Page 26 of Her Forbidden Bargain

“You are never going to be able to control what anyone thinks about you but you can control how you feel about what happened. Do you regret becoming my lover?” he asked.

She nibbled her lower lip and then sighed. “No. I don’t. Being in your arms was incredible.”

“Then don’t worry about the photos or the press or any of it.”

She arched one eyebrow at him. “That’d be a little easier to do if I hadn’t met that lot head-on this morning. It was a little scary.”

“It is irritating. I will install you at my parents’ house and then take care of the paparazzi.”

“You keep saying that. And I don’t like it.”

“What don’t you like?”

“You taking care of everything. I’m not some doormat. Despite how I might act at the office.”

“You’re borderline insubordinate at the office.” He smiled to show that he was joking.

“Only borderline? I’ll have to work on that,” she said, and he saw the spark of her personality peeking through the sadness that had engulfed her for most of the day.

He knew it was a mistake to want to cheer her up. To care so much about her happiness, and about seeing her smile, but he did. He wasn’t going to be able to offer her anything else, so his protection and her happiness were it.

“I’m not above using discipline to keep you in line.”

“Like what? You going to spank me?” She shook her head and covered her mouth with her hands. “I can’t believe I said that.”

Immediately he had a vivid image of her sweet, bare ass as she lay over his lap. He hardened, then shifted to relieve some of the pressure at his inseam.

She flushed, and he knew that he wasn’t going to be able to keep his hands off her. He wanted her again. If he’d been able to distance himself in Mykonos, take her to the airport and put her on a commercial flight, it would have been different but now…he was going to have her again.

He needed to get her out of his system.

Chapter Seven

As her words echoed between them, Tristan leaned forward, took her face in both of his hands and kissed her. She closed her eyes and surrendered to the feelings he drew from her effortlessly. She’d been craving this for so long. It felt as if a lifetime had passed, instead of just hours, since he’d touched her like this.

She opened her mouth for his tongue, which teased hers. He ran it along the roof of her mouth and then drew back, catching her lower lip between his teeth and suckling her.

She shifted closer to him on the seat, needing more of him. Shivers of desire coursed through her body. She put her hands on his face, touched his jaw and then slid her fingers into his hair.

It was thick and silky. She tilted her head to the side and he drew her even closer to him as his mouth continued to explore hers.

He drew back from her and she opened her eyes, staring up at him. “I can’t get enough of you,” he said.

“Is that a bad thing?” she asked. Her lips were tingling from the contact with his.

“Of course not. I am French. We live for physical love.”

“And romantic love?” she asked, because she knew deep inside that she was falling in love with him. The seeds had been planted long before she’d known him as anything other than an attractive man who was her boss.

“Romantic love…what about it, Sheri?”

“Do you believe in it, or just lust?”

“I believe that we all get a once-in-a-lifetime chance at romantic love.”

“Once in a lifetime?” she asked. That sounded good to her. “I believe in that, too.”

He gave her a little half smile. She thought about what she knew of Tristan. How he was rumored to still be mourning his deceased wife even though she’d been gone for a long time.