The Billionaire from Her Past by Leah Ashton

zero.’
    Now he touched her. His fingers brushed against her wrist, his hand gently circling it, his thumb sliding over her furiously beating pulse.
    â€˜You don’t have to change a thing.’
    Mila could barely think with Seb so close to her. She seemed to be leaning towards him. His tie was still her focus, but it was much closer now.
    â€˜My mum thinks I should eat more salad,’ she managed.
    Seb’s laugh was sudden and loud, whipped about in the sea breeze.
    â€˜I can accept that,’ he said. ‘But only if you want to.’
    â€˜I will if there’s no coriander. That stuff is—’
    But her words stopped forming as Seb’s hand shifted, his fingers meshing with hers. She held on tight as she finally lifted her gaze.
    The street lights were all behind him, up above the beach, so his face was in almost total darkness. She could just make out the shape of his cheekbones, the strong line of his nose.
    And his mouth.
    She definitely knew where his mouth was. It was as if every sensation in her body was focused upon it, as if nothing else existed beyond Seb, Mila, this cloaking darkness...and his mouth.
    Her shoes dropped from her fingers to the sand with a soft thud, seemingly releasing her feet from their concrete-like shackles. She stepped closer, because she was helpless to do anything else.
    She closed her eyes, trying to gather her thoughts...or something. His breath was warm, soft against her eyelashes.
    Snippets of common sense did flitter within her, but with no success. Her body was awash with too many emotions right now for her to pay attention: her father’s rejection, the loss of the man she’d always so badly wanted him to be.
    Plus the awful emptiness that her attempts to remove this man right before her from her life had triggered. Even despite her maddening inability to do so.
    With all this whirling loss and confusion all Mila knew was that she wanted to feel good. She wanted to feel close to someone—to anyone.
    No.
    Not anyone. This man.
    Right now this man felt right. More right than anything else that had happened tonight. That had happened in for ever.
    â€˜Mila...’
    Oh, God, his voice was low and rough. The voice of a man barely in control.
    Seb wanted her. He wanted her .
    Tonight that was what she needed more than absolutely everything.
    Mila’s eyes snapped open. It was far too dark to read anything in Seb’s eyes, but that really didn’t matter.
    If anything, it helped. It reduced everything down to what she wanted and what he wanted. Which was to touch much more than just their hands.
    Mila gripped his hand tighter and then, her gaze dropping to his lips, tugged, pulled him towards her.
    Their lips met a split second before their bodies—chest to breast, hips to hips. Seb’s hand dropped hers, only to appear near her waist, his other hand at her lower back, drawing her even closer.
    Mila’s hand curled up and behind his neck, her fingers combing into his hair.
    Their mouths were momentarily as cool as the breeze, but as they kissed there was nothing but heat.
    Seb showed no caution. He kissed her with the confidence of a man who knew what they both wanted—and he was right. All Mila wanted was to be closer, closer—luxuriating in the sensation of lips and teeth and tongue.
    This was all want and all need. As wild as the ocean and as uncontrollable.
    Mila slid her hand towards Seb’s tie, tugging at it, and then at the top buttons of his shirt, frustrated that so much of him was covered in linen and silk. His skin felt impossibly hot beneath her fingertips, and then against her back, as Seb’s hand searched for its own bare skin, finding it at her shoulder.
    They barely broke apart for air, every kiss just fuelling the next. Their mouths and their bodies working together in search of that same goal of delicious sensation. Of heat and of need and of want.
    But then it was over. As abruptly as it had