by Lynne Graham
‘But I can’t think of one good reason why you’d want to force me to be here—’
Roel sent her a sardonic smile. ‘But I’ve got more than one good reason. The power kick. I am receiving very real satisfaction from making you do what I want you to do.’
‘That’s disgusting…you should be ashamed of yourself!’ Hilary was outraged that he could admit that without hesitation.
His stunning eyes narrowed intently. ‘But didn’t you receive a similar satisfaction when you took advantage of my amnesia to lull me into a false sense of security?’
‘I’m not like you…I didn’t take advantage either!’ Hilary flung at him, hurt by that unpleasant suggestion. ‘I was only trying to keep you calm and happy.’
His handsome mouth quirked with amusement. ‘Per meraviglia…you certainly put a smile on my face in the bedroom. As for forcing you to be here, isn’t it time you faced facts?’
‘What facts?’
‘That you didn’t exactly have to be dragged kicking and screaming back to my lair? You want me too.’
‘Not enough to allow you to think you can use me,’ Hilary stated hotly.
Roel let his forefinger slowly glance down between her breasts to pause at her navel. ‘What would be enough?’
Where he stroked, her body became stingingly alive and tender. It was as if her every skin cell lit up.
She set her teeth together and trembled. ‘Sex isn’t enough for me.’
‘I could make it enough,’ Roel informed her huskily.
‘I value myself more.’
‘Yet you didn’t four years ago. If I’d snapped my fingers then you would have come running.’
She was devastated by that crack. For an instant she was torn from the present and plunged back into the past. She had been so desperately in love with him and without hope. She had been young and foolish and she would have done just about anything to get a chance with him. To be forced to accept that he had known exactly how she felt then and yet still walked away from her was unbearably painful.
‘You bastard…’ she framed jaggedly. ‘You were attracted to me too but you wouldn’t do anything about it—’
‘I was too sensible—’
‘Too much of a snob,’ Hilary contradicted with wounded and angry blue eyes. ‘I bet if I’d been some spoilt little debutante you would have given me a spin!’
‘I’m not a snob. I have expectations in certain fields and I don’t apologise for them—’
‘You’re the guy who was born with an entire silver service in his mouth. All your life you have had the best and you looked at me and you felt the same attraction I did…I know you did!’ Hilary stressed in a mixture of furious and hurt accusation. ‘Because you admitted that to me while you had amnesia—’
‘I walked away because you couldn’t have handled me. You were too young—’
‘You walked away because you have a brain that functions like a deep freeze—’
‘Is that your definition of common sense?’ Roel drawled silkily.
‘—and because I didn’t fit the right image—’
‘You still don’t…yet here you are.’ Dark drawl razor-edged, Roel curved controlling hands to the shapely curve of her hips and drew her to him.
‘You think kissing me is somehow going to make me less furious with you?’ Hilary threw at him tempestuously.
He did it anyway. He crushed her soft mouth under his and then lingered to demand a greater response. He teased at the full curve of her lower lip and she shivered, abruptly leaning forward to brace her hands on his hard, muscular shoulders. He stopped teasing, hauled her close and plundered the tender interior of her mouth with driving explicit strokes that made the blood drum through her veins at an insane rate.
‘I can’t wait until seven tonight,’ Roel growled thickly, pausing to nip at the lobe of her ear with his teeth before burying his carnal mouth in the hollow of her neck.
‘Oh…’ In reaction to that contact, an incredibly erotic sensation darted through her and she snatched in a startled breath. He wasn’t supposed to be kissing her, she reminded herself. She was angry with him, she reminded herself. But she curled her nails like talons into the expensive fabric of his suit jacket and found his tempting masculine mouth again for herself.
Roel released the back zip on her dress and cool air washed her spine. She fought to catch her breath while the lace fabric shimmied down over her hips into a pool at her feet. ‘No…you can’t do that!’ Hilary gasped in shock.
‘Too late…’ Roel framed thickly.
