The Millionaire's Revenge(41)

‘Oh, but I am not talking about having a relationship. I am talking about making love. And rules, at the end of the day, are made to be broken.’ He wasn’t about to let her imagine for a minute that any kind of relationship was in the offing. He had offered her one of those once and had been rejected. This time, he would be brutally honest and he would let her come to him in the full knowledge that what he wanted and all he wanted was her delectable body.

He trailed his finger along her spine and smiled. ‘No bra. I thought so. Some things never change.’

‘Stop it!’ Laura spun around so that she was facing him. That light touch had felt like an invasion, and, horrifyingly, an invasion she craved, is that how you live your life, Gabriel? A series of episodes with women in bed? How sad.’

‘Why is it sad?’ Her mouth was spitting insults, he thought with gratification, but her chocolate eyes were tell­ing another story, and he continued to devastate her with his look. ‘Because you think that sex has to be accompa­nied by emotions? And since you never married, are you telling me that you have not slept with another man since me?’

‘Of course I have,’ Laura retorted scornfully, and his body stilled. He really hadn’t expected her to say other­wise, but for reasons he could scarcely identify the thought of her lying in the arms of another man brought a surge of jealous bile rising to his throat.

‘The effeminate little man at the estate agency?’

Trust Gabriel Greppi to be contemptuous of someone like Hugo, she thought with sudden anger. Just because Hugo was not built along the macho lines that he was and did not have the overpowering self-assurance that made him see the world and its female inhabitants as his own personal playground.

Oh, how he would love to think that she had spent seven years in a deep freeze, pining.

The fact that it was mostly true, something she was only now beginning to realise, made her even angrier.

‘No, not Hugo!’ she snapped, thrusting her face towards him.

‘Who, then? And if he was so meaningful, where is he now?’ It look all his strength not to give in to basic instinct and shake the answer out of her.

‘His name was James Silcox, if you must know!’ And what a mistake he had been. After four years of celibacy, she could see, in retrospect, that she had drifted into the relationship partly in a desperate attempt to alter the rut into which her love life had sunk and partly because her father had approved of him. It had been a disaster. His talent for being amusing had not concealed a clever mind, as she had optimistically imagined. He had been good-looking, witty and as empty as a shell. The relationship had lasted all of six months and then dwindled into a spo­radic friendship, which was all it should ever have been in the first place. It had not escaped her notice that since her financial problems had come to light, even that had dis­appeared. She was no longer a desirable connection.#p#分页标题#e#

‘And I don’t know where he is now,’ she finished truth­fully.

‘What happened? Were you too forceful for the poor boy?’

‘Me? Forceful?’

‘You don’t play feminine games,’ Gabriel told her, reaching out to brush some hair away from her face. ‘And men tend to like their women to play feminine games.’

‘You mean, batting eyelashes and pretending to be help­less even when they have nerves of steel?’

‘Something like that.’ He hadn’t anticipated quite so much conversation. Women, he had always found, or at least those he had dated in the past, had always followed his lead, and lengthy conversation had never been high on his agenda. But then hadn’t he always known that this particular woman was unique? In fact, he had forgotten how much he enjoyed just talking to her. ‘Also...’ he let his eyes drift casually over her baggy sweatshirt and faded jeans ‘...they tend to be impressed by a more ...feminine look.’ He knew that one would get to her and he grinned broadly when her expression reflected the expected reac­tion of sulky affront.

‘Oh, well, thank you very much for that, Gabriel. You’ve just put your finger on why I haven’t managed to find Mr Right. My taste in clothes hasn’t been up to par. And I suppose all these little episodes in your sad, sad love life have had exquisite dress sense?’ Was he aware of the flirtatious thread running through this conversation?’ she wondered frantically. Instead of fuming over his un­disguised insults, she was blossoming! The teasing, lazy look in his black eyes gave his words a sexy, bantering intonation that had every nerve in her body singing.