‘We should probably ignore it,’ I said decisively.
‘What if I can’t?’ Rhys said.
I lost the ability to breathe for a second and that had a lot to do with the expression on his face as he looked down at me. We were now just one reckless footstep apart. My heart rate kicked up a gear.
‘Well, we have to,’ I said, aware I was nervously chewing on my lower lip. ‘Because it’s just lust.’ I was grasping at straws and plucked the one that seemed most logical.
He shook his head again, but there was a glimmer of humour on his lips. Magnetic humour, because suddenly I couldn’t tear my eyes away from them.
‘Okay,’ he said, as though we’d been haggling in a marketplace and a deal had just been struck. ‘I’ll take lust then, even though I know that’s not what this is. But I’ll take it and then show you that no one feels this way because all they want is to get the other person into bed.’
Those words alone almost undid me. I felt a fuse light somewhere low inside and travel down to the place between my legs which was suddenly on fire with need.
He brought his other hand up, cupping my face.
‘Let me prove to you that I’m right.’
‘I’ll prove to you that you’re not,’ I said, looking up at him with eyelashes still spiky from my tears.
‘Are you done arguing with me for now?’ Rhys asked, as his fingers slid gently into my hair, freeing it from its pins to spill like a molten waterfall over his hands. ‘Because we’ve got the moon, starlight, and some guy somewhere playing love songs, and I really can’t think of a better place or time for our first kiss.’
The lips he was about to claim curved into a reluctant smile.
‘You’re way too cocky. You know that, don’t you?’
‘That one we can discuss later,’ Rhys said, his voice gruff.
And then he kissed me.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The moment his lips touched mine was like being hit by lightning all over again. The kiss was filled with the same electricity as a storm, only stronger, so much stronger. There was no holding back, and my mouth opened under his, allowing his tongue to find mine. One of us groaned.
The kiss was confident but not overpowering. He allowed me to give as much as I took. And I did, running my tongue along the fulness of his lower lip until I felt him shudder, and then deepen the kiss until my knees threatened to give way. But I couldn’t fall, because he’d moved one hand from my hair and slid it slowly down my naked back, stopping where the material of my dress began. His splayed fingers supported me and pulled me tightly against him.
I gave a small moan of protest when his lips left mine and then shivered as he laid a trail of featherlight kisses down my neck before running his tongue teasingly along my collarbone. It was an area that had never featured in foreplay before, which was clearly a huge oversight. Drunk on his touch, his taste, on him, my grip on his shoulders tightened. Beneath the fine linen of his white shirt, I could feel the strong muscles of his shoulders and the trembling he was unable to control. If it hadn’t been for the fact that therewas a room full of his associates directly behind us, I would have been tearing the buttons off the fabric barrier, relishing the sound of them ripping free and hitting the stonework beneath our feet.
Rhys’s lips returned to mine, and the kiss that I already knew would claim the title as the best of my entire life once again threatened to turn me into a molten mess of desire.
I like to think we had enough control and good sense to have stopped on our own accord and that we hadn’t needed the interruption of another guest coming out onto the balcony to make us spring apart like guilty teenagers who’d just been caught by one of their parents.
But I was so lost in the moment I didn’t even identify if the intruder was a man or a woman from their hasty apology and rapid disappearance back into the library. Rhys had instinctively moved his body to protect me from view when the French window opened, and I’d remained behind him in a hidden pocket of anonymity. It was a chivalrous and probably unnecessary gesture because no one here knew me. Rhys was the one who could potentially be embarrassed by our actions.
But he didn’t look that way. He looked hot, sexy as hell, and still very much lost in the same red mist of desire that had enveloped me. His breathing remained uneven, and there was just enough moonlight for me to see that his green eyes were all dilated pupils. Desire looked good on him.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever felt so close to losing control,’ he admitted, running a hand through the hair that I’d already messed up with my fingers. He gave a shaky laugh. ‘At least not in public.’
‘Me neither,’ I said, my chest still rising and falling as though I’d run for miles but still hadn’t left the starting line.
‘That kiss was...’ He paused as his eyes went to my lips and he seemed to lose his train of thought.
‘Yes, it was,’ I agreed.
He lifted a hand and ran his thumb tenderly over my swollen lower lip.
‘All I can think about is wanting to do it again... and again... and again.’
‘Ditto,’ I said, which was about as articulate as I was capable of being right then.