The Platinum Collection: A Diamond Deal. Susan Stephens

CHAPTER TEN

      ‘RULE NUMBER ONE: you do exactly as I say. Rule number two: you don’t lose control until I tell you that you can.’

      Rules? Seriously? Her mind was shooting splinters into the ether just at the prospect of release. If those were his rules she would sign up now.

      ‘Only when I tell you,’ Roman repeated as if he knew the innermost workings of her mind. ‘It might not be as easy as you think.’

      ‘I’ll risk it.’ He knew she was on the edge. He knew she wouldn’t need much pushing.

      ‘Don’t even think it. Take your mind somewhere else.’

      ‘But how am I supposed to—?’

      ‘To stop yourself?’ Roman supplied. ‘You’ll do that easily when you remember that I won’t touch you again if you don’t.’

      She nodded tensely.

      ‘Do as I say and the pleasure will continue as much as you want for as long as you want. Disobey me, and it will stop immediately.’

      ‘I’ll obey you in this one thing,’ she made clear.

      ‘And gladly, I would have thought,’ Roman murmured, a sexy smile playing round his lips. ‘As for the rest?’ His stare grew frighteningly dark and compelling. ‘It’s all up for grabs.’

      Hmm. Roman was a maestro and she was the orchestra he had chosen to direct. The ache inside her had reached crisis point. She was in no mood to argue. ‘I agree to your conditions.’

      ‘We’re both adults. Everyone’s at the wedding, so you can be as noisy and as uninhibited as you like.’

      She nodded agreement as if she understood, but she was wondering if Roman was always so calculating—there was no other word for it. Was he incapable of feeling? She had imagined her first real sexual experience would be very different from this. She had hazily imagined some romantic encounter with an ordinary man, rather than a high-achieving sexual athlete. Was this what she wanted?

      As she thought about it Roman was holding her in a loose embrace, and her hand somehow strayed to the fine gold chain he wore around his neck. She pulled back to take a better look at it. He removed her hand. Don’t touch. She got it. But why?

      Did she have to know everything about Roman? What did she want out of this? Wasn’t the fact that he was experienced enough for her? So he had nothing more to give other than pleasure? That wasn’t so bad, was it? Was she such an expert in returning normal human affection? They both had boundaries they refused to cross—

      ‘Are you still a virgin?’

      ‘What?’ She was startled by the question hitting her out of the blue.

      ‘Maybe not a virgin,’ Roman said thoughtfully. ‘But as close as it gets...’

      She laughed as if she knew all about it. ‘How can you be close to being a virgin? You either are or you’re not, surely?’

      ‘You should have told me,’ Roman said, drawing back.

      ‘Told you what?’ she asked defensively, but she knew. ‘I can just imagine that conversation.’

      Roman frowned. ‘What’s so difficult about telling the truth?’

      She couldn’t answer him, and after a long moment he shrugged and brought her back into his arms. She didn’t wait this time. She didn’t want any more questions or explanations, she just wanted him to touch her, and when he did her screams of release could probably be heard in the village.

      * * *

      ‘Good?’ he murmured when she had quietened a little.

      ‘What do you think?’

      ‘I think more,’ he said.

      ‘If I must,’ she whispered, glancing up at him. Her hips were already working against his hand.

      ‘Once is never enough,’ Roman agreed, moving down the bed.

      ‘What are you doing?’ She barely got the question out before she reacted fast and violently to the touch of his tongue and his lips and his hands and his—

      ‘And again?’ he suggested.

      ‘Definitely.’ She was still panting for breath, but instead of feeling sated she was gasping for more.

      Her eyes shot wide as Roman slipped one finger inside her. ‘Does that hurt?’ he whispered.

      She needed a moment before she could speak—a moment to get used to the sensation...the invasion, the shock. And during that moment Roman began to stimulate her with his other hand, so in seconds she had forgotten why she had been frightened.

      ‘Good?’

      Like she never wanted it to end good. ‘Yes...’

      ‘And now?’ he said, slipping another finger inside her.

      ‘Yes... Oh, yes.’

      While Eva gained in confidence and grew used to the new sensation, he kept her arousal high. He was in no hurry. They had all night. She soon forgot her fears and rose against him, seeking more, and as she did so his free hand slipped round her back to support her and he felt the scar. It wasn’t small, and it wasn’t deep, but it was a ragged expanse of damaged skin that didn’t strike him as the result of falling out of a tree as a child, or even a more serious accident that would have required treatment in hospital. It was perhaps a burn, or a severe grazing episode that had been coped with at home. He wondered about it, but said nothing. This wasn’t the time, not for either of them, but it gave him another piece of the jigsaw that was Eva Skavanga.

      Perhaps the scar answered everything. Eva was a beautiful woman who was neither completely innocent nor experienced. She had kept the world at bay, maybe because she had been hurt badly at some time. Whatever else he had discovered about her tonight, she brought out his protective instincts.

      Was this the start of a relationship?

      Forget that. He would have to learn to care long-term—to risk his heart, his pride, his slumbering emotions—and he just wasn’t cut out for that.

      ‘What are you doing?’ Eva exclaimed when he reached into a bedside drawer.

      ‘Protecting you,’ he said, ripping the foil. ‘Would you like to—’

      Her face turned grey.

      ‘Would I like to what?’ she whispered.

      ‘Would you like to put it on for me?’ he offered, pressing the packet into her hand.

      ‘I don’t think so.’

      Her confidence died a little more as he threw back the sheet.

      He waited. And waited. Finally she huffed a laugh, but it sounded brittle to him. She didn’t want to take things any further. He didn’t need it spelling out. He doubted she had taken things this far in the past. His concern for Eva took a huge leap. If a man took her at face value Eva could find herself in serious trouble at some point down the line. ‘Don’t know how to?’ he suggested.

      ‘Don’t be so ridiculous,’ she flashed, pulling the sheet tight around her. ‘You really are one arrogant piece of work, aren’t you?’

      ‘I am?’ Sitting up, he reached forward and took her hands in his, forcing her to look at him. ‘You’re playing a very dangerous game, Eva.’

      ‘How so?’ she demanded.

      ‘You’re lying naked in a bed with me.’

      ‘I didn’t notice you fighting me off.’

      ‘When I have sex with someone, I have to be sure.’ As he spoke he was swinging off the bed and standing up. ‘Call me old-fashioned,