Boring, Nicholas had called her. If only he could see her now. Lewis wasn’t looking at her as though she were boring.
Reaching up on tiptoe, Olivia brushed her lips tantalisingly against his.
He froze. But only for a second or two. When she kissed him a second time, more firmly this time, his lips softened against hers, parting as hers parted. When her tongue-tip darted forward to flick over his, he gave a low moan of sexual surrender.
A dark triumph filled her soul. Smiling, she drew back to survey his flushed face and startled mouth with a wicked satisfaction. ‘I’ll just be a moment,’ she murmured.
She sipped her drink all the way to the door, finishing it by the time she reached to snap on the deadlock. Turning, she arched a naughty eyebrow at him. ‘We don’t want to be disturbed, do we?’
Somewhere, in the furthest reaches of her mind, she knew she was being outrageous. But nothing was going to stop her. Any qualms were ruthlessly buried underneath the roller-coaster excitement of the moment.
His eyes never left hers during her slow return across the room. They glittered and flashed, telling her of his own excitement.
She deposited her glass on the desk on the way, but made no attempt to relieve him of his, taking his free hand in hers and drawing him round to the roomy leather chesterfield.
He sat down in the middle where she directed, hot blue eyes burning into her while she kicked off her shoes and curled herself up next to him.
‘Now,’ she breathed, and took the untouched drink from his hand, ‘we’ll finish this up together, shall we?’
When she pressed the glass to his lips, he drank obediently, saying nothing when it was her turn. Determined not to be unnerved by his silence, she drained the glass, then dropped it over the back of the chesterfield onto the plush carpet Cupping his face, she kissed him, at first lightly, then more deeply, making him moan.
With surprisingly nimble fingers, she managed to undo his shirt as she kissed him, pushing back the sides and smoothing her hands seductively over his bared chest.
He felt marvellous. Firm and muscular, with just enough body hair to exude a masculinity which was decidedly arousing. Lewis had a great body, she decided, probably because he balanced his sometimes sedentary lifestyle with rigorous workouts in the gym.
Olivia’s primary goal of seducing him began to blur as her own desires kicked in. Her head spun and she dragged her mouth from his to lick and kiss where her hands had been. When she grazed over a nipple, he sucked in sharply, tellingly. With a teasing wickedness she hadn’t known she possessed, she deliberately avoided his nipples after that till they grew erect on their own, only then doing what he obviously craved.
‘Oh, God,’ he groaned aloud when she tugged on one of the tight little buds with her teeth.
The naked passion of his outburst thrilled her, making her torment him further till his chest was rising and falling with a raw ragged panting. When her kisses travelled down towards his navel and her hands found the zip on his trousers, his hands clamped down shakily over hers.
‘No,’ he protested. But unconvincingly, she thought.
Smiling seductively, she took his hands and stretched them up and out, spreading them wide on the back of the chesterfield. Her own body had to practically lie on top of his to do so, her breasts squashing against the hard expanse of his chest. The feel of his impressive erection pressing into the softness of her stomach was both reassuring and arousing. Somehow, she didn’t think Lewis would object for long to what she had in mind.
And she had a lot of things in mind. All those things Nicholas thought her incapable of. All those things darling little Yvette had been giving her boyfriend in his office.
The need for revenge blended with her own need, bringing a reckless mix which sent fire licking along her veins and a ruthless determination into her heart.
‘Shh,’ she murmured as she licked Lewis’s parched lips. ‘You want me to. You know you do.’
His strangled swear word only made her smile. ‘Yes. Soon,’ she promised. ‘But first just lie back and enjoy. We don’t want to rush things now, do we?’
Olivia smiled again. There was something so dizzyingly delicious about feeling in control.
Of course, in reality, she was far from that. She was decidedly out of control. But liberatingly so. She needed to do this more than anything she’d done in her life before. Lewis was going to give her back her self-esteem, her confidence, her very soul. He was going to revitalise her spirits and recharge her batteries. He was going to make her feel like a real woman again.
She found it surprisingly easy to free him from his clothes, marvelling at the way her non-fumbling fingers handled him so naturally, and so expertly. Not a hint of revulsion rose to spoil her skilful stroking. It was as if another person were inhabiting her body, a wildly uninhibited, chillingly expert woman of the world.
‘Olivia,’ Lewis choked out when her head began to descend.
She stopped and looked straight at him.
‘It’s all right,’ she said, and smiled. ‘Stop worrying. I won’t let you come.’
Lewis was deathly silent after that, except for the small scratching noises his nails made on the leather as his fingers curled over and over.
‘Now stay right where you are,’ she murmured at last, pushing her hair back from her face and sitting upright. ‘Promise me you won’t move, now.’
His expression was disbelieving when she abandoned him, his eyes widening when she hitched up her skirt and peeled off her stockings and panties. Olivia wallowed in the way he ogled her legs. She didn’t take off her skirt, finding a decidedly erotic charge in being nude underneath it. She didn’t take off her blouse, either. That could wait.
Turning away from Lewis’s galvanised gaze, she refilled her glass with champagne and took a deep swallow, just in case the wonderful effect of the alcohol began to wear off.
Bringing the glass with her, she returned to straddle Lewis’s lap with her knees, glad now that her conservative skirt was not too tight. Even so, it rode up her thighs quite a way to accommodate her position. Staying kneeling upwards so that their bodies weren’t actually contacting, she tilted the champagne to her lips once more.
‘I think I might need some of that,’ Lewis muttered hoarsely.
‘Be my guest,’ she said, and handed him the glass. He drained it, then dropped it over the back of the sofa to clatter against the other discarded glass.
‘I have to warn you,’ he said thickly, ‘that I don’t have any protection on me.’
‘I noticed that,’ she said with a dry little smile, and started undoing the buttons on her blouse.
‘This is crazy, Olivia.’
‘Calm down, boss. This is good old Olivia here. Do you think I’d ever be a health hazard?’
‘Not usually...’
‘Nicholas always used condoms,’ she elaborated ruefully. ‘I also started on the pill last month. I was just about to trust Nicholas, you see. Silly me! But not to worry. I trust you, Lewis. You have honour.’
‘Honour! My God, do you think this is having honour—letting you do this when I know you’re drunk, not to mention on some crazy rebound trip?’
‘Don’t underestimate your attractiveness, Lewis,’ she purred. ‘How do you know I’m not doing this because I’ve always fancied you like mad, but controlled myself because you seemed happily married? How do you know I haven’t fantasised about you every day these past six months, that I haven’t thought about you making love to me in your laboratory,