I do as I'm bid and watch as he drops to his knees and peels the denim from my legs, tossing my jeans to the side before he hooks his fingers in the top of my knickers. I'm looking down at him as he draws them from my legs slowly, prompting me to lift each leg in turn so he can rid me of my white cotton. Reaching forward with his mouth, he kisses me softly, just north of the apex of my thighs, and I noticeably tense, but not because I'm nervous. I don't feel any worries. He's being so careful with me, but the heavy ache, low in my stomach, is intensifying with every second that pa.s.ses.

He rises to his feet and reaches around my back, finding the clasp of my bra, his mouth resting by my ear. 'Are you on birth control?'

I shake my head no, hoping it won't deter him. My periods are regular and light and I've not exactly been s.e.xually active.

'Okay,' he whispers, pulling my bra from my body. 'Take my shorts off.'

His instruction makes me hesitate, the potential of him fully naked unearthing a little bit of nervousness, which is crazy when I'm completely nude myself.

His hands are suddenly on mine and guiding them to the waistband of his shorts. 'Stay with me, Livy.' His words drive me into action and I slowly, carefully, push his shorts down his muscled thighs, not daring to look down. I keep my eyes on his superb face, finding it comforting. I can't, however, avoid the feel of him when he's free from his shorts and skimming my stomach. I quietly gasp, involuntarily stepping back from him, but he moves with me, his hand sliding around my waist and cupping my b.u.m. 'Easy,' he whispers. 'Relax, Livy.'

'I'm sorry.' I drop my head, feeling stupid and frustrated with myself. Those doubts are creeping in again, and he must sense it too because I'm lifted to his chest and walked to the bed, then laid down carefully before he takes something from the top drawer of the bedside table and positions himself over me, astride my waist, his hard, hot p.e.n.i.s directly in my line of sight. I'm fixated, even more so when he rises to his knees and clasps himself. I flick my eyes briefly to his face, seeing him looking down, his lips parted and that wave loose on his forehead. It's a pleasurable sight, but watching him rip the packet of the condom open with his teeth and slowly roll it down his shaft with ease is a light year past pleasurable, which only leaves me wondering what's to come.

'Are you okay?' he asks, planting his palms on either side of my head and nudging my thighs open with his knee.

'Yes.' I nod as I speak, not quite certain what to do with my hands, which are redundant by my sides, but then I feel him at my opening and they fly up to his chest on a gasp.

He's staring at me, and my eyes refuse to leave him, even though I desperately want to clench them shut and hold my breath. 'Ready?'

I nod again, and he pushes forward gently, slowly breaching my entrance and sliding into me on a loud exhale of air. Pain sears through me, making me quietly whimper and dig my short nails into his shoulders. I know my face is etched with discomfort, and there's nothing that I can do to stop it. It hurts.

'Jesus,' he gasps. 'Jesus, Livy, you're tight.' The strained expression on his face tells me he's in pain, too. 'Am I hurting you?'

'No!' I yelp.

'Livy, tell me so I can fix it. I don't want to hurt you.' He's braced on his arms, holding still, waiting for me to respond.

'It hurts a little,' I admit on a despairing rush of breath.

'I can tell.' He eases back gently but doesn't pull out completely. 'I have puncture wounds in my shoulders to prove it.'

'I'm sorry.' I immediately release him from my vicious grip, and he pushes forward again, only halfway this time.

'Don't be. Save your biting and scratching for when I f.u.c.k you.' He smirks, and my eyes widen. 'Come on, Livy.' He retreats slowly and rocks gently back in. 'Don't be bashful. We're sharing the most intimate act together.'

I find my hips lifting, wanting him to plunge deeper, now that the pain has subsided a little.

'You're egging me on.' He drops to his elbows and gets mouth to mouth with me, easing back and pushing in a little further, circling his groin. 'Tell me how it feels.'

'Good!' I breathe, inviting him to increase his pace with another tip of my hips.

