The Ruthless Marriage Proposal Page 8

  Which made Sebastian want her all the more, not just for tonight, but for the rest of his life.

  So he’d better make sure he did this right.

  ‘You are beyond beautiful, Emily,’ he said softly. ‘Come here…’ He moved away from her to drag back the woollen spread and the crisp white bed-linen. ‘Cover that far too tempting body up while I get myself undressed.’

  CHAPTER TEN

  A FLUSHED Emily found herself sitting up in the middle of the king-sized bed, the sheet clutched modestly over her breasts whilst she watched Sebastian undress, not in the privacy of the bathroom as she had done, but right in front of her.

  His removal of his suit jacket didn’t overly quicken her heartbeat, but when he yanked his black top out of the waistband of his trousers and reefed it up over his head, her pulse-rate went into over-drive. Which was ridiculous, really. She’d seen him bare-chested many times before, when he went swimming, and of course she already knew that his body was simply superb: broad shoulders, slender hips, a six-pack stomach, courtesy of all that rowing he did, and his skin was silky smooth and beautifully bronzed.

  To look at him, you’d never believe he was forty.

  Looking at him now, however, felt very different from looking at him around the pool, because of where it was heading—to total nudity, and him in this bed with her, touching her, kissing her, making love with her.

  Emily gulped, then grabbed the champagne glass from the bedside table. A few drops spilled as she swept it up to her lips, because her eyes were not on what she was doing. They were fixed on Sebastian’s hands, which had just unsnapped his waistband and unzipped the zip. Emily tried not to stare as he pushed his trousers down over his hips. But when his rough action took his underpants with him, her mouth went bone-dry.

  ‘Better take these off too,’ Sebastian said with a quick smile, then sat on the side of the bed and disposed of his shoes and socks.

  ‘You’re looking much more relaxed,’ he said as he dived under the covers with her. ‘Must be the champers. Give me a bit of yours.’

  Both his hands closed over hers as he brought the glass to his lips. Emily stared deep into his eyes as he took a hefty swallow, an incredulous feeling rushing through her.

  ‘This is just so crazy,’ she said shakily.

  Sebastian took the glass out of her hands, downed the rest of the contents, then placed it back on the bedside table. When he turned back to face her, he cupped her cheeks with his hands.

  ‘Crazy can be good,’ he said, pushing her back down on to the pillows. ‘Crazy can be fun. How long is it, Emily, since you’ve had fun?’

  ‘Too long,’ she whispered just before his lips met hers.

  Emily closed her eyes, then moaned, a low soft moan which echoed the rush of emotion which threatened to overwhelm her. Because it was finally happening. Sebastian was making love to her. Really making love to her.

  His mouth was gentle. Not rough at all. And his hands. Oh, goodness, his hands…

  One lifted to stroke the hair back from her forehead whilst the other travelled down her throat, over a breast, her ribs, her stomach, his touch slow and sensuous. Her skin tingled wherever he went, the rest of her body dying to have him touch her there.

  But he took his time, making her wait, making her whimper each time his fingers grazed far too briefly over a stunningly erect nipple.

  That roving hand finally made more intimate inroads, sliding down between her legs, bringing a tortured gasp to her lips.

  Oh, no, she thought despairingly when he honed in on her most erotic zone. If he kept doing that she was going to come! And she didn’t want that. She wanted him inside her. Wanted to hold him close. Wanted to be as one with him.

  All her muscles stiffened, her mind desperately trying to stop the inevitable.

  His withdrawing his hand brought a raw groan of relief. When his head lifted, her eyes clung to his in a mad mixture of adoration and gratitude.

  He smiled down at her, then gave her a soft peck on her still parted lips.

  ‘Won’t be a sec,’ he said huskily, then rolled away, yanked opened the top drawer of the bedside table and extracted a small foil packet.

  His stopping to protect both of them brought another rush of relief and gratitude. Because Emily had been way past caring if he wore a condom or not. If he’d asked her to marry him at this moment, she would have said yes like a shot.

  ‘Now where was I?’ he murmured when he rolled back.

