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Her stomach somersaulted through her. She felt as though she were on a medieval torture device; at the same time, she couldn’t imagine walking away from Graciano at the end of this week and never seeing him again. It would be like losing a limb.
‘I’m here to work,’ she said quietly.
‘And did you come here thinking it would all be about work? Or were you hoping...?’ He let the question dangle in the air between them.
‘I didn’t even know if you’d be here,’ she said, truthfully. ‘I had no idea what to expect.’
He paused. ‘Nor did I.’
Frustration zipped through her—frustration with him, their past, their circumstances, with how much she wanted him and how strongly she knew she should fight that. ‘Are you playing games with me?’
She saw the response in his eyes, his expression, the minute changes before he quickly resumed a mask of total control.
‘To what end?’
‘I don’t know. To punish me?’
‘Revenge?’ he prompted.
‘Yes.’
‘It did occur to me.’
She shivered at the bald acknowledgement. ‘That’s why I’m here? So you can sleep with me and make me...what? Love you?’
‘I don’t want your love,’ he dismissed quickly.
‘But you do want me to want you,’ she said after a heavy pause. ‘You know what you do to me, how you make me feel. You brought me here to capitalise on that, to seduce me. And then what?’
He was silent, but his jaw was locked, and she felt his emotions, dark and...ashamed? Angry?
‘I intended to, yes. I wanted to make you mine, for this week, to make you forget about any other man you’ve been with, to make you admit you wanted me like you want air. There is unfinished business between us, Alicia.’ He took a step backwards from her then, and the moon pierced her with a fine, silver blade. ‘But the truth is, that one night we were together was a lifetime ago. Just like you said—ancient history. Let’s leave it where it belongs—in the past.’ And with that, he spun on his heel and began to walk back towards the house.
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘DON’TYOUWALKaway from me,’ she shouted, with far more command than she felt. ‘You’re the one who brought me to this island, who paid a fortune to secure my time. Don’t turn your back when you don’t like the way the conversation’s going.’
‘That’s not it,’ he snapped over his shoulder.
‘Isn’t it?’ She scrambled after him, propelled by frustration.
‘What do you want from me?’ he muttered, the words only barely audible. She moved faster, until she was almost level with him, then reached out and caught his wrist.
‘Damn you!’
The sound of their breathing, each as frantic as the other, filled the air, and then he made a gruff, growling sound and freed his wrist, only so he could wrap his arms around her and yank her body to his, pulling her to him. ‘Your father robbed us both of a chance to explore this,’ he said, but his voice was quiet, as though he was speaking to himself more than her. ‘That’s why it feels as though there’s something unfinished between us. That’s why there’s this compulsion. We need to get it out of our system, to let it burn out, and then we can move on.’
Move on.It all made sense, but his words had a brutal resonance that made her heart feel bruised and heavy, and she didn’t know why.
The question formed in her mind—a barbed, painful thought she couldn’t contemplate—because she knew now, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that her daughter deserved better than this.
‘Graciano,’ she said, with urgency. She wasn’t ready to tell him about Annie, but she did need some kind of absolution. ‘I was angry, too. So angry. I was only sixteen, and you were the best friend I’d ever had.’
He made a noise of disbelief. She ignored it.
‘If I let you down, then you did the same to me. I needed you. I needed you...’
He kissed her then, the kiss angry and gentle, a kiss of mastery and promise, a kiss designed to silence her sad pleas. He pulled her to the ground, the grass beneath them cool and dewy in the evening air, his weight on her a drugging delight. His hands moved over her quickly, discarding her clothes with impatience while he kissed her, crushing her lips, moving his hips, promising her, silently, always, of the pleasures to come.
