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He huffed out a frustrated breath. ‘Please don’t be so damn prickly.’
Her jaw dropped. ‘Look who’s talking,’ she bit back sharply.
He stared at her for a second. And then his smile flashed. Reluctantly at first and then it became broad and wide.
He shook his head. ‘You don’t make this easy.’
‘You don’t think?’
Too late she realised the implication of her words. Hadn’t she been totally easy?
He threw her a stunned look and burst into laughter at her mortification. ‘You’re blushing.’
‘Don’t comment on it, you make it worse.’ She glanced at him, then started to get mad at him all over again. ‘Don’t do that.’
‘Do what?’ He grinned.
Look gorgeous. Look human and hot and fun. She turned it on him. ‘Are you really going to spend all day ignoring me and then decide to be nice just because you’re bored again?’
‘I’m not bored,’ he answered ruefully. ‘I could never be bored with you in the house.’ His brows pleated. ‘Last night didn’t happen because I was bored.’
Flattery wasn’t going to work. She refused to let it.
‘You’re not bored either,’ he added thoughtfully. ‘Are you?’
‘How can I be, when I don’t know if you’re going to bite my head off or try to—’ She paused in her retort.
‘Or what?’ He dared to grin at her.
‘Do something...unspeakable,’ she finished.
Something gleamed in his eyes but he straightened and pressed his knuckles against the table. ‘Why did you do it?’
She paused. Knowing what he meant but not wanting to answer. How could she explain it to him?
‘You were a virgin.’ He crossed his arms and glared at her.
‘Does it matter all that much?’ she asked, more bravado now than honest. Because, yes, to her it did matter. But she didn’t regret it. She’d never regret it. And she wasn’t going to let him taint the memory of how perfect those moments in his arms had been.
‘You met me less than forty-eight hours ago.’
She swallowed. How could she tell him now that she’d fantasised about him for a year?
‘And you let me do all that and more. More than once.’ He shook his head. ‘Why?’
She didn’t know how to answer him.
‘Did Jasper send you here to seduce me?’ he asked. ‘Did he pay you to...entertain me?’
‘Are you honestly asking me that? Again?’ Angrily she tore back at him. ‘You think I’d really do that?’ She rose from the table and stomped towards the door. Unfortunately that meant she had to stomp past him. ‘No money would be enough for me to do that. I can’t and won’t ever be bought.’
He grabbed her as she made to get past.
‘Then it’s because you feel sorry for me. Because of my injury.’
His hands were firm on her waist and it took every ounce of willpower to suppress her trembling. But to her surprise he was pale—as if he really questioned why she’d slept with him.
‘You think I held onto my virginity all this time only to give it up out of pity?’ She shook her head because he was crazy. ‘If I felt sorry for you I might make you a cup of tea and cook you your favourite dinner...but I wouldn’t let you inside me.’ She was so emotional she couldn’t hide her shaking now. ‘I wouldn’t ever be that intimate with a man just because...’
His eyes narrowed as he ruthlessly watched her. Making her admit it all.
‘So if it wasn’t because of those reasons, then why?’
But saying it was so much harder than showing him. ‘It’s much simpler than that. I let you have me, because I wanted you. I wanted you so much I ached. I couldn’t stop and I didn’t want to.’
‘So it was just lust?’ He looked disbelieving.
‘Why did you sleep with me, then?’ She turned the tables crossly. ‘Why did you...do all that to me over and over and over when you’d only just met me too? Even when you realised how inexperienced I was...’
‘No, I didn’t want to stop. You’re gorgeous.’
‘So I can’t lust after a guy for his looks, but it’s okay for you to lust after a woman?’
‘But I wasn’t a virgin, Zara.’
‘Like that matters all that much?’
‘Doesn’t it?’ he dared her. ‘You said it yourself, why would you have held onto it all this time? If it didn’t matter all that much, why were you still a virgin at this age?’
How could she tell him she’d been unable to look at any other man in that way since she’d first met him?
‘You’re saying I’m old?’
He laughed and gave her a gentle shake. ‘No and don’t try to change the subject. I refuse to believe this was the first chance you’d had to have your wicked way with a man. If you’d wanted to, and if it didn’t matter to you all that much, you would have lost your virginity years ago.’
Silenced, she looked at him.
‘So why me?’ he pressed her. ‘Why now?’
She swallowed. ‘You have a very beautiful body.’ She faltered. ‘And very beautiful eyes. You’re...fascinating.’ She was simply absorbed by him. ‘And you’re very good at kissing me,’ she whispered.
‘Kissing turns you on?’
She touched her tongue to her lip very quickly, but he saw. He saw and he knew.
‘Has no one else ever kissed you?’ he asked softly.
‘Not the way you do.’
‘How do I kiss you?’
She gazed up into his eyes and one secret thought spilled out. ‘Like you can’t get enough of me.’ As if he were pouring every ounce of himself into her—and it made her so warm, so beyond herself.
‘Well, that’s true,’ he answered almost inaudibly. ‘I can’t.’ He cradled her face in his hands. ‘You like to feel wanted? Is that what it is?’ he asked. ‘Because, sweetheart, you have no idea how much I want you. How many times I want you. But I can’t do anything more than want you just for now. Do you understand?’
‘What I understand is that in a couple of days I’ll leave here and most likely will never come back. I’ll get on with my business and you’ll get on with yours,’ she answered. ‘I don’t want anything more from you. I won’t take anything from you. Other than...’
‘Sex.’
She nodded, wincing a little at the blunt admittance.
‘You’d better mean it, Zara. Because if you agree to this, then, I have to warn you, it’s not going to be a restful couple of days.’
Her breathing quickened. She was aroused at what he
was implying. ‘You mean—’
‘I mean if you say yes now, I’m likely to want you every damn moment from now until you walk out that door and drive away. But when you do drive away, you mustn’t look back. You mustn’t come back. Not ever. You promise me you can do that? You promise me you won’t want more. Because I haven’t any more to give.’
She didn’t care how needy she was, how accepting of what little he had to give. Because the truth was she had no more either. This was all she wanted from him because it was all she could have. Once he knew the truth he’d be so mad with her, but she was too selfish—and too hungry—to deny herself just this little time.
Because what Tomas didn’t know was that this would end the second Jasper arrived and the truth came out. There was only this night before the lawyer was due. Tomorrow it would all be over.
‘You won’t come back,’ he pressed her.
‘I won’t.’ But only because he truly wouldn’t want her to.
He pulled her close to him. ‘Promise me.’
‘I promise.’
He kissed her, instantly sending her back into that cauldron of desire. She flung her arms around his neck and kissed him back. She was so mad with him. But as she rubbed against him she felt just how aroused he was. He walked her backwards until her back hit the wall.
Not the table this time? She tore her lips from his so she could look into his eyes and read his intent. To see if he was as wild as she.
In answer he reached into his pocket.
‘You have a condom with you?’ She glared at him accusingly. ‘When you were so rude?’
‘I’m sorry,’ he muttered, quickly kissing his way to her forgiveness. ‘I’m very, very sorry.’
And suddenly she was even more turned on. And even more angry.
‘Then maybe you’d better use it.’ She fumbled, but somehow yanked his trousers open.
For a second he glared back at her. Then he fought to get the condom on fast enough. As he worked she undid her jeans and shimmied them and her panties down. Finally sheathed, he pushed her so her back was right against the wall in support.
But then he hesitated. ‘Zara—’
‘Take me,’ she said, daring him. Daring herself.
‘You’re not ready.’ He shook his head. ‘You can’t be ready.’