  ‘No, don’t,’ she gasped when that wickedly knowing hand swiftly re-entered the danger zone.

  ‘You don’t like that?’ he questioned, his expression surprised.

  ‘I like it too much,’ she choked out.

  Sebastian smiled. ‘What would you like me to do, then?’

  ‘Just do it, for pity’s sake.’

  His laugh was soft and wry. ‘And there I was, thinking all these months that my wonderful cool and calm housekeeper was the epitome of patience. No no, don’t turn your face away, Emily. I like the wild passion in your eyes. It excites me. Here, feel what you’ve done to me.’

  His pressing her hand against his stunning erection was like opening the lid on Emily’s desire. With a naked groan, she encircled him, holding him tightly whilst she caressed his rock-hard flesh.

  His muttered swearword showed she’d taken him by surprise.

  ‘Stop that,’ he growled and, grabbing both her hands, drove them high against the pillows above her head. The action sent him looming over her, his naked chest rubbing against her throbbing breasts, his erection pressing into her stomach.

  ‘Put your legs up around me,’ he ordered roughly.

  Once she did, he let her hands go, trusting perhaps that she would now lie still for him. But more likely because he needed his own hands elsewhere.

  Emily would never forget the moment he first entered her, the rush of emotion far overwhelming any physical sensation.

  Her heart lurched, but so did her body, shattering apart in an instant orgasm which was as perversely pleasurable as it was dismayingly premature. Her head whipped from side to side, her eyes squeezing tightly shut as her body trembled from top to toe.

  Oh, Sebastian, she cried silently, tears welling up behind her eyelids. My darling. My love.

  Sebastian didn’t know what to do.

  If he wasn’t sadly mistaken, Emily was crying.

  Should he ignore the fact and just continue?

  His own body was screaming at him for release. At the same time, it seemed insensitive not to stop and see what was wrong. Though he suspected he already knew.

  ‘No, no,’ she choked out when he began to withdraw.

  Sebastian sank back into the still throbbing depths of her body with a relieved sigh. At the same time, he did lever himself up on to his elbows so that he could see if his suspicions were correct.

  Yes, she was crying, damn it. Not hysterically. Very quietly, silent tears running down her cheeks.

  ‘You’re not thinking of that fool, Mark, are you?’ he asked with a touch of exasperation. Why was it that the really sweet girls in this world always fell for selfish creeps?

  ‘Mark?’ she said blankly, her eyes blinking open. ‘No. No. I…I’m not thinking of Mark.’

  ‘What, then?’

  ‘Can’t…can’t a person cry with happiness?’

  ‘Happiness?’

  ‘Yes. It…it’s such a relief to know I can enjoy sex without love after all.’

  Sebastian couldn’t work out why this discovery of Emily’s didn’t please him as much as he thought it would. Maybe because he’d been secretly hoping she would fall in love with him, once he made love to her. It would have made his marriage mission a lot easier.

  Still, it was good that she was enjoying herself and not pining after some idiot.

  ‘Okay for me to continue then?’ he asked even as he was already moving inside her.

  She didn’t say anything, but her mouth fell open and her eyes glazed over. S
he sucked in sharply when her body started gripping his, a sure sign that she was far from finished.

  Sebastian was suddenly seized with the urge to show Emily that if she married him, her sex life would not be restricted to once a night, or the missionary position. He would make love to her often, and in all sorts of ways.

  Starting now!

  She moaned softly when he withdrew, but made no protest when he flipped her over and pulled her up on to her hands and knees. Doing it this way had always been one of Sebastian’s favourite positions. Perhaps because it practically guaranteed a woman’s pleasure and satisfaction.

  Sebastian prided himself on his sexual expertise and control, but Emily was proving to be a strangely difficult partner for him to keep his head with.

  If only she’d stop rocking back and forth on her hands and knees, stop pressing her deliciously rounded bottom hard up against his groin.

  His hands reached up to cup her breasts in a vain attempt to still the rest of her body, but it was too late. He’d reached the point of no return, his head bursting with stars as his body exploded deep inside her.

