control.
‘Oh!’ she breathed, eagerly squirming her hips beneath him and feeling a warm, wild heat building up inside her. And he answered her voiceless plea by slipping his hand inside the elasticated waistband of her pyjamas.
She held her breath as his warm palm navigated its way down her belly, tiptoeing tantalisingly to the fuzz of hair which lay beyond. Still she held her breath as he stroked at the sensitive skin of her inner thigh, and then gasped as his fingertips seared over her moist heat.
‘Oh!’ she said again.
‘You’re very wet.’
‘A-am I?’
‘Mmm …’ Tariq’s mouth brushed over hers as his finger strayed to the tight bud at the very core of her desire. Her instant compliance didn’t surprise him—he was capable of reducing a woman to a boneless state of longing no matter what the circumstances. But the sheer and urgent spontaneity of what they were doing made him tense—just for a moment. And that moment was enough for him to remember one vital omission.
He froze, before snatching his hand away from her. Damn and damn and
damn!
‘I don’t have any protection with me,’ he ground out.
For one stupid moment Isobel thought he was talking about the bodyguards he sometimes used, and then she saw the look of dark frustration on his face and realised what he meant. A wave of insecurity washed over her.
Should she tell him?
Of
course
she should tell him—they were on the brink of making love, and now was not the time for coyness.
‘Actually, I’m …’ Isobel swallowed, wanting his fingers back on her aching flesh. ‘I’m on the pill.’
Her admission dampened his ardour fractionally. He drew away from her, his black eyes slitted in a cool question. ‘The pill?’
Isobel heard the unmistakable disapproval in his voice. ‘Lots of women are.’
There was a pause. ‘Yes. I imagine that they are.’
Suddenly she shrank from the truth in his hard black eyes, indignant words tumbling from her lips before she could stop them. ‘I suppose you think that the kind of woman who happens to have contraception covered is easy?’
Tariq shrugged. ‘You must agree that it does imply a certain degree of
accessibility
.’
‘Well, you couldn’t be more wrong, Tariq,’ she declared hotly. ‘Because … because I’ve never had a lover before!’
He stared at her, genuinely confused. ‘What the hell are you talking about?’
‘I was prescribed the pill because my periods areheavy, and that’s the only reason. I’ve … Well, I’ve never had any other reason to take it.’
This commonplace and unexpected disclosure highlighted the unusual degree of intimacy between them, and Tariq frowned. He brushed a corkscrew lock of hair away from her forehead, trying to make sense of her words. ‘You’re trying to tell me you’re—?’
‘Yes, I’m a virgin,’ she said, as if it didn’t matter.
Because surely it didn’t? What mattered was Tariq kissing her and transporting her back to that heavenly place he’d taken her to before. Just because she had waited a long time for a man to turn her on as much as this, it didn’t mean that she should be treated as some kind of leper, did it?
Sliding her arms around his neck, she lifted her face to his, hungry for him. ‘Now, kiss me again,’ she whispered.
How could he refuse her soft entreaty? Tariq groaned as he tasted her trembling lips and a shaft of pure desire shot through him. He could feel the softness of her breasts yielding against his bare chest, their taut tips firing at him like little arrows towards his heart. Irresistibly, his fingers slipped inside the waistband of her pyjama trousers again, and he heard her little gurgle of anticipation.
For one moment he was about to peel them right off. Then his hand paused, mid-motion, as he forced himself to recall the unbelievable facts.
She was a virgin!
And more importantly …
She was his assistant!
‘No!’ he thundered, dragging his lips away from hers. ‘I will not
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