Infuriated, she muttered, 'Stop playing on words—I'm in no mood for your games!'
'Oh, but I'm having so much fun. Don't you like playing games, Zoe?' His tone was soft, seductive, disturbing. She refused to let it get to her.
'No, I do not! And stop changing the subject.'
'I wasn't Isn't that what we're talking about?'
'We're talking about what you did after I fell asleep!'
'As I just told Mark, what else could I do but carry you up to bed?'
'You didn't tell him you took my clothes off!' she hissed.
He smiled beatifically, his gaze wandering down over every inch other with what she was afraid was enjoyable nostalgia. 'I hadn't forgotten, believe me.'
That was what she was afraid of.
'You didn't mention that, either, I noticed,' he observed, still watching her closely.
She didn't answer, her lips tight.
'Embarrassed about it?' he enquired. 'I'd never have expected you to be bothered by a man taking your clothes off.'
'You…you…h-had no right!' she stammered, almost incoherent with rage.
'Well,' he said in a pretence of reasonableness, 'I couldn't let you sleep in your clothes, could I?'
She swallowed before asking icily, 'And…and then… what?'
Face as calm as a glass of milk, he enquired, 'How do you mean?'
Her eyes hated him. 'You know what I mean. After you took off my clothes…'
'You must have been having a lovely dream,' he purred, sensuality in those dark eyes.
'Dream?' She had had a dream—but how could he have known that? Unless…unless it hadn't been a dream, and she really had felt those stroking, coaxing hands on her. If only she knew for certain! she thought in confusion. It was not knowing that was the problem.
He watched her betraying face like a cat at a mouse-hole. 'You look as if you're remembering now.'
Skin hot enough to burst into flames, she snarled, 'Stop insinuating and tell me! What did you do after you'd taken my clothes off?'
He leaned down towards her, his powerful body a mixture of intimacy and what she perceived as threat. Keeping her chin lifted, her eyes defied him.
'What did you dream I did?' he whispered, and the hairs on the back of her neck prickled.
'What makes you think you show up in my dreams?'
He put out a long finger and she stiffened as his cool skin stroked her cheek, trickled slowly down to her throat That was what it had felt like in her dream, those strong, desiring hands touching her. Her stomach seemed to drop out of her.
'If I don't now, I will, Zoe,' he murmured, and she angrily knocked his hand away.
'Don't touch me.'
'I already have. And I will again,' he promised softly, and her mouth went dry.
'Oh, no, you won't!' she threw back, and was furious with herself because her voice shook.
He came a couple of steps closer 'Oh, yes, I will, Zoe.'