THE VALQUEZ SEDUCTION(13)

                ‘What…erm, circumstances?’

                His mouth had that half smiling slant to it again. ‘After the lap dance you had an episode of dispensing with the contents of your stomach in my bathroom. Unfortunately, your aim was off.’

                Oh, dear Lord above. Could this nightmare get any worse? ‘I was…sick?’

                ‘Spectacularly so.’

                Daisy chewed her lower lip, desperately trying not to picture how that might have played out. No one looked their best when being sick. But it was the ultimate humiliation to have disgraced herself in front of him. He was so self-assured. So suave. How he must have gloated over her misfortune after the way she had rejected his offer of a dance. He couldn’t have asked for a better comeuppance for her. She had been so dismissive of his warning the night before. Arrogant even. How had she been so stupid and trusting to let something like that happen? Ugh! She was not some silly young girl on her first night on the town. She had a university degree, for God’s sake.

                She rummaged inside her purse for a handful of banknotes, thrusting them at him. ‘I’m terribly sorry for any inconvenience I’ve caused. I hope this covers the expense of…erm, seeing to my needs.’ Bleah. Bad choice of words.

                He pushed her hand back with a gentle but firm pressure, his eyes locked on hers. ‘I don’t want your money.’

                Daisy was having trouble concentrating. Her thoughts were flying all over the place. The energy coming from his hand where it was holding hers back was making her whole body fizz with reaction. It was like being plugged into a power outlet with too high a voltage for her sensitive wiring. She was going to short circuit for sure. He was so intensely male. So unbelievably handsome it made a hollow space inside her belly vibrate. Her eyes kept tracking to his mouth. Had he kissed her? How annoying she couldn’t remember. That was a mouth that would know how to kiss. There would be no teeth scraping and nose bumping and awkward repositioning of lips and tongues. That was a mouth that knew how to seduce, to slay her senses with one brush of those hard male lips against hers. She drew in a shaky little breath and pushed back against his hand. ‘Take it. I insist.’

                He pushed back a little harder. The uptake of tension triggered something deep and low in her pelvis. She felt it between her thighs, a tight ache that was part pulse, part contraction. A frisson shimmied down her spine as his fingers wrapped around hers, tethering her to him. His hands were not smooth but slightly calloused, which was strangely arousing. His thumb found her pulse and measured its frantic pace. ‘I have plenty of money.’

                Daisy gave him an imperious look to disguise the catastrophic effect he was having on her senses. ‘Is that supposed to impress me?’

                A lazy smile teased up the corners of his mouth. ‘Nothing else has so far.’

                She raised one of her eyebrows. ‘You mean I wasn’t left breathless and gasping by your…erm, attentions last night?’

                He gave a deep chuckle, which combined with that toe-curling stroking along the thumpety-thump-thump-thump of her pulse, made her senses careen off into another tailspin. ‘Your honour was safe with me, dulzura. I didn’t lay a finger on you.’

                Daisy pulled out of his hold, blinking at him in surprise. ‘Y-You didn’t?’

                He shook his head with mock gravitas.

                ‘Why not?’

                ‘I prefer my women sober.’

                She glared at him again, stamping her foot for good measure. ‘I was not drunk! I’ve never been intoxicated in my life.’