Read Online Second Tomorrow by Anne Hampson - Free Book Online Page A

her to his hard and sinewed frame, compelling her to feel the virile strength that would awaken in her the dream and the desire whose meaning was total surrender. No words passed between them, but a low moan of sheer ecstasy left herlips to fire his ardour to even stronger depths. Their bodies swayed to a rhythm that matched their breathing and all the world was forgotten in the miracle of their intimacy. She felt small and meek and she had never realised it could be so rapturously pleasant. His lips moved, to find tender, vulnerable places behind her ear and along her throat. She was limp and submissive in his arms and when his hand left the middle of her back to loosen the buttons of her evening blouse her only emotion was the thrill of expectancy, the need for his touch on her bare flesh. With the ease and confidence of the expert his hand found the fastening of her bra and it was undone. He brought her breast to his mouth and she thrilled to the hardness of the nipple between his teeth. As rapture swelled within her she felt the wild surge of blood to her heart, an ecstatic flame searing her whole body, sapping her strength, affecting her sanity. His iron-hard thighs were the pleasure-pain torture that finally brought forth from her lips the plea for him to love her.
    ‘Is that really what you want?’ His voice was low, throaty with passion. ‘Are you quite sure?’
    The spell was broken by his words, by the implication of doubt; and she drew away, her breasts rising and falling with the intensity of her emotions.
    ‘No,’ she murmured, sanity returning. ‘No, it isn’t what I want.’ At the apology in her tone Luke’s mouth quirked. It was with relief that she saw he was not angered by her change ofmind. Somehow, he was making her feel at ease, unembarrassed and even unashamed. Tenderness and gratitude mingled and on sudden impulse she went up on tiptoe and kissed him on the lips. A little laugh escaped him before he swung her right off her feet, holding her aloft then lowering her gently to the ground. He looked at her and said, ‘Turn around,’ which she did, and another wild thrill of rapture was a deluge of warmth at the contact of his fingers as they dealt with the fastening of her bra. Instead of turning her around he left his hands inside her blouse, sliding them down until they were stopped by the tight waistband of her skirt. A small laugh, good-humoured and rueful, accompanied the action of bringing her round to face him.
    ‘Shall we go back?’ he suggested after a pause. ‘Phil’s expecting to have a drink with us.’
    She nodded, marvelling at his calm, when she herself was having the greatest difficulty in gaining control of her emotions.
    ‘Yes, of course. We’ve been out ages.’
    ‘Not more than half an hour.’
    ‘It seems longer than that.’
    ‘What prosaic talk is this?’ he teased, tugging a lock of hair that had fallen across her face. ‘The time seems longer, my child, because we did so much. Not a second was wasted.’
    To her own surprise she laughed and said, ‘I don’t suppose you ever do waste time.’
    There was a hint of archness in her mannerwhich, because it lacked coquetry, was very appealing to the man at her side, and he reached down to take her hand. They walked in companionable silence back along the moonlit beach to the hotel where, after meeting Phil in the lounge and having a drink with him, Luke took his leave of them, promising to come over the following evening and have a long discussion with Clare about the new project.
    Clare was at the reception desk when the woman sauntered in, the waft of heady perfume preceding her. Clare glanced up, her breath catching at the sheer beauty of the woman’s features and the perfection of her figure.
    ‘I made a reservation.’ Big, widely-spaced eyes of cornflower blue travelled almost insolently over that part of Clare’s body seen above the desk and she found herself bristling instantly. ‘I booked a