One Night with Morelli(60)

                She’d yelled at him in a way he did not tolerate from anyone else; she’d flung accusations, called him a bastard to his face and created the sort of emotional scene he hated and yet he found he could reply with perfect honesty.

                ‘Neither do I. Feel free to join me,’ Draco murmured as he heard her heels clacking behind him on the marble floor.

                Eve was panting with the exertion of chasing after him, but only a second behind as she followed him through the door of his bedroom suite. It wasn’t until the door swung shut with a click that sounded awfully final behind her that she questioned the wisdom of her actions. A second later she was definitely panicking.

                ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ A shrill note crept into her voice as she watched him peel the vest over his head. His back was to her and as he stretched his arms her eyes were riveted to the play of muscle under his olive-toned skin; each ripple and contraction made her stomach flip and quiver. He was perfect anatomically and aesthetically.

                He turned to her with an expression of innocent surprise on his too handsome face and as his hands dropped to his sides, his feet slightly apart, his attitude was one of blatantly sexual arrogant challenge and there was nothing contrived about it—this was him.

                Her breath snagged in her throat as, still holding her eyes, he dropped the vest he had peeled off onto a chair. ‘I told you, I’m taking a shower.’ His eyes glittered with sardonic humour but he managed to sound mildly surprised by the question.

                ‘I want to talk to you.’ She struggled to maintain an air of subtle disdain while under the cold surface her hormones had gone into dramatic free fall. Whatever else he was, Draco was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen with more raw sex appeal in his little finger than most men had in their entire bodies.

                ‘Nothing stopping you, cara.’ He bent to unlace his trainers, even this casual action made riveting by the casual animal grace that characterised all his actions. He kicked off one shoe and then the other.

                Watching him through the utterly inadequate shield of her lashes, Eve felt as though she were going to explode. What, she speculated, lifting a hand to her head, would the autopsy report as the cause of death…fury or lust?

                Both would be accurate as this man somehow managed to tap directly into her most primal urges. He was the incarnation of everything that she had sworn to herself she would reject.

                ‘So if you change your mind about joining me…the offer’s still open.’ Holding her eyes, he smiled and reached for the cord tie on his sweat pants.

                Her eyes dropped and she felt the blush begin. Turning on her heel and presenting her rigid back to him, she missed his smile of satisfaction.





                                      CHAPTER ELEVEN

                ‘A TEMPTING OFFER, but I’ll pass.’

                Unwilling to admit even to herself, especially to herself, how true this was, how much she was tempted to join him in the shower, Eve picked up a cushion from the pile thrown artistically on a chaise longue set against the far wall and began banging it. When it was battered out of shape she moved on to another, plumping it so enthusiastically that his response was barely audible above the thwacking.

                ‘Suit yourself.’

                She waited a few moments then risked looking over her shoulder. The discarded pants lay in a crumpled heap on the floor and with a deep sigh she let herself fall back on the cushions. She concentrated on steady breathing in and out, but the tension that tied her muscles in knots stubbornly persisted.