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‘Sounds to ested

‘Which shoulda oing to be over anyway, now really isn’t the tiave a pale sot teeth’

Taking a sip of her chocolate, A patrons below, at tired waiters replacing crisp white cotton tablecloths, setting up for the new day that would surely dawn The piano was quiet now, allowing her to han didn’t juht, that he didn’t attempt an anshen there really wasn’t one

‘You’re wrong about one thing, though’ Dragging her eyes back, A she wanted to say ‘Journalists do have integrity, Vaughan—at least this one does’

She waited—waited for hieneralisation—but instead he inhaled the brandy fu, slow sip

‘I guess we’ll just have to wait and see’

Placing her own part a fraction Her hand moved to close it, but even in that tiny second she felt the shift, could almost feel the scorch marks where his eyes had burned her exposed flesh, are all over again of her attire, trying to fathom hoithout a word, with just one tiny erous territory

‘I’d better go’ Flustered now, she stood up, and so too did he, holding the French door open and following her from the balcony back inside his room

Even though she’d only been there a short while ago it was unfaer, the air thick not with his cologne now, but with the thruers refused to obey as she struggled with the unfamiliar lock on the door, and his hand made contact with hers as he moved to help It was almost more than she could bear and still be expected to breathe A presence that spun her into confusion But even with the door unlocked, even with her escape route open, still she couldn’t move, trapped in her own desire

Finally she looked up at hie of her own Even if she didn’t fit the usual dress code of the sophisticated women he attracted and discarded so easily she kneas aroused, and it both thrilled and terrified her But as , was how ed for him to take her in his arms, to hush her troubled mind with a kiss How very easy it would be to take that step over the ain let her heart rule her head and let passion override sensibility

Again

Like a mental slap to her cheek, Taylor’s brutal betrayal forced her ain their function, her hands to pull open the door She knew she had to get out—that she needed distance, clarity and recall

Needed to recall the pain she had suffered before to reain

‘Goodnight, Vaughan’

She attempted formal, attempted distance, but he swept it aithout effort, one hand co up to her arm And despite the thick robe she could feel the heat of his palm on her skin, the space between them alive with thick tension Every pore of her body flamed into response as he moved a fraction forward, moved into her personal space uninvited but unhindered, so close she could feel his breath on her cheeks The weight of a kiss that simply had to happen was only a whisper away, and if her mind screamed no, then her body screamed yes

His faceinstead slowly along her cheek, the scratchy feel of hiht of his swollen lips so close—su her to reciprocate if she dared, to seal this unionAnd she couldn’t not

Her lips turned to his like petals to the sun, and the blissful weight of hisher lips, , relishing, she tasted the faint flavour of hi of brandy, tasted the decadent wine of his expert kiss Every ue, was slow and deliberate, stirring the need within her with each skilful stroke Her whole body was pitted with lust, arching towards him in necessary reaction—because she needed to feel hi her as she moved, firmly nestled in the s her deep inside

The hand that had captured her hair blazed a heated slow trail along her neck, a finger stilling for a second on the beat of her pulse as still he kissed her, still he drew her in It orking down, ever down, so slowly she could have halted him at any moment, so slowly there was plenty of time to pull away to end this liaison—but it would have been easier to die than to end it now She needed this, needed it in a primitive, deep, inexplicable way

Her whole body was his willing instru with dizzy need, so that when his hand slipped inside her robe her nipples were so taut, so achingly ready, a groan of sheer lustful pleasure welled in her ed buds between his fingers, then took the weight of her bosoent now, pushing her further towards him, till she could feel hiainst her stomach