  He didn’t expect her to come with him, but astonishingly she did, heightening the thrill of his release when her flesh started spasming around his, over and over and over.

  Sebastian tried not to groan. He was not normally a noisy lover. But groan he did. And it felt wonderful.

  He decided not to be so silent in future.

  Carefully he withdrew, not surprised when Emily collapsed, face down, on the bed, her arms outspread, her shuddering sigh that of a sated woman.

  Sebastian smiled a darkly knowing smile. If she thought the sex was over, then she was very much mistaken. It had only just begun.

  He stroked a possessive hand down the lovely curve of her spine, then trailed the back of his fingers over her peach-like buttocks, pleased with the tremors that rippled through her.

  Sebastian now wanted to marry Emily more than ever. He would have the best of both worlds with this woman. A peaceful life, and passion as well. What more could he want?

  The thought of her accepting that job next Monday then leaving him could not be tolerated. He had to find a way to keep her with him, to make her marry him. Satisfying sex alone might not be enough to achieve that. Emily might still think she wanted love as well.

  An idea popped into his head which was rather ruthless.

  Could he get away with it?

  Sebastian slid his hand down between her legs and played with her there till she squirmed, then moaned.

  No trouble, he thought with a rush of heady power. No trouble at all.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  IMUSTkeep my head. I must keep my head. I must keep my head.

  This mantra kept running through Emily’s mind as she leant back in the spa bath, a chocolate-dipped strawberry in one hand and a fresh glass of champagne in the other.

  Difficult to keep one’s head, however, when one was this tipsy, and this much in love.

  It was Sebastian who’d run the bath, and lit the candles, and arranged everything in here for them to eat and drink. Sebastian who’d thoughtfully given her five minutes privacy before he’d joined her in the bubble bath. Sebastian who was being so wonderfully attentive to her that if she didn’t know him better, she might think he was in love with her as well!

  But she understood that this was all part of his seduction routine.

  ‘What time is it?’ she asked before taking a delicious bite out of the strawberry, then following up with a sip of champagne.

  ‘Around seven, I think,’ he replied nonchalantly. ‘Maybe a bit later. Are you hungry? Do you want me to order dinner from room service after we get out of here?’

  ‘No. Not yet. I think all these strawberries have ruined my appetite.’ She popped the last one into her mouth and washed it down with more champagne.

  ‘We’ll go for a walk later. Then you might feel like something more substantial than strawberries.’

  Emily couldn’t think of anything she’d like to do less than get dressed and go for a walk.

  ‘Couldn’t we just stay here?’

  ‘You mean in this bath?’

  ‘No. I’m getting a bit pruny. I was thinking that maybe…if it’s all right with you…we could…um…I mean…I could…um…’

  It was hard to just come out with what she wanted to do, despite being tipsy!

  ‘Emily,’ Sebastian said with that look he always got on his face when he was frustrated with something, or someone. ‘Stop stammering and just say it.’

  Emily took another mouthful of champagne. ‘All right. I want to go back to bed and make love to you.’

  His eyebrows lifted. ‘You like being on top?’

  ‘Well I…sometimes,’ she said, even though it was a lie. She’d never overly liked that position. But she’d fantasised quite a bit lately about making love to Sebastian that way, and this might be her only chance to make that fantasy come true. It wasn’t the being-on-top part she craved so much but the experience of touching him all over, and kissing him all over.

  His blue eyes twinkled at her. ‘Emily Bayliss, you are constantly surprising me today.’

  ‘That’s because you don’t really know me. Just as I don’t really know you.’

  ‘Are you warning me again that you won’t change your mind and marry me?’

  Emily’s hand tightened around her champagne glass. ‘You promised we wouldn’t talk about that tonight.’

  ‘So I did,’ he muttered. ‘More fool me. But I’ll be bringing the subject up again tomorrow.’

  If he asked her whilst they were down here, in this romantic environment, she’d probably say yes. She could already feel her resolve to walk away weakening appreciably.

  ‘Not till we leave here,’ she asked him. ‘Please, Sebastian.’

