“I like the dress,” he said, studying the fabric as it molded around her curves. It was a very nice dress. Green, to match her eyes, and one from a designer to please His Majesty.
“Thank you, I like it, too.”
His gaze raked her so intimately she felt stripped to her skin. There was a silence. Her heart pounded once. Twice. Three times. Virginia couldn’t take a fourth.
“Name your favor,” she offered.
Eyes locked with hers with unsettling intensity, he wound around the table, and his scent enveloped her—not of cologne and definitely not sweet—but so intoxicating she wanted to inhale until her lungs burst inside her chest.
Gently, he seized her chin between his thumb and forefinger, tipping his face back to hers. An unnamable darkness eclipsed his eyes, and an unprecedented huskiness crept into his voice. “Just say, ‘Yes, Marcos.’”
Her breath caught. His voice was so ridiculously sexy in the morning. Virginia pulled free of his touch and laughed. “You,” she accused, tingles dancing across her skin. “I don’t even know what I’m agreeing to.”
His arms went around her, slow as a boa constrictor, securing her like giant manacles. “Can’t you guess?”
Something exploded inside her body, and it wasn’t fear.
Lust. Desire. Everything she didn’t want to feel.
His breath was hot and fragrant on her face, eliciting a little moan she couldn’t contain. Oh, God. He felt so hard all over, so unlike any other man she’d known.
His voice was gentle as he tipped her chin up. “Yes to my bed for a week, Virginia. Say yes.”
Was he insane? “Wow,” she said, almost choking on her shock. “I’ve never had such a blatant come-on.”
The determination on his face was anything but apologetic. “I don’t want to play games with you.” He studied her forehead, her nose, her jaw. “I intend to please you. I’ve thought of nothing else. Tell me,” he urged, caressing her face as he would a porcelain sculpture. “Are you interested?”
Interested? She was on fire, she was frightened, confused and scared, and she hated thinking, realizing that she was no match for him.
She should’ve known that if Marcos ever made a move for her, he’d come on like he always did—strong, like a stampeding bull charging to get his way. Her breasts rose and fell against his chest as she labored to breathe. Her legs were so weak they couldn’t support her, and she remained standing only by her deathly grip on his arms. “One week?”
“Seven days. Seven nights. Of pleasure beyond your imagining.”
“A-and what if I can’t give you this pleasure you want?”
“I will take any pleasure you can give me, Virginia. And you will take mine.”
There was no mistaking. His deep, sexy voice was the most erotic thing she’d ever heard. “A-and if I say I’m not interested?”
He chuckled softly—the sound throaty, arrogant, male—melting her defenses. “If that is what you wish.” His gaze pierced her, as though searching for secrets, fears. “You haven’t wondered about us?” He lowered his head and skimmed her lips lightly, enough to tease and make her shiver when he retracted. “You unlocked your door last night, and I was so close to opening it, you have no idea.”
“Oh, God,” she breathed.
His lips grazed hers from end to end. “You wanted me there, you wanted me in your room, your bed.”
“I—I can’t do this.”
His hands lowered to the small of her back and pressed her to his warm, solid length. “You can. Your body speaks to me. It feels soft against mine, it molds to me. Say it in words.”
There was no escaping his powerful stare, no escape from what raged inside her. “I can’t, Marcos.”
Growling, he jerked free and for a blinding second she thought he was going to charge out of the room, he seemed so frustrated. Instead he carried himself—six feet three inches of testosterone and lust and anger—to the window and leaned on the frame. “The first moment I set eyes on you, you planted yourself in my mind. I’m going insane because once, Virginia, once I was sure you were crazy about me. So crazy. You can’t help the way you look at me, amor. Perhaps others don’t notice, but I do. Why do you fight me?”
Her eyes flicked up to his and she was certain her anxiety reached out to him like something tangible. His muscles went taut. “Do I get an answer?” he demanded.
She smiled, shaking her head in disbelief. “You’re proposing we mix business and pleasure.”
He wanted her desperately, she realized. Like she’d never been wanted before. And she might enjoy allowing herself to be wanted like this.