Hilary whipped up her hands in a genuine effort to cover herself. She was in a panic. ‘We’re in a bank…any minute now someone might come through that door!’
‘It’s locked…we’re safe.’ With single-minded purpose, Roel tugged her hands back down to her side. He tipped back his handsome dark head to better appreciate the sight of her luxuriant curves embellished by a frivolous bra and panties. ‘But you’re not…’
As Hilary began to stoop to reach for her dress Roel lifted her up into his arms with easy strength. He brought her down on the desk and flipped loose the catch on her bra. ‘Roel!’
‘Irresistible…’ Roel surveyed the pouting perfection of her pink-tipped breasts and groaned out loud.
Smouldering golden eyes met hers and the raw hunger she saw there shook her. His uninhibited desire lit a fire inside her. He might not love her but his passion was very real. Emboldened, she angled up on one elbow and tugged him down to her by his silk tie.
Lean, strong face hard with male need, he vented a roughened Italian imprecation. ‘Inferno! You’re in my blood like a fever.’
He curved his hands to the ripe swell of her breasts, making her moan soft and low. He rubbed her tightly beaded nipples and she gasped in helpless response. Liquid heat started to gather at the apex of her thighs. He let his expert mouth wander at will across her sensitised flesh and all thought was suspended. Her hips gave a restive upward surge and he sank his hands beneath them to bring her even closer.
A phone began buzzing. He swore, reached behind her and the noise stopped. He laced long fingers into her hair, holding her to him while he drove her lips apart with the demanding force of his passion.
‘I want you,’ she muttered, snatching in a frantic shallow breath, her whole body thrumming with passionate need.
‘Not as much as I want you, bella mia,’ Roel ground out, ripping off her last garment with more haste than care. ‘You’ve taught me that two weeks can feel like two lifetimes.’
He spread her thighs and discovered the hot, damp ache of her most secret flesh. As he explored her slick, wet heat a sobbing sound of frustration was wrenched from her and she arched in a frenzy of helpless impatience. Positioning her with strong hands, he plunged into her in one powerful movement. It was intolerably exciting. A surging wave of pleasure splintered through her. All control was gone. He was taking her to the outer limits of an exquisite peak of sensation. When it claimed her in a wild climax of shattering intensity, he smothered her cries with the cloaking heat of his mouth.
In the aftermath she was shell-shocked by her own abandonment.
Withdrawing from her, Roel stared down at her with stunned golden eyes. ‘I can’t believe we just did this…I can’t believe you’re lying naked across my desk.’
It needed only that one reminder for Hilary to recall both her surroundings and her unclothed state. She leapt off his desk like a scalded cat. She wanted to crawl under it and hide but not before she got herself decently covered again. Fighting hands that were all fingers and uncoordinated thumbs, she struggled back into her bra and pants. All around her the silence seethed.
‘You’re banned from my office,’ Roel drawled coolly.
‘Sorry…s-say that again,’ she stammered weakly, engaged in hauling up her dress with frantic hands.
‘I think you staged a deliberate power play. You came here dressed to kill with a purpose,’ Roel condemned with outrageous co
ol.
Hilary almost flung herself at him sobbing with raging hysteria. He thought she had planned her own downfall? He thought she was proud of having been spread-eagled across his desk? Was he out of his mind? Face bright red with shame, she wriggled in an agitated effort to pull up her zip for herself.
‘From the minute I came through that door, you had only one thought in your mind. Don’t you dare blame me…thanks,’ she muttered in absent aside as, noticing her acrobatic twists, he flipped her round and took care of her zip. ‘Who locked the door? Who ignored me when I tried to remind you of where we were? Who told me two weeks without sex is like two lifetimes?’
‘Hilary—’
‘And the same second you get what you want, you start acting like I threw myself at you,’ she ranted at him feverishly, because while she was still shouting and simultaneously heading in the direction of the door she could pretty much avoid looking at him. ‘Who flattened me on that desk with lustful intentions? Believe me, wild horses wouldn’t get me back inside this bank!’
