Living the Charade(11)

Thinking about her father made her remember the day her parents had  told her they were separating. She'd been ten at the time, and while  they'd talked about it calmly and rationally Miller had felt sick and  confused. Then her mother had driven her from Queensland to Victoria and  Miller's world had gone from cosy and safe to unpredictable and  unhappy. A bit like the steely, coiled man feigning nonchalance in the  bathroom doorway.

'Or are you worried you won't be able to keep your hands to yourself after that kiss?' he asked.

Miller cast him a withering look and returned to the bed she was  setting up on the floor. She wasn't going to stroke his ego by  responding to his provocative comments.                       
       
           



       

He'd felt her response to his kiss and it still rankled. Afterwards  she'd pretended that she'd been acting for the sake of their audience,  but she hadn't been, and she needed time to process that.

In the space of a short time the solid foundations of her secure life  had become decidedly rickety, and she wasn't going to add to that by  letting her plans for the future be derailed by a sexy-as-sin flamboyant  racing car driver who treated life like a game. Because Miller knew  life wasn't a game, and when things went wrong you only had yourself to  rely on.

It had been a tough lesson she had learned hard after being sent to an  exclusive girls' boarding school, where her opinion hadn't meant half as  much as her lack of money. Teenage girls could be cruel, but Miller  hadn't wanted to upset her mother by telling her she was having a  terrible time at school. Her mother had needed to work two jobs in order  to give Miller a better start in life than she'd had, so Miller had put  up with the bullying and the loneliness and made sure not to give her  mother any reason to be disappointed in her.

'If you think I'm sleeping on that, Sunshine, you're mistaken.'

Valentino's arrogant assurance was astounding, and Miller stared  open-mouthed as he crossed to the bed and placed his watch on the  bedside table.

Fortunately she had already anticipated this problem and, she thought  grumpily as she fluffed up her pillows, she hoped the bed had bugs in  it.

'Good to know. At least there won't be any more arguments between us tonight.'

* * *

Tino smiled. He couldn't help it. Which was surprising since he was  still irritated as hell by that kiss out in the garden and the way he  had become completely lost in it. Drunk on it.

He'd told himself all day to lay off the little fantasies he'd been having about her mouth, but had he listened? No.

And what was up with that? If he ignored his instincts on the track as  he had out in that garden he'd have bought the farm a long time ago.

The problem was he had made her off-limits and that had spiked his  interest. Stupid. But he wasn't a man who could resist a challenge. And  on top of that she was clearly not fawning over him as other women did  once they knew who he was. There was nothing more likely to get a woman  into his bed than giving them his job title, but this pretty little ray  of sunshine was not only not trying to sleep with him, she was making up  a bed on the floor!

She couldn't have challenged him more if she'd tried, and because he  had been thwarted in racing these last couple of months, first due to  injury and then because his car was under-performing and causing all  sorts of problems, he was more frustrated than he normally would be.  Which went a lot further towards explaining his sexual fascination with  her than anything else he'd come up with so far.

It was even more of a reason to keep his distance from her. He wasn't a  slave to his hormones, and he had enough complications at the moment  without adding her to the list.

He yanked off his jeans and got into the king-sized bed, letting out an  exaggerated sigh of appreciation as the soft mattress gave just enough  beneath his body. He might as well enjoy it since he knew she was about  to order him to sleep on the floor. He'd do it once she said please. A  word she was sorely in need of learning how to use.

He grinned. He was quite looking forward to seeing how long it would take before she caved in and used it.

He watched with some satisfaction as she stalked to the main door and  hit the light switch with her open palm as if she wished it was his  head. Then she did something completely unexpected. She shimmied out of  her robe and got into the makeshift bed on the floor.

And made him feel like an absolute idiot.

'Ever had your testosterone levels checked out?' he grumbled.

'What's the matter, Valentino? Your masculinity being challenged because I'm not falling at your feet?'

Yes, as a matter of fact it was.

'Was the kiss that good?' he purred.

'I can't remember.'

He heard her fake a yawn and shook his head. 'Sounds like you want a reminder.'

'Not in this lifetime,' she sputtered.

Her protest was a little too vigorous, which he liked.

Tino stretched out on the bed and stared at the ceiling, his eyes  starting to adjust to the grey shadows cast around the room from the  moonlight seeping in around the sheer curtains.

He heard the blankets on the floor rustle and his teeth gnashed  together. She was being ridiculous and taking this just a little too  far. He wondered if she was wearing something lacy. Something like the  freshly laundered hot-pink thong hanging on the towel rail in the  bathroom. The sight of those delicate panties had knocked him for a six,  and he was pretty sure she hadn't left them there deliberately.                       
       
           



       

Finding out she really did favour sexy lingerie was a fact he could  have well done without. Ball-breaking Miss Miller Jacobs was turning out  to be full of contradictions. Not least of all that fiery response to  his kiss in the garden.

Acting, she had said after the event. Yeah, right.

Acting, my ass.

Yeah, and you're not supposed to be thinking about it.

'I like the thong you left in the bathroom,' he said, unable to help annoying her as she was annoying him.

'You can't borrow it,' she said after a slight pause.

He gave a soft chuckle. Man, she was sassy. And, no, he didn't want to  borrow it. But he wouldn't have minded stripping it down her long legs  to see what he was sure would be tawny curls underneath. His heart beat  the blood a little more heavily around his body and he was unable to  stop his mind from imagining her naked and spread out on the four-poster  bed. Imagining her soft and wet with the same need that had compelled  her to wrap her tongue around his in that garden.

He breathed deep and willed his body to relax, reminding himself that  he only wanted her because he'd placed an embargo around her.

The blankets rustled again as she adjusted herself on the hard floor that not even thousand-dollar-a-metre carpet could soften.

His blood was Sicilian, and if she thought he could stay sprawled out  on a comfortable bed while she lay uncomfortably at his feet she had  another thing coming. But he knew offering up the bed would only play  into her martyr's hands and give her a reason to make him feel even more  like a heel, so he stayed quiet and devised another plan that had the  double advantage of allowing him to live up to his chivalrous nature and  annoy the hell out of her at the same time.

Half an hour later Tino looked down on Miller's sleeping form. Her  hands were tucked under her face and her shoulder-length hair was dark  against the white pillow. Deep shadows beneath her eyes attested to how  tired she was.

Careful not to wake her, he leaned down and pulled the meagre blanket away from her body-and instantly stilled.

She was lying half on her stomach, one leg bent to the side in an  innocently provocative pose. Her pale jersey camisole top and matching  three quarter length pants stretched tight over her ripe curves. As far  as night attire went it wasn't the most seductive he'd ever seen, and  yet as he gazed at her slender limbs, milky in the shadowy moonlight she  had his full attention.

His hand itched to curve around the firm globes of her bottom while he  bit down gently on the soft-as-silk skin that covered her trapezius.  Would she be sensitive there? Or would she prefer him to kiss his way  down each pearl-like button of her spine? Perhaps while he was buried  deep inside her.

Tino groaned and closed his eyes. He felt like a randy teenager looking  at a full on girlie magazine. Lust, hot and primal, beat through his  body and made his legs weak. For a moment he was gripped by an almost  uncontrollable urge to roll her over and wake her with a lover's kiss.  Get her to open her mouth for him as she had done earlier, cup her pert  breasts, shove those stretchy pants to her ankles and thrust into her  until all she could do was chant his name over and over as she came for  him.

Only him.

He blinked back the unusually possessive thought, the incongruity of it  burning through his sensual haze and reminding him of his initial  purpose in pulling the blanket from her body.