The Boss's Virgin(19)

'Leave me alone!' she whispered, her heart beating worryingly fast.

He pushed the chair aside and took her shoulders in his strong, supple  hands. 'You belong to me, Pippa, you know that, even though you keep  trying to pretend you don't. From the minute we met we both knew we were  meant for each other. If I'd been free then, we'd have been together  all these years, but by bad luck I wasn't free, so you ran away, and  you're still running. Why?'                       
       
           



       

'I told you. You've ruined my life twice-I'm not going to let you do it again!'

'You love me,' he whispered, his hand going down to her waist, pulling  her closer. 'I love you, too. Stop wasting any more of our time.' His  cheek descended against her face, their skin brushing softly. She wanted  to resist, push him away, but she was paralysed, her whole being intent  on her awareness of his heart beating against her own, his arm round  her waist, his thigh pressing into hers, his mouth sliding over her  cheek to her mouth. However hard she tried, she could not fight his  physical power over her.

His kiss parted her lips. The warm tip of his tongue slid through into  her mouth, his other hand went up the back of her head and cradled it,  his fingers in her hair, softly pulling her head back as his kiss drove  into her.

'No, don't,' she muttered under that fierce, possessive mouth.

He kissed her harder, more demandingly, and she groaned, her lips  trembling, burning. Eyes shut, she clung to him in spite of her warning  brain, in spite of all her reasons for fighting him off. It was the same  every time-the instant he touched her she melted like candle wax in his  hands.

Suddenly, she was floating, like a leaf in the wind. She fought to force  her eyes open, dazedly looked up at him, her body still shuddering with  pleasure. He had picked her up bodily and was carrying her in his arms,  a hand under her legs, the other around her shoulders.

'What …  what are you doing?' she whispered, but he didn't answer.

She found out what his intentions were a second later as he lowered her  to the couch in the sitting room. Angrily, she tried to get up again,  but he was beside her, fencing her in, a little heap of cushions behind  her and his long, lean body stretching out in front.

'I hate you!' she breathed, trembling with an explosive mixture of rage  and helpless desire. He was dangerously close, their bodies touching at  every point from her shoulders to her feet, and she was on fire, wanting  him so much it felt like dying. Yet at the same time a warning voice  inside her head told her it was dangerous, lethal; he would only hurt  her again. She must not let herself surrender.

'Do you, Pippa?' he asked silkily, smiling as he stared down into her bitter green eyes.

'Yes! I hate the sight of you,' she insisted, staring back at him with  such fixed intensity that for a mo-ment she wasn't even conscious of  what his lean fingers were doing, until she abruptly realised he had  pushed up her turquoise sweater and undone her bra, and begun stroking  and caressing her naked breasts.

Her heart thudded against her ribcage; she gasped, 'No! Stop that!'

Randal's head came down; his lips opened on one of her hot, swollen  nipples, drew it inside the moist warmth of his mouth, and sucked.

Pippa moaned, pushing at his head, but it was imand she was helpless in  the grip of pleasure. Her body was arching towards his, even while she  tried to push him off. She despised herself for finding it impossible to  resist him, but the ecstasy of his suckmouth made her ache and shudder.  She wanted him badly, badly. It would be so easy to give in, open her  body to him and hold him inside herself, merge with him until they were  one person, even if it was just for a few moments.

But the instant satisfaction he could give her wouldn't last; she would  come out of it and have to face herself afterwards. This need she felt  was purely physical, sheer sensuality, a wild, beating urge deep in her  body. Her mind warned her not to give in to it.

'I'm not sleeping with you!' she broke out, struggling.

His head lifted, his face darkly flushed, his eyes sensuous, drowsy. A  wry smile curled his mouth. 'Stop fighting the way you feel, Pippa. You  want me to make love to you, even if you're determined to insist you  don't.'

He looked down at her body again, bent and ran the tip of his warm  tongue softly over the nipple he had been sucking, and she couldn't keep  back a cry of intense pleasure.