Roel swept up her coat and extended it.
‘You’ve got lipstick on your shirt,’ she told him with considerable satisfaction.
Glittering golden eyes ensnared hers with bold determination. ‘Can we do this again soon?’
Hilary stared at him in mortified disbelief. ‘After you virtually accused me of setting this up?’
‘I’d like to set you up for a repeat visit, cara mia.’
‘Dream on!’ Hilary flung at him.
‘I’m a connoisseur,’ Roel murmured smoothly. ‘And sex that good is rare.’
Paling, Hilary veiled her eyes and dropped her head. He was so unemotional. With only a handful of words he could virtually flay the skin from her bones. Sex that good is rare. Just when had she forgotten how he felt about her? Just when had she forgotten that he thought of her as a gold-digging, lying cheat, who had taken advantage of him when he was vulnerable? Vulnerable. She studied Roel: a superb male animal in peak physical condition. A guy who looked at her with lust and cool mingled. A guy quite capable of having sex with her and then forgetting she existed. In short, someone likely to hurt her a good deal if she didn’t watch out…
‘This isn’t going to happen ever again,’ Hilary swore, spinning on her heel and heading for the door in a blind need to escape the scene of her own downfall.
‘Not for the next twenty-four hours at least,’ Roel conceded with velvet-smooth precision. ‘I leave for Zurich this evening. I’ll see you tomorrow evening.’
Hilary considered several counter-attacks of the don’t-hurry-home variety before deciding that any such response would be less than impressive after the mortifying way she had behaved with him. In chagrined silence she left his office. A knot of executive types wearing perplexed expressions was waiting outside. Everybody backed away to let her pass. Convinced that what she had been doing was somehow written on her pink-cheeked face, she walked to the lift at speed.
He had somehow discovered the magic combination that transformed her into a woman who acted like a slut. For that alone, she should hate him, she told herself. But at that point she recalled Roel’s own initial reactions in the aftermath of their intimacy. He had been knocked off balance by the passion that had betrayed them both. He had also informed her that she was banned from his office. Banned as though she was possessed of such overpowering appeal that only a complete embargo on her presence could keep him on the sexual straight and narrow.
She tossed her head back. A very slight swing assailed her hips while a cheeky grin of one-upmanship dared to tug at the tight line of her compressed lips.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE next day one-upmanship was not in Hilary’s thoughts when she contemplated her breakfast with an appetite that had once again chosen to disappear. She was actually feeling quite nauseous. Not for the first time in recent days either, she reflected. Had she picked up some virus? But it was not as though she felt truly ill, more as though something was not quite right.
Only while she was considering that conundrum did it dawn on her that her body was behaving oddly in other ways as well. A quick calculation on her fingers suggested that her period was a few days overdue. She recounted, but accurate dates evaded her because she had never bothered to keep a record of her cycle. She was getting her dates mixed up, she told herself. About there she froze on a very much belated acknowledgement that, from that very first night she had spent with Roel, she had done nothing whatsoever to protect herself from becoming pregnant. And nor had he.
Everything that had happened with Roel had happened so fast. Their intimacy had not been a pre-planned event. At no stage had she even thought of the risk that she might conceive a child. Had Roel been as thoughtless as she had been? Or had he assumed that she was taking the contraceptive pill? For goodness’ sake, why was she working herself up into such a state?
The previous month she had only shared Roel’s bed for a week. How likely was it that she could have conceived in so short a space of time? Hadn’t she read a newspaper article about falling fertility rates? Most probably stress had upset her menstrual cycle and that very disruption was throwing her whole system out of sync and making her feel unwell. She would wait a few days and if she were still concerned she would have a pregnancy test. In the meantime it would be madness for her to start fretting herself into a panic over something that might never happen.
Umberto brought her a phone. It was Roel.
‘I meant to call you last night but the meeting went on too late,’ he asserted.
His dark, deep drawl sounded wonderful on the phone line and she was furious with herself for noticing that. ‘Don’t worry about it. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you.’
