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uth between them because she wouldn’t destroy the family he loved. So they had nothing, because that lack of trust between them would rot everything away from the inside. Eve took a deep breath. She’d shore up her defences and inject the coldness into her blood that she’d become renowned for.
A sharp rap sounded at the door.
Time to be cruel to be kind. And the crueller the better.
No answer.
Gage did up his belt, having chased Eve to her room with his trousers half-open. Head still reeling at how out of hand one kiss had become. How much more he had wanted until Eve had fled down the hallway, half-dressed herself. He’d never hurt a woman during sex before, but she’d gasped and now he wasn’t sure, not after she’d pushed him away and run, leaving him quite literally with his trousers around his damned ankles.
He had to get his head together, but sanity was somewhere back with their bodies locked in ecstasy at the dining table, with nothing on his mind other than the feel of being inside her again. The warm silk of her skin, the wet heat surrounding him. Eve’s kisses, which had been desperate and wanting. The smell of her still clung to his skin, so heady and sweet it might never wash away.
It was as if he’d been transported back to a time where life had been perfect, a kind of surety that everything would work out. He hadn’t felt that way for so long, the sensation shocked him. And Eve had been right there in the maelstrom of it all. So why run away at the end? Instead they should have both taken to the bedroom where he could have spent the day buried inside her, working her out of his system.
Gage tested the door. Locked? Hell. His heart began beating a sickeningly fast rhythm and he swallowed. All those rumours of him forcing her to go with him came back to the fore as bile rose in his throat. It was a moment’s worth of insecurity that took him right back to her rejection. How he’d misread the situation totally. Had he done the same here today? He raked his hands through his hair. No. She’d been right there with him, screaming as they’d exploded together...
More... Just...take me.
She’d come twice and there had been no doubts in his mind she’d wanted him inside her, the passion overwhelming them both. Still, something was wrong, and he wasn’t standing outside this room until he found out what it was. He knocked again, harder this time.
‘Eve...’ Damn, what was she doing? He felt like an utter fool, impotent with the inability to do anything other than ask for her attention yet again. He listened. Heard muffled sounds that he couldn’t identify... Was she crying?
‘Open up... Eve... Eve!’
He pounded on the door like a lovesick fool and hated himself even more for it, but he couldn’t stop. Finally, the lock clicked and the door opened.
She’d changed her top to something black and body hugging. Tidied herself, with her hair now tamed and neat rather than spilling over her shoulders, perfect to grip. Presenting as cold and aloof as the day he’d called her, and she told him in no uncertain terms there was no them anymore.
‘Stop that, sugar,’ Eve drawled.
He hated that damned name. She only ever used it when she was trying to needle him and it worked the same now as it always had. But past that icy shell he could see the cracks that blurred and softened her. Mascara had smudged under her eyes, making them smoky. Her cheeks bloomed with a healthy, beautiful blush. Maybe not so icy and unaffected, then.
‘We need to talk,’ he said.
Her eyes widened a tiny fraction as a look passed through them. Something like fear. She swallowed, but her mouth held a tight, brutal line. Then she sighed theatrically and waved him away like an annoying child. ‘I don’t suffer from anything inconveniently contagious, and I’m on contraception. Unless you have something to add, there’s nothing to discuss.’
Maybe he should have walked away. He didn’t chase women, not anymore. He’d had a taste of humiliation at her hand once, and it was never happening to him again. And he would have walked had he not been certain he’d hurt her somehow. Asking the question was self-protection. He wasn’t having any more rumours spread about him, not from her quarter at least.
‘I’m clean too. There’s no need to worry.’ It was laughable how long it had been since he’d last had sex. He’d been so absorbed with his pursuit of Knight Enterprises he hadn’t had time. Or that’s what he’d told himself. The sad reality was that when he’d become focussed on Eve again, any other woman had ceased to exist. She’d become his sole obsession. The thought of touching anyone else left him cold, which had only added to his frustration and fuelled his desire to exact the retribution he’d sought for seven long years.
‘We still need to talk. And I’m not having this discussion in the hall.’
He wasn’t sure why it all seemed so hollow at this moment, but he wasn’t letting the conversation go.
Eve stood back, held out an arm as if welcoming him in, but the hand holding the door gripped tightly enough he could see her fingers blanch white. He walked inside, looked around the space, focussed on the huge bed with soft cushions and creamy plush covers that loomed large in the room. How he wanted to carry her there and strip her cool façade layer by layer till she ignited again.
‘It was sex, Gage.’
The way she’d said that word, spitting it out at him like they’d done something wrong.
There had been nothing wrong with what they’d done. On the contrary, it was the rightness of it that had shocked him the most. How natural it had felt, as if they’d never been apart.
‘And if you need your ego appeased,’ she added, ‘an itch pleasantly scratched.’
‘I’d say you found it more than pleasant. Since it took around two seconds of our kissing for me to have you on the table and coming, twice. That’s reason enough for my ego to be doing fine.’
‘It’s been a while. And I didn’t realise we were keeping score. Are you going to claim I owe you one now?’
He had been accused of many things in his time, but he never held expectations of a woman where sex was concerned. For him, giving pleasure was as heady as receiving it. While she owed him many things, the roil of anger began tightening in his gut at the suggestion she owed him that.
