Ravensdale's Defiant Captive

He was nothing but a game to her.

Another bonus of being called away to work was that the press had stayed away from his villa. He had been intercepted at the airport and issued his usual ‘no comment’ response to the media. The last thing he wanted was the press sniffing around his home and finding a young woman in residence, especially as he didn’t trust Holly to behave herself. He’d left strict instructions with Sophia on monitoring Holly’s movements and making sure she didn’t speak to anyone if they should turn up at the villa. No one had, which gave him some measure of comfort, but how long before someone did?

Julius parked in the garage and walked into the villa as quietly as he could so as not to disturb anyone. It was two in the morning so he hoped his little house guest was tucked away safely in bed.

She wasn’t.

Holly came out of the kitchen as he came in the back door. She was wearing one of the outfits he’d bought her. The cashmere separates looked far slinkier on her than it had in the online catalogue. But then she would make a bin liner look like a designer gown, he thought. The fabric draped her slim curves like the skin of an evening glove.

‘How was your trip?’ she asked.

Julius wasn’t in the mood for trite conversation. Not with her looking good enough to eat and swallow whole. How did she manage to stir him up so easily? ‘Tiring.’

She moved towards him with catlike grace. ‘Fancy a snack?’

‘What’s on the menu?’ Bad choice of words.

Her eyes glinted. ‘What do you fancy?’

He tried not to look at her mouth but a force far more powerful than his resolve pulled his gaze to its lush ripeness. ‘What’s on offer?’ What was it with him and the double entendres? He was acting like Jake, for God’s sake.

‘Whatever you want,’ she said. ‘Your wish is my command.’

‘I thought you didn’t take too kindly to commands?’

She tiptoed her fingers along the corded muscles of his arm. ‘Maybe I’ll make an exception tonight.’

He suppressed a shiver as her fingers lit every nerve under his skin with red-hot fire. Need pulsed in his groin. Lust growled, roared. ‘Why?’

‘Because I’ve missed you.’

Julius barked out a laugh and gently pushed her arm away as he moved past. ‘Go to bed.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me you were going away?’

He turned back to look at her. ‘You’re answerable to me. Not me to you. Or has that somehow slipped your attention?’

Her caramel-brown eyes ran over him like a lick of flame. ‘Were you with a lover?’

He gritted his teeth until his jaw ground together like two tectonic plates. ‘No. I was working. Remember that word you seem to have so much difficulty with?’

She leaned one shoulder against the door jamb. ‘I’ve been working. Go ask Sophia.’

‘I will, but not at this time in the morning.’

Her eyes did another scan of his body, her chin coming to rest at a haughty height. ‘I even cleaned your room.’

Julius didn’t like the thought of her in his room. Actually, he liked the thought way too much. His mind filled with images of her laid out on his bed, her gorgeous, luscious body as hungry for him as he was for her. His flesh crawled with lust. It was like a fever in his blood. Raging. Taking him. Taking over his control like a shot of a powerful drug. ‘I’d prefer it if you’d stay out of there.’

‘Why?’ she said. ‘You let Sophia change your bed. Why shouldn’t I?’

Because I want you in it, not changing it, he thought with a savage wave of self-disgust. ‘I trust you left everything as you found it?’ he said.

Her brows drew together. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘I seem to recall your rap sheet includes theft.’

‘So?’

‘So I want you to keep your hands clean.’

Her top lip curved up on one side. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘You have nothing I want.’

‘Only my body.’

A dark, triumphant glint shone in her gaze. ‘Not as much as you want mine.’

‘You think?’

‘I know.’

Julius wanted to prove he could resist her. He needed to prove it, if not to her then to himself. He reached for her, encircling her wrists with his fingers. Holding her. Securing her. Her eyes widened but not in fear. He could read her signals as easily as she read his. Mutual desire ran between them like the shock of an electric current. He could feel it through her flesh where it was in contact with his. He looked at her mouth and watched as she ran the tip of her tongue over her lips, leaving a glistening sheen.