'I concur.' He rests his lips over mine and teases my mouth with a brief dash of his tongue. It's too much. I attempt to capture his lips but he pulls away. 'Slowly,' he murmurs, swaying in and out perfectly, gazing down at me and blinking lazily to match his gentle thrusting. This really is intimate, and he's breaking me in, just like he promised. The quietness surrounding us is only slightly pierced by our matching, quiet, irregular puffs of air. Right now, I'm wondering why I've deprived myself of this feeling. This is nothing like I remember. This is how s.e.x should be two people sharing in each other's pleasure, not sprinting to the finish line with no consideration for the other person, which is just how I remember my drunken encounters to be. This is worlds away. This is special. This is what I want. I know I shouldn't be thinking that, especially since I've agreed to twenty-four hours and nothing more, but if I'll have this to remember him staring down at me, him feeling me, him worshipping me, then I think that I can cope with the aftermath.

I feel internal muscles that I never knew existed contract around him, sensitising me to each delicious drive, pushing me onward to . . . something. I don't know what, but I know it's going to be good.

He leans down and kisses my nose, then moves to my lips. 'You're tensing inside. Are you going to come?'

'I don't know.'

'You don't know?' he gasps. 'You've never come?'

I shake my head under his mouth, not feeling in the slightest bit embarra.s.sed. I'm too distracted by the lush heaviness weighing down between my thighs, getting heavier with each gentle thrust of his hips. I've never climaxed when I've slept with a man. Each encounter disgusted me, made me wonder what my mother found so hard to resist. I couldn't see what pleasure could come of it I never realised it could be like this. I feel like all rationality is being stripped away.

'Oh, f.u.c.king h.e.l.l!' His face pulls away from mine, his hips jerking forward, a little less controlled. 'You've never had an o.r.g.a.s.m?'

'No!' I grapple at his shoulders, my head shaking despairingly. The pain has completely gone now. Oh G.o.d, it's gone and in its place is something else something . . . 'Miller!'

'Oh, you sweet thing.' His drives are controlled again, but slightly firmer more precise and consistent. 'Livy, you've just made me a very happy man.'

My nails dig in again. I can't help it. I'm being bombarded with hot sparks stabbing at my epicentre. 'Oh!'

He drops his face to mine and kisses me softly. I'm not soft, though. I'm hungry, and my frantic mouth action is proof of it. 'Slow down,' he mumbles, sounding desperate, trying to guide me by kissing me purposely slow.

I'm turning light-headed; my eyes are rolling and my hands are now grasping his ma.s.s of dark waves. But I don't slow down. I can't. I feel a sense of urgency as the pressure builds and builds with every wonderful push of his hips.

'Here it comes.' He breaks away from my mouth and re-braces himself on his arms, pumping firmly, leaving me with no mouth to devour and no hair to knot my fingers in. 'How does it feel, Livy? Tell me.' His jaw is tense, his eyes suddenly deadly serious.

'Good!'

'How good?' He pleasures me with more and more and more.

'Too good!'

'Are you ready to come?'

'I don't know!' Is that what this is? I feel out of control, almost out of my mind.

'Oh, sweet girl, you've not lived.' His pace picks up and so does the pressure down below. My hands brace on his forearms and push, taking me further up the bed, and my head starts to urgently shake from side to side.

'Oh G.o.d!' I yelp. 'Oh s.h.i.t!'

'That's it, Livy!' It's becoming frantic our breathing, the shouting, the sweating and tensing and bracing. But he still maintains that steady, easy pace. 'Let it go.'

I have no idea what happens. The room starts spinning, a nuclear bomb goes off between my thighs and I scream. I can't stop it. My arms flop behind my head and Miller lowers himself on top of me, barking his climax into my hair, panting and slipping over my wet skin. The throb, him inside me and me around him is comforting and so is his fitful breathing in my ear.

'Thank you,' I gasp, not even feeling stupid for showing my appreciation. He's the one who keeps reminding me of my manners and what he's just done to me deserves some grat.i.tude. b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l, that was past even my highest expectations.

'No, thank you,' he breathes, biting at my ear. 'The pleasure was all mine.'

'Trust me, it was mine,' I insist, smiling when I feel him grinning against my ear. I'm desperate to see it, so I turn my face into him, finding the most amazing sight a full-blown, boyish grin, making his eyes sparkle like crazy and revealing a dimple that I've never noticed before. What I'm seeing right now is a million miles away from the coffee-hating, clipped, refined, powerful man who has utterly captivated me. 'You look cute when you grin.'

It disappears from his face immediately, a heavy frown replacing it. 'Cute?'

