Tariq felt a brief moment of triumph as he saw her eyes darken. So she was not completely immune to him—despite the way she’d been behaving all week. His mouth hardened with grudging respect—for Izzy had shown herself to be made of sterner stuff than he would have thought. Since they’d been back in the office she had treated him with exactly the same blend of roguish yet respectful attitude as she’d done all through their professional relationship. As if his being moments away from penetrating her body had left her completely cold. So was that true? Or was it all some kind of act?
He let his eyes drift over her, wondering if she had decided to showcase the dullest items in her wardrobe. Maybe he’d seen that skirt before—and her pale sweater certainly wasn’t new—but she looked dowdier than he could ever remember. Was that deliberate? Or was it because now he knew more about her he was looking at her more closely? Comparing how she looked now to how she’d looked when she had been writhing around beneath him? And he couldn’t rid himself of the unsettling knowledge of the magnificent rose-tipped and creamy breasts which lay beneath her insipid armour.
‘Yes, it’s a formal event,’ he drawled. ‘And, to be truthful, I don’t feel like going.’
‘But you have to go, Tariq.’
‘Have to?’ He raised his brows. ‘Is that an order?’
‘No, of course it isn’t.’
He began to walk towards her, noticing the tip of her tongue as it snaked out to moisten her lips ‘Why do I have to?’ he queried softly.
‘Well, your two countries are neighbours, and you’ve just signed that big trade agreement, and it will look very b-bad if … if …’
He heard her stumbled words with a triumphant kick of pleasure. ‘If what?’
Isobel swallowed. What was going on? What was he doing? The gap between them was closing, and instinct made her step backwards—away from his inexorable path towards her. But there was no escaping him despite the massive dimensions of his office. Nowhere to go until she reached a wall and felt its smooth, cool surface at her back. She stared up at him with widened eyes. Wasn’t he breaking the agreement they’d made?
‘T-Tariq! What do you think you’re doing?’
Pushing one hand against the wall right beside her head, he leaned forward and looked deep into her tawny eyes. ‘I’m wondering why you’re trying to give me lessons in protocol I neither want nor need. But mostly I’m wondering whether you’re feeling as frustrated as I am.’
Perhaps if he’d put it any other way than that Isobel might have given his question some consideration—or allowed her feelings to sway her. Because hadn’t she been teetering on a knife-edge of wanting him and yet terrified of letting him know that? Hadn’t it been as much as she could do each morning not to gaze wistfully at the sensual curve of his cynical lips? Not to wish that they were subjecting her to another of those hard and passionate kisses?
But his question had been more mechanical than emotional. No woman wanted to feel like an itch which a man needed to scratch, did she? And hadn’t she told herself over and over again that no matter how much she wanted him no good would come of any kind of liaison? She knew about his track record with women. And only someone who was completely insane would lay herself open to an inevitable hurt like that.
‘We aren’t supposed to be discussing this,’ she said flatly.
‘Aren’t we? Says who?’
‘Said you! And me! That’s what we agreed on back at the cottage. We agreed that it was a mistake. We’re supposed to be carrying on as normal and forgetting it ever happened.’
‘Maybe we are. But the trouble is …’ And now he leaned in a little further towards her, so that he could feel the warm fan of her rapid breathing. ‘The trouble is that I’m finding it difficult to forget it ever happened. In fact, it’s proving impossible. I keep thinking about how it felt to have you in my arms. About how wild your hair looks when you let it down. I keep remembering what it was like to kiss you, and how your breasts felt when I was touching them.’
‘Tariq,’ she whispered, as his words made her body spring into instant life and her mouth dried as she stared into his darkening eyes. ‘You were the one who stopped it. Remember?’
‘And I did that because you’re a virgin!’ he said, letting his hand fall by his side. ‘I decided I had no right to take your innocence from you. That you deserved a man who would cherish you more than I could ever do.’
‘Well, that much hasn’t changed. I haven’t rushed out and leapt into bed with someone else in the meantime. I’m still a virgin, Tariq.’
‘I realise that.’ Their gazes clashed as he fought to do the decent thing. ‘And I still don’t think it’s the right thing to do.’
She bit her lip. Was he playing games with her? ‘So why are we even having this conversation?’
For a moment he clenched his fists savagely by his thighs, telling himself that he had no right to take an innocence which would be better given to another man. A man who would love her and cherish her. Who was capable of giving her the things that every woman wanted.
But the soft, sweet tremble of her lips defeated his best intentions, and a ragged sigh shuddered from between his lips. ‘Because I’m finding resisting you harder than I anticipated.’
She stared into the heated gleam of his black eyes as a blend of frustration and emotion began to bubble up inside her and that sweet, terrible aching started all over again. ‘And what about what I think?’ she questioned quietly. ‘What if I’m finding resisting you harder than I thought?’
Once again he fought with his conscience, but this time it was even more difficult because he realised that Izzy was enchantingly unique. An innocent who was up-front about her needs. A woman who wasn’t playing coy games. The fists at his sides relaxed, and he lifted his hand and began to trace a light line around the butterfly tremble of her lips.
‘You know I can’t offer you anything in the way of commitment? That nothing long-term is going to come out of this? Three weeks is about my limit with any woman—you know that better than anyone, Izzy.’
She heard the stark warning in his words, but she wanted him too much to pay them any attention. And she was wise enough not to question him about why he was so adamant about short-term relationships. Maybe she’d ask him another time … just not now. Now she was fighting for something she wasn’t prepared to give up on.
‘You think that all virgins expect marriage from the first man they sleep with? Er, hello—and welcome to the twenty-first century! Aren’t I allowed to do something just because I want to—the way you always seem to do? Just for the hell of it?’