She moaned softly when he took over the kiss and she allowed her hands to move over him, explore his shoulders, his arms and the amazing muscles in his biceps. She unbuttoned the first few buttons of his shirt and slipped her hands inside, reveling at the feeling of his warm skin against the palm of her hands.
The feeling of his hands under her shirt made her inhale sharply but she didn’t want him to stop. She wanted more, she needed to feel his hands covering her and touching her. She pulled his shirt out of his jeans and placed her hands flat on his chest, loving the velvety smoothness covering the steel of his muscles.
“Sabrina,” he groaned and suddenly his hands were touching her stomach as well and his mouth was covering hers in a ravenous kiss. But the heat was too much and she pulled back, terrified of how much she wanted him. When his mouth moved lower, nibbling at her neck, her ear, her shoulder that had somehow become uncovered from her blouse, she arched against him, her eyes closed and her body shivering from the heat his lips were generating.
He moved once again, his knee nudging her legs apart. Sabrina, mindless with the unknown, didn’t understand initially. Then she felt him between her legs, felt his erection against her thigh and the desire she felt was too much. The feelings she’d been experiencing only a moment ago instantly froze inside her.
“Sid, stop, please,” she called out to him, wriggling free from his embrace. “I can’t!” she gasped, terrified of what she was feeling, what he could do to her.
Sid instantly pulled away and looked into her eyes. When he saw the terror there, he gritted his teeth but fell backwards, his hand covering his eyes as he lay back against the hard earth.
Sabrina pulled away, pulling her arms around her shoulders and trying to control the feelings that were ripping through her system.
“We’d better get out of here,” he said suddenly. He instantly pulled himself to a standing position and started gathering up their picnic.
Sabrina helped him, but her fingers were shaking so badly she wasn’t much help. And she felt too miserable and confused to start up a conversation. Each time she looked at him, she noticed the hard set to his handsome jaw and wished she could get the relaxed Sid back. But she didn’t know how.
He packed the picnic into the back of the helicopter and they both got into their seats. Sid flew the aircraft with silent efficiency while Sabrina sat huddled in her seat in a mass of misery and embarrassment. She couldn’t believe that she’d gotten so scared of something wonderful. In her mind, she knew that Sid would never hurt her. The fact that he’d stopped immediately as soon as she asked, was evidence of his control. But when her body tumbled along like that, she just wasn’t sure what was happening. She was out of control and it scared her.
Back at the hotel, Sabrina was ready to simply walk out and go home, knowing that Sid probably didn’t want anything else to do with her. He was used to females who knew how to play the game. She was just a silly virgin who didn’t want to get burned by a man who could easily set her body on fire but didn’t know how to react to the flames.
“Where are you going?” he demanded when she pressed the down button on the elevator.
Sabrina looked at him with a surprised look on her face. “I was going to go home,” she said softly, unable to maintain eye contact. She was ashamed and feeling vulnerable and only wanted to go home so she could start to recover from Sid’s amazing touch.
He pulled her back from the elevators, heading towards the door leading to the penthouse. “No. We need to talk. Come to my suite,” he said. It wasn’t a request, she knew.
Sabrina understood that he was determined to get some answers and she felt like he deserved them. It was time to be honest with him and help him to understand why she was so terrified of the feelings he was able to stir within her. He was a wonderful man and didn’t deserve the mixed messages she knew she was sending to him.
Once they were alone, he tossed his keys onto a marble table and turned to face her. “Okay, explain.”
Sabrina turned her back to him, unable to face the anger and confusion on his face. There was also concern but she pushed that aside as simple wishful thinking. “I’m not sure I understand,” she lied, wishing she could just sink into a hole somewhere.
Sid sighed heavily, letting his hands fall onto her shoulders. She tensed immediately and he started rubbing them, trying to get her to relax a little so she could explain her reactions to him. “Sabrina, you’re lying. You know exactly what I’m talking about. And I want to know what I’m doing wrong,” he said. “Because if I’m touching you in a way that you don’t like or offending you in some way, you need to be honest with me and let me know. So what is it? Do you not like being touched? Or do you want something different?”
“It isn’t that at all!” she gasped, turning to face him, her eyes pleading with him to understand that she wasn’t repulsed by his touch at all. The opposite in fact. She wanted his touch so badly, she couldn’t take the heat. But how could she explain that to him? He would think she was ridiculous.
“Then what is it?” he demanded, forcing her to look up at him. He looked down into her face, his eyes angry. “Explain to me why you turn so cold once things start to heat up. You’ve almost got me convinced that you’re not interested in me but I’ve seen the look in your eyes and felt the shivers in your body so I know it isn’t that you’re not interested.”
“No! It isn’t anything like that at all.” She bit her lip, placing her hands flat on his chest and looking at the buttons in the middle of his shirt, searching for the words. “In fact, it’s exactly the opposite,” she said softly, finally admitting the truth.
Sid moved his hands from her arms to her waist and pulled her closer. “I don’t understand,” he prompted when she stopped. “What’s the opposite?”
She closed her eyes before replying, “I feel too much,” she whispered.
Sid was quiet for a long moment and Sabrina could feel his fingers tighten and loosen on her waist. “I still don’t understand,” he said finally.
Pushing gently away from him, she stepped away, grateful when he allowed her the space she needed. Running her hands up and down her arms, she took a deep breath and tried to explain what she was thinking, what she felt. “I haven’t dated too many men but the ones that I have, well, they don’t make me feel on fire.”