AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His blue eyes crinkled. ‘But would you call me selfish, rude…indifferent to a woman’s needs?’ he asked slyly.
‘Extremely rude,’ Anya told him, her lips trembling into a smile that made her muted grey eyes glow. He knew very well that she couldn’t criticise his performance on the other counts.
‘But not offensively so,’ he said, startling her with a hint of seriousness. ‘I didn’t hurt you in any way, did I? I wasn’t too rough?’
She couldn’t account the damage done to her heart. ‘Of course not—’
‘It’s just that you’re rather little, and I can see I bruised you,’ he brooded, touching a tiny dark shadow on the upper curve of her breast with a gentle finger.
‘You didn’t exactly come out unscathed yourself,’ she said lightly. ‘You don’t need to feel inhibited because of my size—’
‘Inhibited?’ That sparked a smile. ‘I thought it was my lack of inhibition which might have been a problem.’
‘Well, it wasn’t. I may be little but I’m not brittle.’
‘No, you’re as pliant as a young willow,’ he agreed. ‘Quite astonishingly flexible.’
‘Don’t you ever think of anything but sex?’
‘Not when I’m lying on a bed next to a beautiful naked woman—’
‘I’m not entirely naked,’ she pointed out mischievously. ‘I still have my tiny little white socks on.’
He groaned. ‘Don’t remind me.’
‘And you don’t have to pretend that I’m beautiful, either,’ she told him gravely. ‘I’m happy with who I am.’
‘So am I,’ he said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. ‘Because who you are is a lovely, complex young woman full of grace, candour and wit, and with an inner strength and intrinsic goodness of heart that makes me feel guilty for taking advantage of her…’
Her breath caught in her throat. ‘Is that what you’re doing?’
‘I wanted Petra to see the concert but my primary reason for inviting you along was to give me the opportunity to seduce you,’ he said flatly, almost as if he wanted her to recoil in disgust.
Anya widened her eyes in droll surprise. ‘No, really? And here I was thinking that you were the kind of man who always carried that many condoms around with you!’
He scowled. ‘If you were expecting sweet-talk and romance from me, you certainly didn’t get it.’
She actually thought he had been extremely honey-tongued, but she knew what his words were intended to convey. He was warning her against seeing him as love’s young dream.
‘You must be confusing me with someone who cares about those things,’ she s
aid steadily. ‘Someone who prefers glamorous trappings to the real thing.’
He reacted with defensive speed. ‘If you’re talking about Kate, you’re wrong. I told you, I could never confuse you—you’re as different as day and night. I knew that if you heard about the affair that it would taint your whole attitude towards me—’
‘Is that the main reason you kept quiet about it? Because it might have made me suspicious of your motives for seducing me?’
His scowl darkened, his blue eyes sullen. ‘You might have thought I wanted to revenge myself on her by taking you to bed,’ he admitted reluctantly.
Anya’s brow wrinkled, as if the idea had never occurred to her. ‘I don’t see quite how that would work. I’d think that she’d be more likely to pity you for trying to replace her spectacular self with her drab little cousin—’
He jerked up to brace himself over her body on bunched arms. ‘Dammit, stop running yourself down like that! I hope you’re not one of those people who excuse any behaviour on the grounds of genius. However brilliant and famous Petra becomes I would still expect her to be considerate of other people’s feelings. Can’t you see you’re a thousand times better than that selfish bitch, Kate?’
‘Well, I can…but I thought you might be a little hazy on the exact figures,’ she murmured, secretly stunned by the genuineness of his anger.
He blinked, his temper stopped in its tracks by her gentle ribbing. A brief expression of uncertainty flitted across his face and her glowing smile widened.
‘I don’t expect real life to meet the standards of a romantic ideal, Scott,’ she said, reaching up to touch his firm mouth. ‘Besides, romance means vastly different things to different people…especially men and women.’
