and began to undo the buttons with more haste than competence. A button popped off and landed nearby. ‘Let’s even this up a bit. I’m not going to bare all unless you get naked too.’
‘Good plan.’ He shrugged off his shirt but left her to undo the waistband of his trousers, sucking in a breath when her fingers skated over his erection. ‘Your touch drives me crazy.’ He stepped out of his trousers and underwear and came back to work on the rest of her clothes, unzipping her skirt and peeling away her knickers. He feasted his eyes on her naked body, making her feel like the most beautiful and sexy woman on the planet. ‘Everything about you drives me crazy.’
‘Right back at you,’ Ivy said, barely able to speak for the sensations rushing through her body. Urgent needs begged to be assuaged. Needs she’d had no idea she possessed until his touch had awakened her.
Louis scooped her up and carried her out of the walk-in wardrobe to his bed, laying her down before joining her. He glided one of his hands down from the top of her shoulder, over her breast and ribcage, over her stomach and lower abdomen, down the flank of her thigh and then back up again. A slow, sensuous glide that made her aware of every millimetre of her skin, every pore responding to his touch, every nerve tingling. His eyes drank in every curve of her body, making her feel utterly feminine and desirable.
‘So, so beautiful—every part of you.’ His voice had an almost reverential note to it, and it made it all the harder to ignore the way her feelings for him had intensified. Going from a platonic admiration to full-blown passionate adoration—a mature and lasting adoration that she had longed to feel for someone all her life.
Ivy placed her hand on the side of his face, enjoying the masculine texture of his skin so different from her own. ‘You make me feel beautiful...’ Her voice caught on the words, so intense were her emotions. She didn’t want to spoil the moment by blurting out her feelings. They weren’t part of their arrangement. But holding them in, keeping them hidden, made her heart ache with the pressure of keeping them contained. She spoke them with her hands instead, stroking each of his eyebrows, down the length of his nose, around his mouth.
He brought his mouth down to hers, kissing her deeply, lingeringly, his tongue playing with hers in a dance as old as time itself. A primal dance, erotic and playful, yet with deadly serious intent. His intention was clear—she felt it in every stroke of his tongue, every glide of his hand, every erogenous zone he touched. He wanted her. He was going to have her. She would enjoy every heart-stopping second of it.
Ivy breathed in the scent of him, the musk and salt and aroused male smell that so tantalised her senses. He lifted his mouth off hers to work his way down her body, leaving branding kisses that sent her pulse skyrocketing. He went from her breasts to her belly and beyond, her skin tightening in anticipation. He parted her with his fingers, exploring her most intimate flesh with his lips and tongue. The tension gathered in her swollen tissues, a delicious tension that built to a crescendo. And then the storm broke and she was flying, falling, swirling and spinning in a vortex of intense, spine-tingling pleasure, the ripples and aftershocks spreading throughout her pelvis. ‘Oh, wow...oh, wow...oh, wow...’ Her breaths came in stuttering gasps, her limbs feeling spent and useless.
Louis kissed his way back up her body, holding her gaze when he got close to her mouth. ‘I love watching you come. You hold nothing back.’
Ivy was holding far more back than he realised. Love flowed through her as passionately as her orgasm had just done. She could feel it fill every part of her being, a deep attachment to him that was going to be hard to ignore for much longer. But how could she tell him? It wasn’t something he wanted to hear from her. It wasn’t something he wanted to hear from anyone. He’d been a playboy for a long time, and he would go back to being one once their fling was over.
Her heart contracted at the thought of him moving between lovers in the future. One after the other, each one a fleeting encounter that meant nothing more than a temporary relief of