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  ‘I’m on again… tonight,’ he said in a knowing way.

  Natasha shook her fantasies from her brain, dragged her eyes from the black satin sheets of the king-sized bed and found Jace’s intense blue gaze on her lips. Lazily, his eyes rose to meet hers, sending arrows of excitement shooting into her lower belly.

  Say something. Invite him to your room later.

  Natasha opened her mouth to speak, but no words came.

  ‘I’ve got a double shift. I finish now and return at 9pm for night-shift. So if you have any…’ Jace dipped his head and looked away, an almost shy smile gracing his lips, ‘… any needs later tonight, just call me.’

  A tingling heat shuddered through Natasha’s body as Jace brushed past her and left the room.

  She had travelled to many conferences but had never been so blatantly propositioned like this.

  But was it really a sexual proposition? What if he merely loved his job and loved pleasing the customers by delivering them things and running errands?

  No. His eyes hadn’t spoken of errands. His eyes had spoken the language of sex. Hot sex. Grinding, thrusting, banging sex.

  Another flush of heat rushed up her neck and into her face. Natasha hurriedly poured herself a fresh flute of bubbly. With a trembling hand, she brought the glass to her lips and drained it. The cool fizz slid down her throat, sending a million shivers up and down her spine.

  But could a young, hot guy like that really be interested in me?

  After setting the glass down, she stood before the wall-length mirror in her room and disrobed, allowing the satin material to slip from her smooth shoulders.

  She was attractive enough. Her body was firm and she was filled out in all the right places. The only thing she lacked was sexual experience. The Children of the Celestial Light — the religious sect she’d forever lost her parents to — had robbed such experience from her. When Natasha and her sister had escaped the sect at the ages of eighteen and twenty-one, Liza had managed to forget her past by diving headlong into one-night stands and even threesomes.

  But for Natasha, who at the age of seventeen was forced to attend ‘Marital Obedience’ classes after being personally chosen as the future wife number six for Father Glen, the sect leader, cutting the mental and emotional shackles that bound her sexuality had been a lot harder. So difficult in fact that whenever a man asked her out on a date she broke into a sweat — no matter how attractive or witty or friendly he seemed. Marital obedience classes had taught her one important thing. That deep down all men sought control over women. And the very day she and Liza had escaped the sect, Natasha vowed she would never ever let a man have any form of control over her. Which meant never allowing a man close enough to know her. Instead she focused on her education, eventually completing a degree in creative writing before embarking on a successful writing career.

  A career she was destined to lose in less than twenty-four hours if she chose to remain tied to her past. Tonight. It has to be tonight. It’s the only way you can hold your head up high at this conference.

  She pictured Jace’s hands, his muscled forearms and biceps, good for lifting a woman and holding her up against a wall while…

  A low moan escaped her lips, followed closely by a yawn. She needed sleep. The mirror reflected a horror show in her face — dark circles beneath her eyes and extra fine lines.

  But then she remembered, with another groan, that she had promised Sheryl-Ann she would join her for sunset cocktails.

  At that moment a dull thud began tapping right at the centre of her forehead. Sleep. She needed sleep more than anything.

  Bugger it. Sheryl-Ann will have to sip cocktails without me. Maybe I’ll make it up by taking part in some author meet and greet sessions on Sunday afternoon. Yes. That’s it. I’ll have reception pass on a message to her.

  But before she could make the call to reception, the urge to close her eyes was so strong that she stretched out on the bed and fell asleep, naked, the warm sea air breezing through the curtains and sending feather light tickles over her body.

  Natasha awoke to darkness and the heavy in-out breath of the ocean, her head thick and hazy with the remnants of an erotic dream. In the dream she’d been in the arms of Jace, and his warm, heavy breath in her ears had mimicked the sound of the ocean.

  Sighing, she clutched a pillow to her chest and crossed her bare thighs while she waited for her erratic pulse to settle, and the warm tingling between her legs to subside.

  The clock at her bedside read 9.30pm, and in alarm she sat up and reached for the phone. Now she had truly let poor Sheryl-Ann down. At least a message would have numbed the sting. She had to call her right now and explain. No. It was too late to disturb her. A message would have to do until morning.

