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‘You’re...you’re mad...’ Her words said one thing; her treacherous body however, was, singing a different refrain.
‘Am I? I don’t think so.’
Chase watched, mesmerised, as he slowly stood up and breached the short distance separating them to plant his hands on either side of her chair, locking her into place so that she could only raise her eyes upwards to stare at him. She could feel the pulse in her neck beating wildly, a physical giveaway that every word he was saying struck home.
‘I’m the lawyer working for Beth; sure, we know each other...’ The word faltered and died in her throat as he cupped her cheek with his hand and stroked it with his thumb.
Years ago, their chaste relationship had pulsated with unexplored passion and unspoken, untested lust. Now, as his hand remained on her cheek, she shuddered and resisted the urge to sink into the caress.
‘Please, Alessandro, don’t.’
‘Your body is telling me something different.’
‘I don’t want to start any kind of relationship with you.’
‘Relationship?’ Alessandro queried huskily. ‘Who’s talking about a relationship? I could no more have a relationship with you than I could with a deadly snake. No, I’m not interested in a relationship. I’m interested in having sex with you, plain and simple. Just like you’re interested in having sex with me. Don’t you want to touch what you spent months staring at eight years ago? Don’t you want to finish what you started? I do. A lot.’
Chase opened her mouth to tell him to get lost but nothing emerged. His cool, brilliant dark eyes held her in a trance even though she knew that every word that left that perfect mouth was offensive and insulting.
And yet...her imagination was going crazy. The fantasies she had had of him touching her all those years ago sprang from the box into which they had been firmly locked and attacked her on all fronts. She weakened at the thought of his fingers stroking the wetness between her legs, his mouth kissing the twin peaks of her breasts, nipping the tight buds of her nipples, suckling on them while he continued to stroke her dampness...
‘So here’s the deal.’ Alessandro was finding it hard to contain his excitement at the prospect of netting the prey that had once escaped him and putting to bed, once and for all, feelings that had no place in his life. Her skin was like satin beneath his fingertips. ‘You sleep with me for as long as I want you to and the shelter stays. Renovated, updated and modernised. Your friend’s debts will be cleared.’
‘You want to pay me for services rendered?’
‘I want to take what you want to give. In return, you get the shelter. And please don’t try and tell me that you don’t want to touch me. You do.’ His mouth met hers and Chase braced her hands on his shoulders, determined to push him away. But instead she was horrified to find that she was caressing him; that her mouth was returning his kiss with equal urgency; that she was sinking into him like a person starved of nourishment; that she was whimpering, little mewling sounds that shocked and excited her in equal measure and, worse, when he finally pulled back that the sudden space between them felt cold and unwelcome.
‘I think I’ve proved my point.’ There was a betraying unsteadiness in his voice. He might not like her or respect her but, God, did he want her. More than anything or anyone. ‘Let’s finish this business. A couple of weeks, tops, and you can disappear back to whatever life you have, having made your friend a very happy bunny.’
Chase had withdrawn and was rising to her feet, arms tight around her body.
‘I’ll never do that, Alessandro!’
Alessandro shrugged and tried to wrestle back his self-control, even though just watching her was affecting him in ways he could barely quantify. ‘You have forty-eight hours to give me your answer then the deal is off the table.’
‘I’ve already given you my answer!’
‘Forty-eight hours...’ he repeated, his eyes roving over her flushed face and her defiant yet tellingly shaken expression. ‘And let’s just wait and see if your answer remains the same after you’ve...thought things through.’
CHAPTER FIVE
BETH TELEPHONED THAT evening. She could barely contain her excitement. She might be able to hang on to the shelter!
‘What do you mean?’ Chase asked tentatively. She had spent the past few hours unable to get down to work. Alessandro’s offer kept playing in her head over and over again, like a tape recording on a loop. She had stalked out of his house, her head held high, and he had made no attempt to stop her. She thought that that, in itself, displayed a level of arrogance that should really have had her turning her back on him for ever. She loathed arrogance.
