Molly stared at herself in the mirror and took a few deep, calming breaths. Okay, she could do this. Walk back out with a smile on her face. Ben was ... Ben. He’d not had a personality transplant just because he’d finally told her why he’d been so messed up when she’d first met him.
But he had opened up, and now she knew he had hang-ups and insecurities too. She also knew he didn’t want to get married.
A band wrapped round her chest, tightening so much that for a moment she couldn’t breathe. Was it a deal breaker? It should be. Giving up on her dream of love, locked into the security of marriage, just for that fluttery feeling in her chest every time she looked at him? For the fizz she felt in her blood when he was near her, like she was filled with champagne?
That was madness.
Yet how could she give him up now, when she’d not yet had a chance to explore what they could be together this second time around?
It was too soon for a decision like that.
Pep talk done, she opened the door to the downstairs ladies and stepped back out into the hallway, only to see the object of her thoughts barrelling towards her. Without a word, he grabbed her hand and manoeuvred her against the wall. Then stepped right into her personal space, his eyes dark and stormy.
‘I’m falling in love with you.’
Her heart somersaulted. ‘You are?’
‘It should be obvious, but you need words, so I’m giving you the words. But I refuse to tell Natalie and the camera crew that before I’ve told you.’
Oh God. She could barely breathe, her insides a mess of overexcited, flapping butterflies. ‘I’m falling for you, too.’ I’ve fallen. No, for her own sanity she had to keep part of herself back from him.
‘Yeah?’ A deep, satisfied smile crept across his face and the storm left his eyes, replaced with a burning smoulder that fanned flames of desire everywhere it touched. ‘You’ve never looked more gorgeous,’ he told her hoarsely as he cupped her face. The warmth of his palms caused goosebumps across her skin. ‘And I’ve never wanted to kiss anyone more.’
‘Do it.’ Her voice sounded so rough she had to clear her throat and try again. ‘Stop talking and do it, please.’
He chuckled, sending her hormones into a crazy jig. ‘You’re asking me to stop talking now?’
‘Oh, shut up.’ On a huff of frustration she wound her arms around his neck and jumped him. Literally jumped up and anchored her legs around his waist.
‘Whoa, okay.’ His hands immediately went to grasp her hips, securing her in place as he pushed her back against the wall. Now his erection, hot and heavy, was exactly where she needed it. And his mouth was doing exactly what she wanted from him, tongue diving into her depths, lips sucking and nibbling and driving her mad. ‘This better?’ he murmured, the husk in his voice sending another jolt of arousal through her.
‘More.’ She wriggled, needing more of his mouth, that hot, dirty tongue as it continued to explore. More friction from the hard, pulsing length of him.
He groaned. ‘That’s… Shit, Molly. Keep doing that and we’re going to have sex right here, right now.’
‘Yes.’ Automatically her hands went to his fly, her fingers frantic. Only Ben, she thought dimly. Only he had ever turned her on so much that she didn’t care about anything else but having him slide into her, those hips racing, his fevered breath hot in her ear.
A hand clamped down on her wrist. ‘Fuck.’ He let out a guttural sound as his chest heaved. ‘We can’t do this here.’ Lifting her hand to his mouth, he dropped feather-like kisses into her palm. ‘Public hallway. Cameras.’
‘Oh.’ Her head was still spinning, her body so hypersensitised that even the press of his lips on her palm caused a tightening in her core. ‘My room?’
He let out a pained sounding laugh. ‘Yes, God, yes. But…’ He gave a few short thrusts of his hips, just enough to let her know his predicament.
‘Okay, we need to take a breath.’ She let out a disgruntled moan as he lowered her feet to the floor. ‘Think about … other stuff.’
Another throaty laugh. ‘What do you suggest?’
‘Umm,’ she bit into her lip, and he grunted.
‘Don’t do that.’ His hot gaze skimmed her face, and dipped down to her chest. Then he exhaled heavily and slammed his eyes shut. ‘You need to go. I can’t… Nothing is going to go down while you’re still here.’ His lids blinked open and his next words were whispered in her ear. ‘Not while you’re looking all flushed, your mouth like the perfect resting place for mine. Your nipples hard and waiting for my tongue.’
She’d forgotten, she realised as arousal scorched through her. Forgotten how the man who didn’t talk about his feelings, could talk so easily about sex.
‘Okay.’ Legs shaky as a new-born lamb, she eased away from the wall. ‘I’ll, umm, go then. To my room.’ As the madness of lust slowly ebbed away, the insecurities kicked in. ‘And … err, wait for you?’
