Now that he had her where he wanted her, Russell wasn’t about to let her get away. He pressed her hard against the leather seat and kept on kissing her, at the same time letting his right hand slide slowly down her neck till it reached the valley between her breasts.
Once there, he quite deliberately lifted his mouth away so that he could watch her eyes when his hand moved underneath her dress and over her naked breast. He wanted to see her reaction, wanted to watch for signs of anything fake.
Not that it really mattered. If she was pretending desire for the sake of greed, then the outcome would not change: he would still bed her tonight.
But having Nicole Power mindless with desire for him would be an added bonus. How ironic would that be? How brilliantly satisfying!
His hand moved and her eyes flung wide open, her back stiffening when his fingers found their goal.
Her nipple was hard, like a river pebble.
‘No, don’t,’ she whimpered when he rolled it round and round with his fingertips.
He ignored her feeble protest and kept doing it till her mouth gasped open and her eyes glazed over. At that point he pushed the silky green material aside to totally expose her breast, then bent his head to put his mouth where his fingertips had been.
Her practically jackknifing from the seat told Russell all he needed to know. There was absolutely no pretence in her responses. She was his, to do with as he pleased. His to explore and exploit. His to win and maybe even to wed.
Did he want to go that far? Did he want to see her walk down the aisle in white the way Megan had that day? Did he want to see blind adoration in her eyes as well as the mindless desire he’d just glimpsed in her beautiful green eyes?
There was only one answer to those questions.
An unequivocal yes.
CHAPTER NINE
NICOLE squeezed her eyes tightly shut against the sensations bombarding her body.
Oh, yes, she thought wildly when he sucked harder on her nipple. Yes!
Her hands closed into tightly balled fists by the sides of the seat, her bag having long slipped out of her grasp. She pressed her back against the leather and lifted her chest higher for him, inviting his mouth to take in more of her breast.
His sudden desertion dragged a groan from deep in her throat, her eyelashes fluttering open to stare up into the darkly silhouetted face looming over her.
‘As much as I’d like to ravage you right here and now,’ he said thickly, ‘ I think it best that we wait till I get you home.’
A stunned Nicole just sat there as he returned to the driver’s seat and started up the engine, several seconds passing before she realised her left breast was totally exposed, its peaked nipple still glistening with his saliva.
‘Leave it like that,’ he growled when her hand moved to cover herself up.
‘I … I can’t,’ she said, shocked by the suggestion. ‘Someone might see me.’ And she quickly pulled her dress back into place.
‘As you wish, beautiful,’ he said as he sped off.
As I wish?
Nicole’s eyes darted across to the man behind the wheel, her gaze landing on his hands first. Big they were, and strong.
What she wished was that they were on her body again. His mouth, too, on her breasts and between her legs.
Nicole shuddered at how thrilling she found that thought. How thrilling she found him, wickedly thrilling.
Oh, yes, he was wicked all right.
But oh, so passionate. The things he’d said to her back at the yacht club, the things he’d done to her just now in this car …
She was still thinking about those things when his car zoomed down into the harbour tunnel and she realised where he was taking her: to her old home in Belleview Hill. But now it had become his, for twenty million dollars …
This last thought brought her back to some semblance of sense, reminding Nicole of her recent vow never to have anything to do with rich men. Not only were a lot of them corrupt and amoral, but most were also arrogant and spoiled and far too used to getting their own way.
Russell McClain was undoubtedly all of those things. Just look at the company he kept! Hugh Parkinson was a roué, if ever there was one. As for James Logan … Nicole hoped Megan would be happy with him, but she doubted it.
So what on earth was she doing going home with him?
Nicole had never been a one-night-stand kind of girl. In the past, she’d thought of herself as a prize for the man who was pursuing her, a prize worth waiting for. She’d been taught by her once-bitten mother to put tickets on herself in that regard, to not give herself cheaply and easily.
Which she hadn’t.
She’d dated David for two months before they’d slept together.
Still, David had never made her crave him the way she was craving Russell McClain right at this moment. She could not stop thinking about it, could not wait to feel again what this man could make her feel.
His being rich was irrelevant at this moment. No doubt she would regret her impulsive behaviour in the morning. But future regrets had no chance of making her do or say anything to stop the man sitting next to her from having his wicked way with her tonight.
By the time Russell arrived at his destination, the demands of his cruelly frustrated body threatened to override his need to control this situation, himself, and her.
Nicole’s silence during the drive had given him far too much time to think about the rest of the evening, his desire for her body, plus the anticipation of finally getting even with Alistair Power through his daughter, proving an intoxicating mix. He could not wait to take her, to watch her come apart in his arms.
But that would only happen if he could control his own excruciating need for release.
Not an ideal situation.
But still his priority remained to whip her up to Power’s master bedroom, where the greatest revenge of all could begin.
‘You don’t have a girlfriend tucked away somewhere, do you?’ Nicole suddenly asked as he drove through the gates. ‘Or a wife?’
Russell’s eyebrows lifted. Hardly the question a totally turned-on girl would ask.
But typical of women like Nicole Powers. They always had their eyes on the ball.
‘Of course not,’ he said truthfully.
‘You … you wouldn’t lie to me, would you?’
Something in her voice pricked his conscience.
‘Why would I do that?’ he answered a little gruffly.
‘To get me into bed.’
He parked at the base of the front steps and turned off the engine before facing her. ‘I’ve never had any trouble getting women into my bed before, Nicole. And I haven’t had to lie.’
He reached out and touched her flushed cheek before trailing his fingers over to her mouth. Slowly, he traced her lips with a single fingertip till her mouth fell open on a low moan. He might have inserted his finger for her to suck if he hadn’t already been on a dangerous edge himself.
‘There’s no need for me to lie to you,’ Russell lied as he let his hand drop away. ‘You’re an adult woman, Nicole. You’ve come here with me willingly, so let’s not play games with each other. Let’s just enjoy tonight for what it is. A man and a woman totally in tune with each other. Come on, let’s get out of here