His eyes scan her face, now devoid of all make-up. ‘Are you all right?’
Up this close his skin is sunshine and his voice pure velvet. She folds her arms around her body and resists the instinct to take a step back, such is the immensity of animal power he exudes. It is magnetic and irresistible. He reminds her of a panther. Prowling and ready to pounce, full of suppressed restless energy. Muscular, strong.
Thank god, for the shoes. They lift her eyes to the level of his straight, stern mouth. She raises her chin, meets him square in the eye, and in her best secretarial voice, says.
‘Yes, I’m fine. Thank you.’
‘I need to talk to you.’
Oh God, he is going to lecture her. ‘So talk.’
‘Privately—through here, please.’ He gestures with his hand. He is careful not to touch her. The corridor leads to a door. He goes ahead of her and holds it open. She hesitates for a moment, then thinks, fuck it, and walks through. The room appears to be some sort of library with walls full of shelves of leather-bound books. The room smells of new leather. She hears him close the door and turns around.
He is leaning against the door and simply watching her.
‘Well?’ she prompted.
‘Are you over eighteen?’
‘Yes.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Of course I am,’ she snaps. ‘Not that it is any of your business.’
‘What will Lothian get for his money?’
So he did hear. Oh the shame. If the ground could have opened up and swallowed her… Fortunately, a fine anger comes to her rescue. How dare he? The audacity.
Overbearing, arrogant bastard. With all the hauteur she can manage under the circumstances, she grates, ‘That is private if you don’t mind, and if that was all…’
‘It’s not idle curiosity. I’m quite happy to double the sum if it’s what I think it is.’
She stares at him. She understands why someone like Rupert would have to pay, but Blake Law Barrington? He could have anyone he wants. Then it occurs to her that, perhaps, he is just toying with her. Perhaps it is a thing all rich men do.
Her pride comes to the fore. She will not be humiliated twice in one night. ‘Whatever I have offered is for Rupert and only Rupert. Now please get away from that door and the hell away from me.’ Her voice has risen in anger.#p#分页标题#e#
His eyes spark. ‘Do you know your eyes are like the blue of struck matches when you are angry.’ Then more softly, ‘Why would anyone, let alone a stunner like you, get involved with someone who, if the most impeccable sources are to be trusted, is an absolute brute? He beat one woman so badly he broke her jaw, and blinded her in one eye.’Lana closes her eyes. She has drunk too much champagne. The whole situation has become impossible for her to deal with in her present condition. She has ventured where she should never have gone. She feels the sting of defeat in her bones. ‘What do you want from me?’
He leaves the door and walks towards her. Again that sensation that he is a predatory animal. ‘Well for a start…’
He reaches her and suddenly jerks her towards him. She falls forward and is pitched against his hard body. Her palms come into contact with the smooth material of his jacket. Shocked, she is filled with the scent that Rupert called old money and establishment. Difficult to define, but it reminds her of rosemary, not because of its smell, but because it is so clear and distinct. Nothing wishy-washy about it.
Everything takes on an unreal appearance. The fabulously wealthy interior. The man outside that door that wants to rape her for money. The frighteningly remote man in front of her that brings into her body sensations she has never experienced before. A pulse at the base of his throat is throbbing. She watches it curiously.
She has never seen it in a man before. And then an arm comes around her, a fistful of hair close to her nape is grasped and tugged so her face is tilted up towards him.
‘This,’ he says and his mouth swoops down to possess hers.
His breath smells like brandy or whiskey. Wicked, anyway.
Twice today she has had to endure a stranger’s uninvited and unwelcome lips, but her reaction to this overbearing man is shocking and immediate.
His mouth drives her wild in a way that she could never have imagined. Heat ripples through her and the reasoning, reliable part of her brain, that part that has never failed her before, stops responding. Stops functioning. Her arms snake up to twine around his neck and tangle in the thick hair. She thrills in his possessive hold.
He circles her tongue, sucks it deep into his mouth and kisses her with such ferocity that some slumbering beast inside answers his animal call. A dangerous excitement kicks hard in the pit of her belly. No man has ever done this to her in this way before. She clings to him. Like a blind animal that moves only with instinct she pushes her body into his. There is only the need to find more of that addictive heat. What she finds is the thick hardness of his desire for her. It presses aggressively against the softness of her stomach and excites her beyond all reason.