‘If you think for one moment I’m not going to follow you,’ he growled, ‘I’ve not been making myself clear enough.’
She took in the smouldering stare, the wound-up stance, and started to smile. ‘Nope, perfectly clear. For once I can totally tell what you’re thinking.’ On a laugh she started to fan herself, and though it was in jest, she wasn’t kidding about how hot she felt right now. ‘I’ll leave the door unlocked.’
Ridiculously, impossibly aroused, she darted towards the stairs.
Her stomach dropped as she spotted Duncan heading towards her.
‘Hi.’ Did she look like she was about to have sex? ‘I’m … err …off to bed.’ Her scalp prickled, her face felt so hot.
‘I’m glad I caught you.’ He took hold of her hand, and it felt wrong, but she didn’t know if that was because she was about to have sex with another man, or if her body had decided Duncan was not the right man for her, even if her mind hadn’t totally closed off the idea. ‘Where’s your head at the moment, babe?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean, do I still have a chance with you? All that stuff about the videos, I know you were upset but it wasn’t like I deliberately set out to mislead you. Just that I figured you were doing so well, I was so proud of you, it seemed like a great idea to build on that.’ His blue eyes pressed hers. ‘Hell, Moll, I still love you, and I’m willing to marry you at the end of the show, if that’s what you want. But if you don’t want that, you need to let me know, so I can see if I can work things out with Jasmine.’
Over Duncan’s shoulder, Molly caught sight of Ben turning the corner towards them. Her heart flip-flopped, giving her the answer to where it stood, even if her head was still wavering. ‘I think we’ve been matched with Ben and Jasmine for a reason. We should be focussing on them. Goodnight, Duncan.’
Scampering up the stairs, she raced to her room, all thoughts of Duncan vanished the moment she shut the door behind her. All she saw was Ben’s smouldering gaze, all she heard was his growling promise to follow her up here.
Oh God, he was on his way. Should she lie provocatively on the bed, or sit all cool and confident on the armchair? Bed, she decided. That was where she wanted to end up. But as she started to clamber onto it, her heels caught in her dress. Bugger. Shoes off, that’s what she should have done first. As she frantically tried to extricate her heel from the hem, she heard the door burst open.
* * *
Ben’s heart crashed against his ribs as he thrust open the door to Molly’s room. He wasn’t sure what he expected to find; Molly had never been predictable. Add that to the fact he’d spotted her talking to Duncan as he’d walked round the corner, and Duncan’s smirking, we were just discussing weddings reply to his unasked question … yeah, he had no idea what he was walking into.
He certainly hadn’t anticipated Molly in some sort of contorted yoga pose in the middle of her bed.
But Christ, she could make any position look sexy. He couldn’t say if it was the red hair tumbling round her shoulders, the high flush on her cheeks, or the way her breasts were cushioned, like two pale, soft pillows, within the V of her dress. His gaze dipped back up to her face and his heart stuttered. That’s what did it for him. The expression on her face, like she didn’t know whether to die of embarrassment or laugh out loud.
‘Crap, this wasn’t how you were meant to find me.’ Amusement clearly won and she began to giggle. ‘I was shooting for alluring with a heavy dose of take me now, but I’ve caught my frigging heel in the hem of my dress. If I ever try this again, I need to take my shoes off first.’
‘Or maybe just take the dress off. Leave the shoes on.’
Her gaze jumped to his and her cheeks flushed. ‘That’s another option.’
Arousal bumped up against an overwhelming feeling of fondness, the combination causing an ache in his chest as he walked up to the bed and gently turned her ankle so the heel of her silver sandal slipped out. His gaze travelled up and down her body. ‘I feel like a starved man at a sumptuous wedding buffet. I don’t know where to start.’
Placing his hands on her calves, he skated them all the way up, over her hips, along the silk dress covering her breasts, and right up to her face. Cupping it, he bent his head and kissed the mouth he spent far too much of his time staring at.
Her lips parted immediately, letting him in, and he sank inside, tasting her from every angle. Unlike their previous fevered kisses this was slow, deep, sensuous. Lust still simmered but he’d put a cap on it for now. They had all night. He didn’t want a frantic coupling. He wanted to make love to her.
Pressing kisses along her jawline and down to her collarbone, he slipped his hands behind her back and tugged at the zip of her dress, easing it down.
Her body rippled in a gentle shudder. ‘I crashed and burned with alluring, but I guess the take me part worked?’
