Page 49 of Book People

But Sebastian makes me want to move. His touch is gentle and I want more so much and so badly it’s agony.

I take a shuddering breath. ‘Sebastian . . . please . . .’

The expression on his face tightens, intensifies and he pushes the dress off me so that it slides onto the floor. Then he reaches around and unhooks my bra, pushing the straps off my shoulders and letting the lace fall away.

He sighs and his hands cup my breasts, testing the weight of them, and I sigh too. His palms on my skin are so hot and I’m trembling. I can’t help it.

He leans down and presses his mouth to my throat, tasting my racing pulse, making everything inside me get tight and restless. I arch my back, leaning into his hands, leaning into his mouth as it trails down from my throat, and down further. My nipples are hard and so sensitive, and I gasp as he teases them lightly with his thumbs. Then when he bends and flicks his tongue over one, I groan.

Pleasure crackles like lightning over my skin and I’m a slave to it. All those small voices in my head, the ones I hadn’t realised were there, that had Jasper’s voice, are gone now. Stripped away. I want his mouth on me, his hands. I want him next to me, on me, inside me, nothing between us. He makes me feel so good I can hardly stand it.

‘Oh my God,’ I whisper, as he shifts one hand between my shoulder blades, bending me further back, his mouth on my breasts, nipping, teasing, sucking. Then he slips his free hand down over my stomach and beneath the waistband of my lacy knickers, his fingers sliding over my slick sex.

I feel as if I’ve been plugged into a power socket and he’s flicked the switch, lighting me up from the inside with the most extraordinary physical pleasure. He touches me with so much gentleness and explores me with such delicate precision. He could do whatever he wanted with me and I wouldn’t protest. I’d let him do anything at all.

My hips lift against his hand and he growls, his mouth against my skin, and then I’m being lifted up and placed on top of mykitchen bench. He spreads my thighs and moves between them, then reaches into the back pocket of his trousers and gets out his wallet.

A condom. Of course. What guy doesn’t have one in his wallet?

I’m not complaining, though. In fact, I want him to go faster. Clearly picking up on my impatience, he takes out the condom, drops the wallet onto the floor and reaches for his fly.

‘Let me,’ I whisper, reaching for him too.

But he gives one definitive shake of his head, and given how much my hands are trembling, that’s probably a good thing. His movements are fast and deft as he undoes his fly and gets out his cock, dealing with the protection.

Then he’s pulling aside my knickers and I feel him push against me, then thrust deep inside.

The breath goes out of both of us in an explosive rush, and then we’re still, staring at each other. He’s big and hard and he feels utterly perfect inside me.

His blue eyes are like stars and there is wonder in them. And awe. He’s looking at me as if he can’t believe I’m real, as if there’s nothing wrong with me, nothing that needs fixing. As if I’m perfect just as I am and I . . . I feel the same about him.

The sense of connection we have in this moment is amazing.

He grips one of my hips and cups the side of my face with the other, his thumb tracing my mouth. ‘Are you okay?’ His voice is so deep and rough it’s almost unrecognisable. I can also hear the tension in it. I can feel the tension in him too. He’s holding himself back.

My heart aches at the question. Such a simple thing, to ask if I’m okay. As if it matters to him. As if my pleasure is of the most vital importance.

‘I’m more than okay,’ I murmur, unable to be anything but honest with him. ‘I’m fantastic. And you feel . . . incredible.’

A flicker of male satisfaction crosses his face and he lowers his head and kisses me. At the same time he begins to move and the electricity of the sensation expands outwards and tightens, catching me in a fine net of pleasure.

I lift my hands and take his face between them, glorying in the prickle of stubble against my palms. And I kiss him back, devouring him as he devours me, and the pleasure we’re generating between us devours us too.

I knew this would destroy me and it will. And I don’t care.

I want to feel this for ever. Have his mouth on mine and him inside me, moving, making me feel so good. Better than Jasper ever did. Sebastian makes me feel beautiful. Sebastian makes me feel strong.

He moves faster and it gets wilder, hotter, more desperate. I wind my legs around his hips, trying to get closer, frantic for more of him, and he gives it to me.

We’re both as lost as each other, our hands touching, stroking, grasping, clinging. Then his fingers find their way between my thighs, giving me more friction, and the orgasm rushes over me, far too fast and intense, and I’m crying out, clinging to him as it takes me.

I’m still shaking when he moves harder and faster, and then it takes him too, his mouth turned against my throat, the sharp edge of his teeth on my skin. He growls my name again, ‘Kate,’ and I close my eyes, holding on to him as he shudders against me.

Neither of us move for a long time afterwards.

It’s as if I’ve had an out-of-body experience and I’m trying to find my way back to myself again. I almost don’t want to. I want to stay where I am, play amongst the stars he threw me up into.

But then I feel him move, pulling away from me, and I hate the cold of the air against my heated skin. I’d much rather have him there instead.

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