"I thought this was the good stuff," she said, unsure of just how much more she could take of his sensual torment-or whatever else he had planned.

His fingers swept downward, tickling and teasing her belly with delicate, barely-there caresses that only served to electrify every nerve ending she possessed. "When it comes to sex, it's all good stuff, but the best is yet to come."

That made her laugh, which was something she'd never done in the bedroom with another guy. With Ben, it just felt so natural and right. "Pun intended?"

"Oh, most definitely." Quick and agile, he moved over her, straddling her thighs with his legs so that she couldn't move. He lowered his upper body to hers until they were face to face and his long fingers were tangled in her hair.

She felt deliciously trapped beneath him, unable to do anything but let him have his way with her. It was a little bit dangerous, and a whole lot arousing. The dark, hungry look in his eyes excited her even more, and she relished the heat and strength of his body pressing into hers, and the rasp of his lightly hair-covered chest against her smooth breasts.

With a gentle tug on her hair, he pulled her head back and skimmed his lips along the arch of her throat. "You're about to get your first lesson in oral sex," he murmured as he scattered tender love bites along her neck to her ear, rendering her breathless with not only his brazen words, but the feel of his mouth on her skin. "I'm going to go down on you and lick and suck your clit, and push my tongue deep inside of you until you come for me. Are you ready for that?"

She was already trembling inside, and because she trusted Ben so explicitly, she surrendered to him without hesitation. "Yes."

His lips captured hers again, and what began as a soulful and deep connection, eventually gave way to hot and primitive mating of their lips and tongues. His hands slid beneath her back, deftly unfastened her bra, and tossed the piece of lingerie aside. A moment later, his mouth paid homage to both of her breasts, bringing them alive with sensation once again before he continued his downward trek to her quivering belly. From there, he spread an agonizingly slow, damp trail of kisses around her navel, then hooked his fingers into the elastic band of her panties at her hips and started tugging the flimsy scrap of material down her thighs.

In order to remove them completely, he sat up so he could slide the panties down her legs and carefully maneuver them around her heeled pumps so they didn't get tangled. He dropped the bit of lace to the floor, then smoothed his hands up along the backs of her calves, gradually easing her legs wider and wider apart to make room for him in between.

Being completely naked in front of Ben for the first time, with the nightstand lamp leaving nothing to the imagination-and especially with him still wearing his boxer briefs!-she felt a small bout of modesty surge through her. Grasping for any kind of distraction, she caught sight of her red and leopard print heels and used them to divert his attention away from the fact that she was literally sprawled on the bed in front of him like an offering.

Not that he seemed to mind.

"Aren't you going to take off my shoes?" she asked on a ragged breath.

"Nope." He pressed a kiss on the inside of her bent knee, his breath fanning hot and moist against her skin. "They're sexy as hell and they're staying on."

Oh, God. Her heartbeat quickened as he licked and nibbled his way up the inside of her thigh, leaving a damp imprint behind with each lingering kiss, a reminder that he'd tasted that part of her body and was moving on to more carnal pleasures. When he reached the apex of her thighs, he draped her legs over his shoulders, brought his hands around so that he could splay them on her stomach to hold her down, and settled in for a more thorough exploration.

She wasn't quite sure what to expect, but when his velvety tongue slid along the soft folds of flesh, then flicked across her clitoris, she gasped sharply at the shock of sensation that shot through her. Liquid heat pooled at her center as he slowly, leisurely stroked her cleft, as he licked and laved and used his tongue in illicit, wicked ways that made her entire body flush in wanton need.

He controlled her every response with his clever mouth, meting out her pleasure a tiny bit at a time until she was whimpering and begging him for more. Still, he continued to tease and seduce every one of her senses, taking his cues from her soft moans and her quickened breathing. He knew exactly how to make her tremble and ache, how to bring her to the edge of release and then just stop short. And when he added a mind-blowing suctioning swirl to his arsenal of erotic play, along with a deep, endless stroke of his tongue inside of her, she cried out, her back arching off the bed and her fingers clutching the covers in a futile attempt to keep her grounded.

It was no use. The things he was doing to her with his mouth guaranteed that her climax was imminent. Ecstacy, pure and white hot, gathered inside her until there was nothing left for her to do but let go and enjoy the wild ride. Her body shuddered hard, then dissolved into a deluge of exquisite spasms that seemed to go on forever.

She'd never felt anything quite so incredible, so amazingly powerful than the orgasm Ben had just given her. The force and intensity of it all stole her breath, consuming her in a way she'd never experienced before. When the last of those heavenly contractions subsided, he pressed his damp mouth to her belly, nuzzling against her, his breathing just as ragged as her own.

After a while, he lifted his head and looked up at her, his gaze gleaming with unadulterated male satisfaction. "Are you okay?"

She laughed and furrowed her fingers through his thick, tousled hair. "Are you kidding me? I'm better than okay. That was like an out-of-body experience."

He chuckled, obviously pleased that he'd been the one to provide such immense pleasure. "Good. That was just an appetizer. Are you ready for the main course?"

She gasped as he dipped his tongue into her navel, reminding her of how he'd used that decadent tongue on her elsewhere. "If the main course is anything like what you just did to me, I'm going to be one very hungry woman," she said shamelessly.