  ‘Reception,’ a deep gravelly voice answered — the very same voice from Natasha’s dream. Liquid heat flooded her body.

  While Natasha fought to remember the reason for her call, the voice on the other end laughed a throaty laugh. ‘What can I do for you this evening, Miss Raven?’

  ‘Jace,’ she whispered, and he laughed again.

  Natasha pinched her bare thigh in a bid to clear her head.

  ‘Ouch. Um. I need a massage, no, I mean, a message passed to a Miss Sheryl-Ann Conner. Tell her that I apologise for this afternoon and hope to make it up to her tomorrow.’

  The other end was silent for a while until Jace said, ‘You forgot to say please.’

  ‘Please.’

  ‘Please, Jace,’ he said, his voice a low, teasing growl.

  Natasha’s heart began to race and her thoughts returned to the flashes of her dream. She pinned beneath him, then he beneath her…

  ‘I already said please, now goodnight!’

  ‘Wait!’

  The warm summer breeze from the balcony drifted across her bare nipples, making them tighten.

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Is there anything else I can do for you, Miss Raven?’

  Natasha’s entire body flushed with heat.

  ‘Yes… I mean… no.’

  ‘You only need to say when and I’m at your service.’

  ‘When,’ slipped out of Natasha’s mouth before she could stop herself.

  3

  Natasha flung the phone against the mattress, where it bounced onto the floor with a soft thud. She lay there, staring up at the ceiling, anticipating what was to come. Could she really go through with this? Sex with a stranger? When for most of her life she was taught it was wrong? That it meant she was brazen and that men would no longer see her as a lady, or one of God’s daughters, but just as a sexual plaything?

  She rolled over and groaned.

  Being Jace’s plaything doesn’t sound so bad…

  The biggest problem was allowing a man to get that close to her. Allowing him to gain pleasure from her body. Worse still, enjoying his pleasure and losing control — control she had fought so hard to maintain.

  A knock came at the door, quicker than she had expected. She leapt out of bed and seized the crumpled robe from the floor.

  The door clicked and Jace entered, holding the hotel’s spare security card. Natasha only had time to press the robe against her naked body and turn on the bedside lamp, setting the room in a warm glow.

  ‘You came.’

  He entered, smelling as though he’d just stepped out of the shower.

  Colour tinted his cheeks when he saw that she was naked save for a robe. He swallowed thickly, his eyes drinking her in hungrily while he stood on the other side of the bed.

  Natasha watched Jace’s chest rise and fall in shallow breaths. He appeared… as though he was… as though he was nervous?

  Is he some kind of gentlemanly sex-maniac?

  Hmmm… good character for my next book – male, mid-twenties, has urges to bed strangers but suffers intense guilt afterwards…

  Stop it! You’ve got a job to do…

  ‘Shall we begin?’ she said, hoping the dim light hid the blush on her face
and neck.

  She thought she saw a flash of hesitation in his eyes, but then he grinned and unbuttoned his shirt. Next, he kicked off his shoes and flung his leather belt onto the bed.

  ‘You can help me if you like,’ he said with a sexy half-smile, as though he did this all the time.

  Though she tried her best to saunter, erotically, towards to Jace, Natasha’s body seemed to have had lost its ability to read her brain’s commands, and as a result she stubbed her toe on the corner of the bed.

  Ouch.

  ‘Are you okay?’

  She winced, pressed the robe tighter against her chest and nodded.

  Jace’s gaze softened before he reached for Natasha’s hand and tugged her closer. The touch of his warm skin made Natasha’s stomach flip.

  He ran gentle fingers lightly over her chin and then stroked her cheek with his thumb, his brows furrowing slightly. ‘If I’m moving too fast, let me know.’

  Natasha closed her eyes and enjoyed the way Jace’s touch lingered lightly on her jaw before trailing down the curve of her neck. She re-opened them when he squeezed her hand in his.

  His blue eyes appeared darker in the dimly lit room and she immediately likened them to the ocean — deep and endless.

