Ruthless Russian, Lost Innocence - Shaw Chantelle - Страница 24

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‘Did I hurt you?’ he asked roughly.

Ella’s eyes flew to Vadim’s face. ‘No,’ she said truthfully. There had been no pain this time, just a wondrous feeling of fullness as he had joined his body with hers. ‘You ruined my dress, though,’ she added, blushing as she dragged the grey silk across her breasts and discovered that every button was missing.

His slow smile stole her breath. ‘I’ll buy you a new one.’ He stood up, held out his hand to help her to her feet, and then to her shock scooped her up into his arms.

‘I can walk,’ Ella protested as he stepped out of the summerhouse and strode up to the house, apparently unconcerned that he was stark naked. It was lucky that Kingfisher House was not overlooked by neighbours, she thought as she clung to his shoulders. Her heart lurched when he walked straight past the doors leading to her flat, on into the main house, where he climbed the stairs and carried her through the master bedroom to the en suite bathroom.

‘I should go back to my room,’ she murmured when he set her on her feet and slid her torn dress over her shoulders. The walk back to the house through the rain had cooled her skin, and shock at her wanton behaviour in the summerhouse was setting in, so that she felt a ridiculous urge to cry. In those moments when Vadim had taken her to the very pinnacle of pleasure she had felt as though their hearts had become one. But of course it was an illusion-because if Vadim had a heart he kept it under lock and key, and she would never be so foolish as to fall for a playboy who viewed women as a means of entertainment. ‘I’m all in,’ she whispered as her dress slithered to the floor and his brilliant blue eyes blazed over her naked body.

‘I know,’ he said, and the unexpected gentleness in his voice tugged at Ella’s heart. Her eyes were huge in her delicate face, and she looked achingly vulnerable. He should have taken her to her room and bade her goodnight. But for reasons he refused to decipher he’d wanted her with him. She was shivering with cold, and he lifted her and carried her into the shower. ‘This will warm you up, and then you can sleep,’ he promised, smiling at her shocked expression when he picked up the bar of soap and began to smooth it over her breasts.

By the time Vadim had soaped every inch of her body, shampooed her hair and held her against him while the spray rinsed them both, Ella was tingling all over, and his ministrations with a towel caused molten heat to surge through her veins. The feeling of being cared for was dangerously beguiling, she acknowledged when he carried her through to the bedroom, slid into bed beside her and drew the sheet around them. They’d had fantastic sex, but it meant nothing to either of them, she reminded herself firmly. But when he drew her into his arms, so that her head was resting on his chest, a feeling of utter contentment stole over her and she fell asleep, unaware that he remained awake watching her for long into the night.

ELLA was awoken by the gentle breeze which stirred the voile curtains. The doors were ajar, revealing a cloudless blue sky, but her eyes were drawn to Vadim, who was standing on the balcony, staring out over the garden. He was dressed in a superbly tailored suit and looked devastatingly handsome, but his stern profile made him seem so remote and forbidding that it was almost impossible to believe he was the same man who had woken her just before dawn and made passionate love to her.

Just thinking about how skilfully he had aroused her with his hands and mouth made her blush, and as he turned and stepped into the bedroom she was acutely conscious that she was naked beneath the silk sheet.

‘What time is it?’ she murmured, wishing she knew the protocol for greeting the man you’d spent the night having great sex with, but who seemed to have turned into a stranger in the cold light of day.

He flicked back the sleeve of his jacket and glanced at his watch. ‘Just after eight.’

Ella gave a yelp as reality hit with a vengeance. ‘I have to be at rehearsals at nine. Gustav blows a fuse if any of the orchestra members are late.’ She jerked upright, the rosy colour in her cheeks deepening as she dislodged the sheet and Vadim’s eyes immediately dropped to her bare breasts.

‘Where are the rehearsals?’

‘Cadogan Hall, near Sloane Square,’ she mumbled as she snatched the sheet around her.

Vadim strolled over to the wall of wardrobes, opened a door and selected a robe from several that were hanging inside. ‘Here,’ he said, walking back to the bed and handing it to her. ‘It’ll probably swamp you. I’m afraid I don’t have anything in your petite size.’

‘Thank you.’ Ella took the robe and glanced across at the others in the wardrobe, startled by the realisation that he kept bathrobes in a variety of sizes-presumably for the occasions when he invited a woman to spend the night with him. It was extremely thoughtful of him, she reminded herself, trying to ignore the heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach that she was just another blonde who was passing through his bedroom.

‘My offices are not far from Cadogan Hall, so I can give you a lift. What time will you finish tonight?’

‘The orchestra will finish late afternoon, but I have additional rehearsals for my solo performance coming up in Paris, and I don’t suppose I’ll get away until at least six o’clock.’

Vadim shrugged. ‘Fine. I usually work until then. I’ll meet you at six-thirty for dinner. Do you want to go on somewhere afterwards? I’ll ask my secretary to arrange tickets if you’d like to see a show.’

Ella’s gaze flew once more to the selection of bathrobes he kept for his lovers. ‘I don’t think so,’ she said quietly. ‘In fact I think it would be better if we kept last night as a one-off. I don’t want to have an…an affair with you,’ she faltered, flushing when his piercing blue gaze settled thoughtfully on her face. She had the unnerving feeling that he could read the jumble of emotions whirling around her head. ‘Neither of us wants to be tied down in a relationship,’ she reminded him, despising herself for the way her heart rate quickened when he dropped down onto the bed and wound a few strands of her hair around his fingers.

‘I agree,’ he said coolly. ‘But surely the very fact that we have no desire for a relationship makes us ideal candidates for an affair? There’s nothing to stop us being lovers for as long as either one of us wants it to last. And besides,’ he murmured, his voice dropping to a deep, sensual tone that caressed her senses, ‘one night was not enough for either of us-was it, Ella?’

She gasped when he pushed her flat on her back, but the sound was smothered by his mouth as his head swooped and he claimed her lips in a fierce, hungry kiss that left her in no doubt that one night had not satisfied his desire for her. Last night had not been enough for her either, she thought despairingly. He only had to touch her and molten heat flooded through her veins, and the hot, restless ache in her pelvis made a mockery of her decision to distance herself from him.

Agreeing to an affair with him would only be dangerous if she allowed her emotions to become involved-but she would never do that, she assured herself. She knew what kind of a man he was, and that knowledge made her safe from him-so why not enjoy his sexual expertise? whispered the reckless voice in her head.

When he pushed the sheet down and bent his head to take one dusky pink nipple into his mouth she could not restrain a soft moan, and she arched her back in mute invitation, sliding her hands into his silky black hair to hold him to the task of pleasuring her.

Vadim was tempted, desire corkscrewing through him when he kissed Ella again and felt the tentative foray of her tongue into his mouth. For the first time in his life he was actually contemplating putting pleasure before business. As head of his company, he answered to no one. He could spend all morning making love to Ella and turn up at his office at lunchtime if he pleased. But the realisation that she could exert some sort of hold over him brought his brows together in a slashing frown. No woman had ever caused him to change the way he ran his life. The company he had created from nothing was the most important thing in his life, and women were merely an entertaining distraction from his hectic work schedule-even this woman, he reminded himself fiercely.

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