I’m scooped up and carried to the bed. ‘It ends here,’ he says, laying me down gently and spreading his body over me, burying his face in my neck. I don’t fight. I let his body melt into mine, let his strength seep into me, holding onto him like my life depends on it. He does the same. Each of us is squeezing tightly, both of our hearts pounding a strong, steady thrum. I can hear the beats. We’re both coming back to life.

His head lifts slowly until I’m staring into blue eyes filled with anguish. ‘I’m so sorry.’ He wipes my eyes. ‘I know I’ve run away, too, but I accept it now.’ He dips and kisses me gently, his soft lips wanted and terribly needed. ‘I need you to do the same.’ He sits up and pulls me onto his lap with ease, swamping me with his arms and kissing my face repeatedly. ‘What we have is beautiful, Olivia. I can’t give it up.’ He grasps my dress by the hem but doesn’t set about removing it. ‘May I?’

I answer by pushing his suit jacket from his shoulders, and he drops my dress to allow me to rid him of it. I need his na**d skin on mine.

‘Thank you,’ he breathes, removing my dress and casting it aside. His lips find mine and begin a delicate caress, his tongue tentative and soft as it slips into my mouth. My mind blanks, but my body responds instinctively. I accept his kiss, returning his soft, lazy pace, soaking up the emotion pouring from his entire being. His warm hands are all over me, touching and feeling everywhere, reminding me of the lack of skin beneath my palms. I start unbuttoning his waistcoat, then his shirt, until my hands are diving inside the material, feeling him everywhere for too short a time before I’m pushing the garments from his body, refusing to release his lips, not even to take in his perfect torso. Once his arms are free again, he unhooks the clasp of my bra and slowly pulls it from my body, exposing my tight, tingling ni**les. He breaks our kiss, and I whimper in protest, reaching down to unfasten his trousers.

That hypnotising mouth is parted, allowing breathy pants to escape, and his eyes are focused on my modest br**sts. I pull at his trousers once they’re undone, impatient for him to be naked.

He rips his eyes from my chest and looks up at me. ‘Taste me.’

I waste no time, but I seek out his neck rather than his mouth, nibbling on his throat and taking a long inhale of his manly scent. I’m all over him, making him moan and mumble in gratification.

‘My mouth,’ he groans, and I divert immediately to his lips with his plea. ‘Oh Jesus, Olivia.’ Big palms find my cheeks and hold my head securely while we kiss, soft and slow. ‘I can’t imagine anything could feel better than kissing you,’ he says against my lips. ‘Tell me you’re mine.’

I nod against him and meet his swirling tongue as he takes me down to the bed, letting me quickly push his trousers down his long legs. He abandons me momentarily, producing a condom from nowhere and slipping it on, hissing and clenching his eyes shut before falling back down to my body. I whimper when he settles between my thighs and I feel the broad head of his erection nudging at my entrance.

‘Say it.’ He bites at my bottom lip, rearing back. ‘Don’t deny me.’

‘Yours.’ There’s no question.

He rests his forehead on mine and pushes into me on a controlled surge of breath. ‘Thank you.’

‘Miller,’ I sigh, feeling the pieces of my fallen heart merging back together. My eyes close on a satisfied exhale, a peace settling over me, and he begins a lazy sway of his hips. With my hands free, I can touch him, and I make the most of it, slowly sliding my palms everywhere, feeling every inch of him. Our tongues are dancing sweetly, his h*ps are rolling gently, and reverence is pouring from him. He’s fully redeemed, his attentiveness extinguishing the horror scene of this hotel, this perfect moment reminding me of the sweet, gentle man he is when he’s worshipping me – the man I need him to be. The man he wants to be. For me.

‘I’m never freeing your lips,’ he declares, our sweaty bodies slipping languidly. ‘Never.’ I’m rolled from beneath him so I’m straddling his lap, still full to the maximum, the movement sending him so incredibly deep.

‘Oh God!’ My palms slap into his abs and brace, my chin hitting my chest.

‘Fuck!’ Miller curses, grinding up into me, his hands gripping the tops of my thighs. ‘Olivia Taylor,’ he whispers. ‘My most precious possession.’

‘You’re never freeing my lips,’ I choke through the desire, then gasp as his palm is quickly secured on my nape and yanking me down to his face. He thrusts up again. I cry out.

Then he sends me out of my mind with a kiss so full of hunger, I struggle to remember my name.

‘Move.’ He nips my tongue and encourages me by smoothing his hands around to my bottom and tugging up. I feel him slip from my passage, instigating a delicious friction that prompts me to fly up on a yell. My hands delve into my hair. ‘That’s it, Livy!’

The pleasure contorting his face injects some fortitude into me. I lift and fall onto his lap uncontrolled. ‘Like that?’ I ask, not waiting for his answer. His clenched eyes tell me, so I repeat, gripping my blond masses of hair harshly. ‘Miller, tell me!’

‘Yes!’ His eyes fly open, his jaw clenched. ‘You can do whatever the f**king hell you want to me, Olivia. I’ll take it all.’

I pause, breathing heavily, feeling him throb incessantly within me, my muscles stroking every pulse. ‘Me too.’

He moves quickly, taking me to my back and slipping back into me with ease. Then his fingertip makes a lazy trail down my hot cheek before he claims my mouth again. ‘I wish you were in my bed,’ he murmurs around my lips, circling his hips, beginning another excruciating pattern of steady circles and deep plunges. ‘Please say I can take you back to my bed and cuddle you all night.’

His request triggers a question, making me break our kiss so I can ask, ‘How can cuddling be your thing?’ I don’t allow him time to answer. I’m missing his mouth terribly already, so I waste no time sealing my lips to his and dipping my tongue in his mouth as he continues to rock lazily into me.

‘It’s only a thing with you.’ He nibbles on my lip and plants feathery kisses from one corner of my mouth to another. ‘I just want to squeeze you to death.’

I smile up at him and nearly burst into tears when he blasts me back with his rare but beautiful smile, his blue eyes twinkling wildly. He really has redeemed himself, the brutal Miller long forgotten. I want his lips on mine again, but I also want to look at his face when it’s smiling the brightest I’ve ever seen. ‘I love your smile,’ I declare on a breathy gasp, just as he blesses me with a smooth rotation of his groin, catching me just perfectly on my front wall. ‘Oh God!’

‘I only smile for you.’ He pecks my lips and pushes his torso up so he’s braced on his long, lean arms. ‘I love your br**sts.’ He flicks his eyes to them and licks his lips provocatively.

‘I don’t have much.’ I almost want to cover my lack of assets with my palms but my hands have other ideas and are feeling out his forearms.

‘I beg to differ.’ He gasps a little and slowly closes his eyes as he delivers the ultimate, deep, precise grind. My muscles stiffen, and I push against his rooted arms.