  If he waited till they were on their way back to Hunter’s Hill, she’d be back in reality again.

  ‘Why’s that?’

  ‘Because I’m having a lovely time and I don’t want to argue with you.’

  ‘I can’t imagine you ever arguing with anyone. Not seriously.’

  ‘In that case, you really don’t know me. Just before I came to work for you, I argued with my father and I haven’t spoken to him since.’

  Sebastian frowned. ‘What on earth did you argue about?’

  Emily regretted bringing her father into their conversation. Talk about an instant dampener. Although perhaps it was a timely reminder of how men used the women who loved them for their own ends. She had to be careful that she didn’t let Sebastian become the third man in a row to make her into a victim.

  Time to take control of your life again, Emily. Time to have what you want, even if it is only for tonight.

  ‘Would you mind if I deferred any disclosures of family feuds to some other time?’ she said, sliding forward to take the almost empty champagne glass out of Sebastian’s hand. ‘I don’t think this is the time or the place. Now…’

  She stood up carefully in the bath, thrilling to the look in his eyes as he glanced up at her unfolding nudity.

  ‘I’ll just get out and put these glasses down. You stay where you are till I’m nice and dry. Then I’ll see to you.’

  Wow, Sebastian thought as he watched Emily towel herself down, one sensual bit at a time. This is one sexy woman.

  By the time he climbed out of the bath, he was fiercely erect. By the time she finished towelling him down, he wished he hadn’t agreed to her taking charge of their lovemaking. The urge to hoist her up on to the vanity unit and plunge into her right here and now was so intense he had to battle for control.

  Returning to the bedroom—and the bed—gave him a brief respite. But he still extracted a condom from the drawer straight away and handed it to her, hoping she’d take the hint.

  She smiled a saucy little smile, then placed it on the other bedside table.

  ‘We won’t be needing that just yet,’ she purred, then snuggled up to his side, her head on his
right shoulder, her left hand resting in the middle of his chest.

  ‘You’re not to do a thing,’ she instructed him as the hand on his chest began to move downwards in slow, tantalising circles.

  Sebastian’s stomach muscles tensed as she moved inexorably closer to his erection.

  Her head lifted from his shoulder and she stared down at him for a long moment whilst her fingertips traced the muscles between his ribs. Her eyes were glazed, her expression almost wistful.

  ‘You have a magnificent body, Sebastian,’ she said at last.

  ‘I work hard at it,’ he replied, whilst thinking that Lana had never once given him a compliment like that. She’d been the one who expected all the compliments.

  ‘What are you going to do in the morning with no river to row on?’ Emily murmured.

  ‘The same thing I do when I’m away.’

  She glanced up at him, her hand stilling once more. ‘Which is what?’

  ‘A hundred push-ups and a five kilometre run.’

  ‘You’re kidding me.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘That’s a bit obsessive, don’t you think?’

  ‘I am obsessive. How else would I have been the success I’ve been?’

  ‘Maybe it’s time for you to relax a little and enjoy the fruits of your labour.’

  ‘Difficult to relax right at this precise moment,’ he said with a stifled groan when the side of her hand brushed the tip of his erection.

  ‘Poor darling,’ Emily said throatily.

  Sebastian knew where she was heading when she sat up and wriggled around to lie sidewards on the bed, both her head and hands having easy access to his lower body. Clearly, she meant to go down on him. Maybe even go all the way.

  Strangely, Sebastian wasn’t that fond of fellatio. He’d never been really convinced that a woman enjoyed doing it. Since becoming rich, he’d had any number of women all too eager to go down on him.

  And, whilst he could not deny it gave him physical pleasure, he always felt mentally distanced from the act, his one overriding emotion being cynicism.

  But as Emily caressed him intimately, then put her lips where her hands had been, Sebastian’s heart squeezed tight. Impossible to feel cynical about this woman’s lovemaking. Emily had no materialistic motive in giving him oral sex. There was no artifice in her, or cold-blooded ambition. She was doing this for pure pleasure. His and hers.