"I can handle it." Grinning with just enough arrogance to make him look sexy, he moved to the edge of the bed and stood up, then stripped off his boxer briefs. His erection jutted out from between his thighs, hard and thick and more than enough to fill her full, and then some.

A renewed surge of lust spiraled through her. This was the first time she'd seen him completely naked, and just the sight of his fine masculine form was enough to arouse her all over again. He was made up of just the right amount of muscle, lean and powerful and so mouth-wateringly gorgeous she wanted to spend the next hour just touching him, stroking him, and exploring everything that made him so virile and potently male.

He didn't give her the chance. Reaching for one of the foil packets she'd brought with her, he tore it open with his teeth and rolled the condom down the length of his shaft. Then he gently eased her onto her stomach, grabbed her hips, and pulled her downward, toward the edge of the bed where he was standing. Her heels hit the floor, and when she started to straighten, he splayed a hand against her back to keep her upper body pressed flat to the mattress.

"Stay just like you are," he murmured, then caressed both of his hands up the slope of her back, with his thumbs gliding over each notch in her vertebrae, all the way up to her neck, then back down again.

His impromptu massage felt so good, and she stretched sinuously, telling him with soft sighs and deep groans just how much she appreciated his TLC.

His heated palms skimmed lower, over her smooth buttocks, while those wicked thumbs of his traced along the cleft separating each cheek. "You have the sweetest ass," he said huskily, then aligned his hips against hers from behind.

With her high-heeled pumps on, she was the perfect height for this position. His erection was nestled between her thighs, the tip of his shaft gliding through the slick moisture coating her female flesh. Grasping her waist, he moved his hips, mimicking the act of sex, which caused the head of his cock to rub oh-so-enticingly against still-sensitive tissues. With each caress, nerve endings came to life all over again, tingling, tightening, making her toss her head back and moan with the agonizing need for him to be inside of her.

She must have gotten her point across, because with the next pump of his hips he sank into her, much too slow for her liking when she wanted to be taken completely. He pulled out slightly, then surged forward again, teasing her with the promise of another orgasm that he kept just out of her reach.

She was used to quick, lackluster sex that ended after a few hasty strokes, yet despite the tension she could feel radiating off of Ben, he took his time with her, building her hunger all over again. As for him, somehow, someway, he maintained a controlled pace-one that made her desperate for a more frantic mating.

She looked over her shoulder at Ben, and swallowed hard at the sight of them together in such a primitive, uninhibited way that she'd only fantasized about. The dark, hot look in his eyes, and the barely leashed flex of his muscles in his arms and belly as he moved against her, made her shiver.

"Ben, please" she begged softly, when she'd never, ever, pleaded for anything sexual in her previous relationships. "I need you… harder, deeper, inside me."

With a ragged groan, he leaned over her from behind, his chest and abdomen pressing against the slope of her back. Bracing himself with one forearm on the bed beside her and tangling the fingers of his other hand in her hair at the nape of her neck, he gently pulled her head back so that his lips grazed her cheek. She felt completely surrounded by him, a part of him in so many ways-her body, her heart, her soul all his for the taking.

He withdrew and thrust back in to the hilt, finally filling her the way she longed to be filled-beyond what she believed was possible for her to take. And he didn't stop there. He increased the tempo of his strokes, each one a little faster, harder, deeper, than the one before.

"Oh, God," he rasped against her ear between quick pants for breath. "You're so wet. So hot… so fucking tight."

She closed her eyes and shuddered. His words were just as urgent as the unbearable pressure building between her legs and setting her aflame once again, as reckless as the demanding, aggressive way he plunged into her again, and again, and again. He overwhelmed her with desire and need, showed her what it was like to experience passion in its rawest form, and ultimately ravished her senses with the kind of emotion that was so dangerous to her heart.

A heart that was falling in love with Ben Cabrera.

Still, she accepted it all, savoring each moment, each feeling that was directly connected to this man.

He continued plunging into her with devastating effect, and incredibly, she could feel another climax rippling through her. A soft, mewling sound escaped her lips as her inner muscles contracted, squeezing hard around his shaft.

Her spontaneous response was all it took to trigger his own orgasm, and he came with a low, hoarse growl that reverberated through her entire body.


Chapter Eleven


THREE days later on the following Wednesday, Ben was sitting in the reception area of The Big Event, attempting to keep his focus on the same spy novel he'd been reading when Christine had ambushed him with her plan to seduce him on Sunday night. He kept reading the same paragraph over and over, because his mind just couldn't concentrate on the story line.

From one of the back rooms, he heard Christine and Madison talking, their animated conversation punctuated with an occasional burst of laughter. So far, since the night at the charity event, everything had been quiet in terms of anything happening to Christine, for which Ben was immensely grateful. Then again, he wasn't making it easy on anyone he didn't know to get close to her without a thorough interrogation. He was glued to her side when they were out in public, his instincts razor sharp at all times as he shuffled her from the car to her office, or wherever else she needed to go.

For now, she was keeping her outside errands to a minimum and only attending to things that were urgent. Weeding out the unimportant stuff would help to keep her as secluded as possible for the next week, until the election was finally over.