She returned to stand before him, taking up where she’d left off, beginning with his rigid abdomen that grew tauter when she touched him. She circled her fingertip around his navel and his breath hitched slightly. Yet he kept his arms dangling at his sides, even when she moved her palms lower to stroke his pelvis, finding the ribbon of hair that created a path leading to all that made Adrien premium male.
But now that the moment she’d been anxiously awaiting had arrived, Selene hesitated, and that was absurd. She’d touched a man intimately before. Why was touching Adrien so different?
“Do it, Selene.”
Buoyed by Adrien’s demand, in a voice grainy with need, Selene didn’t have to journey far before discovering he was definitely aroused. She explored the length of his erection with a slow glide of her fingertip before taking him completely into her hands. She didn’t have to ask what he liked, what spots were particularly sensitive to her touch. She only had to open her mind and tap into his thoughts to learn his reaction as she began to caress him with long, fluid strokes. She soon sensed his emergent need, his battle with control. She knew he was nearing the edge and that he would prevent her from continuing a moment before he clasped her wrist and lifted her hand to his pounding heart.
“Stop.” Selene heard the effort in that one word, felt his slight tremor.
After Adrien tugged her down to the floor and positioned her on the plush Oriental rug, he left her for a moment to turn on the lamp, the beam illuminating her body like a movie premiere searchlight, and giving her a great view of the places she had touched only moments before. And what a glorious view it was.
He joined her on the rug, propped a throw pillow beneath her neck and lifted her arms above her head. In only a few moments, he had her body weeping for him, trembling for more, and he knew it, apparent by the perception in his dark gaze. When he came to his knees between her parted legs, Selene wasn’t sure she could stand the anticipation.
After spending a few moments finessing her breasts with his mouth, he drew a line with his tongue down her torso. And when he went as far as he could go before reaching his ultimate destination, Adrien lifted his head and commanded, “Watch, and don’t think.”
Selene could do nothing more than watch when he dipped his head between her legs and went on an all-out assault on her body, the kind that would definitely lead to an explosion. She laid her palms on his dark, damp hair as he explored, using his mouth to gain supreme advantage. As good as Adrien had made her feel last night, nothing could match this incomparable intimacy. Nothing. Her gratification only intensified when she opened her mind to him and saw the scene from his perspective, knowing that as he gave her that pleasure, he in turn received pleasure.
Selene could only remain mute and motionless … until he used gentle suckling as his weapon of choice. Her hips bucked when the climax crashed down on her, wresting another long groan from deep within her throat. But Adrien wasn’t through yet. With his gaze firmly locked into hers, he paused to blow his warm breath over her sensitized flesh before swooping back in with his clever mouth. He remained relentless with his goal through gentle yet single-minded manipulation. She wanted to beg him to stop. She also wanted more. After the second orgasm consumed her, bringing with it a series of shudders, she clawed at his shoulders and the word “Please,” left her mouth in a desperate, pleading tone.
Adrien worked his way up her body and kissed her deeply while she raked her fingernails down his back. He rubbed his chest over her breasts in a deliberate, rhythmic motion while she shifted her hips in encouragement. She sensed his sudden struggle, felt his faltering control and the nudge of his erection between her legs, until his mind went totally blank as if he’d raised a mental fortress to block her out completely.
Without any explanation, he rolled away from her and stood. Keeping his back to her while he shrugged on his jeans, he said, “That’s enough for now. We’ll continue this tomorrow.”
Selene recognized there was more to his reticence than taking it slowly. Much more. “Then you’re saying if I want you to make love to me now, you won’t do it?”
He turned, snatched her robe from the floor and tossed it at her. “Not tonight.”
She sent a direct look at his fly as she clutched the robe to her breasts. “Are you into masochism or are you trying to prove your strength?”
“I’m patient. I can wait. I also have some work to do.”
Selene pulled the robe on and thought back to the night when he’d first invaded her mind. When he’d denied himself then, as well. As he started to leave, she said, “What are you afraid of, Adrien?”
He turned and frowned. “I’m not afraid of anything.”
She rose and joined him at the door. “You’re afraid you’re going to feel something, aren’t you? That it won’t be only meaningless sex between us.” She lined the ridge beneath his slacks with a fingertip. “That has to be it since there’s not a thing physically wrong with you.”
She saw it then, another slide show coming from his mind—him backing her against the wall, shoving his pants to his thighs, thrusting inside her. But he forced the image away at the same time he took her hand and held it at her side. “I’m not afraid, Selene. But I say when and where we make love. You don’t have to understand why I want to wait. You only have to respect it.”
She understood all too well. A woman in his immediate past kept him guarded. Most likely, the woman named Chloe who was still influencing him, even if Adrien couldn’t admit it to Selene or himself. But Selene didn’t dare mention that woman’s name, otherwise she would have to explain how she’d come by the information. Right now she would keep her own secrets, and let him have his.
Resigned to letting him have his way, she stepped back and cinched the robe tightly. “Fine. You go ahead and leave now. But remember what I’ve said before, no power is absolute. I could very well be the one who says when and where.”
She knew he still battled with coming back to her, but when he touched the medallion dangling from his neck before turning away again, it became apparent his willpower had won out. At least for now.
After Selene returned to her bedroom, she forged her own plan. She vowed to help Adrien get past his fears and if that meant taking the lead, so be it. She might only be a temporary fix for his problems, a means to help him over the life-altering hurdle that had caused him to retreat. But as long as he didn’t turn her away, she believed anything was possible.
Adrien locked himself in the room across the hall to keep from going to Selene to finish what he’d started. He also needed to remember why he couldn’t become too deeply involved with her. What better place to do that but in this dark, desolate tomb? The room didn’t serve as a shrine; no real reminders of Chloe remained. At least not those that revealed what she had been, and not what she had become.
He walked to the window where she had once stood looking out over the grounds while dreaming of those things that had been outside her reach because of him. He collapsed into a chair by that window and, in the cover of darkness, plagued by the physical pain of needing and not having, he analyzed Selene’s conjecture.
He did have fears, all justified. He feared she could be the one woman who would force him to face his downfall, tear open his wounds and make him bleed again. He also recognized she was a woman who under normal circumstances wouldn’t interest him at all. But nothing about their liaison was normal. From the beginning, he’d realized she was special, unique in ways he didn’t quite understand. He only knew that something about her had drawn him from