‘Dinner.’ He laughed and his muscles flexed in the most distracting fashion. ‘I’ll get the toys tomorrow now I know you want them.’
‘Oh, so I actually get dinner?’ she asked tartly. ‘But it’s takeaway. Disposable. Not the five-star restaurants any more.’
His smile was evil. ‘I know what you want more.’
Her skin burned as she watched him strip. His muscles rippled; his body was hard and magnetic.
Two could play at that game.
‘And I know what you want.’ She lifted her top and whisked it off her head. She wore no bra—her nipples were too sensitive for lace today.
He retaliated by toeing off his shoes, then socks and finally kicking off his trousers and boxers in the one movement. Kitty’s mouth dried as she drank in the response of his body; her hands shook as she peeled her jeans and panties off. Naked, trembling, she stared at him from across the room in a wordless but passionate duel.
‘Come here,’ he breathed his command.
Internally she battled—her pride, her need to deny him when he always got it all, versus her own desire for him.
No false declarations or meaningless promises.
This was what it was. The dam had burst and there was no containing it now until the lust had been drained. She needed it to be drained.
She stepped towards him until she was close enough for him to grasp her waist and slam her against him in that last step. She arched her neck, granting him full access even as she stared hard into his eyes and challenged him. ‘Do you insist on such total surrender from all your women, the way you demand it from me?’
‘No.’ Despite gritting his teeth, Alejandro couldn’t hold back his honest reply. ‘There’s just something about you that really ticks me off.’
Something that lit him up. Something he couldn’t get enough of. Her, like this, naked and hot and welcoming him. Stripped back to the essentials, this was sexual hunger, unstoppable and fantastic. The sooner it was sated the better and it was killing him trying to hold back from thrusting hard and claiming her with no foreplay whatsoever.
He didn’t understand why she needed to fight him, but he knew she couldn’t help it. Something about him got to her. It was the same for him. He relished sparring with her, anticipated her arguments and ached for the moment she surrendered and welcomed him into her hot, wet body.
‘So you want me to submit?’ she asked.
And she did that now. Stepping back, she fell backwards onto the big bed, her arms and legs spread-eagled, positioning herself like an offering for him, except her eyes were alight with that challenge. She wasn’t giving in to him without extracting something in return.
‘Is this what you wanted?’ she taunted.
He couldn’t get the condom on fast enough. ‘This is your fantasy and you know it.’ He breathed hard, daring her to deny it but needing to hear something else. Something true. ‘You like it when I pin you down and kiss every inch of you.’
He’d known from the second he’d seen her that it would be like this—their physical attraction was combustible. He caressed her until he heard her gasp. Slow. So Slow. Until, hot and wet, she sobbed for her release. Never had pleasuring a woman been so pleasurable for him.
‘Yes,’ she screamed. ‘Oh, yes!’
He rose in a fury, fired by her raw admission.
‘You’re obsessed,’ she murmured as she spread her legs wider so he could take his place where she wanted him.
‘Possibly.’
The words were a warning in his ear. Was this unnatural? Was this constant ache going too far? But he couldn’t stop now. With a harsh groan, he buried himself deep inside her, growling at the exquisite torment of her tight silken body. He held fast for a moment, just to prove to himself that he could.
‘Please,’ she whispered beneath him, her arms holding him tight and close. ‘Please.’
And there it was. He couldn’t resist that request, couldn’t deny her or himself. So, in turn, he too surrendered, driving hard, driving home.
Strong yet soft, she met him thrust for thrust. ‘Alejandro.’
* * *
He lay as limp and useless as a rag but despite his exhaustion he couldn’t join her in sleep. She was the most sexually compatible lover he’d had. Not that he’d had as many as she seemed to think. It wasn’t as if he spent every night with a new woman. Sex was merely a relaxation strategy to combat work hours and stress.
But this was different. This driving resurgence of desire only moments after completion? He felt inhumanly strong and the voracious hunger drove him on. It couldn’t last, right? Usually a few days was enough with one woman before he eased off...but he wanted Kitty more than ever. He wanted so much more.
Any kind of obsession was unhealthy, but at least his obsession with work resulted in a productive, safe, outcome. To be obsessed by a woman? That wasn’t safe.
And he was obsessed. He was addicted. Not just to sex with her, but to the way she stood up to him, the way she made him laugh, the way she made him feel alive. And he wondered about the wistful expression on her face as she packed up her family’s history from this house, but at the same time he knew the connection she felt to this place was something he could never understand, no matter how hard he tried.
And he did demand her surrender. He was obsessed with that.
God, his brain was addled. Never before had he sat at his desk and discovered he’d lost five minutes in a dream-like state, just thinking about a woman. He didn’t want to think about anyone like that. He didn’t want to lose control of himself in that way. He’d seen what happened when someone became obsessive. Became possessive.
Someone very much like him.
He couldn’t let it happen now. Not with sweet, vulnerable Kitty. Not with anyone.
He had to protect her. He had to remember he had too much to do. Work had to take precedence. He breathed out, finally able to relax and sink towards slumber as he realised: work was the answer.
CHAPTER TEN
‘I’M GOING TO New York for a week. You’ll be all right here on your own?’
Kitty looked up from her checklist and hoped she’d hidden the way her heart had just thudded to the floor. ‘Of course. It’ll be a nice holiday from you,’ she lied. He was home early again, but he wasn’t staying. He was going away for a week.
‘Me and my lecherous demands?’ He caught her close and kissed her until she was soft and leaning against him. ‘You’re not going to miss me at all?’ he teased.
‘I’m going to catch up on my sleep.’ She pushed out of his arms and brushed her hair back from her face.
It was mean of him to invite an admission like that when he’d never admit such a thing himself. She’d be out of sight and out of mind... She frowned.
‘I’ll call you and—’
‘Don’t,’ she interrupted breathlessly.
A quizzical expression crossed his face. ‘Don’t call you?’
‘Not if you’re going to call me like you did Saskia that night. I’d rather you didn’t call me at all. I’d rather not know.’
His eyes widened. ‘What are you implying?’
‘I just mean that when this is over I want you to tell me face-to-face, not a phone call. You think you can hold back from temptation for a week?’ She held her head high, even though she hated how shrill she sounded. ‘Because I don’t think that’s too much to ask of my fake fiancé.’ She didn’t want humiliation in that way.
‘Catriona, I’ll be working non-stop—’
‘You’ll have to eat sometime—’
‘So I’ll eat at my desk.’
She laughed a little bitterly. ‘You won’t go out to all those fancy restaurants?’
The ones with all those women who’d love nothing more than his attentio
n and for him to take them home for a couple of hours’ post-work ‘relaxation’.
‘I have a lot of work to do; that’s all this trip is. For me to work hard. I’ll play with you when I get back.’
And that was what this was. Play. A game that would be over soon enough. It was good to get the reminder.
She nodded and forced a smile, but it was small. ‘Okay.’
She wanted to believe him, but past experience told her she was a fool to. Her father. Her real fiancé. And Alejandro himself wasn’t one to maintain a relationship. He’d admitted that he didn’t ever want to.
‘I’ll see you soon,’ he said.
‘You’re leaving now?’ She bit her lip as she realised how that sounded.
‘Yes. I just called by on my way to the airport.’
For a moment she thought he was going to say something more, but he shook his head.
‘Okay, then...’ She struggled to think. ‘Have a good trip.’
He sent her a sombre look, turned and left.