‘We’re attending a party tonight, cara.’
‘Oh, so I get a night out for good behaviour,’ she sniped.
‘And a night in for bad. No prizes for guessing which I would prefer,’ he incised smoothly. ‘I’m no party animal.’
While she dressed that evening she waited with bated breath for the communicating door between their bedrooms to open. Sheathed in a green evening dress that bared her shoulders and accentuated the creamy perfection of her pale skin, she finally descended the stairs.
Roel strolled out into the hall below her. Heavily lidded dark-as-night eyes scanned her and glittered gold with appreciation. ‘You look good.’
Madly conscious of his scrutiny, she turned pink. ‘No need to sound so surprised.’
‘It crossed my mind that you might try to score points by opting to wear something totally inappropriate,’ Roel admitted.
‘I wouldn’t be that childish.’ She cleared her throat. ‘I put the wedding ring back on…by the way.’
‘Why not? You worked hard enough for it,’ Roel derided with silken cool.
Her face flamed as though he had slapped her. ‘When you speak to me like that I hate you!’
Roel vented a jeering laugh. ‘It’s traditional for hatred to blossom between married couples in my family.’
‘Your mother fell for someone else. That didn’t mean she hated your father—’
‘Didn’t it? She was in love with that same man when she married my father. My father’s love turned to hate when he realised the truth.’
Hilary winced. ‘Why on earth did she marry him?’
‘Money,’ Roel said succinctly, tucking her into the limousine waiting outside the house. ‘My grandmother was equally rapacious but more moral. She gave my grandfather, Clemente, one child and then informed him that her duty was done. Although they remained below the same roof until her death, they never lived as man and wife again.’
‘It seems wrong that your mother married your father when she loved another man. But maybe there were pressures on her that you don’t know about or maybe she even believed that she was doing the right thing and would learn to love your father,’ Hilary contended, keen to encourage him to be less judgemental when it came to other people’s mistakes.
&
nbsp; ‘That possibility had never occurred to me,’ Roel said very drily. ‘Do you suppose that she gave birth to me in the hope that she might learn to love me too?’
Hilary blenched at the cutting note of ridicule in that suggestion. ‘I was only trying to say that there are two sides to any unhappy marriage and there might have been extenuating circumstances…I was trying to comfort you.’
‘But I don’t need comfort.’ Bold, bronzed face taut, Roel spoke with acid clarity. ‘I don’t even remember my mother. She died before I was four years old.’
‘How?’
Roel shrugged. ‘She drowned.’
‘I’m sorry you never had the chance to know her. Yes, I know you think I’m very sentimental,’ she conceded. ‘But if you only knew how much I would give to have my mother back to talk to for just five minutes…I would do just about anything for that chance—’
‘If you can’t persuade your heart to bleed in silence,’ Roel interrupted with icy derision, ‘I’ll attend the party on my own.’
‘I think that would be the best idea,’ Hilary retorted a little unevenly because her eyes were glimmering with tears and her throat was closing over. ‘I don’t think I want to spend one more second in the company of someone as unfeeling as you are!’
‘We’re almost at the airport. Calm down. You’re too emotional—’
‘Not an affliction likely to attack you, is it?’ Hilary slashed back at him shakily. ‘I’m not ashamed of my emotions.’
‘I am not asking you to be ashamed, merely to keep them in check,’ Roel decreed with immoveable cool.
But Hilary was finding it quite impossible to control the number of powerful emotions swilling about inside her. ‘I loved my parents very much and I still miss them terribly. They taught me to think the best of everybody and even though I soon learned that the world isn’t always that nice a place—’
‘Who taught you that lesson?’
‘My father’s cousin, Mandy. The minute she knew our parents were dead she went into action. She convinced Social Services that she was a fit and proper person to take responsibility for raising Emma. I was considered too young and I was terrified that my sister and I would be parted. Mandy moved us all into a big rented house…’ Hilary recalled painfully.
