Page 4 of 2 Books in One Bundle

What? No? Absolutely not. Why prolong the agony? And anyway, surely he hadn’t seen offallhis guests. ‘I’d have thought you’d have other...commitments.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘Your...harem.’

His eyebrows shot up. ‘Mywhat?’

‘All those women you summoned to your side,’ she said crisply as she slipped her scarf off the hanger and looped it around her neck. ‘The ones who then draped themselves over you, fawning and simpering, as if desperate to tend to your every need. I’m surprised you weren’t sick after the number of truffles they fed you. But I must say, you did look very content with their company.’

‘You sound jealous.’

She was. Hugely. And hurt. Which was absurd. ‘Was that your intention?’

‘No.’

‘Well, I couldn’t be less jealous,’ she said with a casual shrug to prove it. ‘It was just a bit nauseating to have to witness something like that in this day and age, that’s all. You can sleep with whoever you choose. All of them at the same time if that’s what floats your boat. It’s none of my concern.’

‘Then why do I get the feeling it is?’

‘I have no idea. Why would I care what you do?’

‘Beats me,’ he drawled. ‘You’ve made it very clear you’re not interested in me, which I might not like but I do respect. I can see no reason at all why you would begrudge me seeking entertainment elsewhere.’

It was the thought of him doing exactly that, of showing some other woman the pleasure that should—and could—have been hers that made Mia snap. Without warning, the powerful mix of crushing disappointment, devastating hopelessness and the excoriating jealousy she’d just denied broke free, surging through her to steal her wits and her control.

‘I’ll tell you why,’ she said hotly, her feet propelling her across the thick pale grey carpet until she was a metre away from him, in his space, closer than she’d ever dared to get before. ‘I begrudge it because you could not be more wrong about me not being interested in you. I’ve wanted you formonths. Every time we’ve talked, every time we’ve messaged, whenever we’ve met up, all I’ve been able to think of is sex. With you. I’ve never been so attracted to anyone. I dream of your mouth. Of your hands on me and mine on you. I’ve taken more cold showers than I can count, not that they’ve worked.

‘And before you tell me that I could have had you at any time,’ she continued, unable to stop the roll she was on even if she’d wanted to, ‘I couldn’t. As you so astutely pointed out earlier this evening, I never let anything get in the way of business. There’s just too much at stake for me. I want the financial security that success brings and I have every intention of getting it. So I’ve had to remain focused and keep you—myclient—at arm’s length. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t wanted to get up close and personal with you every minute of every day.’

She took a step towards him so he could not miss how veryupsetshe was, even though his gaze was intent on her face already. ‘You have no idea how hard it’s been to resist you,’ she said heatedly. ‘How many times I’ve been on the verge of giving in. And then, when I was about to do exactly that, tonight, now, at two a.m., afterfour monthsof denial, which has been unbelievably tough to deal with, you decide to suddenlyabandonthe cat-and-mouse game you’ve been playing. You casually leave me high and dry and turn the spotlight elsewhere. It’s just. Not. Fair.’

Finally running out of steam, Mia stopped, breathing hard, her head throbbing. Zander was staring down at her, utterly still. His eyes were dark and his jaw was rigid and his expression was so unreadable she didn’t have a hope of working out what he might be thinking.

The silence thundered. The air between them crackled as if they’d whipped up their own little storm. For several long seconds neither of them moved.

But then, quite unexpectedly, he spun on his heel and stalked to the door, and she could have stamped her foot and screamed in frustration because was he really going to walk out? After everything she’d just confessed? What was wrong with him? Withher?

But he didn’t leave. He closed the door and turned the key and the air whooshed from Mia’s lungs. As he slowly wheeled round to retrace his steps, her heart gave a great crash against her ribs and then began to hammer.

He moved with the sleek languid stealth of a stalking panther. His heat-filled gaze locked onto hers like a laser and pinned her to the spot. Her mouth dried. The frustration and pique evaporated in a flash, and she realised with an electrifying thrill that ran the entire length of her body that he’d heard her. He’d taken on board everything she’d said and was shining his spotlight wholly on her and it was as glorious and exciting as she’d hoped.

‘You want me to play fair?’ he murmured thickly as he splayed his hands on her waist and backed her up against a wall, his voice so low and rough it vibrated in the marrow of her bones.

‘I do,’ she breathed, going willingly, giddily overwhelmed by his heat, his intoxicating scent, the sheer size and strength of him. ‘I really do.’

The smile he gave her was faint but the heat in his gaze was fierce. His grip on her was light but she felt it like a brand. Need clawed at her stomach. Reason fled. He lowered his head and she closed her eyes and the last thing she heard before his mouth claimed hers in a kiss that short-circuited her brain was a soft, gruff, ‘Then let’s play.’

For someone with a supposedly super-agile brain, it had taken Zander a shockingly long time to reconcile his cool, efficient caterer with the smouldering siren whose passionate words had rendered him speechless and destroyed his reason. Then he’d had to process her astonishing confession and his immediate and dramatic response to it, which had made a complete mockery of both his belief that he’d finally put her from his mind and his assumption that any substitute would do, and that had taken some effort too.

Once he’d emerged from his stupor and recovered a grain of sanity, however, he’d briefly toyed with the option of telling her she was too late, but what on earth would be the point of that when he was so hard he hurt? Instead, he’d decided to punish her for putting him through such agony and riddling him with doubt these last few months, by slowly driving her to the brink of oblivion and keeping her there until she was panting and sobbing and begging him for mercy.

But it had been so long and he still wanted her so much that the minute his mouth landed on hers the need for torture and revenge evaporated. All hope of steely control and cool finesse vanished. The kiss that Mia instantly returned with wild abandon ignited a fire in the pit of his stomach that shot flames along his veins, and when she moaned low in her throat and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist his restraint snapped.

Pressing her to the wall with his hips, Zander thrust his hands in her hair and angled her head to deepen the kiss. Desire pounded through him. Her scent addled what remained of his brain. How many times had he contemplated the plump softness of her lips? The smooth silk of her hair? The satiny texture of her skin? The reality easily surpassed anything he’d imagined.

When she pushed her hands beneath his shirt and planted them on his back, waves of heat radiated into every cell of his body. His muscles jumped and his skin sizzled, and though he’d thought he was as hard as he could be, she whimpered and writhed against him and proved him wrong.

Deeply relieved that he wasn’t losing his touch, that she hadn’t seen something in him that she didn’t like but simply possessed an abundance of drive and ambition and a stubborn streak that rivalled his, needing to get closer, Zander broke off the kiss, breathing hard, and put just enough space between them to be able to untie the belt of her coat.

---