  Without warning, Jace pressed Natasha’s hand against his hard crotch and she felt a sharp thrill shoot through her veins.

  Oh… hello….

  ‘The zip goes down,’ he said in a ragged breath, letting out a low laugh.

  Heart racing madly, she nodded, letting her eyes slide down his tanned, broad chest, pausing to linger on the hard flat belly and the thin trail of hair that disappeared beneath the waist of his pants. Natasha’s fingers trembled as they clutched the zipper. Apart from the pictures found in the human biology books she’d studied while completing her high-school certificate in her early twenties, she’d never seen a naked man in the flesh before. Now, here she was, with her hand on a stranger’s crotch. As she tugged the zipper down, Natasha’s fingers brushed against the stiff bulge in Jace’s pants. She gasped and drew her hand back, her pulse notching up another gear.

  Jace responded with a soft groan that made Natasha’s legs quiver.

  He smiled softly, touched Natasha’s face again, and then slid an arm around her waist, to draw her against the firm planes of his body. His brows knotted slightly and he shook his head as he gazed down at her.

  ‘If you weren’t a writer of erotic fiction, I’d think you were a virgin, Miss Raven.’ He shook his head again before tugging on her arm and lowering his hot lips to her pulsing wrist. ‘But that’s crazy,’ he breathed against her skin.

  Panic seized Natasha’s heart. Jace could see the phony through her façade.

  ‘How did you know what I wrote?’

  He stared at her, expressionless, for a long moment before he laughed and pointed to the lanyard resting on the bed.

  Natasha laughed a deep throaty laugh, attempting to sound as sexy as her lanyard promised. But the crease in Jace’s brow deepened.

  This called for drastic measures.

  Without second-guessing, Natasha drew back enough to let the robe slip between them, where it fell into a satiny pile on the floor. She’d read enough of her sister’s sex scenes to allow for a little bit of fakery.

  She pressed herself flush against him so that her hard nipples grazed his bare chest, and was rewarded when Jace sucked in a short, sharp breath and stared down at her with a burning heat in his eyes.

  ‘Still think I’m the innocent?’ she said, in a low, throaty voice.

  Jace smiled softly and shook his head before he bent to press his warm lips against hers.

  ‘My pants,’ he rasped, between kisses, his tongue gently probing her mouth open. She moaned and eagerly accepted him in while hooking her fingers around the waist of his pants and tugging them down over his hips.

  Natasha gasped into Jace’s eager mouth when she felt the hard, hot heat of his cock against her stomach.

  He smiled against her lips, no doubt pleased with her reaction.

  How was that huge, rock-solid thing going to fit inside her down there?

  ‘On the bed,’ he murmured, between panting breaths.

  The backs of her thighs hit the bed and she surrendered herself by falling back against the mattress while he knelt over her and continued to kiss and tongue her ear, neck, collarbones and then breasts. When his warm lips closed over first one nipple and then the other, she had to clench the sheets between her fists and twist them so as to keep the growing heat between her legs at bay. Instinct urged her to raise her hips and seek out his hardness, and when she did Jace groaned and pressed himself against her before pulling away just as suddenly.

  ‘Not yet,’ he said, drawing back to stare down into her eyes. His lips were swollen and his face flushed, his eyes hooded with desire.

  Natasha shut her eyes and couldn’t help but arch her body again. She wanted those lips on her breasts again and she wanted his hands everywhere, especially between her legs.

  ‘You’re allowed to touch me, you know,’ Jace murmured into her ear, and Natasha could have kissed him for reminding her of what she was actually doing here. She was supposed to be learning, taking it all in and storing it inside her mind for later.

  ‘And you’re allowed to look at me, too,’ he added.

  Natasha opened her eyes, and, ever so slowly, dragged her gaze from Jace’s face to explore his naked and very hot body.

  Half-way down, she paused and swallowed thickly as she took a good look at her first in–the-flesh cock. Her face burned with heat, and a tiny bit of shame, as she studied it. Though she so desperately wanted to reach out and touch it, Natasha couldn’t block out the wheezy voice of Father Glen, as he bellowed ‘Whore!’ ‘Strumpet!’