That probably wasn't the best choice of a word for such a manly man, but he did look cute. Not now, because he's not grinning any more, but that tip of his lips, the revealing of that dimple and the sparkling of his blue eyes showed me a completely different man, a man who I can tell doesn't appear very often. 'You don't smile very much,' I say, feeling a little brave. 'You should make the effort. You look less intimidating when you smile.'

'So I've gone from being cute to being intimidating?' He shifts onto his forearms and brings his face to mine, nose to nose, forehead to forehead.

I nod my head, making his nod, too. 'You're a little intimidating.'

'Or maybe you're too sweet.'

'No, you're too intimidating,' I affirm, feeling him throbbing inside me. All edginess has left me, leaving me feeling calm and serene. It's a lovely sensation, and he made it.

'We'll agree to disagree.' He's back to intimidating, but my serenity is still intact. It'll take a lot to pull me from this relaxed state of mind.

Easing out of me, he looks down between my thighs and pulls the condom off. 'Consider yourself broken in, Livy.'

My face screws up at his lack of tact. 'Thank you.'

'You're welcome.' He shifts down the bed and nestles between my thighs, looking up at me. 'How are you feeling?'

'Okay,' I answer hesitantly. 'Why?'

'I'm just checking if you need a break. Say the word and I'll stop, okay?' He rests his lips over the apex of my thighs, encouraging my receding o.r.g.a.s.m to resurrect. I start twitching. I need more recovery time.

'Okay,' I whisper, dropping my head back to the pillow and gazing up to the high ceiling. I don't think I'd ever tell him to stop. 's.h.i.t!' I blurt when I feel something hot and wet meet the tip of my buzzing c.l.i.t. My head flies up, my stomach muscles tense and my hands fist in the sheets by my side. My outburst is ignored and he sits up, taking my leg and bending and lifting it so he can kiss the sole of my foot. I want to throw my head back, curse and shout, but I'm immobilised by those d.a.m.n clear eyes as he watches me struggling to cope with his tongue running up my ankle and onto my lower leg. 'That feels nice,' I confess as he inches his way upward until he finds my tummy and starts trailing his lips across my navel and then back down the other side.

'Would you like me to continue?'

'Yes,' I wheeze, my leg twitching, my muscles firming up.

'Then I shall.' He nibbles the inside of my thigh. 'Soon, my mouth will be here,' he says quietly, pushing a finger into me, just a little. 'Would you like that?'

I nod my answer and he circles, enticing a long, low moan from me. 'Oh, G.o.d,' I breathe, pulling at the covers, yanking one side up and letting it float down over my face.

He almost laughs as he pulls the sheets from my face, but my eyes remain firmly shut, even when I feel him moving up the bed until he's settled half on me, his finger still submerged. 'Open.'

My head shakes adamantly, my brain focused only on the sensation of his finger inside me. He's not moving, yet I'm still pulsing incessantly around him, but then I feel his lips on the side of my mouth and my face turns towards the source of the heat, opening up to him, my thighs spreading wider, invitingly. I hum. It's low and broken, a clear sign of my pleasure, but I want him to know. I want him to hear how I feel.

'I love that sound,' he whispers, withdrawing his finger and slowly thrusting forward with two. I whimper. 'There it is again.'

'It's good,' I tell him quietly against his lips. 'Really good.'

'We'll agree on that one.' His lips leave my mouth and start trailing down between my modest b.r.e.a.s.t.s and onto my stomach, his fingers still pushing forward and pulling away neatly, carefully. 'It would've been a crime if you had declined this, Livy.'

'I know!' I gasp, my stomach curling and knotting, my body movements becoming erratic.

'To think I could've missed out on this.' His fingers are suddenly gone and he's moving fast.

'Oh!' My upper body flies up when he separates my folds and skims my c.l.i.toris with a light dash of his tongue. 'Ohhhhhhh,' I fall back to the bed, my palms covering my face, my legs shifting around him.

He nestles further into me, the hotness of his mouth completely encasing me and sucking gently. I recognise the signs now. I recognise the heaviness in my groin, the regular heartbeat in my c.l.i.toris and the need to tense everywhere. I'm going to climax again. 'Miller!' I cry, my hands finding my hair and gripping hard.

He releases me from his mouth and strokes a wickedly firm trail with his tongue, right up the centre of my cleft. 'Good?'

'Yes!'

