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“You had no right!”
“I had every right,” he contradicted, folding the paper neatly and standing up in front of her. He made her feel like a difficult teenager and she’d had enough of that for a lifetime.
“I am a grown woman. You cannot keep me here against my will.”
“Want to bet?” Their eyes clashed in a torrent of feeling. The air between them sparked with electricity and tension. And though Cassandra knew she should turn away from him, she felt her treacherous body leaning closer towards his, swaying as if on autopilot.
“Ben...” she whispered huskily, hating the hold he had over her. Filled with such rage as she was, the intoxicating need was drugging her, making her mind forget why she should get as far away from him as she could.
His eyes flared with understanding. Hate and Love were so close on the emotional spectrum. And sexual chemistry could thrive where there was neither, or both. And it was flooding between them now.
The night before, they’d made sweet, slow love and fallen asleep tangled in each other’s arms. Out of nowhere, he was filled with a need to possess her once more, only this time, he wouldn’t hold back. Ignoring the small voice in the back of his head warning him off this course of action he swung down and lifted her from the floor, holding her resolutely against his chest as he carried her to her bedroom.
She watched him from hooded eyes. As always, his nearness made her incapable of speech. The anticipation of what they were about to do drove everything else from her mind. She knew she should protest. That she should tell him to put her down, to get lost, but she couldn’t.
He dropped her into the middle of the bed, watching as her eyes flew wide in surprise. He ripped at the cotton sundress she wore so that it flew apart down the middle, buttons popping off the fabric. “Ben!” She gasped, propping up on her elbows.
He stripped his own clothes off swiftly, then disposed of her underwear, so that they were naked in record time. He watched her chest, rise and fall with each shaky breath she drew, and a pang of conscience rang through him. He ignored it. He brought his head lower, resolutely avoiding kissing the mouth that had told him nothing but lies. He instead took a dusky peach aureole into his mouth and sucked at it rhythmically. She bucked beneath him, her whole body writhing with the pleasure that was strumming through her.
“You aren’t going anywhere.” He muttered against her breast, pulling his head away just enough to speak.
She froze, his words jarring the fog of desire that had besieged her.
“Are you going to chain me to your bed?” She snapped breathlessly.
“Do I have to?” His words were calm, but she couldn’t help the thrill of excitement that ran through her at the promise of what it would be like to be completely at his sexual beck and call.
She lowered her lashes. “No.”
His grin was almost savage, and it reminded her that this was a man who until his teenage years had lived life tough. On the streets, honing his skills. He looked almost dangerous now, all civility eroded by the raw emotionalism of their union. “Do you want me?” He asked, bringing a finger to her core and driving it inside so that he could stroke her most sensitive fibres.
She threw her head back against the pillows, incapable of speech as sensations overcame her.
“Do you want me?” He ground out emphatically.
She sobbed as she felt her world explode. “Yes!” She cried out desperately. “Please, Ben.”
Watching her beneath him, he felt he could take on the world with her by his side. But it was all an illusion. Trusting Lady Cassandra Hervey was not a mistake he would be stupid enough to make.
“Benedict.” He intoned flatly. “My name is Benedict. Let’s have no more pretend, hmmm?”
She felt the hot tears sliding down her cheeks, but she brushed them away.
Even the sight of her pretty face wet with tears was not going to soften his heart towards her. She was a master manipulator. He watched her lose herself completely to the pleasure of their bodies, the way her beautiful face contorted in what was now a familiar way as she reached a hotter than hot orgasm.
Then, he stood abruptly, needing to put some physical distance between them before he gave into the answering desire that was raging through his body.
“You asked me how I intended to keep you here? You have your answer. You will stay because deep down, you want to.” His dark eyes warred with hers, punishing her with a stare totally lacking compassion. “You have made a habit of being dishonest to everyone you meet, but at least be truthful with yourself. You are here because you want to be,” he repeated caustically, his cheeks slashed with dark colour. “You are not my prisoner, Cassandra, any more than I am yours. And in twenty four hours, you will no longer be my problem.” He pulled away from her, removing the warmth his body had offered, the promise of physical satiation that always followed their union. She pushed up on her elbows and watched in confusion as he pulled his pants on over his still erect penis. Her heart groaned under the weight of pain he was inflicting.
He buttoned his jeans up and walked out of the room.
CHAPTER THREE
Cass opened her mouth to call after him, but his name strangled and died in her throat. How had she been so fooled by him? He called her a liar, and yet wasn’t he so much worse? What had he told her that had been truthful?
Cassandra had made avoiding her stepmother an Olympic Sport, but on the rare occasions they’d been forced to spend time together, she had learned all about the saintly Benedict Savarin. So much so that she had come to hate the man a long time ago.
Alyssia had told her that Benedict’s mother had made a bad marriage to someone the family didn’t approve of. Instead of supporting the poor woman, they’d exiled her. They’d been proven right, when Benedict’s father ran off with another woman only six months into the marriage. By then, baby Benedict was on his way and the family was even more determined not to acknowledge this child. It was a punishment, most cruel, and she had no doubt that rejection had shaped the man Benedict had become today. He was ruthless, with a determination and steel she’d never before encountered.
