BTW: I Love You. Heidi Rice

so much.’

      ‘How can you tell I’m thinking too much?’ she asked. Could those penetrating blue eyes see right into her soul? She didn’t even know this guy.

      He chuckled, discarded the sponge. His large hands settled on her shoulders, strong fingers massaging tight muscles.

      ‘You’re tensing up. Relax. Enjoy. We’ve got all night.’ His thumbs traced her collarbone then drifted under the water to circle her nipples.

      She let the little moan out before she could stop herself.

      ‘That’s better,’ he said, like a teacher with a particularly bright pupil. ‘Are your breasts very sensitive, then?’

      ‘Yes.’ She gulped the word out, not sure she could breathe as he played with the swollen peaks. ‘Aren’t everyone’s?’

      He laughed. ‘Not necessarily. Some women can come like this. Others can hardly feel it.’

      Exactly how many women had he slept with? From the way his clever caresses were making her breasts ache and throb and fire shimmer down to her core, she suspected quite a few. Maddy pushed the thought away. It would only make her feel inadequate.

      Her brow furrowed. And she wasn’t the one who should feel inadequate.

      Tender lips touched her brow as his fingers stilled on her breasts. ‘You’re thinking again, Maddy.’

      She opened her eyes. ‘I know; I can’t help it.’ She angled her head, took in the long fingers cradling her bobbing breasts, felt the aching response at her core. ‘I’m not used to this much attention. I feel a bit awkward.’

      The minute she’d said it, she wished she could take it back.

       Way to go, Mads. Why not make yourself sound like a charity case?

      And, anyway, she didn’t feel awkward; she felt hot and achy and dangerously out of control. But what he was doing made her feel oddly exposed too.

      He took his hands off her breasts, which immediately felt the loss, and brushed her hair back from her brow. ‘You know something, Maddy, I’ve never met a woman like you.’

      He levered himself off the seat beside the tub before she could reply.

      Was that a compliment or a criticism?

      He took a fluffy white towel out of the cabinet and unfolded it.

      Maddy’s heart sank. He’d got tired of her. She’d ruined her sexual adventure already—with her stupid overthinking. She’d had her chance to be seduced and she’d blown it.

      But, when he turned towards her, she could see humour and seduction smiling in his eyes. ‘Out of the water, Madeleine.’ He held the towel up in front of him like a bullfighter. ‘I want to taste you and I can’t do that while you’re in the bath. Not without a snorkel.’

      Fire rocketed to her core and she had to clasp her arms across her chest to stop the insistent throbbing.

       He wanted to what?

      The grin split his handsome features, those damn dimples winking again. ‘Damn, Maddy. Don’t tell me no guy’s ever tasted you before? What kind of morons have you been dating?’

      She was beginning to wonder the same thing herself. Just the thought of those firm, sensual lips on certain very sensitive parts of her anatomy was making her feel dizzy.

      ‘I …’ she began.

      His lips tilted some more. And she realised he was looking ever so slightly smug.

      ‘Of course they have,’ she lied smoothly, stepping out of the tub and shielding herself with her arms.

      The man already had the upper hand. It was way past time she wrestled back a little control here. After all, she was supposed to be the one in charge, not him.

      She dropped her arms to her sides as she let him wrap the bath sheet around her shoulders.

      Stop behaving like a shy virgin. You’re not. You’re a strong, sexually powerful woman who is about to have the most thrilling night of her life.

      He pulled the pins out of her hair, then drew the damp locks to one side and nipped the cord in her neck. She shuddered.

      ‘Great, so you like oral sex?’ The low murmured question shivered over her nape.

      ‘I love it,’ she said boldly, feeling like a lamb pretending to be a lion. And started as his arousal butted her bottom through the layers of denim and towelling.

      He felt huge, bigger than she remembered.

      She knew her sex life had always been fairly pedestrian. She’d only had two proper boyfriends and neither of them had been very inventive in bed—and she was beginning to realise they hadn’t been particularly well-endowed either. Which was why she’d wanted a wild, reckless, wanton fling in the first place. But why did she suddenly feel like a total novice? And why was heat flooding between her thighs like lava?

      He swung her round to face him, rubbed his hands down her arms and placed them on her hips to draw her close. ‘Good,’ he said, touching her nose. ‘Because I love it too. And if you taste as delicious as you smell, we’re both in for a real treat.’

      Oh, dear, Maddy thought as he guided her into the bedroom.

      Exactly how wild and wanton and reckless was this fling going to get?

      ‘Please … Rye.’ The strangled moan finished with a long, slow groan. ‘I can’t. Not again. I’ll die.’

      Maddy fisted her fingers into his shaggy hair as his head drifted lower. She wanted to haul him back to maintain her sanity, but instead her legs opened and her back bowed, arching her into his mouth instinctively.

      Her breath panted out as he licked her belly button and probed at her core with knowing fingers to expose her to his gaze.

      ‘You’re beautiful.’ The whisper of hot breath across impossibly sensitized flesh made her jump as the heat pounded remorselessly back to life.

      He swirled his tongue over the inside of her thighs.

      ‘Please.’ She gasped, not sure what she was begging for any more.

      She couldn’t come. Not again. Surely it was a physical impossibility?

      He hadn’t just tasted her. He’d devoured her. Feasted on every last naked inch of her skin. He’d discovered erogeneous zones she didn’t even know she had. Hell, she’d discovered ones she didn’t even know existed.

      She’d come so many times she’d lost count. He would let her rest for a while, the lazy stroking never stopping, and then he’d start all over again.

      Her body had become one raw, pulsating nerve that had surrendered totally to his will. Her flesh a slave to the rough, insistent strokes of his tongue, the knowing caress of callused, clever fingers.

      ‘Once more, Madeleine.’ He chuckled. ‘I insist.’

      Then he found the hard, wet, swollen nub of her clitoris with his mouth and suckled.

      Maddy sobbed, the sound elemental, desperate, as the coil of heat that had been building for an eternity ignited and burst into flames. The raging inferno seared through her body and she screamed, bucking under him, the raw pulsating nerve detonating into a mass of silvery shards that rocketed her over the edge and into the abyss.

      ‘Madeleine, are you okay?’

      Maddy drifted back to consciousness, the warm fuzzy feeling of afterglow making it difficult for her to get annoyed by the wry humour in his tone.

      She gave a long, slow sigh, her limbs finally reviving. ‘I’m dead,’ she murmured. ‘Of course I’m not okay.’

      Her eyelids fluttered open and a satisfied smile curved her lips to match his. Wow,