She raised her eyebrows and a slow smile formed on her lips. “Is that what they
call kissing these days?” she taunted.
His nostrils flared at the reminder of the kisses they’d shared. He was well and
truly caught in a trap of his own making.
“His actions were inappropriate,” he gritted out. “You are under my protection.
You’ll heed my instructions.”
She turned cheekily to Sophia and Alannis. “I suppose he’ll mark that one off the
list of potential husbands now.” Then she sighed dramatically and dropped her hands
helplessly to her side. “I didn’t even get to dance again.”
“Theron will dance with you,” Alannis urged. “He’s a marvelous dancer as I’m
sure you determined earlier.”
“Yes, do go on,” Sophia said. “I’ll make sure there is food when you return.”
Theron’s mouth went dry. He wouldn’t survive another dance with her lush body
molded to his. One torture session was enough for the night.
But then the alternative was letting her dance with the circling pack of men. Men
he’d hand-selected.
Over his dead body.
Without another word, he snared Isabella’s hand and dragged her toward the
dance floor.
“You’re hell on these shoes,” she murmured as he pulled her into his arms.
For the first time since Marcus had arrived, Theron relaxed as Isabella’s soft body
molded so sweetly to his. There was an innate sense of rightness. He loved touching her.
It was difficult to keep his hands from roaming up and down her soft curves.
“You feel it, too,” she said softly as she gazed up at him. “You don’t want to. You
fight it, but you feel it every bit as much as I do. It’s why you’ve kissed me.” She laughed
softly. “You can’t help but kiss me, just as I’m unable to resist. I don’t want to resist.”
He shook his head even as his body hummed agreement.
She smiled and put a finger over his lips as they swayed with the music. Then
turning, so that his back was to Alannis, she let her hands run down his chest. Her eyes
narrowed to half slits, and she parted her lips in a hungry gesture.
He groaned. “We mustn’t, Bella. You make me so crazy. You have to stop with
the teasing.”
“Who says I’m teasing,” she asked as she arched one eyebrow.
He took her hands and pulled them away from his body before turning her around
again so that they were sideways to Alannis.
“You see her? Alannis. I’m going to ask her to marry me, Isabella.”
She greeted his announcement with calm. No visible reaction. Had she already
known?
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THE TYCOON’S REBEL BRIDE
48
MAYA BANKS
SILHOUETTE DESIRE 1944
THE ANETAKIS TYCOONS
“This must stop between us,” he pressed on. “We’re going to marry different
people.”
“And yet you keep kissing me,” she said with a slight smile.
“I won’t do so again,” he vowed.
Instead of deterring her, a sparkle lit her eyes. “If I have anything to say about it
you will.”
Before he could respond, she pulled away. “I’m starving.” Then suddenly she
leaned close and murmured so only he could hear. “You say you don’t want me, yet you
don’t want another man to have me. Pretty strange wouldn’t you say?”
She turned and walked away, her hips swaying gently as she navigated her way
back to where Sophia waited with a plate of food.
Ten
“H e still plans to propose tonight?” Isabella asked in dismay. She held the phone
tightly to her ear as she listened to Madeline.
Somehow she’d hoped that after last night Theron would have realized he felt
something for her. Maybe not love. Not yet, but she’d thought he’d wake up to the
attraction between them.
Okay, maybe he wasn’t completely unaware, but he certainly seemed determined
to ignore it.
She closed her eyes as she listened to Madeline confirm that according to Theron,
the proposal was still on.
“Thanks, Madeline,” she said slowly.
She hung up the phone and sunk lower into the bed. Theron with Alannis. She just
couldn’t imagine it. Theron needed…someone to shake him up, someone who wouldn’t
let him get too serious and organized.
He needed someone like her.
Alannis wouldn’t challenge him. There was no spark of chemistry between them.
Alannis may as well be his daughter for all the attraction that existed.
Maybe Theron wanted a comfortable, dull marriage.
She shook her head. No, she wouldn’t believe that, because if she did, then she’d