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‘No, well, Olga is a very—sympathetic person.’ Jane made a helpless gesture. ‘And—perhaps she doesn’t trust you not to—not to—’
‘Not to what, Jane?’ The steps he took forward narrowed the space between them and she had to steel herself not to move away.
‘To—to make a fool of me,’ she said hurriedly, not prepared to admit that he could still hurt her. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. And then, trying to make her tone light, ‘Won’t Ariadne be wondering where you are?’
‘Ariadne trusts me,’ he declared harshly, stung by the way she could put him on the defensive. ‘What? You think I didn’t tell her where I was going? That I had—how do you say— sneaked up here to see the woman I can’t wait to be free of without letting Ariadne know of my intentions?’
Jane pursed her lips. ‘No.’ She was defensive now.
‘Good. Because you couldn’t be more wrong.’ Demetri didn’t know where this anger had come from, but he was suddenly furious. Jane was here, in his parents’ house, looking more beautiful than he’d ever seen her, and he resented it. He didn’t want her here, he told himself. He didn’t want to be reminded of what they’d once had. ‘Ariadne and I understand one another.’
‘Well, goody for you.’ Now Jane felt a stirring of indignation, which was infinitely better than the embarrassment she’d felt before. ‘So, if that’s all you came to tell me, what are you waiting for? I’d really like to get to bed.’
Demetri’s nostrils flared. And, just when he was sure he had himself under control, he asked the unforgivable, ‘Why did you come here, Jane?’
Her eyes widened then. She was shocked. He could see it. And why not? It was a stupid question.
‘Why did I come here?’ she echoed, shaking her head. ‘You know why I came, Demetri. Your father asked me to!’
‘You could have refused.’
‘Refused a dying man!’ Jane was astounded. ‘What do you think I am?’
‘I don’t know, do I?’ Demetri’s teeth ground together. ‘What are you, Jane? Saint or sinner? I can’t quite make up my mind.’
Her lips parted, and then, a note of contempt entering her voice, ‘Well, at least I don’t have that dilemma, Demetri. You’re totally selfish through and through.’
‘And you’re not?’ Demetri’s lips curled, not sure why he felt this pressing need to pursue this, but unable to let it go. ‘I suppose this means you’ve justified your reasons for walking out on me? Or do you have to keep reminding yourself why you made such a colossal mistake?’
‘It wasn’t a mistake!’
‘Okhi? Why do I find that hard to believe? Isn’t there something hypocritical about holding the moral high ground, when a few weeks ago you were flat on your back, letting me screw your brains out?’
The words sounded so much worse, laced as they were with his accent, and Jane gasped. Before she could prevent herself, her hand connected with his cheek.
Demetri made no attempt to deflect the blow and she watched, with a feeling of disbelief, as the clear marks of her fingers appeared on the left side of his face.
She regretted it instantly. She didn’t do things like this. But it was too late to have second thoughts. Her hand had barely moved in a gesture of subjugation when Demetri’s uncertain control snapped. With a savage exclamation in his own language she didn’t understand, he locked hard fingers about her wrist and dragged her relentlessly towards him. ‘If that’s the way you want to play it, who am I to complain?’
‘Demetri,’ she cried, but it was no use.
‘Skaseh,’ he said harshly. Shut up!
‘But you can’t—’
‘Ipa skaseh,’ he repeated, grasping a handful of her hair and tipping her head backward. And then his hot mouth fastened itself to hers and she knew she was lost.
Anger, and the frustration he was feeling, made it impossible for him to be gentle with her. As he backed her up against the wall behind her, his tongue forced its way between her teeth. He pushed into her mouth, tasting her blood when his savage possession ground her lips against her teeth, but he had no mercy. He wanted to tear the bathrobe from her and bury himself inside her, and her fragile vulnerability was no deterrent, he found.
The moan she gave should have shamed him, but it didn’t. The sounds she was making only served to drive him completely over the edge. Tearing the sides of the robe apart, he feasted his eyes on dusky-tipped nipples, already swollen and painfully erect, and on the slight swell of her stomach and the tight curls that hid her sex.
