Nik tensed in surprise and dealt her an arrested glance. ‘Prudence Angelis…what’s come over you?’
Prudence pressed her hot face into his suit jacket, drinking in the familiar scent of him with sensually appreciative pleasure. She felt weak with wanting. ‘I don’t know, but if your aim is perfection it could be a mistake to stick too closely to the schedule…’
Nik vented an earthy laugh of appreciation and swept her out of the room without further ado.
CHAPTER SIX
ON THE THRESHOLD of the master bedroom, Nik scooped Prudence up into his arms and carried her in. He settled her down on the four-poster bed. She lay back and kicked off her shoes, her deeply appreciative eyes sparkling at the elaborate canopy above her and the beautiful rose-strewn curtains hanging at each corner. ‘This is my dream come true. All my life I’ve wanted a bed like this…how did you guess?’
‘Your girlie bedroom spoke for you. You’re a romantic.’
At that label, Prudence stiffened, wrinkled her nose and sat up on her knees. ‘No, I’m not.’
Amused dark eyes rested on her. ‘It’s not a crime.’
Her curling lashes hid her expression but the angle of her chin had a firmness that spoke for her.
‘You’re very wary,’ Nik drawled. ‘Can’t you trust me?’
Prudence shook her head.
Nik was taken aback by the speed of that response. ‘But you must trust me to some extent.’
Prudence shook her head a second time.
Nik levelled censorious golden eyes on her. ‘That is outrageous…you’re my wife!’
‘Let’s not forget why I’m here today.’
His gaze shimmered like a heatwave. ‘I’m fighting for our marriage…why can’t you appreciate that?’
‘Maybe I don’t like your methods.’
‘Some day you’ll look back and be glad I fought for you,
‘So you think you’ve been fighting for me?’ Prudence was shaken by the obvious strength of his conviction in that fact. She could see that the secret of his phenomenal success lay in his outlook. When blackmail could be presented as an act of heroism and matrimonial devotion, how could she help but be impressed?
Nik flung back his arrogant dark head. ‘What else?’
‘But you still haven’t explained why you’ve gone to so much effort,’ she pointed out gently.
Nik sent her a winging look of frustration as if he could not comprehend why that should seem a mystery to her. ‘You’re my wife. What other reason do I need?’
Prudence lifted and dropped her shoulders for if he had no idea why, she had even less.
‘Did you enjoy today?’ he asked huskily.
Meeting his stunning dark golden eyes, she felt a sensation like her heart lurching inside her: he was that beautiful. ‘Much more than our wedding day…’
‘The night will be spectacular,’ he promised, leaning down to tip the bolero jacket off her shoulders and slide it off.
All of a sudden her agile brain stopped racing and throwing thoughts at her faster than she could handle. She connected with smouldering dark golden eyes and breathing became a considerable challenge. Simply by looking at her, Nik could plunge her into a state of hopeless desire. In an effort to overcome that sense of weakness, Prudence tugged him down to her and began to unknot his tie.
‘I like this sudden need to rip my clothes off,’ Nik confided, hot eyes melded to her.
Although her face was burning, Prudence had not lost her resolve. Rising onto her knees, she helped him out of his jacket and embarked on his shirt buttons with fingers that felt mortifyingly clumsy. ‘But maybe it’s a little less practised than what you’re used to-’
Disconcerted by that comment, Nik closed his hand over hers. ‘Don’t undervalue what I have with you. This is different for me.’
Wanting to believe that but afraid to, Prudence hesitated momentarily. ‘Is it?’
‘Of course it is…’ Nik covered her lips with an unexpected tenderness.
His tongue delved into the moist cavern of her mouth and sensual anticipation took her by storm. Suddenly the hunger he had taught her to feel, and which she had suppressed with every atom of her considerable will-power, was in the ascendant again. She was shocked by the urgency of her craving. The skilled movement of his mouth on hers, the explicit intrusion of his tongue were enough to make her shake and shiver as though she had a fever. One kiss ran hotly into the next.
A dark flush scoring his hard cheekbones, stunning eyes glittering, Nik undid the halter-neck of her dress and slowly drew the opulent fabric down to release her full curves from the shaped bodice.
‘You’re gorgeous,’ he said thickly.
Entranced by her creamy breasts and the distended rosy buds awaiting his attention, he pressed her back against the pillows. Smoothly extracting her from the gown round her hips, he tossed it aside. He bent over her with a husky sound of satisfaction to let his lips toy with a pouting pink nipple. Heat burst low in her pelvis and tensed her hips and an ache that was almost painful began to stir.
‘You’re also very clever,’ Nik murmured intently as he dragged himself back from her with flattering reluctance to shed his clothes.
‘Am I?’ Her body was taut and heavy with the sensuality he had awakened and she found it an effort to string even those two words together. With his amazing eyes fired to scorching gold and his shirt hanging loose on a brown, hair-roughened expanse of muscular chest, Nik also looked utterly breathtaking.
He gave her a slashing grin of masculine appreciation. ‘You said no…you made me wait. I’m not used to practising patience, but there has been an unexpected benefit-I haven’t been this excited since I was a teenager.’
Embarrassment at his candour and satisfaction mingled within Prudence, before she picked up on the much more important fact he had just given her: he had not allowed any other woman to assuage his hot-blooded libido. As there were always sexually available women within reach of rich powerful tycoons, this could only mean that Nik had made a new and conscious choice to be faithful to his wife. Happiness thrilled through Prudence. For the first time it occurred to her that, if she set the marital bars high enough, his natural need to compete, excel and win might actually make him strive to meet her expectations.
‘I wasn’t thinking of that angle,’ Prudence muttered honestly, self-conscious but trying to smile rather than act the prude.
‘I’ve thought of you from every angle,
He had called her his woman and she wondered if she could be. Because, if she set her pride aside, it was what she had always wanted, indeed all she had ever dreamt of. And for that chance she was still willing to put her pride on the line, she acknowledged, her mouth running dry as he came down beside her on the bed. He was as lithe and powerful in his masculine beauty as a pagan god.
‘Nik,’ she whispered below the passionate onslaught of his hungry mouth, fingers spreading against the warm, muscular wall of his hard torso. ‘When I look at you-’
‘Don’t just look…
Involuntarily she froze. ‘I don’t know how-’
‘But I know…’ a provocative smile slashed his handsome mouth ‘…and I intend to enjoy teaching you.’
It had never occurred to her that picking up fresh skills could be so stimulating. Or so empowering. She was absorbed by the delight of that new intimacy. The right to touch and explore Nik, the challenge of pushing him to the edge of his self-control, was utterly seductive.
When he swore quietly and wrenched himself back from her, his hot golden gaze ablaze with passion, she could see how hard he had found it to rein back his libido. His big, powerful body was covered in a fine sheen of sweat, his muscles were knotted and he was trembling. He was breathing fast and shallowly.
