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‘I’m the one making the rules, sweetheart,’ he reminded her. ‘But if you want to offer your services now and again I’d be more than happy to oblige.’
She gave him a scathing look. ‘I thought you weren’t the least bit attracted to me?’
He grinned at her cheekily. ‘If the lights were off I think I could probably manage to perform.’
Hayley buried her head in her menu. The very last thing she wanted to think about was his sexual performance. Just sitting with his long legs so close to hers was enough to send her pulses soaring. She could just imagine how his hard, athletic body would feel pumping its desire into hers, his long limbs entrapping hers, his sensual mouth enticing hers into paradise.
She suppressed a tiny shiver and chose the most calorific item on the menu. She could always lose the weight, but the one thing she didn’t want to lose was her heart.
And certainly not to him.
CHAPTER THREE
‘SO WHERE DID you and Myles plan to go on honeymoon?’ Jasper asked once their main meals had been cleared away.
‘We were going to go to Green Island,’ she said with a despondent slump of her shoulders.
‘I meant what I said, you know,’ he said. ‘No point in wasting a perfectly good holiday.’
She looked up at him, her heart fluttering in sudden panic. ‘You mean go together? Both of us? Alone?’
‘Isn’t that what newly married couples do?’ he asked.
‘I don’t want to go with you,’ she said, pouting. ‘And certainly not on what was supposed to be my honeymoon.’
‘You know something, Hayley,’ he said with a thoughtful look, ‘I don’t think you were even in love with Myles.’
‘Of course I was in love with him!’
He raised one dark brow at her. ‘Was?’
‘I mean I am still in love with him,’ she amended quickly. ‘I’m still processing the shock of finding out about his … affair …’
‘He was totally wrong for you, you know,’ he said. ‘For a start he’s old enough to be your father and, secondly, if he really loved you he wouldn’t have taken your rejection without some sort of fight. He’s clearly not strong enough for someone like you.’
She sent him a caustic glance over the top of her wineglass. ‘Oh, and I suppose you know exactly who would be my perfect match, do you? You’re hardly what I’d call a relationships expert,’ she said. ‘Anyway, what would you know what constitutes a good relationship? You’ve left a trail of broken hearts in your wake ever since you were a teenager.’
‘So can I help it if I’m super-attractive to women?’ he asked with a teasing smile.
She rolled her eyes into the back of her head and, reaching for her glass, drained it, adding as she placed it back on the table, ‘You’re not attractive to me.’
‘I was once—don’t you remember?’
Hayley wished she could permanently erase that one stupid incident from her mind and his for all time. He never missed a chance to remind her of her sixteenth birthday party when, under the influence of a little too much alcohol, she had thrown herself at him, begging him to make love to her. It had been the most embarrassing episode of her entire life. His cold disdain as he had unpicked her clinging fingers from him and escorted her out of his bedroom had tortured her ever since.
‘Not even a little bit?’ he taunted her.
‘I prefer my men with a conscience,’ she said with an imperious toss of her head. ‘What you did to Miriam Moorebank was unforgivable.’
A flash of anger lit his dark brown gaze, his jaw becoming so tight she could see white tips appearing at the corners of his mouth.
‘You know, I think I’m going to really enjoy being married to you,’ he bit out. ‘I’ll finally get the chance to tame you as you should have been tamed a long time ago.’
A flicker of something hot and urgent pulsed between Hayley’s thighs as his eyes clashed with hers. Her heart began to pick up its pace, the blood thrumming through her veins at breakneck speed. Danger seemed to simmer in the air that separated them. She could feel it lurking there, like a leopard hiding in the shadows, poised to pounce at its unsuspecting prey.
‘I haven’t actually said I’ll marry you,’ she said as a last show of defiance.
‘I’m not going to give you a choice,’ he said. ‘I’ve been doing a little research into your business affairs. You’re currently stretched to the limit. And while your client turnover is good and consistently growing, a sudden increase in rent just now will tip you over the edge.’
