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Either he hadn’t heard her or he didn’t care. He didn’t even break stride. Shock gave way to temper. People were staring at them. People she knew. And if he didn’t slow down she was liable to break an ankle trying to keep up with him. She tried to dig her heels in but he just kept on walking, almost pulling her right off her feet.
Getting more annoyed by the second, she grabbed his hand and tried to prise his grip loose, but his fingers only tightened. They reached the other side of the ballroom and he marched through a set of terraced doors leading onto a secluded balcony. The warm night air hit her skin as he released her to kick the door shut behind them. The sharp slam echoed across the valley and cut the throb of the dance music down to a distant hum.
Her bare back butted against the old stone of the balcony rail as he bore down on her, his dark shape silhouetted by the torches framing the door. Anger and something a great deal more disturbing glittered in his eyes.
A shiver rippled down her spine as she got the sudden impression of a tiger let loose from its cage.
‘H-have you gone completely mental?’ she stammered, starting to feel unpleasantly like that damn rabbit again.
‘How long does it take to change a pair of shoes?’ he snarled, his voice dangerously low. ‘I’ve been searching the place for you for the last three hours.’
She sucked in a hasty breath. So astonished at the accusation she didn’t have a clue what to say. She could not possibly be flattered. That would be nuts. The wayward emotion flowing through her had to be something else.
‘You were supposed to be showing me around, darlin’. Remember? Not hiding from me like some frightened little schoolgirl.’
Okay, that wasn’t flattering, it was insulting.
‘A what…?’ she sputtered. Who the heck did he think he was anyway? He’d just hauled her across the dance floor in front of everyone like a sack of potatoes. ‘You were getting enough attention,’ she snapped, regrouping as best she could. ‘You hardly needed me there, too.’
‘Damn. You were hiding from me? What the hell for?’ Now he sounded incredulous as well as furious.
Her chin shot up as she fought the blush. ‘I was not hiding from you, you conceited jerk.’ But she had been, and she knew it.
His eyes narrowed and it was obvious he knew it too. The blush got worse.
He grasped her arm, tugged her onto her toes. ‘What game are you playing?’ He held her chin, forced her face up. ‘First you kiss me until I’m so hot I can’t see straight. Then you run off. And now you’re doing the whole damn thing all over again.’ He searched her face with an intensity that had heat flooding between her thighs. ‘Stop playing hard to get. There’s no need,’ he murmured, his lips a millimetre from hers. ‘Believe me, you’ve already got my full attention.’
She flattened her palms against the rigid muscles of his chest, her body shaking. His arms banded around her waist, crushing her in his embrace, his heat burning through the thin fabric of her dress.
‘I don’t want your full attention,’ she said desperately, but the words were breathless and unconvincing, her pulse fluttering like the wings of a trapped bird.
‘Is that so?’ he said, clasping her neck, sinking his fingers into her hair. ‘Why don’t you prove it, then?’
She heard her own staggered gasp moments before his lips swooped down in a harsh, punishing kiss. Her fingers fisted convulsively in his shirt, but her lips parted and she surrendered to the powerful possessive strokes of his tongue. A fissure of raw, flaming need cracked open and sent the earthquake racking her body right off the Richter scale.
‘Kiss me back,’ he urged in a strained whisper.
Her arms lifted and circled his neck, all thoughts of resistance gone as the bone-deep longing, the wild, crazy thrill of exhilaration, fizzed inside her like vintage champagne. Their tongues tangled in a frantic dance. A new unknown power surged through her as he shuddered in response.
He tore his lips away, his breathing as ragged as hers. ‘No more games,’ he murmured.
He held her cheeks in his palms, his eyes black with desire. ‘I came here tonight because I want you. My hotel’s in the next valley. If we hurry we should be there in ten minutes.’
She searched his face, harsh with desire, and struggled to make sense of what was happening to her.
Mac had lit a fuse inside her that was about to explode. She wanted him to keep on touching her, to keep on kissing her. She was tired of being afraid. Tired of denying herself the kind of human contact that every woman was supposed to crave. She’d never craved it before. Not even with Tony. But she craved it now. This was the moment she’d been waiting for. The moment when she got to triumph over what had happened six years ago. She had to seize it or she could well regret it for the rest of her life.
So she said the only thing that seemed important. ‘I don’t have any protection with me.’
‘Lord, I love practical women.’ He barked out a laugh. ‘Don’t worry, I came prepared, but the supplies are back at the hotel.’
He stroked his thumbs down her neck and gripped her bare shoulders in hot hands. ‘Are you sure about this?’
That he would ask, when it had to be obvious she was already a sure thing, gave her the courage to take that final leap into insanity.
She nodded.
‘Thank heaven for that,’ he said, grasping her hand and marching back across the balcony. ‘Let’s get the hell out of here. We’ve wasted enough time already.’
