Page 58 of 2 Books in One Bundle

He didn’t give it.

Isla made a frustrated sound, because that wasn’t fair. All she wanted was another taste; that wasn’t so much to ask for was it? She traced his bottom lip with her tongue and then nipped it. She wasn’t experienced, and she’d certainly never had this kind of kiss with Gianni, but then, she’d never wanted to. She’d never been as desperate to taste him as she was to taste Orion.

She wasn’t expecting it when he opened his mouth slightly, turning the kiss just as hot as it had been before. Yet this time there was a wild element to it. Something raw and burning. It was thrilling and scary, and she wanted to—

Orion pulled back abruptly and she was left clutching empty air.

‘Well,’ he murmured, his eyes gone a brilliant, lambent gold. ‘Aren’t you full of surprises?’

She let go of his tie, her hands shaking, her heart beating far too fast and far too loud.

That was a mistake.

Very much so. She’d almost lost herself that time and she couldn’t do that. She knew what happened when she let her hunger for what she wanted overcome her control. She ended up losing everything.

She straightened, not letting even a hint of how he’d affected her show. ‘Don’t get ahead of yourself, Mr North. I only wanted you to know that I can also take what I want, when I want it.’

He smiled, predatory and dangerous and everything in her tightened. ‘You didn’t love him at all, did you?’

A hot flush of shame washed through her, but not for Gianni’s sake. They both knew she didn’t love him. No, the shame she felt was for her father and the plans he’d made for her. The plans she’d agreed on that now lay in ruins, and all because of her.

But there hadn’t been another choice. Orion hadn’t given her one.

Or perhaps there was and you just didn’t see it?

She ignored that thought and since there was nothing else she could say to that, she turned her back on him and returned to her seat.

Orion tried to work, tried to put the puzzle of his new wife out of his head, but try as he might, he couldn’t.

It was a first not to be able to stop thinking of a woman. Normally, he had no trouble whatsoever. His lovers never impinged on his day-to-day life because he made sure that they didn’t. He paid attention to them when he was with them, but when he wasn’t, it was out of sight, out of mind.

He didn’t want anyone to be important to him, because once someone became important, that’s when they had power over you. That’s what had happened with Cleo and their baby, and he’d never do it again. Not after that baby was taken from him.

His son. Luke.

Luke would be twenty now and what he was doing, God only knew. Orion didn’t and neither did he want to, not after the decision he’d made years earlier. He’d been twenty-six and had already made the first major deal of his career, and finally he’d had the money and the power to take his son back from those who’d kept him.

He’d hired the best lawyers and filled a car full of toys, and he’d arrived at Cleo’s chic little Chelsea townhouse. She’d married a tech company CEO and was now living in the manner to which she’d become very much accustomed.

It had been Luke’s tenth birthday and a party was being held, with lots of people going in and out. He’d told the lawyer to wait in the car and he’d gone in alone. He’d wanted to confront Cleo personally, tell her he wasn’t sixteen any longer, that he had money now, and if she wouldn’t give him his son back, Orion would take him.

But he’d come through the light, airy hallway and out into the back garden, and into the cheerful chaos of a kid’s birthday party in full swing. Luke was standing at a picnic table, a huge cake in the shape of some superhero or other on the top of it and everyone was singing ‘Happy Birthday’. Then he bent to blow out the candles and they all cheered. Cleo’s husband leaned down to say something to him and Luke laughed. Cleo’s hand was on Luke’s shoulder and in amongst the happy kids, he saw Cleo’s father also smiling.

God, how he’d hated Cleo’s father.

But all that really mattered was Luke, and his son was also smiling. His son was laughing. His son was happy. His son had everything Orion had never had himself and yet had always wanted to give him.

Orion had stood for a moment in the hallway, watching as the boy he hadn’t seen since he was a baby, and only in photos since, turned ten years old. Surrounded by his family and his friends. And Orion had known there and then that he couldn’t do it.

He couldn’t rip his child away from the only home the boy had ever known, to go and live with the father he’d never met. The father he didn’t even know he had, since Cleo had made it very clear that it would be better for Luke if he didn’t know of Orion’s existence.

Orion couldn’t take Luke away from his family and his friends. His mother and his grandparents. The people who’d brought him up, just because he was Orion’s son and Orion wanted him.

It wasn’t right and he couldn’t do it.

So he’d turned around and walked out of that house, and he’d never gone back.

His heart had been ripped out of his chest the day Cleo’s father had told him he wasn’t to have any contact with Cleo or Luke ever again, and yet some piece of it had still remained inside him.

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