Tall, Dark & Scandalous: Jordan St Claire: Dark and Dangerous. Carole Mortimer

attempted one last appeal for sanity. ‘Jordan, we really can’t do this.’

      ‘Oh, but we really can,’ he muttered, and his lips finally claimed hers.

      It was a slow and leisurely kiss as Jordan sipped and nibbled at Stephanie’s lips, tasting her, tantalising her, encouraging her to reciprocate, groaning low in his throat when her arm finally moved up about his shoulders and she pulled him down to her so that she could kiss him back.

      Jordan felt a surge down the length of his spine as her fingers became entangled in the darkness of his hair when the kiss deepened, lips tasting, teeth gently biting, tongues dueling. Stephanie was obviously feeling a desire that was echoed in the pulsing hardness of Jordan’s thighs.

      He shifted slightly in the chair, so that Stephanie lay back against the arm of the chair as his mouth left hers to trail sensuously down the long column of her throat, his tongue rasping across that silky flesh. She tasted of warmth and sunshine, the lightness of her perfume shadowed by the essence of sweet arousal. An arousal that reflected the hot demand rising inside Jordan to once again hear those panting little cries and breathy groans as he pleasured her.

      His hand moved caressingly beneath the soft wool of her sweater as he continued to taste that creamy throat. Stephanie’s skin was as smooth as silk and just as delicious. He touched. Cupped her breast. Gently squeezed the rosy-pink nipple and then stroked that sensitive tip. Pushed the softness of her jumper up and feasted his gaze on those small and perfect breasts before lowering his head and claiming one of those roused tips in the heat of his mouth.

      ‘Jordan!’ Stephanie’s back arched into his caress even as she gasped at the intimacy.

      His mouth reluctantly released her, his eyes hot and dark as he looked down at that plump and moist nipple. ‘You’re too delicious for me to stop, love,’ he murmured admiringly, and he stroked his thumb lightly over that plumpness before turning his attention to its twin, his tongue circling rhythmically across that rosy nub before drawing it into his mouth deeply, hungrily.

      Stephanie was totally lost to sensation, her hand cradling the back of Jordan’s head as his tongue rasped skilfully across her swollen nipple. The rush of pleasure between her thighs moistened her, even as she felt herself ache for him to touch her there too…

      Jordan’s eyes glowed deeply gold as he raised his head and held her gaze with his. He unbuttoned the fastening on her jeans before slowing pulling down the zip to reveal the black lace panties she wore beneath.

      Stephanie couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, moaning softly as Jordan lowered his head. She felt the softness of his tongue circling her navel, increasing the heat between her thighs as he plunged into that sensitive indentation even as his hands moved up her ribcage to cup and squeeze her breasts, to capture the swollen nipples once again in a rolling caress.

      She was on fire. Hot. Aching. Wet. Needing. Oh, God, needing…!

      Jordan answered that need as one of his hands moved to lie flat against the skin just below her waist before moving lower, and then lower still, slipping easily beneath the lace of her panties to seek out the silky damp curls below.

      Stephanie cried out as he drew one finger lightly over and around the already swollen nubbin nestled amongst those curls. Over and over again. Round and round. Touching. Pressing. A rhythmic caress that increased the pressure building deep inside her.

      Her cries became shaky gasps as she felt herself approaching a climax. Her fingers dug painfully into Jordan’s shoulders as his lips and tongue continued to arouse her breasts and pleasure built and built inside her, driving her higher and higher. But he seemed to know exactly when to stop the intensity of those caresses to hold her time and time again on the edge of that release.

      ‘Please, Jordan!’ Stephanie finally gasped. She was going insane with need. Immeasurable ecstasy was just beyond her reach.

      Jordan’s mouth pulled on her breast at the exact moment he slid one long and penetrating finger inside the hot moistness of her, quickly joined by a second, stretching her, widening her to accommodate that invasion, even as the soft pad of his thumb continued to caress her sensitive nubbin.

      Stephanie became so wet, so swollen, and those long fingers continued to plunge into her rhythmically, again and again, faster, harder, until the caresses pushed her over the edge into a climax so deep and prolonged it totally took her breath away and she could only cling onto him as she moved her hips into the burning intensity of that pulsing pleasure.

      Jordan continued his caresses long after she had climaxed, the hardness of his own arousal continuing to pulse to the same rhythm as the echoing quivers still shaking her inside, and threatening to cause him to self-combust.

      He had never been a selfish lover, finding as much satisfaction in giving his partner pleasure as he did in his own, and so he ignored the pulsing of his own body now to continue those caresses, wanting—needing—to give Stephanie every last vestige of physical pleasure.

      He was less pleased with the sudden look of panicked awareness that widened those beautiful green eyes minutes later, as she returned to full awareness of where she was and what had just happened between them. ‘It’s okay, Steph,’ he reassured her huskily.

      ‘It is not okay!’ she groaned self-consciously.

      ‘Believe me, it is,’ he soothed, even as he slowly, carefully, disengaged his fingers from her quivering flesh before refastening her jeans and pulling her sweater down. But not before he had given in to the temptation to gently kiss the slight redness of her breasts, where the stubble of his day’s growth of beard had rubbed against that delicate skin.

      He would have to shave twice a day if he wanted to do this again; he hated seeing even the slightest blemish on that perfect creamy skin.

      His gaze was hooded when he finally looked up, to see that her face was flushed and her eyes fever-bright with uncertainty. ‘You were beautiful, Stephanie,’ he told her.

      Her eyes were wide as she moistened dry lips with the tip of her little pink tongue. ‘I—What about you? You didn’t—’

      ‘We have all night,’ Jordan cut in as his hands moved gently from her breast to her thigh.

      Her frown was pained. ‘We really shouldn’t—’

      ‘We really should,’ he insisted firmly.

      She shook her head, her gaze not quite meeting his. ‘I’m not sure I’ll be able to stay on here if this is going to happen.’

      Jordan’s arms tightened about her as she struggled to stand up. ‘Stay, Stephanie. Please.’

      She looked up at him shyly. ‘But—’

      ‘If I had known you wanted to be alone, Jord, then I would have just telephoned you instead of flying up here to speak to you in person!’ a mocking voice drawled behind them.

      Jordan didn’t need to turn and look across the room in order to know that the voice belonged to his twin brother Gideon…

      CHAPTER SEVEN

      ‘OH, GOD!’ Stephanie gave a devastated groan and buried her heated cheeks against Jordan’s chest after shooting a single glance across the room and seeing the devastatingly handsome blond-haired, dark-eyed man who stood in the open doorway, looking back at her with a cynical expression on his face.

      ‘Not quite,’ the man said derisively.

      ‘Not even close, Gideon,’ Jordan retorted.

      ‘I guess you were a little too…preoccupied to hear the helicopter landing fifteen minutes ago?’ Gideon said pointedly.

      ‘I guess we were,’ Jordan said acerbically. ‘Does that mean that Lucan is here, too?’ The scowl could be heard in his tone.

      ‘I flew myself up.’

      ‘Why?’

      There was a short, telling pause.