‘Oh, I’m definitely taking you.’
He watched, captivated, as the silk flowed off her shoulders, leaving him with the sight of her breasts pushing against the delicate lace of her bra. Breasts he spent an uncomfortable number of hours dreaming about.
Breasts that fell like perfect pear drops into the palm of his hand, he amended after unclipping her bra. ‘For the record, you nailed alluring, too.’ He ran his thumb over the soft skin, then sucked on a nipple, making her gasp. Satisfaction flooded him and he transferred his attention to the other breast.
‘Ben?’
‘Hmm?’ Distracted was not a strong enough word. Bewitched was closer.
She tugged at his jacket, trying to pull it off his shoulders. ‘I want to see you.’
Deciding he needed to see more of her, he gently pushed her down onto the bed, then slid the dress over her hips, past the shapely legs and the killer heels, and onto the floor.
What a vision. Pale skin, rosy pink nipples, a smattering of lace covering the place between her thighs that he needed to reacquaint himself with. Now.
With a final look of appreciation, he gave the sexy lace a gentle tug and discarded it onto the floor with the dress. Then he dived into the heat of her, nuzzling, tasting, relishing her moans, the way her thighs pressed against the side of his head, locking him in place.
‘So good,’ she breathed. ‘So frigging good … oooh.’ She shuddered as he found exactly the spot he’d been searching for. ‘Holy cow, that’s it. Just there. Oh my fucking God…’
Her hips catapulted off the bed and he watched with satisfaction as tremors rippled through her as she came, and came, her head thrashing from side to side against the pillow.
Finally she raised herself up, eyes soft, expression dreamy. ‘You haven’t lost your touch.’
Am I better than Duncan? He crushed the thought. There was no room in this bed for anything else but Molly, her sexy as fuck body, and him.
A determined look spread across her face and she reached for his jacket again. ‘Clothes, off. This is the part where you actually take me, yes?’
His mouth felt dry as dust. ‘Yes.’
Scrambling to his feet, he started to shrug off his jacket, only to get distracted again when he felt the zipper of his trousers slide down and her hands slip into his boxers to drag both them and his trousers down, past his hips. ‘Damn. This only works if you take off your shoes.’
He bent to help her, hastily whipping off his socks too, because no man wanted to be left in only his socks.
With just his shirt to go, his fingers fumbled with the buttons as her hand captured his throbbing erection, sliding up and down his length, making him groan as she brushed against the sensitive head.
‘He’s not forgotten me, has he?’ She murmured, her lips feather soft against the heat of his skin.
‘You were the last person who touched him,’ he croaked out, then wondered what the fuck he was doing, talking about his dick like it was a person.
Slowly her hands came to a stop, and when he looked down at her, she was gazing up at him, her eyes wide. ‘You’ve not had sex since me?’
‘No.’ Before she could ask any more questions, he picked her up and almost threw her onto the bed. Then he quickly tore open a condom from his wallet and sheathed himself before climbing on to join her. When he gazed down at her, the tenderness he saw in her eyes sent a rush of emotion hurtling through him. She was letting him back in, not just to her body, but to her heart.
The responsibility of it bore down on him, yet he could no more move away now, than he’d been able to the first time they’d made love all those years ago.
‘What are you thinking?’
Her softly voiced question pulled him out of his head. ‘I’m thinking that last time I was in this position, I was so weighed down with guilt I had to shut my eyes. I knew it was too soon for me, that I’d end up hurting you. And I did.’
‘I don’t regret it,’ she whispered, her eyes locked on his. ‘If I had the time again I’d still choose those two months. They were the best of my life.’
His heart tripped. How could she be so open with him? ‘You deserve more. I want to give you more. I want to give you all of me this time.’
She gasped as he sunk into her in one smooth, forceful stroke, as if his body knew the way. As he began to slide in and out in long, rhythmic thrusts, he kept his eyes pinned on hers, watching as the pleasure bloomed across her face. ‘I missed this,’ he whispered, his hips picking up the pace as his own needs began to batter at his control. ‘Missed feeling your tight heat surrounding me. Missed watching you come undone.’
Her eyes widened; her breath began to unravel. ‘Oh, oh.’
‘That’s all you’ve got for me?’ He croaked, body surging into her now, his attempt at control abandoned.
Her mouth opened again, and she chanted his name over and over as her orgasm raced through her.
With a deep, satisfied groan, he gave one, two, three more pumps, then he was gone, lost in his own pleasure, shudders rolling through him as he came.