'I would rather have spent the evening with you,' he ground out between clenched jaws.
'Really?' Andie's eyes flashed deeply green in the half-light. 'Then you must have hidden acting ability!' She glared at him, remembering all too clearly that if it hadn't been for Gordon Andrews she would have spent the entire evening mingling with people she didn't know-and who, on this evening's behaviour, she wasn't sure she wanted to know, either!
Adam reached out to grasp her shoulders. 'Are you seeing Andrews again?' he demanded to know-almost as if she had spoken her thoughts out loud!
Andie wrenched out of his grasp, reaching to open her car door-obviously Adam wasn't about to get out and do it for her! 'I don't think that's any of your business!' she scorned as she stepped out onto the pavement.
For such a large man, Adam moved with surprising speed, at her side as she used her key to open the security door at the entrance to the building, following her inside.
He swung her round to face him. 'I'm making it my business, Andie,' he insisted. 'Do you intend seeing Andrews again?' he repeated, his voice steely now.
She looked up at him defiantly. 'I think that's for me to decide-don't you?' Knowing she actually had no intention of seeing the other man again.
Gordon had asked her if she would like to have dinner with him next week, but, despite having enjoyed his company this evening, Andie knew she wasn't in the least attracted to him. Much better to leave their evening together as a pleasant memory. At least, that part of it!
'Excuse me, Adam,' she dismissed as the lift arrived at the ground floor, stepping inside.
'No,' Adam returned shortly, stepping into the lift beside her. Andie looked at him frowning as the lift ascended to her floor, before stepping out into the carpeted entrance to her apartment, throwing her bag and keys down onto the table and striding through to the calm elegance of her sitting-room.
Adam swung her roughly round to face him, his expression furious in the glow of the side-light she had left on in the room in anticipation of her return.
She gave a heavy sigh, knowing that they were both too angry to continue this conversation. 'It's very late, Adam-'
'That didn't seem to bother you a short time ago when you were all over Gordon Andrews!' he shot back at her, grey eyes glacial.
Her own eyes widened indignantly at his unwarranted accusation. 'The man kept me company for the evening-which is more than can be said of you!' she returned angrily.
'Don't try and turn this round on me,' Adam rasped coldly, his hand tightening on her arm. 'By the time I had concluded my business with Elizabeth you were secluded in a dark corner with that damned clown!'
'I-!' Andie gasped her outrage, trying to pull out of his grasp-and only succeeding in bruising herself instead. 'Elizabeth King is even younger than I am!' she exclaimed.
'Which makes you nothing but a-'
'Yes?' Adam challenged hardly, his face only inches away from her own.
There was a warning in his eyes, but Andie was past caring about his anger, was only concerned with her own humiliation-and hurt, that he should have chosen to spend her coveted evening with him in the company of another woman, a beautifully luring one at that.
She had so looked forward to being with him this evening, had dressed with him in mind-and, as far as she was concerned, he had merely been using her in an effort not to arrive at the party alone, after all!
'An aging Romeo!' Andie concluded stubbornly, anger winning out over prudence.
'An aging-!' Adam's eyes darkened for a moment before they became silvery cold. 'If I'm an aging Romeo,' he bit out tautly, 'then you're nothing but a teasing flirt!'
The two of them glared at each other, nose to nose, green eyes clashing with silver, chins jutting out, neither of them willing to give an inch.
How long they would have gone on staring at each other in that way Andie couldn't have said, but suddenly Adam gave a groan, all of the anger draining out of his body, his hands no longer tight on her arms, the thumbs lightly caressing against the creaminess of her skin.
'Damn you, Andie … !' he breathed raggedly, his forehead damp against hers now.
She felt the change in him, holding her breath in an effort not to break the physical awareness that suddenly seemed to have sprung up between them, her gaze steadily meeting his as she dared him to take this one step further.
'Damn you … !' he groaned again before he moved slightly, his mouth claiming hers.
There was no gentle exploration, no slow rising of passion; as their lips met it was as if a sensual explosion had been set off between them, all thought, all caution, forgotten in the wave of feeling that engulfed them both.
With their mouths still fused in exploration, their clothes fell quickly to the floor, Andie not absolutely sure who took off what, only aware of searing emotion as she felt the naked warmth of Adam's body as it fitted perfectly against her own nakedness, Adam's hands seeking, and finding, each sensitive spot on her body, his lips heatedly following that same trail until Andie felt like liquid fire in his arms.
The carpet felt warm against her back, Adam like fire above her, his lips and hands touching the pouting yearning of her breasts, Andie groaning low in her throat as she felt a nipple drawn completely into the moist heat of Adam's mouth, the gentle touch of his tongue, the pleasure-pain of nibbling teeth, bringing a moist warmth between her thighs.
She arched against him as his hand explored her there, feeling as if she would burst with the heated sensations. And then she did burst, but it was like nothing she had ever known before, every part of her feeling suddenly hypersensitive as the pleasure coursed through her, welcoming Adam into her as his body finally joined with hers.
The pleasure that followed was even more intense than that first time, and as the heated quivering of her body brought Adam to his own peak the two of them reached that unknown plateau together in a sensation that seemed to go on and on into eternity …
His child, he had just said.
Yes, it was Adam's child she carried.
But it was a child that had been conceived in anger rather than love, a fact that had been more than borne out by Adam's dazed expression when he'd raised his head from the dampness of her breasts to look at her with unfocusing, unrecognising grey eyes.
A shiver of shocked reaction quivered through her. Because if Adam hadn't known he was making love with her, then it had to be-Oh, God!
Andie pushed frantically at his chest, feeling a momentary loss as her body ceased to be joined with his, rolling away from him to gather up her shimmering silver gown and hold it protectively in front of her nakedness. 'Go, Adam,' she told him woodenly.
He drew in a short breath, still not quite looking at her. 'I-'
'Just go, Adam,' she bit out, turning away from him so that he shouldn't see the sudden tears that welled up in her pained green eyes. 'Please!'
He swallowed hard, gathering up his own scattered clothes, not speaking again until he was once again fully dressed-and looking remotely unapproachable. 'Andie, I-I don't know what to say,' he began shakily.
Her mouth twisted into the bitter semblance of a smile. 'Then it's probably best that you say nothing,' she told him tersely. Anything he said now could only make the situation worse. If that were possible!
Adam shook his head. 'I don't know what happened,' he said. 'One minute we were furious with each other, the next-!' He gave another shake of his head. 'I'm sorry, Andie,' he added wretchedly.
Not as sorry as she was. Because, in the absence of the woman he really wanted, she had only been a substitute enough like her in looks to allow Adam the fantasy. As Andie knew only too well, that woman was her own, dead, mother!
She knew it as surely as if Adam had spoken the words out loud-and she knew she would never forgive him for using her in that way.
She stirred herself now, finally opening her eyes to look across the terrace of the villa to where Adam stood grimly in the shadow of the purple bougainvillaea that ran along one side of the mellow stone building.
She knew as she looked at him that, despite everything, she still loved him … !
She hated him.
Adam could see it in the dark green of her eyes as she looked over at him with such cold contempt.
She had never looked lovelier to him, the week she had spent in the warm Majorcan sunshine having given a healthy tan to the silky skin visible above the green bikini, the gentle glow of early pregnancy having given a warm allure to the curves of her body.
That was his child that lay nestled inside that curvaceous body, he acknowledged possessively. His child! And Andie's …