But was he any better? His no-commitment, hands-on-but-hearts-off, no-strings-attached policy left a lot to be desired, but he and Jayla had been struck by that unique kind of passion that had sent her straight into his arms and had propelled him unerringly into her bed.
And he had no regrets.
Frowning, Storm took another huge swallow of water. No woman had ever gotten to him like this. It was time for him to start building a defense to the passion she aroused in him. He pulled on his pants and did his best to reorder his chaotic thoughts and unruly emotions.
He heard a sound and turned around. Jayla was standing in the doorway wearing one of the hotel’s complimentary bathrobes. His heart fluttered as he assessed her from head to toe. She looked refreshed. She looked incredible, blatantly sexy. With a steadying breath, he asked, “Why didn’t you call me when you were ready to get out of the tub?”
She smiled and his pulse kicked up a notch. “Because although I was tempted, it wouldn’t be a good idea to start becoming dependent on you.”
For him, it wasn’t an issue of dependency. He’d known she could manage on her own but he had wanted to be there to help her anyway. There was something about her that pulled at his protective instincts…among other things. “Do you feel better?”
“Yes,” Jayla said, blowing out a ragged breath as her gaze roamed over him, noticing that he had put his pants back on. What a shame. She was beginning to get used to seeing him naked.
She met his gaze again and couldn’t help but notice that his eyes were dark, very dark, and her body’s reaction to it was spontaneous. “I, ah, need to get a nightgown out the drawer,” she said in a voice that sounded soft and husky even to her ears. She swallowed deeply when he slowly crossed the room to her.
“Have you ever slept in the nude?” he said, reaching out, opening her robe and sliding his hands over her bare skin, beginning with her waist, moving to her hips and then reaching around to cup her bottom.
“Ah, no,” she said, barely getting the words out.
He gave her that killer smile. “Would you like to try it? I can’t think of anything I’d like better than to have your naked body next to mine all night.”
A small purring sound left Jayla’s throat when he leaned forward and his tongue licked the area underneath her right ear, then the left. A sensuous shudder ran all through her, and she thought that a woman could definitely become dependent on his kind of treatment. And then she ceased to think at all when he stopped messing around with her ears and shifted his focus, opening his mouth hotly over hers.
Images of how intimate they’d been less than an hour ago flooded her mind. They had been together in bed with him on top of her, their legs entwined, their bodies connected while making love the same way they had done numerous times in her dreams. But this was no dream; it was reality. And the scent of his body heat and the sound of his breathing while he was kissing her did more than stir up her desire; it was stroking her with an intensity that shook her to the core, forging past those emotions she kept tightly guarded.
The thought that Storm was seeping through the barriers she’d set around her emotions disturbed Jayla, but she was too absorbed in the way his tongue was stroking the insides of her mouth to worry about it. This kiss was so full of greed and sensuality that she could feel the air crackling around them, and she was returning with equal vigor everything he was putting into their kiss.
And then slowly, reluctantly, he pulled back and his gaze locked to hers. “So, do we get naked?”
She swallowed. The huskiness in his voice made her want to do a lot more than get naked. “Yes,” she managed to get out in a shaky breath.
“Good,” he murmured, then reached up and pushed the robe off her shoulders, letting it fall in a heap at her feet. “Let’s go back to bed.”
Taking her hand into his, he lifted it to his lips and placed a warm kiss against the center of her palm. And then he picked her up in his arms and carried her to the bed. He placed her in the middle and then stood back to remove his pants.
Jayla watched him while thinking that nothing, other than a fire alarm going off, could distract her at that moment. She wanted to see every inch of him again, especially that part that had given her so much pleasure. He kept his gaze on her as he slowly eased down his pants. Then she watched as he pulled a condom packet out of his pants and went through the process of sheathing himself.
When he had finished, he glanced over at her and smiled. “Although I don’t plan for us to do anything but sleep, there’s nothing wrong with playing it safe.”
She sighed and it took a lot of effort to concentrate on his words and not on him. “Umm, yes, that’s smart thinking.”
He quickly got into the bed, pulled her into his arms and felt her shiver. “You’re cold?” he asked in a low, husky voice.
She shook her head. “No, quite the contrary. I’m hot.”
He smiled. “I know a way to cool you off,” he said, shifting his position to reach down between her legs to slide his fingers back and forth through her feminine curls.
She closed her eyes and moaned as he slowly but thoroughly began stroking a fire within her. “I—I don’t think that’s helping, Storm,” she murmured, barely able to get the words out.
“Sure it is,” he whispered close to her ear. “Just relax, feel and enjoy.”
And she did.
His fingers literally drove her crazy. The sensation of his fingertips as they intimately skimmed her feminine folds at a sensuously maddening and erratic pace had her purring and moaning.
She made the mistake of opening her eyes and meeting his gaze. Something she saw in the depths of his eyes took her breath away. Her senses suddenly became filled with an emotion that caused a tightening in her chest at the same time that her body lost control, exploded. The sensations that shot through her made her cry out, call his name and then he was capturing her mouth with his, kissing her deeply while he continued to skim the tip of his fingers between her legs.
Moments later, she felt her body become weak and she could barely reclaim her breath as he cuddled her limp body next to his, holding her tightly. She knew if she wasn’t careful, that she was going to fall—
No! She couldn’t go there. She couldn’t even think such a thing. The only thing she wanted to focus on was how he was making her feel. She had made plans for her future and Storm Westmoreland wasn’t a part of those plans. But here, now, at this very moment, he was part of her present and was giving her undiluted pleasure. She could not refuse what he was offering and when they parted in two days, she would always have these memories.
Five
Storm drew in a long breath as he looked down at the woman asleep in his arms. His chest tightened and he forced back the surge of desire that swept through him. She was an unbelievably beautiful woman.
Bathed in the rays of predawn light that spilled through the hotel’s window, Jayla’s hair, a glossy medium brown with strands of golden highlight, was spread across the pillow and shone luxuriously against the darkness of her creamy skin.
Sharing a bed with her hadn’t been easy. In fact, he doubted that he’d gotten any sleep. While trying to find that perfect sleeping position, she had twisted and turned