And then he’d met Rae and their attraction, their chemistry, had been instantaneous. Overwhelming. Even despite the handful of women with whom he’d been in relationships over the years since then, none of them had equalled the same intense heat he felt with Rae.
Not that he was about to tell her that now. He could already feel that familiar desire stoking up his senses. But he was here under her half-brother’s employ to look out for her. He wasn’t here to revisit old temptations.
‘And you think I’ll buy into all this?’ He let out a bitter laugh.
Anything to cover the fact that he pretty much already had.
‘I know how it sounds, but it’s true. I swear it.’ She stepped towards him, her hands reaching out instinctively to lie flat on his chest before she caught herself, no doubt expecting him to back away.
He probably should.
He didn’t.
And when she tentatively made contact, it was like throwing a match on a pile of dry, petrol-doused leaves. His whole body ignited in an instant. He remembered everything with startling vividness. Her scent, her taste, the way she’d come apart so perfectly with him. He wanted to make her lose herself all over again. To take back every lie that had slipped from her lips. To make her admit she was as hungry for him as he was for her.
He wanted to bury himself inside her, so deep that neither of them would know where one ended and the other began, and he wanted to make her climax all around him. His name the only thing in her head.
But he couldn’t do any of that. He couldn’t allow himself such a weakness. And it was all he could do not to let her see his reaction.
‘What about the not living up to expectations?’ he growled, trying to remind himself as much as remind her.
She flushed, a deep, scarlet stain spreading over her skin.
‘I was embarrassed, Myles. You’d just made me...you know...’
‘Orgasm?’ he supplied.
If it was possible she flushed an even richer hue. It didn’t help his self-control one bit.
‘From just a touch,’ she muttered.
Awareness rippled through him. He shut it down.
‘Which you’re now telling me was the only time you’ve been intimate with a man since you made that vile tape?’ he stated flatly, belying the uproar in his head. His chest.
She jerked her head up and down.
‘Really? Raevenne Rawlstone, the woman who changes her man along with her always up-to-date seasonal wardrobe.’
Sarcasm was etched into every syllable of the well-bandied media quote.
Rae stared at him for a moment, her eyes dulling.
‘You don’t believe me.’
He wanted to believe her. With an urgent, primal drive he’d only ever felt with this one woman; with a voice that roared that she was his. That she’d always been his.
Ever since he’d made her come apart in his arms barely a week ago. Even then hadn’t he wondered at her sweetness, her naivety, her lack of experience? Right up until the moment she’d pulled her ‘is that it?’ charade and it had been easier to despise her for that than to consider she might have been saving herself all these years? For him?
‘You surely can’t believe for a second that I’ll buy into this prim act of yours?’ he bit out icily, hating himself for the less than proper thoughts racing through his body.
Taking up residence in his sex as surely as if she’d skimmed her hand over him.
‘Why not? Because you know me so well?’ Her boldness was a delicious challenge. ‘Are you really so entrenched that you can’t begin to even consider that there might be some truth in what I’m saying? Or is there a part of you that can’t allow yourself to believe me because then you might have to finally acknowledge that we’re attracted to each other? Still.’
‘This conversation is pointless, Rae,’ he warned, but she ignored him.
‘Just as we were attracted to each other over a decade ago. Only back then I was gullible enough to believe you when you said you didn’t want me. This time, I think we both know the truth.’