Free One More Sleepless Night by Lucy King Page A

because they weren’t working either. He was now thinking glaciers. Ice hotels. The Arctic.
    All of which melted the instant he put his hands on the silky warm skin of her shoulders. At the feel of her beneath his palms as he slid them down her back, his senses shut out everything but her. The soft texture of her skin... The dizzying scent of the lotion as he smoothed it over her. The dazzling sight of all that bare hot flesh... The muffled sounds of her sighs...
    He wondered what she’d taste like and his mouth watered with such longing that his knees nearly buckled beneath the onslaught of it all. His head swam and his body burned and he couldn’t help letting out a deep ragged groan.
    The sound of it, so rough, so desperate, snapped him out of the sensuous whirl and brought him crashing back to reality. He jerked his hands off her, snapped back and shoved them through his hair, not caring one bit that they were still covered in cream.
    God. What was he doing? What was he thinking? Had he truly lost his mind? And could he even begin to hope she hadn’t heard it?
    Apparently not because she tensed a little and her breath hitched. ‘Rafael, are you all right?’ she murmured sleepily.
    ‘Yes,’ he muttered, totally thrown by the dizzying realisation that he’d been so wholly caught up in her. ‘Why?’
    ‘You sighed. Deeply.’
    ‘I’m fine.’
    She twisted her head round, squinted up at him and frowned. ‘You don’t look fine. You’re glowering.’
    ‘Just thinking,’ he said, and told himself he really had to get a grip before all the need, confusion, tension and frustration that were swilling around inside him snapped and he did something truly insane like flip her over, get them both naked and then sink himself inside her.
    Her eyebrows shot up. ‘Heavens, about what?’
    ‘Nothing,’ he said sharply and lurched to his feet. ‘You’re done.’
    ‘Thank you,’ she said, wriggling slightly to refasten her top. Then she sat up and stared at him. ‘It doesn’t look like nothing. You look like you want to rip something apart with your teeth.’
    Such as that bikini? The vision of Nicky writhing beneath him as he tore the red cotton from her body slammed into his head and practically robbed him of breath. Desire clamoured even harder at the flimsy barriers he’d erected and he had the terrifying feeling that he was losing the battle to contain it any longer.
    ‘It’s work, that’s all,’ he said, and took a quick unsteady step back because he had to get out of here now.
    ‘Can I do anything to help?’
    Yes. Quite a few things. ‘No,’ he said hoarsely.
    ‘Oh, OK.’ She frowned and bit that luscious lower lip and that was the last straw really. The lust he’d been struggling to keep at bay finally crashed through the barriers and his resistance evaporated beneath the force of it.
    What the hell? He thought he’d been obvious, but clearly he hadn’t been nearly obvious enough. And what did he have to lose? His self-control was already in tatters. His brain was already in shreds. What would a slap to the face do that she hadn’t already done to him?
    ‘Do you really want to know what the problem is?’ he growled, way beyond the point of no return to question the wisdom of his actions.
    Nicky nodded. ‘I do.’
    He reached down, wrapped his hands around her arms and hauled her to her feet. ‘ This is what my problem is,’ he muttered, barely registering her splutter of shock as he pulled her against him.
    He buried one hand in her hair, clamped the other to the small of her back, and as she gasped crushed his mouth down on hers. He plunged his tongue between her parted lips, the desire racing along his veins, burning through his blood and setting fire to his guts. She tasted just as good as he’d imagined. Like honey. Like heaven. And she felt soft and lithe, fitting into his body as if made for him.
    His head spinning with dizzying need, Rafael groaned into her mouth and pulled her