"I want to apologize."
"Again?" she asked sarcastically. "What are you doing?"
"Walking toward you. Why?"
"Why are you doing that?"
"To get closer, to see your face, to wonder why you're so angry."
Her eyes widened. "Why I'm so angry? You bastard, you read my personal file and used it to score some sick point. Stop!" She held a hand out as he continued to walk toward her. "You can take your insincere apology and shove it-"
"Be careful." His levity had fled completely. He was making the bloody effort, wasn't he? He had not long arrived home and instead of resting from his long flight or going to see friends, he was here taking the time to apologize, and bloody prickly and stubborn that she was, the woman was making it difficult for him.
"You want to take a step back and think about the consequences of the words coming from your mouth." He caught her hand by the wrist, holding on when she started to pull away. "I'm sorry for what I said to you that day. Accept my bloody apology and let's move on from it."
"Or what?" She glared at him, wondering fleetingly why he had such a volcanic effect on her. "You're going to ask mommy to fire me again?"
He saw red at her sarcastic tone. Without thinking, he shoved her back against the wall as his control snapped cleanly in two.
"What-"
"Shut the bloody hell up." He curved a hand around her throat, eyes blazing. "You're rude and irreverent and yes, I wish to God! I wish to God that my mother had heeded my demands to get rid of you. I want you gone. You're a bane in my existence, a thorn in my side and a bloody week of staying away from here, from you has not done a damn thing. So shut up, be quiet, do you hear me, just be quiet!"
"Let go of me. You will let go of me right now-"
"Or what?" he taunted her. His breathing had accelerated and his skin was hot. Her scent dominated his nostrils and invaded his bloodstream. The feel of her voluptuous curves against him was making him itchy and hard.
He had spent the week trying to deny that what he was feeling was an attraction for a woman who wasn't even his type. An attraction so intense, it was eating away at his sanity. It made him want to- His hand snaked up to the tidy coil she had wrapped her hair in and tugged at pins to send them flying. His fingers tangled in the silky strands. He had her body trapped against his, wedged in tight.
"Don't-" She did not recognize her own voice. All she knew was that her heart was racing overtime and she felt hot, her nipples heavy. "Don't."
"Damn you to bloody hell," he whispered as his mouth swooped down. She turned her head away at the last minute so that his mouth found the rounded curve of her cheek. Letting go of her hair, he clamped hard fingers on her chin and turned her around. His eyes met hers as he hesitated for a millisecond. Just that one tiny moment that seemed to freeze between them. Then he crushed his lips to hers.
All the pent-up fury and passion was poured into that kiss that seemed to incinerate them right where they stood. He forced her lips open and when they did, he plunged his tongue into her mouth.
His conscience was warring with his common sense. He should stop. He shouldn't have started. This was wrong. It did not make a damn difference. The need raging inside him could not be quenched. He took the kiss even deeper, his mouth moving over hers with a desperation he had never felt before.
And she was helpless to deny him. The files she had clutched in her hands slid heedless to the floor and, against their will, her hands lifted to grip his broad shoulders as she participated in the hottest, sweetest, and most erotic kiss she had ever experienced. She was helpless against such an onslaught and felt as if her entire body was going up in flames.
He captured her moan, or was that him? He wondered dazedly as he continued kissing her. He could make it last forever. He wanted it to last forever. He wanted to rip the clothes from herbody and devour her flesh. He wanted more than just a taste of her.
From the first moment they met, there had been this fire between them. She had rubbed him the wrong way from that day. And he wanted her. Madre de Dios! He wanted her with a fierceness that was driving him insane.
Lifting his mouth from hers, he sucked in some much-needed breaths and simply stared at her. The hair he had let loose was tumbling around her face and over her shoulders in wild disarray. Her magnificent eyes were bright with passion and sweet God! Her lips were swollen and wet.
With a tortured groan, he dipped his head again and this time he managed to make the kiss light, brushing his lips over hers in a way that had the fire that had been raging inside her bursting into flames. Her hands gripped his sweater as sensations hit her head-on. She yielded. Against her better judgment and the words screaming inside her that this was wrong, that she should run, she yielded to his kisses, her body arching toward his.
The phone lines were ringing, but neither of them paid any mind, too wrapped up in the passion to hear anything else outside the rapid beating of their hearts.
Ending the kiss reluctantly, Tomas lifted his head, eyes blazing. He had to wait a minute before he found his voice.
"Come to bed with me," he urged thickly. "I want you."
The words were like a dousing of cold water on flames. They snapped her out of the wave of euphoria his kisses had wrapped around her and brought her rapidly to her senses.
Shoving at him, she bent to pick up the files she had dropped and went to put them on Queen Sofia's desk. The queen! She had allowed herself to be mauled by the woman's son right here in her office where there were probably cameras hidden all over the place.
Whirling, she headed for the door, not even hearing his command for her to stop.