'You see?' he said. 'You want it, just as much as I do. What I don't understand is why you keep protesting that you don't.'





CHAPTER SEVEN





'Yes, okay,' she broke out hoarsely. 'I go out of my head when you make  love to me. I don't deny it.' Angrily, she saw him smile, his grey eyes  glittering in triumph, and went on in a hurry, 'But I still don't want  to get involved with you again. Last time I got hurt and I don't want to  get hurt again. I keep telling you that. Why can't you get the point?'                       
       
           



       

He grimaced impatiently. 'Not again! We keep having the same circular  argument! But if you insist, we'll go round again. Sooner or later maybe  I'll make you listen. Four years ago, I was married. Now I'm free. We  both know that I'm in love with you, I want you, you just admitted you  feel the same-so where's the problem?'

While he was talking in that brusque, impatient tone, she was discreetly  clipping her bra together again, pulling down her sweater, smoothing  her tangled chestnut hair. When he'd finished, she got up in a quick  movement, before he could stop her, walked to the window, stood there  with her back to him, speaking quietly. 'The problem is simple, Randal. I  don't want to get hurt again. You know I was abandoned as a child-four  years ago I felt I was being dumped again, when you chose your marriage  and your child over me.'

He started to protest. 'For heaven's sake! What else could I do? He was only little; I couldn't walk out on him … '

She interrupted. 'Randal, listen! I'm not saying you were wrong. I  understand. Your little boy needed you and had the right to expect that  you would be there for him, protect him, make sure he was happy.'

'I'm his father; I had to look after him. Renata was far too selfish to  bother about a child, even her own. All she wanted was to have a good  time, and looking after a little boy didn't come into her scheme of  things.'

'I know Johnny needed you to take care of him. I see that I know you had  no real choice. You felt you had to stay with your wife for his sake.  But that doesn't change the fact that I felt you didn't really care  about me. And, however good your reasons, I want a man who'll really  care about me.'

He got up from the couch impatiently, his voice rising. 'Of course I  cared about you, Pippa! How can you think I didn't? It was a terrible  choice I was forced to make! Do you think I found it easy? I agonised  over it for a long time.'

She swung round to face him, her face pale and grave. 'I just said, I  know why you had to put your son first. But understanding doesn't alter  anything. When it came to it, you chose your marriage and your child,  not me, and I know you always would.'

He ran his hands through his hair in restless frustration. 'I had to  then! What else could I do? You keep saying you understand, but do you? I  had to choose Johnny four years ago, but it's different now.  Everything's sorted. My marriage is legally over. Johnny's at boarding  school. I've had a private detective looking for you ever since my  divorce was finalised. You've been on my mind all this time. I love you,  Pippa, and now we can get married. There's nothing in the way of us  being together.'

'There's me, Randal.'

He stopped a few feet away and stared at her, eyes glittering, sharp, probing her face. 'What does that mean?'

'I won't let it happen to me again. I know now that you'll always put your son first and me second.'

'Pippa, it isn't a contest. You're being ridiculous! You sound as if  you're jealous of Johnny, jealous of a little boy; that's crazy.'

'No, of course not. I'm not jealous of him. But I'm still afraid of  getting hurt. You say you love me, but I'd never feel I was really  important in your life.'

'Pippa … ' He reached for her and she backed away, shaking her head.

'No! Please go, Randal, don't drag this out. I'm serious. I mean what I  say, and it won't make any difference in the long run for you to make  love to me. We both know I'd find it hard to say no at the time, but  afterwards I'd still feel the same. I got hurt last time; I don't want  to be hurt again. I've thought long and hard about this. There's no  future for us.'

He raked back his tousled hair, grimly staring at her. 'I don't accept that! You're making a stupid fuss about nothing.'

She shrugged. 'If you think that, you just aren't listening or trying to  understand. There's no point in talking. I'm not going to change my  mind and you're refusing to see my point of view.'