‘Why do you ask?’
‘It’s just that I’ve never... I’m a...’ She blushed, unable to finish the sentence, the temptress gone.
‘You are a virgin?’ Shock rocked through him, followed by something else. She’d never made love and was choosing him to be her first lover.
‘Yes,’ she whispered and looked down at him, her eyes full of longing. ‘And I want you to be the man who shows me what desire and passion is like.’
He stood up and took her hands in his, looking at her as she stood naked before him, uncertainty all over her beautiful face. He shouldn’t want her, shouldn’t want to be the man who showed her the pleasures of sex for the first time, but an overwhelming need to be that man flowed through him, making him want her more, testing his control beyond endurance.
‘It wouldn’t change anything, Emma.’ He wanted her to be sure, wanted her to know that after this there wasn’t anything else. ‘If we have sex it will still be just tonight. I don’t want a relationship. I don’t intend to settle down any time soon.’
She pressed her palm against his face, her fingers running over the stubble, unleashing the same wild desire as before. ‘I want nothing more than this moment in time.’
He pulled her to him, enjoying her soft skin beneath his hands and the feel of her nakedness against his clothed body. He kissed her gently, determined to make this as special as possible—for both of them.
In one swift movement he swept her up in his arms and carried her to the large bed he’d spent the last two nights alone in. As he placed her on the soft covers, he allowed his fingers to trail over her, his gaze fixed firmly on hers.
He stood before her and pulled off his clothes, enjoying the way she watched, her eyes widening when he stood before her naked and aroused. He picked up his wallet from the bedside table and pulled out the all-important foil packet. ‘I assume this is the only contraception we have between us?’
The impish smile which had been on her face as she’d watched him divest himself of his clothes slipped away as he rolled the condom on. ‘It is, yes.’
He moved on to the bed, bracing his arms on either side of her head, his body tantalisingly close to her as he teased her with a kiss. ‘Now that we’ve sorted that out, we can get back to the important issue of pleasure.’
She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him to her, and he had to fight hard to stop himself covering that delicious body with his and thrusting into her. As she stroked her fingers down his back, returning his kiss with ever more passion, he knew he couldn’t hold out much longer and he moved on top of her. She wrapped her legs around him; if he hadn’t known she was a virgin, he’d never have considered it possible, as she rocked her hips teasing him mercilessly.
His control snapped and all he could think about was making her his. She gasped out and dug her fingernails into his back as he took possession of her, sliding in as gently as his burning need for her allowed. She opened her eyes and looked up at him as he moved within her.
‘Nikolai...’ She whispered his name and moved her hips with him, encouraging him to deepen that possession and pushing him over the edge.
He reached that edge, trying to hang on, trying to take her with him, and when she met him there he finally let go, collapsing afterwards into her embrace, their breathing hard and fast.
IT WAS STILL dark when Emma awoke, her body humming from the exquisite pleasure of making love with Nikolai. Movement caught her attention and she looked towards the window where the soft light of dawn was starting to creep around the blinds. Nikolai stood looking out through the blinds, his body partially in shadow and every sculpted muscle of his torso highlighted like a black-and-white photo. He’d pulled on a pair of jeans and in her mind Emma filed the image away as if she’d pressed the button on her camera and taken it.
His forehead was close to the blinds as he stood looking out. He was completely lost in thought and didn’t hear the soft rustle of the bedclothes as she sat up. His jaw was tense and his brow furrowed into a frown. What was he thinking? Was he angry that she wasn’t the experienced seductress she’d tried so hard to be? Had their one night been disappointing for him?
‘Is it still snowing?’ she asked as she propped herself up on her elbow, needing to say something to break the heavy silence around them. She hoped it was snowing too much for them to do what he’d planned today and, if it was, would he come back to bed?
She’d never expected to find what she had discovered last night in his arms, that completeness, as if they belonged together. The romantic inside her that she always tried hard to supress wanted more, so much more, but the ever-present realist that life had made her pushed those silly notions aside. Once she left Vladimir, there could be no more. This was just a fling for him, a way to amuse himself on a cold snowy night. It could even be a way to distract her from what she’d come here to do. That thought slipped uncomfortably over her but she refused to give it any importance; after all hadn’t there been an undeniable spark of attraction between them since the moment she’d arrived?
Nikolai continued to look out at the snow, as if he hadn’t heard her, and just when she thought she might have to ask again he turned and looked at her, lines of worry creasing his brow. ‘It is.’
The roughness of his voice made her swallow hard against the disappointment which rushed through her. What had she expected? A declaration of undying love because she’d given him her virginity? Even she knew better than that!
‘Will it stop us meeting your grandmother?’ She tried hard to keep her voice soft and calm, as if discussing the weather with the man she’d just had the most wonderful sex with was as normal as the snow falling over the Russian landscape in winter.
He turned to look at her, so slowly she wondered if she’d said something really wrong. With casual ease he hooked his thumb in the belt loop of his jeans and fixed her with a deep and penetrating gaze, and the unmistakable stamp of suspicion was on his handsome face.
‘Would that be a problem?’
It should be but Emma realised with shock that it wouldn’t be, not if she could stay cocooned here with Nikolai and lose herself in a moment she hadn’t expected at all. A moment which had unlocked a passionate woman within her she’d never known existed, a woman she wanted to be again before the coldness of daybreak brought reality back.
‘No,’ she whispered softly. ‘Let’s not think of anything else until daylight.’
Her words lifted the tension which had folded around them, but as he stepped towards her, every muscle highlighted for her pleasure by the growing light from outside, that tension was replaced with something far more powerful.
‘Looking at you right now, that is exactly what I want to do.’
Emma pulled aside the tousled sheets, inviting him back into bed, and as he pulled off his jeans and slipped in beside her she was in no doubt what he wanted to do. Heat uncoiled deep within her, lighting the flame of desire once more. Never in her wildest dreams had she expected to find this when she’d boarded the plane for Moscow and she knew that it would change her life for ever.
‘I want to be yours til morning breaks,’ she said as she moved against the heat of his body, relishing the strength of his arms around her as he pressed her into the bed, covering her body with his, passion exploding like fireworks around them.
‘Until daylight,’ he said as he kissed her lips, then made a blazing trail down her throat. ‘You will be mine, Emma.’
* * *
Nikolai felt his control slip away as he pushed the reality of the world aside and kissed Emma. How could she make him feel like this—so lost unless he was holding her, kissing her, as if she truly