He's suddenly on his knees and his hands slide underneath me, his palms cupping my b.u.m, and with one pull the whole of my lower body is raised from the bed. 'Get your legs over my shoulders,' he demands, helping me shift them until they're draped over his body. He holds me with ease and pulls me forward until I'm held to his lips. 'You taste incredible.' His mouth starts a torturous dance across my sensitive lips, plunging into my centre and sucking on my c.l.i.toris. 'Exquisite, Livy.'

I can't acknowledge that. I've been tossed into sensory excess, my body struggling to deal with the onslaught of pleasure. This is unknown territory. This is beyond any stretch of my imagination. I feel like I'm having an out-of-body experience.

My calves push into his back, pulling him closer, and his hands slide all over me, stroking and ma.s.saging me softly. I rip my eyes open and look up at him in his knelt position, holding me to his mouth, his blues pointing down at me. That look shoves me over the edge. My back bows and my fists slam into the mattress on either side of me. I want to scream.

'Let it go, Livy,' he mumbles against my flesh. And I do.

I stop trying to suppress the pressure in my lungs and let it all out on a loud scream of his name, my thighs tensing around his face, my head thrown back. 'Oh G.o.d, oh G.o.d, oh G.o.d!' I pant, trying to think clearly. It's no good. Nothing can get past the wall of shock as my body goes lax and my mind goes blank. I've lost control of everything. My mind. My body. My heart. He's hijacking every part of me. I'm at his mercy. And I like it.

I'm eased back down to the bed, and I do nothing to help as he positions me on my side and lies behind me, pulling me into the hardness of his chest. 'What about you?' I breathe, feeling him hard against my back.

'I'll let you recover first. I could be a while. Let's just cuddle.'

'Oh,' I whisper, wondering how long a while is. 'You want to cuddle?' I never in a million years expected cuddling to be included in my twenty-four hours.

'Cuddling's my thing with you, Olivia Taylor. I just want to hold you. Close your eyes and enjoy the silence.' He gathers my ma.s.ses of honey hair and pulls it out of his way so he can access my back, then he starts a hypnotising, slow routine of lazy kisses over my skin. It makes my eyes heavier, finding immense comfort from the attention and his warmth coating every part of my back as he gives me his thing.

It makes me realise that I've existed in solitary.

Chapter 8.

I come to in a dusky darkness, completely naked and completely disorientated. It takes me a few moments to gather my bearings and when I do, I smile. I feel relaxed. I feel at peace. I feel sated and comfortable, but when I roll onto my side, he's not there.

I sit up and gaze around his bedroom. Should I look for him? Should I stay put and wait for him to return? What should I do? I have just enough time for a trip to the bathroom, ensuring I leave everything exactly how I found it, before the door opens and Miller appears. He has his black shorts on again, and his semi-naked perfection attacks my sleepy eyes, making me blink repeatedly just to ensure I'm not dreaming. He looks at me standing and fidgeting, a sheet wrapped around me and my hair probably resembling a bird's nest.

'Are you okay?' he asks, walking forward. His hair looks adorable, the dark waves wild and messy, and that lock sitting perfectly in place on his forehead.

'Yes.' I pull the sheet in tighter, thinking maybe I should've got dressed.

'I've been waiting for you.' He takes the sheet and wrestles it from my grip until he's holding a corner in each hand and opening it, exposing my naked body to shimmering blue eyes. His lips don't smile, but his eyes do. He moves into the sheet and drapes the ends over his shoulders so we're both enclosed in white cotton. 'How do you feel?'

I smile. 'Good.' I feel more than good, but I won't admit it to him. I know why I'm here and it's searing painfully on my conscience and morality each time I think about it. So I simply won't.

'Just good?'

I shrug. What does he want? A thousand-word essay on my current state of mind and state of body? I could probably write ten thousand words. 'Really good.'

His hands slide around to my bottom and squeeze. 'Are you hungry?'

'Not for oysters,' I blurt on a shudder.

He removes himself from the confines of the sheet and wraps me back up with the utmost care. 'No, not for oysters,' he agrees, pecking my lips lightly. 'I'll feed you something else.' His hand finds the nape of my neck over my hair, and then turns me away from him, leading me from the room.

'I should get dressed,' I say, not attempting to stop him, but wanting him to know that I'm not entirely comfortable with a sheet of cotton covering my modesty.