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Her back hit the wall with a soft thud.
‘Eva.’ His voice reverberated over her skin as he braced his hand above her, caging her in, the scent of musk and man filling her senses. ‘Why read about it, when you can do it for real?’
‘Because I don’t want to,’ she blurted out, seeing the hungry promise in his eyes as the breeze brushed her bare legs, and a delicious tremble of reaction shimmered down to her toes.
He touched his lips to her ear lobe, and whispered: ‘You’re lying.’
She opened her mouth, but the denial got stuck in her throat. She could feel the slickness of her sex, the tenderness of her breasts, hear the rasp of her own breathing.
One rough palm settled on her leg, cutting off her air supply completely. Her thigh muscles quivered and bunched, her breath expelling from her lungs in a rush as his hand trailed upwards.
‘You want to know how I can tell you’re lying?’ he murmured.
She shook her head, but revelled in the zing of sensation as his callused palm rose up her leg.
His thumb brushed across her hip and traced the top of her thigh. She shuddered, her fingers releasing the paperback, the gentle thump as it hit the floor barely registering as his thumb dipped into the curls covering her sex. ‘You’re wet and ready for me right now, aren’t you, Eva?’
‘Please…’ she begged as longing blazed through her. She was wet, and ready. Ready to forget everything. Her job, her sensible well-ordered life, her sanity, if only he would touch her more. Touch her there.
He bit into her ear lobe, the sharp nip a delicious counterpoint to the painful shock of pleasure as his thumb found the perfect spot at last and rubbed.
She sobbed, clutching the muscle of his bicep, and clung on, riding his stroking thumb to increase the torment. Her swollen breasts arched into his chest as the orgasm swept through her in one tumultuous, all-consuming wave.
She forced herself to let go of his arm as she drifted back to her senses. She pressed back into the wall, knees still weak from the intensity of her climax. But instead of the smug expression she had expected, all she saw in his face was fierce lust burning the golden brown of his irises to a molten chocolate.
‘I rest my case,’ he rasped, lifting his thumb to his lips and licking.
‘You’re right,’ she said, her voice as shaky as her legs. ‘I do want you, but you scare me too.’
Was what she felt for him more powerful, more overwhelming than simple lust? She swallowed heavily, looked away from his penetrating gaze, ashamed of her own cowardice, and worse, terrified that he would see the yearning in her eyes. And realise how needy she was.
He lifted her chin, and her eyes met his, the tenderness and concern in them making the frantic beat of her heart increase. ‘Don’t be scared, Eva,’ he said gently. ‘I won’t take you until you’re ready. Not this time.’
‘What do you mean?’ she said, confused by the note of self-loathing she detected.
He stepped back, huffed out a breath. ‘I did that once before and look what happened. You lost your job.’
‘That wasn’t your fault,’ she corrected, more confused than ever. What was he saying? That he felt responsible for her losing her job?
‘Whatever.’ He shrugged. ‘The point is, it doesn’t matter now because you’ve got it back.’ The words were delivered in an offhand manner, as if the information was irrelevant, but as soon as he said them something she had never understood suddenly became blindingly obvious.
‘Oh, my goodness!’ She pressed her palm to her mouth, her shock as real as the disturbing rush of emotion at the thought of what he’d done. ‘That’s why you agreed to come here. That’s why you changed your mind about meeting your grandfather. To make Mr Crenshawe give me my job back.’
She’d thought he’d done it out of some vindictive desire to punish her, when what he’d really been doing was helping her.
He gave a strained laugh. ‘Yeah, like I’m really that noble,’ he said, but she wasn’t fooled.
‘But you are,’ she said, all the more convinced because of his attempt to deny it. ‘You didn’t have to insist I accompany you. But you knew Crenshawe would have to re-employ me if you did.’
‘Stop being so naïve,’ he said, frustration sharpening his voice. ‘I engineered this whole thing so I could have you again. You getting your job back was just a nice fringe benefit.’
‘I don’t believe you.’ She thought of his defensiveness when she’d spoken about his mother. His prickly response to his grandfather. And the emotions swirling in his eyes when she’d confronted him that afternoon. Why would he go through all that just to sleep with her, when he could have any woman?
‘Yeah, well, you should.’
‘You did something good. Something kind and sweet,’ she shot back. ‘Why is that so hard for you to admit?’
He swore, flattening her body against the wall. ‘Because, damn it, I’m not kind and sweet.’ Large hands grasped her waist, lifting her, until the long, hard ridge in his jeans pressed against her. ‘Feel that—that’s what I want from you. That’s the only reason I’m here.’
