Page 44 of Cinderella and the Outback Billionaire

‘Is it?’

‘I’d probably drag you inside and shamelessly demand that you help me forget all my lineage and make me feel wanted.’

His eyes gleamed. ‘Oh, really?’

That was a yes from him. Ari suddenly felt very short of breath and it wasn’t because she was about to start weeping.

‘Happy to help,’ he offered gravely. ‘In fact, as a gentleman, I insist.’

Hell, yes. And she was going to take him up on his offer. To hell with muddying the waters between contractor and client. She wanted this. No, she needed this.

Ari deserved this.

He’d only wanted to help. All the digging he’d done, all the tracking down of information that he hadn’t outsourced to anyone else... In all sincerity, Reid had imagined he was helping Ari. It had never once occurred to him that this new knowledge would hurt her.

All he wanted to do now was fix her.

They walked to her bedroom in silence, and once there Reid drew her into his arms and sought her lips with his. It started off as apology and comfort, but all it took was Ari’s passionately uninhibited response for it to spiral out of his control and become something else entirely.

Gentle caresses became greedy ones as he slid his hands beneath her clothes and honoured the warmth of her skin and the shape of her body. So smooth and warm, utterly responsive as he set his lips to the underside of her jaw and traced his way to her collarbone. Her scent a tease, the way she melted against him an aphrodisiac.

He’d never been so invested in a woman’s pleasure as he picked her up and she wound her legs around him. He tumbled them onto the bed and began shedding clothes, and so did she, and that first full slide of skin against skin was almost Reid’s undoing.

Women liked him and he liked them. He’d made a point of knowing how to please them. But none had ever wielded the power over him that Ari did. Undoing him so completely that he struggled to think, let alone plan ahead.

He would taste every inch of her—was that a thought worth following? It worked for a while, until he reached her breasts and discovered that the edge of his tongue could make her wild with need. He let her roll him on his back as he closed his lips around her and suckled, and moments later soft warmth covered his hardness as she rocked against him seeking friction.

That plan worked brilliantly for both of them—maybe from now on he would let Ari make all the plans all the time when it came to bedroom contact. That fleeting thought lasted the time it took for her to line him up so he could slide into her tight heat, an action that ripped a groan from the depths of his soul as he rolled with her until she lay beneath him and let purest instinct take over.

When Ari crested, he was moments behind her, and it wasn’t his finest, most considered performance, but it was hands down the most intense sexual experience of his life. His brain was fried, his body exhausted, and he couldn’t stop smiling.

It was his first, fumbling experience with sex all over again—dialled up to a hundred.

‘That was—’ no way was he about to admit he might have been doing sex all wrong...until now ‘—illuminating.’

‘I’ll say.’

Was she smiling? He turned his head and when he couldn’t quite tell, he reached out and traced her lips with questing fingers. ‘Stop it,’ he murmured when she nibbled them. ‘I’m trying to tell if you’re satisfied. Are you smiling?’

She flowed into his arms and tucked her head beneath his chin and placed her hand over his heart. ‘With all my heart.’

‘Because you’re satisfied?’

‘Because you make me happy.’

‘Because I want to be sure you’re satisfied. If you’re not, I could do other things to you until my poor, broken body is ready for more.’

‘Oh, well, then.’ This time he could feel her smile against his chest. ‘I could probably be more satisfied. I wouldn’t want you to have any doubts.’

‘You’re sure?’ He ran his fingers over her body until he reached her knee and then he scooted down and let her leg below her knee drape over his shoulder as he pressed a teasing kiss against her inner thigh.

‘Do what you have to do.’ Her words ended on a gasp.

He flicked her centre with his tongue and felt her arch against his hands so he did it again, exposing her with his thumb to better access his target. ‘You’re sure you’re sure?’ Her hands clutched at the bedsheet beneath them as he blew against the sensitive, swollen flesh.

‘I’m sure!’

And still he hesitated, because teasing her was just too satisfying. For him.

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