Big mistake.
As he’d felt the soft curves of her body press against his, all his plans for vengeance were forgotten against the ruthless clamor of his body. For ten years, he’d desired this woman; and now she was half-naked in his arms, willing to surrender everything.
Suddenly, it all came down to two simple facts.
She’d sold herself.
He’d bought her.
So why not take her? Why not enjoy her sensual body as a way to finally excise her memory, once and for all?
She’d lied her way through the evening, pretending it was a romantic date, instead of a commercial transaction. He’d almost been surprised.
Until now.
Naked beneath him, Letty looked up, her eyes luminous in that lovely face he’d never been able to forget.
“Say something,” she said anxiously.
Darius set his jaw. After her heartless betrayal, followed by ten years of silence, she’d just told him out of the blue she loved him. What could he say in response? Go to hell?
Letitia Spencer. So beautiful. So treacherous. So poisonous.
But now, at last, he understood her goal. She wasn’t just playing for
a hundred thousand dollars tonight. No. Tonight was just the sample that was supposed to leave him wanting more.
Because he’d seen her face as she left that diner. She was tired. Tired of working. Tired of being poor. Perhaps her father, newly free from prison, had been the one to suggest how to easily change her life—by becoming Darius’s wife.
She must have seen his company’s sale trumpeted in the newspaper today and decided it was time she made a play for his billions. He almost couldn’t blame her. She’d been holding on to her virginity all these years—why not cash in?
She loved him.
Cold, sardonic anger pulsed through him.
She thought he’d learned nothing all these years. She actually thought, if she told him she loved him, he would still swoon at her feet. That he was still the lovesick idiot of long ago.
If Darius had despised her before, it was nothing compared to how he felt about her now.
And yet, he still desired her. Holding himself motionless inside her hot, tight sheath, he was still so hard, he was close to exploding.
That fact enraged him even more.
He wanted to make her pay. Not just for this last insult, but for everything that had gone before. Suddenly, causing her one night of humiliation wasn’t nearly enough.
Darius wanted vengeance.
He wanted to raise her up, give her hope, then bring it crashing down as she’d once done. Fantastical plans coursed through his skull. He wanted to marry her, fill her with his child. He wanted to make her love him, then coldly spurn her. He wanted to take everything, and leave her penniless and alone.
That wouldn’t be revenge. It would be justice.
“Darius?” A shadow of worry had crossed her face as she looked up at him, naked on the bed.
Lowering his head, he kissed her almost tenderly. She trembled in his arms, her plump breasts crushed against his naked chest, her amazing hips spread wide for him. Seeing her stretched out on his bed, with the play of shadows and light on the sexy curves of her tantalizing breasts, stretched the limits of his self-control.
“I’m sorry I hurt you, agape mou,” he said in a low voice. Lie. His lips brushed the sensitive flesh of her cheek. As lightly as a butterfly setting down, he kissed the two tears that had overflowed her lashes. “But the pain won’t last.” Another lie. He would make sure it lasted the rest of her life. He smiled grimly. “Just wait.”
She looked up at him, the picture of wide-eyed innocence. Then sighed, relaxing in surrender.