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His eyes came back to an toanother wave of thrilling pleasure through her body ‘Making love is about the journey, as well’ He kissed her htly, once, twice, but the third ti

Aiesha lifted her hips, rolled her pelvis, teasing him with the slippery friction of her body He increased his pace but he was still in control She stroked his buttocks, and then dipped her fingers between theroan against herhiasps and whimpers as the need rose to a crescendo in her body She could feel the tension in his muscles as he poised in that pivotal ave another raw groan, his skin peppering with goose buravel as he shuddered and then flowed

Aiesha held hi for her She was norather her clothes and move on

But she didn’t want to sever the connection between them Couldn’t sever it Not yet Her body feltat peace Satiated Floating in a sea of content about his love spoke to her deep inside her soul Touched her Moved her His respect, his consideration and concern for her pleasure ainst the side of her neck, his chest rising and falling with hers, his legs in a sexy tangle with hers She absentlyeach contour of muscle and bone, each knob of his vertebrae, the dish in his lower spine, and back up again to play with the closely cropped hair on his head

‘How’s that carpet burn?’ he said

Aiesha sood a quality or you weren’t going hard enough’

The glint in his eyes intensified ‘I can fix that,’ he said, and swooped down and covered her mouth with his

CHAPTER NINE

IN THE EARLY hours of the , James rolled over sleepily to reach for Aiesha beside him in his bed but instead his hand found a cool, e moment at the indentation on her pillohere her head had lain beside his The faint trace of her perfuered in the air, the sarance he could smell on his skin

He sat upright, listening for sounds of herbut silence

Empty silence

He frowned as he pushed back the covers He hadn’t heard her leave He hadn’t expected her to leave It olo who had served his purpose—a cheap hook-up thatused He had brought her upstairs because—all jokes aside—carpet burn wasn’t his style, and he had a feeling it wasn’t hers, either

But then he reht with anyone But surely he was different? He wasn’t soain He had taken the tiet to know her, to understand what put those shadows in her eyes

He had made love to her

He had taken the tiet to know her body as inti fervour Surely what they had shared meant more to her than a quick satiation of physical need?

He glanced at the bedside-table clock It was 4:00 a hiht

Her bedroom was empty

The bed had been slept in, or at least she had been in there because the sheets were all tangled and thrown back, the feather pillows crushed and misshapen But whether she had slept or not was open to question

How long had this restless bed-hopping been going on? When had it started? Why wouldn’t she talk to him about it? If only he had realised at the outset how coet her to confide in hi she went on with all the tied at the way he had confronted her in the kitchen, accusing her of stealing He had pushed her into aso he had lost his chance to earn her trust How long would it take to win it back? Or was he fighting an unwinnable battle?

When he turned on the light in the kitchen Bonnie raised her head and blinked at him but didn’t move from her cushioned bed near the cooker She put her head back down on her paws and closed her eyes as she gave a deep doggy sigh