Tycoon's Choice: Kept by the Tycoon / Taken by the Tycoon / The Tycoon's Proposal

A little flustered, Madeleine agreed, ‘Of course. If you think I’ll be able to help.’

‘If Katie takes to you, and I can’t imagine she won’t, you could be the answer to all our prayers…More coffee?’

‘I don’t think so, thank you.’

Rafe smiled a dazzling smile and asked. ‘Then would you like to dance?’

The club had started to fill up, and there were several couples already on the floor.

Madeleine’s eyes lit up. ‘Yes, I’d love to.’

Even in her own ears her words sounded eager and breathless, and as he took her hand and led her onto the floor she wondered where the old cool and composed Madeleine had gone.

Though it was a long time since she had been on a dance floor, she had always enjoyed dancing. But this was something special.

He was a good dancer, light on his feet and with a purely masculine grace. As he held her to his heart, his cheek against her hair, they moved round the floor as though made for each other.

For Madeleine the rest of the evening passed in a kind of dream as, without speaking, just enjoying the music and the closeness, they danced every dance.

When the floor started to get crowded, Rafe murmured in her ear, ‘About ready to go?’

She nodded, a little shiver of excitement running down her spine. She hadn’t allowed herself to think any further than dining and dancing at Annabel’s, but now the evening was over and the night lay ahead.

When she was settled in the Porsche, he turned to look directly into her eyes. ‘I shared your bed last night. Will you come to Denver Court tonight and share mine?’

A betraying catch in her voice, she agreed lightly, ‘That seems only fair.’

As they drew up outside the imposing tower-block complex and he helped her out, one of the night security staff came hurrying over.

‘Evening, Mr Lombard…Anything I can do for you?’

‘Could you put the car away, please, Jim?’ A folded note changed hands.

His arm around her waist, Rafe escorted Madeleine into the building and across the pale marble-floored foyer to the lift.

On the top floor they stepped out into a wide, luxuriously carpeted area with a white and gold decor and extravagant arrangements of fresh flowers.

When he let them into his apartment and flicked on the lights, she saw that he occupied one of the corner penthouse suites. From the spacious and attractive L-shaped living room, French windows led onto a walled patio and garden.

She gasped as she looked around her, taking in the luxurious surroundings. Rafe smiled and bent to touch his lips to the warmth of her nape, before asking, ‘Would you like a nightcap?’

Shivering a little at the caress, and impatient for the pleasures to come, she shook her head.

Taking her hand in his, he led her through to a large en suite bedroom with pale walls and a thundercloud-blue carpet and curtains.

Opening a connecting door into a similar room decorated in ivory tones, he suggested, ‘If you’d like to use the guestroom facilities you’ll find everything there you need.’

In the well-appointed bathroom there was indeed everything a guest could want, including slippers and a white towelling robe.

She found herself wondering how often he brought his women back here.

It was an uncomfortable thought, and she pushed it hastily away. This might only be another brief and casual affair as far as he was concerned, but for her it was special, a once-in-a-lifetime love affair, no matter how short a time it lasted.

When she had cleaned her teeth and showered, she brushed out her long, silky hair and, a little shy, put on the towelling robe before making her way back to Rafe’s room.

He was just emerging from his bathroom, stark naked apart from a towel slung round his neck that he was using onehanded to rub his dark hair.

As she hesitated in the doorway, tossing aside the towel, he held out both hands. ‘Come here.’

Loving that touch of arrogance, she went to him, and was rewarded with a lingering kiss.

He had shaved, and she could smell the fresh, spicy scent of his cologne. Eyes still closed, she put up a hand and stroked his smooth cheek.

‘Mmm…’ she murmured.

Nuzzling his face against her throat, he said, ‘I intend to kiss every inch of you, and bristles can play havoc with delicate skin.’

Untying the belt of her robe, he slid his hands inside and, like a blind man reading Braille, ran his fingers over her slender body, savouring the purely tactile pleasure.

It was strangely erotic, and by the time his hands returned to her breasts she was quivering all over. When his thumbs brushed lightly across the sensitive nipples, she gasped.

As he continued to tease, soon aroused to fever-pitch, she pressed her hips against his.

But, refusing to be hurried, he said, ‘We’ve got all night. Plenty of time to take things slow and easy, to ravish you, in the best sense of the word.’

She wondered how he could be so patient, so willing to wait for his own pleasure.

As though reading her mind, he said softly, ‘Your body responds so delightfully to my every touch, it makes the pleasure mutual.’

He put his mouth to her breast and laved the nipple with his tongue. ‘You like that, don’t you?’

She shuddered, and, holding his dark head between her hands, breathed, ‘Yes, but I don’t think I can stand much more…’

‘Oh, I think you can.’

When he finally lifted her onto the bed and stretched out beside her, she was almost mindless, poised on the brink.

He stoked a caressing hand down her slender figure and, finding the warm, silky skin of her inner thighs, used a single long finger to tip her over. Her whole body bucked convulsively, and she lay quivering and helpless until the exquisite sensations began to die away.

She felt a little triste. She had wanted to make love with him, to share the experience, to know he was feeling the same delight and joy she was feeling.

When she opened dazed eyes, he was watching her.

Smiling at her, as though he understood perfectly, he said, ‘It’s all right,’ and with those skilful hands he proceeded to reawaken the desire she had thought sated.

Then slowly, very slowly, as though to draw every last ounce of pleasure out of it, he made love to her, building up a molten core of heat, a spiralling tension, until the tension snapped and sent them both rocketing into space.

She drifted back to earth to find his dark head was lying on her breast and his hand holding hers. It was one of the sweetest sensations she had ever felt.