  But she shook the ugly, wrinkled man free from her head, and fixed her eyes on Jace’s beautiful face, on the want and need she read there in his eyes.

  You are Natasha Raven, erotic romance writer extraordinaire, and a beautiful man has just asked you to touch him.

  ‘What would you like me to do?’ Natasha asked, licking her lips and dragging her gaze down to his cock and back up again, giving him what she hoped would be sexy dark eyes filled with desire. ‘What do you like?’

  His chest rose and fell with short, sharp breaths and his cock jumped at her words.

  ‘I like this,’ he said, taking her hand and wrapping it around his hard length. Natasha shuddered with pleasure and instinctively crossed her legs, squeezing her thighs together.

  With their eyes locked and his warm hand over hers, Jace started to move her tightly fisted hand up and down his shaft, his ragged breath matching each quick thrust. Then he closed his eyes, his thick dark lashes brushing against perfectly sculpted cheekbones, and let out a soft moan.

  Oh God, oh God, oh God…

  Natasha had never before seen a sight so beautiful, so beautiful she almost couldn’t breathe. Her own breath started to come out in quick little rasps as the heat in her body quickened. She was losing control.

  ‘That’s enough,’ Jace breathed, stilling her hand with his.

  While he caught his breath he stared down at her.

  ‘Okay beautiful Natasha, your turn. What do you like?’

  Natasha’s heart raced. She was really doing this. She was in bed with a man — a stranger who was willing to share himself with her in the most intimate way. And he wasn’t controlling her. He was asking her what she liked.

  Use this opportunity. Think of all the things you’ve wanted to try.

  A shiver of excitement shook her naked body. Though there were many things she wanted to try, one particular idea excited her the most.

  4

  Natasha had always loved reading oral sex scenes and this was her one chance to know what it felt like to pleasure a man with her mouth. But what would Jace think of her?

  Who cares? You’ll most likely never see him again after tonight. You’ve come this far! Go with it!

 
; ‘Can I put my mouth…’ she swallowed thickly as she felt him harden to iron in her fist, ‘… here,’ she gave him a gentle squeeze, ‘instead of my hand.’

  He let out a ragged sigh and stared at her for what seemed a long time before he rolled onto his back. ‘Okay,’ he breathed. ‘But not for long.’ A grin erased his intense frown. ‘Unless you want to meet one-second Samuel.’

  A giggle tickled Natasha’s throat. She would’ve liked to have jotted down Jace’s quip for later use in one of her manuscripts, but the mere act of walking to the desk would have had her orgasming the entire way she was so on edge.

  Kneeling over him, Natasha’s lower belly quivered as Jace’s dark blue eyes drank up seemingly every inch of her body. He was staring up at her like she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, and when his eyes roved to the place between her legs, her entire body jumped with a jolt of desire she’d never known before now.

  Still, as sexually arousing as this moment was, Natasha suddenly wished she knew more about Jace. Though she had never allowed herself to get close to a man in real life, her books were filled with romance. In Natasha’s romantic fantasies, the couple always shared hearts before sharing their bodies.

  ‘Wait. What’s your last name?’

  Jace swallowed thickly, smiled and frowned at the same time before breathing out, ‘Branson.’

  ‘What star sign are you?’

  Jace remained silent for a long time, catching his breath, before he said, ‘Leo,’ amusement sparkling in his eyes.

  Natasha chewed on her bottom lip. Was a surname and star-sign enough? Could she really be this intimate with somebody she hardly knew? A Jace Branson who was born in either July or August?

  He grinned. ‘Let me guess, you’re Aries?’ When she nodded in surprise, he licked his lips. ‘Hmmm… two fire signs.’

  ‘Explosive sex… apparently.’ Natasha put a hand to her lips and felt her entire face blush.

  Noooo… I did not just say that!

  Jace laughed out loud, the sound melting through Natasha’s tightly strung nerves and bringing forth a giggle to her lips. She collapsed against the mattress in a near on fit, unable to stop laughing, until she noticed that Jace had grown quiet and was now staring at her with seductively hooded eyes.