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She did that to him. Touched him in ways no one ever had. Why else would he have risked his whole plan by revealing the truth so soon? Her constant goads, her insistent demands, they had been bad enough—nobody had ever defied him the way she did. But it was the way she seemed so desperate to return to her deceitful lover that had forced him over the edge of reason.
So he’d spilled his intention to take her as his bride much earlier than he’d planned and in doing so he’d threatened the entire scheme.
But maybe this way was better. Maybe now he would secure a far more effective payback.
Already he’d exacted a measure of revenge upon his former foe. He’d smelt the fear coming down the phone line as clearly as one felt the blast-furnace heat of a Jebbai midsummer day. Half a world away Paolo would know that this was his doing, he would know that he had brought this on with his own precipitous actions so long ago. He would wear the guilt like a heavy burden he could never shrug off. He would bear the pain forever.
As for Sapphire? Her anguish at her so-called fiancé’s betrayal was palpable. He’d felt her despair like a knife thrust under his ribs; it touched him deep inside and instinctively, bizarrely, he wanted to make it better.
He had thought it would be easy—to take the woman of the man he hated as easily as stealing one of his possessions. Yet this woman was no cold chattel, no in animate property. She was warm, and human and so responsive.
And he wanted her.
Oh, how he wanted her.
He wanted to feel more of her responsiveness, more of her body curling into his, more of her body melding with his until she was part of him, until they were part of each other.
And he wanted her now.
Even now, when she looked so lost and lonely, the urge to possess her, to ease her pain by obliterating any trace of Paolo in her mind and stamping his own claim on her, was almost primal.
He moved closer to her then, her hands clasped nervously in front of her like a young schoolgirl unsure of her next step in the world or where it would take her. If he had any say in the matter, that next step would take her straight to him, but this time it was up to her.
This time she would decide.
He wouldn’t take her. She would give herself to him.
And then his victory over Paolo would be complete.
He lifted her chin with his hand and watched her large blue eyes reluctantly rise to meet his, the dampness in them rendering her long lashes heavy and dark.
‘I will take you to the airport,’ he said. ‘When it reopens and when it is safe, I will take you there myself.’
He watched her nervous swallow, followed the movement in her throat, and fought the urge to drop his mouth and cover the pearly skin there with his lips.
‘You’ll let me go?’ Her breath was choppy and hesitant; her bottom lip plumped and reddened with the tracks from her teeth.
‘If that’s what you want.’
Her eyes grew wide with hope and expectation and he accepted the challenge. He would make it his duty to change those expectations before it was time for her to leave.
‘If that’s what you really want.’
‘Of course it’s what I really want.’
‘Then that’s what will happen,’ he asserted. ‘We have a deal.’
‘How…’ she started unsuccessfully. She licked her lips as if searching for the courage. ‘How do I know I can trust you?’
‘I assure you my word is my honour—’ he smiled when he noticed her sceptical expression ‘—although I understand you may not entirely agree. But perhaps you are right. Perhaps in deference to your concerns we should seal our bargain. We could shake hands—’ his free hand surrounded her own, squeezing it reassuringly on feeling her electric reaction ‘—or we could seal our agreement with something much, much more satisfying…’
He saw the panic flare in her eyes, felt her instant reaction for flight as she pulled back. ‘Just a kiss,’ he promised. ‘No more than that.’
He tugged her gently closer with one hand, tilting her towards him while he directed her chin with the other, until his mouth slanted over hers. He felt the shudder move through her as his lips meshed with hers, as if her internal resolve was being rocked and tested. He felt her sigh into the kiss, as if knowing she had no choice.
And she hadn’t.
She might as well get used to it.
His tongue traced the line of her lips, tasting, examining, cajoling, and at the precise moment, at the tiniest hint he felt she was responding, he pulled away, letting go of his hold on her in the same instant.
Her eyelids batted open, her cheeks were flushed and her lips red and plumped.
It was enough for now.
He could have continued, God, but it had taken every shred of control to pull himself away when all he wanted to do was bury himself deep inside her. And he would. He would erase from her mind all thought of Paolo, every last memory of his lovemaking, every last aching pain of his deceit. He would have her. But not yet. Not just yet.
