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‘Clayton—Steve Clayton,’ Steve supplied with aggression, moving forward to plant himself by Mina’s side. ‘And if you don’t get off this property you’re going to get those fancy togs messed up!’
‘You think so?’ A chilling smile curved Cesare’s sensual mouth.
The tension that had immediately sprung up between the two men shattered Mina. She glanced in horror from one to the other.
‘I think so,’ Steve said. ‘You look like a male model.’
‘Steve, please…’ Mina hissed, watching Cesare’s gaze blaze with what could only be described as sheer pleasure. It dawned on her that he had come here to knock seven bells out of the other man she had so stupidly and recklessly assured him existed in her life. Faced with Baxter’s frailty, he had been balked of his prey. Faced with Steve, he could be as physical as he liked.
‘I’ve been waiting for this for a bloody long time!’ Steve shot at her hotly.
‘Mina’s returning to London with me. Go and sit in the car and cover your eyes, cara. I won’t be long.’
Since she had absolutely no hope of persuading Cesare to back down, Mina turned back to Steve. ‘This has nothing to do with you.’
‘Nothing to do with me? He took you away from me four years ago!’ Steve thundered at her, and even though that wasn’t true, even though she had broken up with him eighteen months before she’d even gone to work for Cesare, she realised for the first time that that was exactly how Steve had chosen to deal with that part of the past.
‘And I’m about to do it again,’ Cesare drawled.
‘Stop it…both of you!’ Mina was appalled by the scene that was developing. ‘The children could see you… Have you gone crazy?’
Cesare tensed but, a split-second later, Steve lunged at him. Mina didn’t quite know how it happened but Cesare side-stepped the attack at speed and punched him in the stomach. As Steve grunted and doubled up, Cesare strode past him and clamped a hard hand on Mina’s arm. She was shaking all over.
‘Get in the car,’ he told her between clenched teeth. ‘Because if that guy gets up again I’m going to rip him apart with my bare hands!’
‘I can’t…I’m looking after the kids!’
‘Go for a drive, Mina. Let tempers cool,’ Baxter suggested in wry intervention from the sidelines.
Mina rebelled. Men! she thought furiously. ‘I haven’t the slightest intention of getting into a car with him, and if there’s any more fighting I’ll use the garden hose to cool tempers!’ she asserted witheringly.
Cesare simply picked her up and dumped her like a parcel into the passenger seat of the Ferrari. He had swung in beside her before she had recovered from the shock.
‘Let me out of this car right now!’
‘You created this situation—you deserve everything you get,’ he delivered harshly.
Mina fumbled frantically at the door, but it was locked. Cesare braked as the car reached the shelter of the shrubbery at the gates and turned to her, blazing golden eyes biting into her. ‘How long have you known Clayton?’ he demanded.
‘None of your business——’
Cesare reached out a lean brown hand and speared his long fingers into her tumble of golden hair, preventing her retreat. The ferocious anger he had been controlling leapt out at her, shortening the breath in her throat. ‘Don’t tell me that,’ he warned her not quite steadily. ‘I am trying very hard not to lose my head.’
The atmosphere was explosive. Her amethyst eyes were entrapped by gold threat. She lost colour and trembled and yet a twist of wholly primitive excitement ignited her senses on another level. It was two weeks since she had felt like that. It was like life after near death, sudden, piercingly sweet and joyous and, no matter how hard she fought that extraordinary feeling, it sent the blood racing madly through her veins.
‘You had no right to come here,’ she said breathlessly, struggling to think straight.
‘No?’ With his thumb he traced the trembling curve of her full lower lip and she shivered violently in reaction.
‘I’m calling your bluff. I want to see the evidence you have against me,’ Mina told him jerkily.
‘No. That’s confidential and safely stowed away,’ he spelt out.
‘Then take it to the authorities,’ Mina advised in bitter frustration. ‘I won’t be blackmailed. Do your worst——’
‘What about my best?’ As he leant forward, he let his thumb softly intrude between her lips, seeking out that damp, warm interior. ‘Don’t you know what I do best?’
Her heartbeat was thundering in her eardrums, an almost terrifying languor stealing over her, weighting her limbs. She snatched in a breath, feeling the stirring heaviness of her breasts, the sudden frantic plunge down into intense sexual awareness. Involuntarily snared by mesmeric golden eyes, she was held fast by something far stronger than she was. She wanted him to touch her so badly that it hurt, it literally hurt to be denied.
