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Violet didn’t want to be impressed but she couldn’t quite hide her stunned awe. Neither could she dismiss the troubling revelation that under normal circumstances she would’ve enjoyed spending time exploring the island. Even...stayed of her own free will.
The wide-scale alarm she’d expected at the thought never arrived.
God, what was wrong with her? Was she softening? Falling in love with her prison? Pardoning Zak when she should be fighting him every step of the way?
‘What were you doing in Australia?’ she asked, desperate to dredge up her outrage, remind herself that he couldn’t get away from her fast enough after Tanzania.
Zak turned away from the bluff at the highest point of the island where they’d stopped to enjoy the breathtaking view. His shrug bore
no hint of regret. ‘That part of the world suffers the same humanitarian challenges.’
‘Did you leave to avoid me?’ she pressed. The question was infinitely presumptuous but she didn’t take it back. She needed to know. Despite her thumping heart. Despite the hurt that would accompany his confirmation.
He stiffened, his eyes narrowing on her face. ‘Are we dropping our civility already, Violet?’
‘You think it’s uncivil to ask for the truth?’
‘Not at all. But are you prepared for the answer?’
She bit the inside of her cheek, suddenly afraid of his answer. But wasn’t this a laying-yourself-bare exercise, at least on her part, so she would truly know the type of man she was dealing with?
She swallowed, boldly met his gaze. ‘Yes.’
His jaw tensed. Silence stretched, the wind ruffling his thick hair drawing her gaze to the perfection of his face. When he stepped closer, she gasped at the raw, carnal look in his eyes. ‘You’re not unaware of your beauty, Violet. I left because I didn’t trust my ability to stick to what we’d agreed.’
‘Wh-what are you saying?’
He reached for a strand of hair, tossed against her cheek by the breeze. For another short stretch he caressed the silky tendril. Then he pierced her with his gaze. ‘That I would’ve wanted you in my bed, repeatedly, if I’d stayed in New York,’ he stated baldly.
Her breath strangled to nothing, her body screaming awake at the imagery his words evoked. ‘Zak...’
‘I had to go to the other side of the world to get this...need under control.’
‘Was that all?’ The idea that there could be another reason, perhaps the same one that’d made him walk away from her that night six years ago, burned deep and painful. ‘I’m only asking because, despite this little confession, you barely acknowledged me at your brother’s wedding,’ she said, hating herself for the lash of jealousy and irritation the reminder brought.
Or was she fooling herself? Was it just bruised pride? Or something more precious?
She pushed the thought away as he laughed. ‘You believe you’re that easily forgettable?’ With the growled words, he reached for her, driving his fingers into her hair.
Unlike the charged coming together that had fuelled their past intimate encounters, this was a slow burn of a kiss. But it was no less earth-shattering or all-consuming. Perhaps even more so because the sensations coursing through her body were even more frightening, a clamour that scared her with its sheer depth.
The sweep of his tongue over her lips, the tightening of his hold, and the scent of him all converged to fire up a need so strong she didn’t question the wisdom of sliding her hands around his trim waist, digging her fingers into the small of his back and, with another deep moan, straining upward to deepen the kiss.
One hand left her hair to glide down her back, his touch more urgent, more insistent as he dragged her closer. Her sensitive breasts flattened against his chest, his hard body a hot, living column branding her.
She opened for him, their tongues dancing an erotic tango, driving every thought from her head save the need to perpetuate this heady encounter.
‘Dio mio, but you intoxicate me,’ he muttered against her lips.
And he more than intoxicated her. He made her need. Made her crave the impossible.
Their breaths mingled, sharing the same air as he deepened the kiss.
When the need for more oxygen drove them apart, hot slashes of colour heating his chiselled cheekbones. Against her belly, he was as hard as steel and it fired up that hot and needy space between her legs.
‘Does this feel under control to you, Violet?’ he breathed. ‘I’ve watched you parade around with your haughty little nose in the air and your sinful body on display, and I can barely think straight for wanting you beneath me.’
There was nowhere to hide. Her nipples puckered, her lips parting on a desperate intake of breath as she struggled to contain the fire raging through her.
