He ignored the unfamiliar urge to settle closer to her rather than pulling away. After all, certain precautions had to be observed, he reminded himself. He reached between them, feeling for the edge of his condom and cursing when he couldn’t find it. He pulled farther away from her, his body instantly lamenting the lack of contact with her lush warmth. The condom was still inside her. In a moment of panic he wondered if she was on the Pill but that fear was quickly assuaged. A woman like Nicole wasn’t the type to leave things to chance. It was highly unlikely that pregnancy was something either of them needed to worry about just now.
No, now was a time to concentrate on pleasure. They’d had sex once and he couldn’t wait to repeat the experience.
He eased his hand between her splayed legs and found the condom, removing it carefully before disposing of it in his bathroom. As he eased his body back onto the bed beside her he safeguarded them once more by rolling on another sheath and gathered her to him. She curled instinctively against his body, her softness pressing against the hard muscled planes of his chest, her inner heat already beckoning to him.
Her eyes flickered open, a slow smile spreading across her face. He cupped one cheek in his hand. It was one thing to know from Raoul’s report that Nicole Wilson was an attractive woman with an incredibly sharp business mind, but it was quite another to discover that she was also a warm and generous lover. The knowledge skewed his vision of how this would ultimately play out.
Sending Nicole back to her father was no longer an option. With a little luck, her anger against her father and her brother just might be deep enough and strong enough to make her willingly defect to Jackson Importers … and to Nate’s bed. With Nicole at his side he could take Jackson Importers to the ultimate heights of success, while ensuring his nights were equally, if not more, satisfying.
Of course, there was always the possibility that loyalty to her family would win out. Nate would be a fool not to plan for that contingency. If that happened, he’d have to be more … creative in the methods he used to keep Nicole. He didn’t want to hurt her—Charles was his only target—but if upsetting her a little was the price to get his revenge and keep Nicole in the bargain, then that was a price he was willing to pay.
Sooner or later, she’d thank him for it. He’d already known her father hadn’t utilized her intelligence to his best advantage. But Nate would. And she’d know she was appreciated while he did it. Every glorious inch of her.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said, meaning every syllable.
“It’s dark,” she replied, a teasing note in her voice. “Everyone is beautiful in the dark. You can’t see their bad side.”
“You don’t have a bad side,” he said, leaning forward to kiss her.
“Everyone has a bad side, Nate. We just don’t always show it.”
There was a painful truth in her words. A truth he knew related directly to him and his intentions but he didn’t want to think about that right now. More pressing matters were most definitely at hand.
“Sometimes it’s better not to see, then, isn’t it?” he asked before leaning across the short distance between them and kissing her.
Their lips touched in a burst of heat and desire, his every nerve striving to attain the heights of fulfillment he knew he would reach in her arms. This time the fire inside him burned steadily, not threatening to overwhelm him as it had before, but his hunger for her had not lessened despite the change in his appetite. This was to be savored, slowly, completely.
Time faded into obscurity and nothing mattered right now except the giving and receiving of pleasure. Each touch destined to bring a sigh or a moan from its recipient, each kiss a seal of the promise of what was yet to come. And when she positioned herself over his body and lowered herself over his straining flesh he gave himself over totally to her demands.
Their peak was no less intense than that first time together, and this time, when Nicole fell into his arms lost in the aftermath and falling rapidly into sleep, he made certain the same accident with the condom didn’t occur a second time.
The next time he woke, sunlight was filtering through the native bush outside and into his bedroom window. He reached across the bed. Empty. Where was his quarry now, he wondered as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood, stretching as he did so.
“Nice view,” a voice said from behind him.
He turned slowly, a smile on his face. A smile that widened when he saw that Nicole had found the camcorder he kept for filming some of the more wild surfing antics on the beach.
“Do you have a license to drive that thing?” he asked.
“I’m the kind of girl who likes to learn as she goes along,” Nicole answered in response.
She was wearing just the shirt he’d worn last night, the fine cotton covering her body but leaving her long legs exposed to his hungry gaze.
“So you’re more of the hands-on kind?” he said, feeling his body stir and his blood pump just a little faster.
“Oh, yes, definitely hands-on,” she said, her voice a little rough around the edges.
“I’ve always thought practical experience to be vastly underrated, haven’t you?” He was fully hard now. Every cell in his body attuned to her, to the camcorder she held, to the idea that now blossomed in his mind.
“Definitely underrated. And the value of visual aids, too.”
Oh, God, he thought. She had just read his mind. “I have a tripod for that thing, you know.”
She laughed, a deep throaty chuckle that made him clench his hands at his sides to stop himself from reaching for her.
“More than one, I’d say,” she said, dropping the lens of the camera down, then slowly back up again to his face.
She was wicked. He liked that in a woman. He liked that a whole lot. “I’ll go get the other one,” he said with a slow wink.
Before she could say another word he brushed past her, dropping a kiss on the curve of her lips as he went by. “Why don’t you get yourself comfortable on the bed? I’ll be back in just a minute.”
It took less than a minute before he was back in the bedroom and setting up the stand diagonal to the bed. She passed him the camera, her cheeks flushed with color, her eyes bright with anticipation. Beneath the fabric of his shirt he could see the sway of her breasts as she moved on the bed, not to mention the sharp peaks of her nipples that told of her excitement. She passed the camera to him and he carefully positioned it on its mount, ensuring the whole bed was square in the frame.
“You’re sure about this?” he asked.
“Oh, very sure. And later, when we review it, we can see where we can improve.”
He didn’t think it was possible to get any harder but at that moment he did. It was one thing to know they were videoing themselves, another to know she wanted to watch it later.
“Where do you suggest we begin?” he asked, fighting to keep a lid on the carnal urge to simply have at her, to let her have at him and to hell with finesse.
“I think I need to get to know you better, don’t you?” She patted the edge of the bed beside her. “Why don’t you sit down?”
He sat and watched her as she slid off the tumbled linens and knelt between his legs on the rug beside the bed, placing her hands on the outside edges of his thighs, scratching lightly with her fingernails.
“It seems to me,” she continued, “that last night was all about me. So this time, it’s going to be all about you.”
A fine tremor ran through his body and he watched as her hands stroked up his thighs and down again, each time working a little closer to the inside.
“Do