AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“To … ask twice?” She arched a brow, wishing she could cool down her damned libido for a moment. “So what? You decide you want a woman and that’s it? End of?”
“Yes.”
“And these women you usually decide you want,” she said, pretending her heart wasn’t screeching with envy at the very idea. “What are they like?”
“Like Elizabetta,” he said, with the lazy cynicism she had heard him employ previously.
“In what way? You know, for a smart man, you can be incredibly cryptic and vague at times.”
“It’s difficult to describe to someone like you. It’s a thousand traits that form one particular kind of woman. They’re beautiful. Polished. Well-spoken. They always have very expensive tastes in all things – clothing, jewellery, cars, houses, holidays. They generally don’t clean, cook or parent for themselves. They are professional husband-hunters.”
“My God, you are such a chauvinist,” Finn snapped, and she pulled her body away a little, to put some vital space between them. Her hand she clamped against his chest, lest he decided to follow her. “Do you honestly think you can generalise like that?”
“I make a living from generalisations,” he said seriously. “Assumptions. Lightning fast assessments. That’s how I live. And yes, Finn, I believe I can generalise. I have met more than my fair share of Elizbettas.”
“And I bet you slept with more than your fair share, too, despite your personal disapproval of them?”
“Yes,” he shrugged with self-righteous insolence. “Haven’t you worked out by now that this is how I blow off steam?”
“Woah.” Finn shook her head and expelled a slow breath. Desire was still bubbling beneath her veins, but anger was there too.
“You are the first woman I’ve been with who isn’t just looking for a shortcut to retirement.”
“Woah,” she said again, and she forced herself to get out of the bed. The room was freezing. She ignored h
er discomfort. At least the cold air served to jolt her into wakefulness.
“Why does that offend you? I’m complimenting you, Finn, because you’re not like that.”
“Yes, but…! You’re speaking like … like … women have no brains in their head, and only the personal motivation to fuck their way to unimaginable wealth. That’s bullshit.”
Though Finn never swore, under the circumstances, it felt incredible to lash him with the curse.
“No, not all women.” He was frustratingly, infuriatingly calm. “Just the women that turn up at the same events I do.”
“So don’t go to those events!” She said angrily. “Or don’t sleep with them. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
“Should I?” He was smiling. Her indignation was amusing him! It only angered Finn further. “Why?”
“Because! You are having sex with these women and scorning them at the same time. That’s really just a totally lousy thing to do.”
He shrugged. “They’re sleeping with me in the hope it will lead to their becoming Mrs Moore.”
“Woah.” She rubbed her temples as his steadfast commitment to this ludicrous theory became apparent. “You’re like … someone in receipt of stolen goods trying to argue that none of it’s your fault because the burglar chose to give the stuff to you. I mean, if these women are just looking for a fantastically wealthy husband, and you know that, and you take them back to your … to your … lair, don’t you think that makes you just the worst of the worst? You’re giving them false hope!”
He narrowed his gaze thoughtfully and for a minute she thought she might have gotten through to him. “We’re running off topic here.”
“No, we’re not,” she muttered. “You were being an arrogant piece of work and I was telling you that I don’t like it. So far, we’re exactly on topic.”
He flipped onto his back and stared at the ceiling. “I could write you a list, if you’d like, of the women I remember taking to my lair, as you creatively call it. I think if you googled them, you’d see that they’re married now to men like me, or they’re doing their best to become that way.”
“Yeah, well, clearly they dodged a bullet in not hooking you,” she said angrily. “How could anyone stand to be married to you when you are capable of such cruel derision and disrespect?”
He pushed up on one elbow and stared at her with such intensity that she began to wonder if she’d gone too far. Indeed, she had, and Caradoc could feel himself going on the attack regardless of the fact that Finn had several good points. “You’re unspeakably naïve if you actually doubt there’s such a creature as I’m describing.”
“Oh, I’m sure there are,” she responded archly, pulling her shirt down angrily. “I’m not saying there aren’t some truly amoral women out there; women whose priorities are completely out of whack. I’m just saying that you’re the male equivalent. You judge these women and yet you sleep with them. Doesn’t sex mean anything to you?”
Caradoc experienced an odd lurching sensation. He had been called every name under the sun, but something in the way Finn said it with such disappointment didn’t sit well with him. “Sex is sex.”
