Bond of Hatred

‘Let go of me,’ Sarah spat on the way up the stairs. ‘What the heck do you think you’re doing?’

Out of sight of the hall, she attempted to jerk free of his bruising grasp. ‘Stop it!’ she burst out hotly.

His hand tightened and a fuse blew inside Sarah. Her other hand flew up as she stopped, intending to fetch him a wallop that would flatten him. Alex parried that furious hand and reacted by clamping his hands to her waist instead and hoisting her into a fireman’s lift.

‘You swine!’ she screeched. ‘Put me down this minute!’

He put her down on his bed and came down so fast on top of her that she had no time to react. ‘You’re my wife and I want to make love to you,’ he spelt out fiercely.

‘Be assured that if anything happens it will be rape!’ Sarah spat up at him.

Pinning her flat, Alex undid the sash on the dressing-gown, peeled it wide.

‘I’ll never forgive you if you do this,’ she swore strickenly. She collided with glinting golden eyes and something twisted in pleasurable pain in the pit of her stomach. Shakily she gasped in oxygen under the shattering onslaught of that all-pervasive stare. Naked panic filled her to overflowing.

‘No, it’s yourself you won’t forgive,’ Alex murmured softly, intently, scanning the myriad expressions skimming her triangular face. ‘All that stands between us is your pride and your need to be in control. And in my bed you are out of control.’

Appalled by his insight, Sarah shot a look of loathing up at him. ‘I hate you, Alex.’

He tugged the dressing-gown down her arms. ‘I don’t think so,’ he said in a velvety purr. ‘I think you want me so much it terrifies you.’

‘Naturally you would like to think that—’

‘Know it, not think it,’ Alex countered, shrugging out of his jacket and pitching it carelessly aside, yanking at his tie with a not quite steady hand. ‘You excite the hell out of me. You really can’t expect me not to know that it’s mutual—’

‘It is not mutual!’ Her teeth ground together.

‘Our wedding night was unforgettably erotic,’ Alex savoured, peeling off his shirt. ‘I’ve thought of little else for two endless weeks. In fact I only have to think about what being inside you felt like and I—’

Crimson-cheeked, Sarah snapped, ‘Shut up!’

Alex smiled with lethal amusement, all temper banished by lust, she assumed, and his superior position. ‘And the wonder of finding a woman of your age so innocent and shy had a charm and an appeal I never thought to experience. Why were you still a virgin?’

‘I stayed away from macho pigs like you!’

‘Maybe on some level you knew I was in your future,’ Alex drawled with unashamed conceit.

‘If I’d known,’ Sarah practically shrieked at him, ‘I’d have come into your office with a shotgun!’

‘And I find that even more attractive,’ Alex delivere

d with mocking amusement. ‘All of my adult life, your sex have gone to extraordinary lengths to please me. I’ve been chased, flattered and encouraged by every woman I ever wanted since I was fifteen.’

‘You conceited toad!’ Sarah launched at him.

‘Then you came along and for the very first time I was challenged and, believe me, I was very challenged keeping my hands off you until our wedding night. I didn’t want you to bolt. That’s why I didn’t come near you during the weeks before our marriage.’

Sarah was in such a rage, she was almost incoherent. ‘You conniving, cunning, sneaky—!’

Alex laughed softly, spontaneously, and pressed a warning forefinger to the fullness of her lower lip, silencing her. ‘I lay in my bed at night thinking about what it would be like to have you under me and it surpassed my every expectation. That fiery spirit which makes you so damned mouthy, that stubborn streak a mile wide which makes you persist even when you haven’t a hope in hell of winning...when that translates into passion, you’re every fantasy I’ve ever had in my bed!’

His satisfaction was obvious. Her small hands balled into fists. ‘Alex, get off me!’ she shouted.

Alex slid down the zip on his trousers with a flourish and grinned at her, suddenly startlingly younger in his raw amusement than she had ever seen him. The phone started ringing. Alex bent back and lifted the receiver without releasing her limbs from his weight.

‘No more calls,’ he said and dropped it back again.

‘I want you to let me go,’ Sarah framed, putting every atom of authority she could muster into the demand.