A Reputation For Revenge(21)

“Tell him to stop,” Josie said imploringly to Kasimir. She started to turn towards the window, her hand reaching instinctively for her door. In another two seconds, she’d see her ex-boss waiting outside the building, and Kasimir’s plans would be destroyed.

He didn’t think. He just acted. That was the reason, he told himself later, the only possible reason, for what he did next.

Throwing himself across the leather seat of the Rolls-Royce, he pulled her roughly into his arms. He heard her gasp, saw her eyes grow wide. He saw panic mingle with tremulous, innocent desire in her beautiful face. He saw the blush of roses in her pale cheeks, breathed in the sweet peaches of her hair. His hands cupped her face as he felt the softness of her skin.

And then, with a low growl from the back of his throat, Kasimir did what he’d ached to do for hours.

He kissed his wife.





CHAPTER THREE

JOSIE TRULY DIDN’T believe he was going to kiss her. Not until she felt his mouth against her own. As he lowered his head to hers, she just stared up at him in shock.

Then she felt his lips against hers, rough and hot, hard and sensual as silk. She gasped, closing her eyes as she felt the caress of his embrace like a thousand shards of light.

In the backseat of the Rolls-Royce, Kasimir pulled her more tightly against him, and she felt his power, his strength. He tilted her head back, deepening the kiss as his hands twined in her hair. Her eyes squeezed shut as she felt the hot, plundering sweep of his tongue, felt the velocity of the world spinning around her, as if they were at the center of a sandstorm. She was lost, completely lost, in sensations she’d never felt before, in his lips and tongue and body and hands. When he finally pulled away, she sagged against him, dazed beneath the force of her own surrender.

But Kasimir just sat back against the seat, glancing out the car window calmly. As if he hadn’t just changed her whole world—forever.

“Why...” she whispered, touching her tingling, bruised lips. “Why did you kiss me?”

Kasimir glanced back at her. “Oh, that?” He shrugged, then drawled, “The justice of the peace did tell me I was allowed to kiss you now.”

Her heart was pounding. She tried to understand. “You did it to celebrate our wedding?” she said faintly. “Because you were overcome...by the moment?”

He gave a hard laugh. As the chauffeur drove the Rolls-Royce onto the highway, Kasimir looked away from her, as if he were far more interested in the shining glass buildings and palm trees and blue sky. “Exactly.” His tone was sardonic. “I was overcome.”

And she imagined she saw smug masculine satisfaction in his heavy-lidded expression.

Josie had never thought of herself as a violent person. If anything, she was the type to hide and quiver from conflict. But in this moment, she suddenly felt a spasm of anger. “Then tell me the real reason.”

He looked at her. “You were handy.”

She gasped. He hadn’t kissed her to share the sacredness of the moment, or because he was overwhelmed by sudden particular desire for Josie. Oh, no. He’d kissed her just because she was there.

I’m heartless, Josie, he’d told her. You should know I’m not the good man you think.

Apparently he’d felt that words weren’t enough of a warning. He’d decided to show her, and this was exhibit A.

And for that, he’d ruthlessly stolen her first kiss away.

“It meant nothing to you?” she choked out. “You were just using me?”

“Of course I was,” he said coldly. “What else could a kiss be? You know the kind of man I am. I don’t do commitment. I don’t do hearts and flowers and sappy little poems so dear to the innocent souls of tender little virgins,” he ground out. His eyes were fierce as he glared at her. “So get that straight—once and for all.”

She stared at him, her mouth wide-open.

Then emotion tore through her, like fire through dry brush. It was an emotion she barely recognized. She’d never felt it before.

Rage.

Hot burning tears filled her eyes. Drawing back her hand, she slapped his face—hard.

The ringing sound of the blow echoed in the car. Even the chauffeur in the front seat flinched.

Blinking in shock, Kasimir instinctively put his hand to his rugged, reddened cheek as he stared down at her.

“I dreamed about my first kiss for my whole life,” she cried. “And you stole it from me. For no reason. Just to prove your stupid point!”

He narrowed his eyes. “Josie—”

“I get it. You don’t want me to fall in love with you. No worries about that!” A lump rose in her throat. “You turned a memory that should have been sacred into a mockery,” she whispered. Tears spilled over her lashes as she looked away. “Don’t ever touch me again.”