‘Oh, I could never produce enough.’ She sighed regretfully. She moved to stand next to him so that they were both looking at the painting. When he rested it on the table, she didn’t move, and suddenly her throat constricted as their eyes tangled and, for a few seconds, she found that she was holding her breath.
Leo sifted his fingers through her hair and the door slammed shut on all his good intentions not to let his wayward libido do the thinking for him. He just knew that he wanted this woman, more than he had ever wanted any woman in his life before, and for the hell of him he had no idea why. He had stopped trying to work that one out. He was not a man who was accustomed to holding out. Desire was always accompanied by possession. In fact, as he looked down at her flushed, upturned face, he marvelled that he had managed to restrain himself for so long because hadn’t he known, almost from the very start, that she was attracted to him? Hadn’t he seen it there in those hot, stolen looks and her nervous, jumpy reactions when he got fractionally too close to her?
He perched on the edge of the table and drew her closer to him.
Brianna released her breath in a long shudder. She was burning up where he touched her. Never in a million years would she have imagined that she could do this, that she could feel this way, feel so connected to a guy that she wanted him to touch her after only a few days. Showing him that painting, had he only known it, had been a measure of how much she trusted him. She felt easy in his company. Gone were the feelings of suspicion which had been there when she had first laid eyes on him, when she had wondered what such a dramatic looking stranger was doing in their midst, standing there at the door of the pub and looking around him with guarded coolness.
She had let down her defences, had thawed. Being cooped up had blurred the lines between paying guest and a guy who was as amusing as he was intelligent; as witty and dry as he was focused and disciplined. He might have worked in a company and done boring stuff but you would never guess that by the breadth of his conversation. He knew a great deal about art, about world affairs, and he had travelled extensively. He had vaguely told her that it was all in connection with his job, and really not very exciting at all because he did nothing but work when he got to his destination, but he could still captivate her with descriptions of the places he had been and the things he had seen there.
In short, he was nothing at all like any of the men she had ever met in her entire life, and that included Danny Fluke.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked weakly.
‘I’m touching you. Do you want me to stop?’
‘This is crazy.’
‘This is taking a chance.’
‘I don’t even...know you.’
No, she certainly didn’t. And yet, strangely, she knew more about him than any other woman did. Not that there was any point in getting tied down with semantics. ‘What does that have to do with wanting someone?’ His voice was a low murmur in her ear and, as he slid his hand underneath the jumper to caress her waist, she could feel all rational thought disappearing like dew in the summer sun.
So, she thought, fighting down the temptation to moan as his fingers continued to stroke her bare skin, he wasn’t going to be sticking around. He was as nomadic as she was rooted to this place. But wasn’t that what taking chances was all about?
She reached up and trembled as she linked her fingers behind his neck and pulled him down towards her.
His kiss was soft, exploratory. His tongue mingled against hers and was mind-blowingly erotic. He angled his long legs open and she edged her body between them so that now she was pushed up against him and could feel the hardness of his erection against her.
‘You can still tell me to stop...’ And, if she did, he didn’t know what he would do. Have a sub-zero shower? Even then, he wasn’t sure that it would be enough to cool him down. ‘Taking a chance can sometimes be a dangerous indulgence...’
And yet there was a part of her that knew that not taking this chance would be a source of eternal regret. Besides, why on earth should she let one miserable experience that was now in the past determine her present?
‘Maybe I want to live dangerously for once...’
His hand had crept further up her jumper and he unhooked her bra strap with practised ease.
Brianna’s breath caught in her throat and she stilled as he inched his way towards one small breast. She quivered at the feel of his thumb rubbing over it. She wanted him so badly that she was shaking with desire.
Leo marvelled that something he knew they just shouldn’t be doing could feel so damned right. Had he been going stir crazy here without even realising it? Was that why he had been so useless at disciplining his libido? The lie that had taken him so far, that had started life as just something he had been inspired to do because he had needed an excuse for being there in the first place, hung around his neck with the deadly weight of an albatross.
He shied away from the thought that she might find out, and then laughed at the possibility of that happening.
‘I won’t be around for much longer.’ He felt compelled to warn her off involvement even though he knew that the safest route he could take if he really didn’t want to court unwanted involvement would be to walk away. ‘Sure you want to take a chance with someone who’s just passing through?’ He spoke against her mouth and he could feel her warm breath mingling with his.
Brianna feverishly thought of the last guy she had become involved with—the guy she had thought wasn’t passing through, the guy she had thought she might end up spending the rest of her life with but who, in fact, had always known that he would be moving on. This time, there would be no illusions. A fling: it was something she had never done in her life before. Danny had been her first and only relationship.
‘I’m not looking for permanence,’ she whispered. ‘I thought I had that once and it turned out to be the biggest mistake I ever made. Stop talking.’
‘Happy to oblige,’ Leo growled, his conscience relieved. ‘I think I wanted this within hours of meeting you.’ He circled her waist with his hands and then pushed the jumper up, taking the bra with it as well.
For a split second, Brianna was overwhelmed by shyness. She closed her eyes and arched back, every nerve and pore straining towards a closeness she hadn’t felt in such a long time. When she felt the wetness of his mouth surround her nipple, she groaned and half-collapsed. Her hands coiled into his thick, dark hair as he continued sucking and teasing the stiffened peaks until she wanted to faint from the pleasure of it. When he drew back, she groaned in frustration and looked at him drowsily from under her lashes, her heartbeat quickening to a frantic beat as she watched him inspecting her breasts with the same considered thoroughness with which he had earlier inspected her painting.
‘I want to see you,’ Leo said roughly. He was surprised at the speed with which his body was reacting, racing towards release. His erection was uncomfortable against his jeans, bulging painfully. Yet he didn’t want to rush this. He had to close his eyes briefly and breathe deeply so that he wouldn’t be thrown off-balance by the sight of her bare breasts, small and crested with large, pink nipples that were still glistening from where he had sucked them.
In response, Brianna traced the contours of his shoulders, broad and powerful. It was driving her crazy just thinking about touching his chest, the bronzed, muscled chest that had sent her imagination into overdrive on that first day when he had stood half-naked in front of her, waiting for the shirts she had brought for him.
‘I don’t want to make love to you here...’ He swung her off her feet as though she weighed nothing and carried her up the stairs towards his bedroom, and then, pausing briefly, up the further flight of stairs that led to her bedroom. He didn’t dare look down at her