A Touch of Notoriety(46)

Beth froze at the husky sound of Raphael’s voice, realising her eyes must have adjusted to the gloom of the bedroom as she raised startled lids and easily saw the light glitter of his eyes reflected in the moonlight shining in through the windows.

She moistened her lips. ‘I thought you were asleep.’ Her voice sounded unnaturally loud in the stilled silence of the room.

‘I was,’ Raphael drawled as he turned on his side, bending his elbow and resting his cheek against the palm of his hand as he looked down at her. ‘You woke me up when you started attacking that defenceless pillow.’

‘I was imagining it was you!’ she came back tartly.

Having decided that it might be prudent on his part to pretend to be asleep when Beth returned from taking her shower, to give her the option of a woman’s prerogative to change her mind, Raphael now found himself giving a rueful shake of his head at Beth’s obvious disgruntlement that he hadn’t been waiting in impatient anticipation for her return. ‘Why?’ he prompted huskily.

Her eyes glittered at him in the semi-darkness. ‘Why do you think?’

Raphael reached out and gently touched the soft creaminess of her heated cheek with his fingertips, feeling rather than seeing the quiver that shook her body at just that light caress. ‘Would you believe me if I told you I was doing the gentlemanly thing and giving you the opportunity to change your mind?’

‘Why?’ she now returned softly.

He drew in a sharp breath. ‘Because, despite the outrageous things I may have said to you in the restaurant downstairs, I am a gentleman.’

‘Does that mean you weren’t serious about those outrageous things?’ There was a teasing lilt to her voice, her hair a silver-gold cascade over her bared shoulders in the moonlight.

‘I meant every single word I said to you earlier,’ Raphael assured her decisively. ‘It is because I meant them, because I want you in all the ways I described, but saw and recognised your uncertainty once we reached this bedroom, that I decided it might be better if I were to go to sleep.’

‘To give the appearance of being asleep?’

‘Yes.’

All of Beth’s earlier nervousness evaporated as she reached out to run her hands slowly up Raphael’s chest and over the warmth of his shoulders as she scooted across the bed, only to give a groan of frustration as she realised the bedclothes continued to act as a barrier between them. ‘Either you’re going to have to get beneath the bedcovers or I’m going to get out from beneath them!’ she muttered dryly.

‘I believe it best that I be the one to join you,’ he murmured ruefully as he drew her arms gently from about his neck before throwing back the bedclothes and standing up.

Beth’s breath hitched in her throat as she lay back against the pillows and watched Raphael shed his shirt completely, the moonlight turning his bared and muscled flesh a deep and burnished gold, his shoulders impossibly wide, and his tapered chest and abdomen perfectly toned.

She stopped breathing altogether as he unzipped his trousers before pushing them, and his boxers, down the long length of his legs, before straightening.

He stood proudly naked, his body bathed in moonlight, his erection jutting up so long it reached his navel, and so thick around Beth doubted her fingers would be able to encircle it, the bulbous top appearing a dark and glistening purple.

She licked her lips with the tip of her tongue as she gazed unabashedly at that evidence of Raphael’s arousal. ‘You’re beautiful,’ she breathed softly.

Some of Raphael’s tension eased at Beth’s typical candidness.

‘I believe that is supposed to be my line?’ But not one he could have said when Beth presently held the bedclothes up to her chin in a death grip. ‘Will you release the covers, Beth, and allow me to look at you, too?’ he requested gruffly.

Her breasts barely moved beneath those bedcovers as she breathed shallowly, before she allowed her fingers to first slowly release those bedcovers, then push them down to her waist. She kicked them fully down the length of her body until she at last lay back naked and beautiful in the moonlight, her hair a shimmering silver-gold halo behind her on the pillows.

Raphael drew in a hissing breath as he hungrily drank in the sight of the ivory beauty of Beth’s naked body: full and uptilting breasts tipped by strawberry-ripe nipples, her waist slender, hips flaring curvaceously, her legs long and shapely above slender and elegant feet.

His throat moved convulsively as he swallowed before speaking. ‘Exquisite,’ he groaned achingly.