. If she said what she wanted, she’d be committing herself to a new path in life.  But if she didn’t take this chance, would she grow old regretting it?  Or if she did spend a night with him, would she regret that even more?

“I’ll have the blue pasta,” she said, instead of the words she wanted so desperately to say, words that would have her in his arms for the next several hours. 

“I’ll have the seafood risotto,” he told the waiter.  “And bring a bottle of wine.”  He named a bottle of white wine that was her absolute favorite. 

Georgette stuffed her sketch pad into the leather bag that was sitting by her chair, her whole attention focused on the man in front of her.  “So what did you recommend to your friend?” she asked.

He shrugged.  “Each plot of land is different.  I promised to go up to Edinburgh to take a look.  There are so many factors to make a new community work.”

She asked what he looked for and found that she was fascinated by the way he evaluated an area before deciding it was right to establish a community.  There were so many factors, but she suspected deep down inside, he used more gut instinct than analysis.  She mentioned that when their plates were taken away and he laughed. 

“I suppose, after all the analysis, yes.  I get to a certain point and I have to just trust my instincts.  So far, they haven’t failed me yet.”  He was looking at her and she instantly knew that he was talking about more than work.  She swallowed her wine carefully, not wanting to choke on the excellent vintage. 

She stared at him.  Her body had been throbbing with awareness all through dinner but there was something different now, some message she didn’t understand.  Or more specifically, a signal she was afraid to interpret. 

He took her hand, his fingers intertwining with hers.  “You’re coming up to my suite, Georgette.”  He told her.  He wasn’t asking her.  But she knew that if she said no, he would respect her response.  She sat there, his fingers caressing hers sensuously.  She’d never felt such a caress and her mind was having trouble focusing.  Probably because she didn’t want to focus.  She wanted to just be with him.  Her mind had been telling her this for so long, it was time to follow up on that need. 

At a very basic level, she wanted Dylan.  She wanted to experience his magic touch, to fly into his arms and have him for her first lover.  She ignored the twinge of guilt when she thought about her unknown husband, but she accepted that this was now and she couldn’t ignore it any longer. 

“Yes,” she finally said. 

She expected him to pull her out of her chair and drag her up the stairs immediately but he just sat there, staring at her.  “Finish your wine,” he told her. 

She looked down at her glass, then back up at him.  With one swift gulp, the wine was gone and she looked back at him, seeing the slow smile form on those lips. 

He stood up, but even then, it was a controlled rise.  He still held her hand while she grabbed her bag and followed him out of the restaurant.  Taking the elevator up, she stared at him, willing him to kiss her, to ease the fears that were slowly building up inside of her. 

“Relax,” he told her softly, kissing her brow while his arms moved around her waist.  “We have all night.”

She wasn’t sure about that.  Georgette was just doing this once.  It was all she would permit herself.  Just once with this man was enough.  It might be too much but she didn’t want to think about that. 

His hands wrapped around her waist, holding her steady.  “Why are you so nervous?” he asked.

She shrugged.  “I’ve never done this before,” she whispered.  She let her hands drift upwards, wanting to touch him but he’d been taboo for so long, she was actually afraid of what might happen. 

His eyes smiled slightly as he looked down at her, but then a question came up.  “Ever?” he asked carefully. 

She slowly shook her head.  Her stomach clenched when his smile disappeared. 

His hands on her waist froze as her meaning broke through the sexual tension that had been building all night.  He was stunned, more surprised that this beautiful woman had never been with a man before.  “Are you sure?”

She smiled nervously.  “Yes.  I’m fairly sure I haven’t done this before.”

He didn’t smile back, his hands clenching her waist slightly harder in his urgency to hear her answer.  “You know what I’m asking, Georgette.”

Her smile disappeared and she nodded slowly.  He stepped out of the elevator and led her through the only door on the floor. 

“I’ll take care of you,” he promised a moment before his lips captured hers.  The kiss started off slowly but quickly increased in intensity, making her mind spin with how much she wanted him, and how fast it had spun out of control. 

Dylan pulled her slowly, gently against his body, moving her so that their bodies fit against each other.  He didn’t do anything for the longest time, just kissed her, made her feel hot and almost crazy with the need for more, for the next step. 

