Bought: One Bride

“Good,” he said, then abruptly closed the short distance between their mouths.

She sucked in sharply, but didn’t pull back, letting his lips move over hers without protest. But without obvious pleasure as well.

His head lifted to find her staring at him with eyes like saucers.

“Don’t you know how beautiful you are?” he said. “And how much I want you?”

She blinked and said nothing. She seemed frozen.

His hand stroked her cheek, then moved along her stiffly held jaw, drifting downwards to find the pulse that was throbbing wildly at the base of her throat.

Not frozen there, Richard realised, and kissed her again, this time slipping his tongue between her still-parted lips.

She came to life with a low moan, showing him with her own tongue that she liked that kind of kissing.

A raw triumph claimed Richard when she tipped her head back for him to kiss her even more deeply. He knew then that Dave was history.

It proved difficult to wrench his mouth away from hers. Clearly, she didn’t want him to stop. On his part, his long-denied body was screaming at him to continue, to carry her inside the shop and ravage her on that work table.

But Richard wasn’t going to risk ruining his long-term plans for any short-term pleasure. Holly was a woman. When sanity returned afterwards, she would remember that he’d promised to keep his hands off tonight. She might not be overly impressed.

He could wait one more week before satisfying his carnal urges. It wouldn’t kill him.

Besides, he didn’t really want a quickie. He wanted her in his bed at the penthouse for hours and hours.

“I’m sorry,” he said swiftly. “I know I promised not to do that. I lost control for a moment,” he added, which was almost true.

“It’s all right,” she said. “I…I didn’t mind. Truly.”

He stared hard at her. “Are you sure?”

She nodded, her eyes still dilated, her face flushed.

“Then you’ll go out with me again?”

“Yes, of course,” she said, her voice low and husky.

He touched her cheek again whilst he stared down at her mouth.

What wonderfully lush lips she had. He craved to have them all over him.

“I’d really like to take you somewhere tomorrow,” he said, “but I have to go to Melvin’s for the day. Then this coming week I’ll be away, interstate, on business.” Not a total lie. He did have to fly to Melbourne on the Monday for a few days. But he could easily have taken her out on the Thursday night. “Friday, I’m driving Mum and Melvin to the airport.”

No. Richard wanted her to wait. Waiting would make her more susceptible to his desires, and her own. She might not be a woman of the world, but she was a healthy twenty-six-year-old girl who, till recently, had had a boyfriend. She was used to being made love to on a regular basis. It was obvious from the avid way she’d responded to his kiss that she was attracted to him.

“A friend of mine is having a party next Saturday night,” he told her, his hand finally dropping away from her face. “You might have heard of him. Reece Diamond, the property developer?”

“No, no, I haven’t,” she said, confirming his earlier opinion that she’d led a rather insular life.

“It doesn’t matter. You’ll like him. Everyone does. And his wife, too. Her name is Alanna and she’s a doll. Anyway, it’s a house-warming party. Not of the casual kind, however. It’ll be black tie. Reece doesn’t know how to throw any other kind. He likes dressing up because he knows how good he looks in a tux. You’ll need to wear something on the glamorous side if you don’t want to feel under-dressed. Alanna usually goes for broke on these occasions.”

Holly’s eyes showed worry.

“If you don’t have a suitable dress to wear,” he said, “I’ll buy you one.”

“You certainly will not!” she said quite indignantly. “I can afford my own dress.”

“Fine.” Again, Richard was pleased. No fortune hunter here. Not like that piece he’d taken out on Friday night. He’d practically been able to see the dollar signs clicking away in her eyes.

“That’s all settled, then,” he said. “I’ll walk you to the door.” Which he did, resisting the temptation to kiss her again. Enough was enough. He wasn’t a saint.

“I’ll call you,” he promised. “Tomorrow…”

And then he left her, without looking back. But he could feel her gaze on him all the way to the car. Once behind the wheel, he shot her one last glance through the passenger window.

She was still standing there at the door, looking forlorn.