Claiming His Convenient Fiancée

He bent his head and whispered in her ear, ‘But it’s turning you on.’

‘Everyone is staring,’ she hissed. Well, only the couple of people who’d ventured down the corridor, and they’d quickly gone again.

‘I don’t care.’

‘Well, I do.’ She pushed hard against his chest. If he kept kissing her like that she’d agree to anything he suggested and she refused to let him win so easily. ‘It’s past my bedtime.’

‘You want to go home to bed?’ He stepped back and looked wickedly at her.

‘Alone,’ she lied. ‘Yes.’

‘Then let’s get you there.’

CHAPTER SIX

OFFICIALLY, PARKES HOUSE had eight bedrooms, all of them with private bathrooms. Half were on the second floor, the remainder on the third.

‘Which room did you take?’ Alejandro asked as they climbed the stairs. ‘The one next to mine?’

‘Of course not.’ It had interested her to see that he’d claimed one of the smaller rooms as his, but maybe that was just because there was so much stuff shoved into all the others.

‘So you know which is mine.’ He grinned. ‘Did you go in and take a good look at my things?’

‘Naturally.’ She battled her blush and tried to act as if she wasn’t embarrassed. ‘The more one knows about one’s enemy, the better one is equipped to win the battle.’

‘Enemy?’ He laughed. ‘Bit extreme, don’t you think?’ He took hold of her hand. ‘Did you learn anything of use?’

She gently breathed out, trying to slow her pounding pulse. ‘You’re a show-off. As if you can read all those books at once.’ The pile beside his bed had almost exclusively been non-fiction, on a wide and eclectic range of subjects.

‘I like reading,’ he said. ‘You won’t find the diamonds, by the way. I keep them with me at all times. They’re too precious.’ He looked at her curiously as they walked along the corridor of the third floor. ‘So which room?’

Her heart still thudded too quickly. She had no idea how she was going to resist him. ‘My own.’

His eyes glinted. ‘And it’s not one of these?’ They’d passed all the doors now.

She shook her head.

‘Show me.’

‘Fine.’ She led him to the stairwell again and went first.

‘You were up in the attic? Servants’ quarters?’

‘Don’t go thinking I was some kind of Cinderella,’ she said gruffly. ‘In some ways I was very spoilt.’

‘Tell me something I don’t know,’ he drawled.

She glanced at him but he was smiling. At the top she went a few paces along the much narrower corridor, opened the door, flicked on the light switch and then stood back to let him go in first.

‘Oh...’ He muttered something under his breath.

‘What?’ She peeked around the doorway, stopping when she saw he’d halted only a few steps into the room.

He turned to face her. ‘It’s so light.’

She glanced at the white walls, white furnishings and the myriad small windows that gave the most glorious views to the skies. She couldn’t help smiling because he was right—the light was what made this room. Even at night, it had a brilliant quality. She couldn’t believe he’d not seen it before.

‘Have you not been up here at all?’ She was amazed as he shook his head. ‘You bought this house and everything in it without even taking a proper look?’

‘I liked the location, the convenience to work and the outlook.’ He shrugged. ‘Anything else I want I can add or rebuild later.’

Didn’t he see what was special about the place—its history, its quirks, its sense of home?

‘I liked the view up here. The light and the space.’ She tried to explain it to him as she walked past him. The angles of the ceiling were random because of the roofline. When she’d turned thirteen she’d had the room enlarged to become both her bedroom and her first sculpture studio. Her father hadn’t minded paying for the renovation and it had kept her occupied and away from the parade of women he was bringing home. She’d been unable to compete with those beauties who’d turned his attention from his children. She’d spent hours alone up here.

Alejandro was staring grimly at the narrow single bed in the corner with its plain white coverings. Then he turned those penetrating eyes on her. ‘Did you sneak boys up here to share this bed?’

‘Of course not. What kind of a question is that?’ She stuck her hands on her hips and shook her head at him. ‘You have such a one-track mind.’

He laughed at her reaction and her heart started its crazy trip-along pace again. ‘Oh, come on, all those times using that secret hidden key of yours?’ He folded his arms and leaned against the wall, looking utterly roguish.

‘Absolutely not.’

Sneaking a lover in was totally the sort of thing he’d have done. No doubt he’d been sowing his wild oats since he was a youth.

‘I was a good girl,’ she added when he kept staring at her with those dangerous eyes.

‘You amaze me,’ he said dryly. ‘Then why the need to sneak in and out if it wasn’t to go wild?’

‘I was exploring the art scene.’ And pushing boundaries to get her father’s attention. It hadn’t worked.

‘So you were the young muse for the Bohemian set?’ He waggled his brows at her.

‘Actually, my first boyfriend was three months younger than me. He was another art student when I was at university.’

‘Was it sublime?’

Of course it wasn’t. She turned her back on his low laughter.

‘Poor Catriona. And then there was the dastardly fiancé.’

She hated that he guessed her lack of experience so easily. ‘It’s not that easy for everyone, you know,’ she muttered grimly.

It was a disappointment. She would have liked to have been one of those free spirits who flitted from romance to romance and emerged unscathed, but it wasn’t to be. She was nothing like Alejandro. And she didn’t want to be with someone who she knew would let her down. Sure, she had his attention now—for whatever reason—but soon enough that attention would turn to someone else and she’d be left in the cold again.

His hands on her shoulders pulled, turning her to face him. ‘I’d make it sublime.’

His smile was bewitching, but it was something in his eyes that really had her spellbound.

‘You’re full of promises,’ she muttered gruffly, trying to settle her skipping pulse.

‘Ah, so you want proof.’

She didn’t know what she wanted a

ny more. But she knew this moment had been building since they’d first set eyes on each other. It was normal for him but so outside her realm of experience she didn’t know how to handle it.

‘Do you always get what you want?’ she asked, genuinely curious.

‘When I’ve decided I want something, I stop at nothing until I have it,’ he said, equally honest. Equally serious. ‘So, yes, I do.’

‘And right now you want me?’

He nodded.

‘And you’ll stop at nothing?’

He didn’t answer. A smile, slow and amused, spread over his face. He tugged her that little bit closer and bent his head to kiss her. And she didn’t say no. She didn’t step back. She just let him. She stood there and let him pull her into his hot embrace.

And she liked it.

She moaned as he moved her that bit closer, his kiss claiming her. Soft kisses again, teasing ones, tender and tormenting. She pressed closer, seeking more. His hand swept down her back, resting on her hip. It was no longer enough. None of this was enough.

Her legs were shaking. She couldn’t stand it any more. Literally couldn’t stand.

But she didn’t need to say anything. His arms had already tightened about her and somehow the bed was now at the back of her legs. With a smooth movement he eased her onto the narrow little mattress and then came down on top of her. She gasped, trembling at the sensation of finally having him there, so close to her.

He muttered something but she didn’t catch it because he’d resumed stroking, trailing those torturously slow fingertips across her waist and up to cup her breast. Her body ached. She longed to burst free of her clothes, even her skin. She was so hot. He looked into her eyes for a wordless moment. Passion had darkened his eyes even more and she just drowned in them. His skin was slightly flushed. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him look as gorgeous—or as dangerous. Every cell within her tightened in anticipation.