‘You say you don’t know if there’s anyone else in my life but I could say the same about you.’
‘About me?’
That edgy look was back, making him think even more of words like guilt and concealment—and lies.
‘Are you a free agent? Is there anyone else in your life?’ he pressed.
‘Oh…’
For a second she looked blank, and then he noticed that her white teeth were digging into the soft fullness of her lower lip, worrying at the soft skin that only moments before he had been imagining kissing.
‘Becca?’ Suspicion darkened his voice on the question.
Was this what she wasn’t telling him? Was the reason she wanted to be ‘sensible’ because there was another man in her world? Someone she didn’t want to tell him about?
‘Is there—?’
‘No!’ she said firmly and hastily—too firmly, too hastily so that instead of putting his mind at rest it put him more on edge than ever. ‘No—there’s no one.’
‘Are you sure?’
That brought her head round, dark hair flying, chin coming up defiantly as she met his assessing stare head-on.
‘Of course I’m sure!’ she declared. ‘There is no man in my life but you!’
It was what he most wanted to hear, so why did he sense something like the crawl of small, icy feet down his spine in spite of the heat?
‘Good,’ he said, reaching out to touch a hand to her cheek and hold her there, sea-coloured eyes locked with black. ‘Just make sure it stays that way. I have exclusive rights to my women. You’re mine and only mine…’
Under the touch of his fingers her face jerked just once as if in rejection of his comment. Her eyes opened wide and that determined little chin lifted even higher.
‘You don’t have any rights to me—not yet.’
‘Not yet,’ Andreas agreed, a slow, appreciative smile curling his mouth. She was gorgeous when she was like this—wonderfully sexy with the mutinous spark that lit those fantastic eyes, the wash of colour that flooded her cheeks. ‘I know—we’re taking this slowly…being sensible.’
He drawled out the word deliberately, putting every ounce of contempt he could into each syllable.
‘But not for long. I could make you forget about that need for caution you think is so important.’
Another jerk of her chin, a lift of her smoothly arched brows, challenging the truth of his assertion, making his smile widen ever more.
‘You know I could,’ he murmured softly, leaning even closer so that his mouth was just inches away from the soft, rebellious pout of her lips. ‘It would only take a minute. Not even that.’
She had frozen now, nothing moving but her eyes as they watched him warily, waiting to see what he would do next.
‘All I’d have to do is to lean forward, just the tiniest little bit…’
He suited the action to the words, only just catching the tiny faint sound of her swiftly indrawn breath as he did so. Her eyes widened just a little bit more but she stayed where she was, though the pink tip of her tongue slid out and slicked over her lower lip in an uneasy, betraying gesture.
The movement and the slight film of moisture it left on her mouth was a temptation that Andreas couldn’t resist. He’d waited too long for the taste of her mouth on his all over again. He wanted it again and he wanted it now.
Reaching up a hand, he curled it round the back of her head, fingers sliding into the silky dark hair, cupping the fine bones of her skull as he drew her near to him and took her mouth. Her lips were as soft and delicious as they had been before and she yielded to him with a soft murmur that made his senses give a hard, painful kick in response.
To hell with being sensible. This was what he wanted. What he needed. Her mouth opened under his and with a sense of triumph he moved in closer.
And felt the faint, unmistakable shiver that ran through her body as she fought for control. It was there and gone again in the space of a heartbeat but he had felt it and recognised it for what it was.
He could kiss her out of it, he knew that. It wouldn’t take much; she would be his if he only insisted, pressed a little more. But it was the fact that she had reacted in that way, that she still felt that restraint she talked about that stopped him dead in his tracks. She was still determined to keep him at arm’s length for her own personal reasons. And that realisation destroyed the sensual mood completely.
With a savagely muttered curse in his own language he wrenched his mouth away from hers, pulling his head back to stare down into her dark, shocked eyes.
‘Andreas…’ Becca began and the shake on the sound of his name was the last straw.