Louis rolled away, disposed of the condom and then lay back and flung an arm across his eyes, his chest still heaving. ‘Dear God in heaven...’
Ivy propped herself up on one elbow by his side, her hand stroking down his chest. ‘Was it good for you?’ She couldn’t quite remove the note of uncertainty in her voice.
He turned his head her way and smiled a lopsided smile, and something in her chest turned over. He covered her hand with his, anchoring on the thud-thud-thud of his heart. ‘Better than good—amazing.’
She leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. ‘Thanks for making it so special for me.’
He tucked a wayward strand of hair back behind her ear, his gaze locked on hers. ‘I didn’t hurt you?’
She smiled and tiptoed her fingers across his toned pectoral muscles. ‘Not a bit. I read somewhere that the only way you can tell if a woman is a virgin is if she tells you and you believe her. All that stuff about broken and bleeding hymens is a bit of a myth. Most women and girls damage their hymen doing sports during childhood or using tampons when they get their periods.’
‘True, but sex can still be uncomfortable for a woman if her partner isn’t considerate.’
Ivy lifted her hand to his head and toyed with his short-cropped hair. ‘But you were very considerate.’
His expression was warm with tenderness, his hand going to her hip and rolling her towards him. ‘If I was truly considerate, I’d take you downstairs and feed you the delicious dinner my housekeeper prepared.’
‘I’m sensing a “but” at the end of that sentence.’
He grinned and swiftly turned her over so her back was against the mattress, his body half-covering hers. ‘But I want to do this first.’ And his mouth came down to hers.
Louis kissed her slowly and leisurely at first, but then a storm of need began to barrel through him, and he deepened the kiss with a commanding thrust of his tongue. She opened to him like a flower and he groaned at the back of his throat and explored her sweet mouth as if it was the last kiss he would ever have. Her lips were soft and yielding, passionate and responsive, and his blood pounded with renewed desire. Making love to her had shocked him to the core. Not in a bad way, but in a way he hadn’t been expecting. Normally sex was just sex, a physical thing he enjoyed like any other man. But with Ivy something felt different. Not just because it was her first time, although he had to admit that had made it rather special—memorably special. But the taste of her skin, the response of her body, stirred him in a way no other lover had done before.
Louis rained kisses down her body, lingering over her breasts before going to the silk of her inner thighs. He teased her with his lips and tongue, working his way to the feminine heart of her body. She gasped as he anointed her with his tongue, her body shuddering through an orgasm, his own body desperate for intimate connection with the tight slickness of hers.
Ivy reached for him and he only just had time to put on another condom in his haste to bury himself in her honeyed core. The tumult built to a crescendo inside him, her movements so in tune with his, sending his senses reeling. The heat, the musk of mating, the glide of aroused male flesh against velvet female flesh, sent him into the stratosphere where no thought could reside, only pleasure...mind-blowing, skin-tingling bliss...
In the quiet, restful moments afterwards, a stray thought managed to get through the firewall of Louis’ mind.
One night, huh? Are you sure that’s going to be enough?
He tried to think of something else but, with Ivy’s soft hand gently stroking the flank of his thigh, he knew the hunger he had for her was not going to be satisfied by one night. But he would have to accept that and stick with the plan. Continuing this any longer than a night was tempting but too dangerous. It was a physical hunger, nothing else, and it would fade as long as he didn’t fuel it. He didn’t do anything else. Couldn’t do anything else. Wouldn’t do anything else.
But, oh, how he wanted to.
CHAPTER SIX
IVY WOKE TO find herself alone in bed early the next morning. Louis had told her he was a restless sleeper who often got up during the night to work but she hadn’t seen him bring a laptop with him—although she had noticed a well-appointed study downstairs. Perhaps he had put in a few hours on his latest project or gone for a run or something.
She pushed aside the sense of disappointment that Louis hadn’t woken up beside her and instead focussed on the positives. She was no longer a virgin. Her mission was accomplished with two weeks to spare until she turned thirty. Her body felt different, somehow, more alive and sensitive than ever before. Even the sensation of the sheets against her skin was heightened. It was as if her nerves had shifted position.
She pushed the bedcovers off and slipped on the satin bathrobe she’d brought with her. The smooth fabric on her body felt as delicious as a caress and she couldn’t wait to feel Louis’ touch again. She squeezed her thighs together. Her inner muscles gave the faintest of protests and a frisson passed over her flesh. How wonderful would it be to spend the rest of the weekend together, making love again—and not just this weekend, but the one after and the one after and...
Ivy was pulled away from her thoughts as if by the sudden tug of a marionette’s strings. One night and one night only. That was what she’d agreed on and it was all Louis was offering. She knew enough about him to know he could be stubborn when his mind was made up.
Wouldn’t it be better if she avoided the ‘morning after the night before’ scene she was dreading? How could she look at him now and see him as only a friend and not the most amazing lover a woman could ask for? Her body was already craving him. How would she hide her longing from him? It was better to leave before he came back from wherever he’d gone during the night. Before he saw how much she wanted him to continue their fling. Before her feelings got involved any more than they already were. Before she made a complete and utter fool of herself by begging him to extend their fling beyond the one night they’d agreed on.
She reached for her phone and organised a taxi back to London.
Hopefully she would be halfway home before he even knew she had gone.
Louis hadn’t slept so soundly for years—even if it had only been until just before dawn. Maybe it was the Cotswolds air. Maybe it was breaking his sex drought. Maybe it was Ivy...
He’d left her sleeping in the early hours, not trusting himself to wake up beside her without wanting to make love to her again. Or tweaking the rules so they spent the rest of the weekend down here. But he had no business tweaking the rules. He had done as she requested and there was no need to take things any further.
Weird, but he had no regrets about last night. How could he when it was the best sex he’d ever had? Sensual, meaningful, memorable, tender...and yet racy. His body tingled at the thought of Ivy’s touch. His lips remembered the taste and texture of hers. Every cell in his body wanted her with a grinding hunger.