He lifted her higher against him, fitting his erection right where she wanted it.  “Please Dylan,” she gasped.  Those words must have been what he was looking for because his hands finally came into play.  Smoothing up her back, he shifted up and down, then slowly, inch by inch, lowered the zipper on her dress.  When it pooled down at her feet, she looked shyly up at him, wondering if he might find her lacking in some way.

Her hands automatically came up to hide her breasts, the part of her body she’d always been most embarrassed about. 

“Don’t,” he told her, his voice ragged as his hands pulled hers away.  She looked up into his eyes and saw the heat, saw the urgency and let her hands fall away.  The way he was looking at her made her feel…strong.  Proud?  Yes, she was proud that he liked what he was looking at.  “You’re beautiful.”  A second later, she was swept up into his arms and he carried her into the bedroom.  Laying her gently in the center of the bed, he looked down at her while he pulled his jacket off.  His tie and shirt both fell to the floor while his hot glance took in all of her curves. 

Georgette tried very hard to sit still under his perusal but, until he got that shirt off, she wasn’t sure she accomplished that.  But when the crisp white material gave way to tanned, muscular skin, she couldn’t hide the sharp intake of her breath.  Just staring at his chest, she was amazed.  The heat, which had been building ever since he’d sat down across from her, burst into white hot desire.  The intensity of need that hit her was unlike anything she’d ever experienced before.  Sitting up on her knees, she grabbed hold of his shoulders.  He had the same idea and pulled her up, their nearly naked bodies clinging to one another. 

Dylan kissed her, feeling those soft breasts against his chest and her hot mouth kissing him back.  All of which, proved that she was feeling exactly what he was enduring and he almost lost his control.  Through sheer power of his will, he regained control, pressing her back against the mattress, settling his body between her legs and reveling in how soft, how perfect she felt. 

When she tried to touch him, he grabbed her hands and held them above her head with one hand.  “Next time,” he told her with a husky grumble.  His mouth moved along her neck, her ear, nibbling and licking, feeling her shiver and tremble.  His free hand moved along her waist, cupping her breasts and peaking that enticing nipple through the lace of her bra.  Her breast was so full, it almost spilled over his hand and he looked down in wonder at how beautiful she was. 

But his impatience grew as she shifted her hips against him.  With a flick of his wrist, he released the closure of that lace bra and whipped it away.  When he looked down at her again, those pink nipples were right there, drawing him in, begging him to nuzzle them.  He bent his head, his nose and his hand touching that sensitive globe and he almost laughed at her squeak of frustration when he wouldn’t give her what she wanted.  Teasing her a bit more, he nibbled the underside of her breasts but when she shifted her body, silently begging him, he couldn’t hold back any longer.  His mouth covered her nipple, sucking hard at first, thrilling with the way she screamed his name.  He eased the pressure, but then nipped his teeth against the skin, soothing it a moment later.  With each touch, each different caress, he listened to the sounds in the back of her throat, reveled in the way she arched her back, pressing her breasts to his mouth. 

“Stop!” she shrieked, trying to get away from him when the stimulation became too much.  So he moved to her other breast, giving that one just as much attention.  This time, he didn’t stop until she was writhing under him, both begging him to keep going and screaming for him to stop. 

He would have laughed at her predicament, but he was in too much pain as well.  He wanted desperately to bury himself inside of her, to pound into her softness until he found release but there was so much more this time.  With her, it was also a delight to feel her body and absorb her screams of desire.  He loved the way her body was so responsive, so desperate for his touch.  She was like a sexy kitten that demanded petting. 

When his hands moved down her stomach, feeling the way her lithe muscles clenched at his touch, he smiled but she couldn’t see it.  His fingers moved between her legs and he almost groaned when she opened for him.  But then his fingers teased through the curls hiding her core and he had to close his eyes as he felt the wetness.  She was so hot, so ready for him.  But he couldn’t enter her yet.  He wanted her to have it all.  He wanted her screaming out his name and the only way to do that was….

“Dylan!” she gasped when his fingers touched that sensitive nub, trying to close her legs but he wouldn’t let her, exposing her core to his voracious view.  A split second later, her body splintered apart, her legs clenching on his hand that was moving against her.  He watched in fascination as her body experience her first climax at another man’s hands and gritted his teeth at how beautiful she looked. 

When her body relaxed, he pressed a knee between her legs, moving into place.  She willingly opened for him, her breathing ragged as her eyes slowly unclenched.  Looking up at him, she smiled slowly, trying to calm her racing heart.  “Thank you,” she whispered.