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His taunt was as cruel as it was accurate.
‘Don’t change the subject. You failed to consult me on where our child would spend the night. You can’t do that.’
‘And how,’ he said, running a hand over a face that suddenly seemed exhausted, ‘do you think I felt, about all the decisions you kept from me?’
‘But this is new for you!’ she cried into the night. ‘I’ve been doing everything on my own, every day, because you went to prison, because your assistant led me to believe that there were hordes of women out there like me.’
She gulped in a breath of cool air and that was all the time he needed to undo her completely.
‘There is no one out there like you.’
‘Because I’m the mother of your child?’ she demanded, both terrified of and eager for his answer.
‘No, not just that.’
For just a moment, he loomed over her in the darkness, blocking out the light of the moon until all she could see was him. All she could see was the desire in his eyes. And then he turned and left her standing on the jetty, watching his white shirt disappear over the crest of the hill that led to the house.
Damn him.
* * *
By the time she had summoned the courage to return to the house, she had realised the truth of his words. The courage she had needed was not for fear of him...but of herself. Of just how much she wanted to give in to her desire for Dimitri, to relish the pleasure she knew he could give her.
Dimitri was at the drinks cabinet, his tie hanging loose at his neck, the glass of amber liquid nearly to his lips when he turned to look at her.
‘Did you want one?’ he bit out reluctantly.
‘I don’t.’
‘Because of your mother?’ he asked, curiosity ringing in his tone.
‘Haven’t we had enough of my personal life for one day? I’m going to bed. Alone,’ she tossed at him over her shoulder.
‘Not interested in consummating the marriage, then?’
‘You’ve blackmailed me into wearing your ring. Now you want to blackmail me into your bed?’ she demanded, turning back to him, still dancing around the edges of want, need and self-denial.
‘I told you before, I wouldn’t have to.’
‘You’re arrogant.’
‘And you’re stubborn,’ he threw back at her.
His eyes locked with hers and she felt it, that thread of electricity that joined them, that cried to the world of their attraction.
‘There you are, standing as if full of anger and righteousness. But it’s neither of those things, Anna, is it?’ he demanded. At his very words she felt the cords that tied her to those feelings begin to fray, slowly breaking, thread by thread. ‘Inside, you’re quivering with desire.’ He took a step towards her, only increasing the tremors she felt break across her skin. ‘Your pulse is racing, not with injustice, but need.’ She tried to slow her breathing, but the flutter she felt at her pulse points was undeniable. ‘Your cheeks are flushed, not with fury, but arousal. There,’ he said, his fingers hovering above the lace that barely covered her breasts, ‘your own body is straining towards me, desperate for my touch.’
She batted away his hand, but her heart wasn’t in it.
He looked at her with assessing eyes, as if not quite understanding why she would fight this so much, why she would deny them both the pleasure they so desperately wanted.
‘What are you so afraid of?’ he asked.
It was the softness of his voice in the darkened room that undid her. That buried its way into her chest, lodging on the aching breath that shuddered from her lungs. If he’d been angry—if he’d shouted—she would have used it to fuel her indignation. But he hadn’t. His words were like a verbal key, unlocking her soul and baring her to him.
In the deepest reaches of her heart, she knew what it was. She knew that she was terrified that she wouldn’t just be giving her body to Dimitri, but more... Her heart.
But the words wouldn’t come. Some innate sense of self-protection prevented her from revealing such a weakness. She looked up at him, swathed in the shadows of the room, marvelling at how the light from the moon cast him in silver finery, lighting the sharp angles of his face, making his dark eyes seem to almost glow. He was stunning, powerful...irresistible.
