From This Moment On

Everything she’d done since he’d met her in the club had teased his senses to the point where his control had shattered more than once with her. Somewhere in the back of his brain, a voice told him he needed to be gentle with her after the way he’d taken her the night before, but his body was too far ahead to be stopped now.

“Nicola, I can’t wait. I’m sorry.” He could hear his voice as if from a great distance, a man pleading for forgiveness, but not being able to stop himself from taking what he needed, even if she couldn’t possibly be ready to take him yet.

But then she was saying, “I can’t wait, either,” and it was as if the Go switch had been flipped on, a bright green that blinded him, that made it impossible for him to do anything less take her fully. Completely.

Her body welcomed his as if she’d been made to surround him. She was in such good shape and so strong as she held onto him that he didn’t need to hold her up at all, leaving his hands free to cover her br**sts as his hips drove into hers. His mouth devoured hers and she devoured him right back until she dropped her head back against the tile on a gasp of pleasure that echoed against the walls of the shower.

“Oh yes, please, just like that,” she urged him.

Needing to get closer, needing to be as deep within her wet heat as he could, Marcus gripped her hips in his hands and took her as hard as he’d wanted to last night, hard enough that hopefully he could make it through an entire day without having to show up at her video shoot and drag her off into an empty room to take her.

She sobbed his name as she came and, God, how he loved the way she climaxed with her entire body, every muscle tightening as she rode it out before going completely loose.

He wanted to be completely lucid for her orgasm, didn’t want to miss one second of it, but he just didn’t have that kind of control around her, and he had to take her mouth again in another bruising kiss as he found his own release. Just as it had the night before, his orgasm seemed to set off another set of sparks within her body, strong enough that she was whimpering against his lips, silently begging him to help her get over the second peak.

Marcus slid his hand between her legs. Her eyes flew open as her body instantly responded to the direct sensual contact of his fingertips on the center of her arousal.

He lifted his mouth from hers, knowing just what she needed, remembering so clearly how beautifully she’d responded the night before.

“Again,” he urged her. “Come for me again, Nicola.”

Just as he’d hoped, his gentle command had her eyes closing, her breath hitching in her chest, and her body giving itself over to another hit of pleasure.

He’d seen so much beauty at his winery in Napa, a hundred sunrises and sunsets over the vines that were each more beautiful that the next. But he would give up every sunrise, every last sunset, for the chance to watch Nicola’s skin flush, to be right there with her as ecstasy took her over.

He moved both hands back beneath her hips as her muscles went lax and her arms and legs began to slip from around him.

“I’ve got you,” he said against her ear as he sat on the built-in seat in the corner and cradled her in his arms.

“I’m really late.” She lifted her head, then, and smiled up at him. “You’re a bad influence on me.” She reached for the shampoo bottle before she could see the surprise on his face.

Marcus had spent a lifetime trying to set a good example for first his siblings, and then his employees. And now a pop star actually thought he was a bad influence? Not, of course, that he could argue with her, considering he’d just made her incredibly late to shoot her video. If his sister knew he was the one responsible for it, she’d kill him. The least he could do was make sure he didn’t delay her any further.

He reached for the shampoo and began to lather up her soft hair.

“I can do that myself,” she protested halfheartedly.

“Let me have the pleasure of taking care of you."

She nodded, saying “Okay,” before she relaxed into his hands.

Sixty very efficient seconds later, her hair was clean and conditioned and he was just finishing washing the suds from the bar of soap off her beautiful skin. Another minute later he’d dried her off with a plush towel.

With a soft kiss on her full lips, he said, “Go knock their socks off.”

But she didn’t move out of his arms. And she suddenly looked really uncomfortable. “This thing we’re doing—I know this sounds really horrible, but I just wanted to be sure that we’re both going to be really careful to keep it just between us.”

He nodded, surprised that she felt she needed to confirm that. “Of course it’s just between us.”

“Good.” She smiled up at him a little uncertainly. “Great!”

She gave him one last smile and then she was moving faster than he’d ever seen a woman get dressed and out the door, leaving him alone in her huge penthouse suite, wondering just how in hell he was going to keep from completely losing his mind over her.

Or if he already had.

Chapter Twelve

Even though Nicola had never flaked on a meeting or been late to a venue for a show or interview, she knew better than to think her previous track record would matter even a little bit today.

People believed what they wanted to believe about her. And she was pretty darn sure that everyone was automatically assuming she’d been partying too hard last night to show up for her own video shoot. So, while she was tempted to burst onto the set full of apologies, she knew better. She had to be completely in control of herself from the first second she stepped onto the set.