He was determined. That rattled her even more.
Opening her bag, she snatched her keys. He reached out and clasped her wrist, drawing her to a sharp halt as she reached the car door.
“Let me go.” She uttered the words as authoritatively as she could, given that her whole body was instantly hot because of his strong fingers locked around her wrist.
Rex didn’t let her go. Instead, he backed her against the side of her car. “Not until you consider my offer.”
“Offer? What offer?” Her attention sharpened. She was already convinced he didn’t want the house. Perhaps he needed the settlement to keep his company afloat. Maybe there was a chance for her to claim it, after all.
Then he pressed closer still, so that his body covered hers, hard, virile and demanding. The feel of him stole her breath away.
A woman walked past and she tutted loudly as she peered at them. She had a glamorous saluki hound on a leash. Carmen ignored the woman and the hound as best she could, praying to God it wasn’t somebody who knew her. She had a reputation to keep. Unlike her assailant who’d done everything he could to destroy his reputation over the years.
Rex ran one finger down the side of her face, lifting her hair free of her cheek. “I like your hair this way,” he said, running it through his fingers as he admired it. “The last time I saw you it was different.” He locked eyes with her. “Don’t you think it would be interesting, the pair of us, together and alone, up at the house?”
“No.” She blurted it out, and then wished she hadn’t. He’d always had the upper hand, teasing her when she was gauche and vulnerable.
Undeterred, he moved his hands, embracing her around the waist.
Even through her suit the pressure of his grip made her legs weak. When she was seventeen and he’d been home for Christmas, she’d longed for him to hold her this way. Instead, he teased her relentlessly—making her horribly aware of her fragile confidence—and then he’d seduced one of her friends. That had hurt.
If he’d held her like this back then, instead of Amanda, it would have been a dream come true. Now...now it got her back up and made her angry. He was asserting his power over her because he was a man who assumed he could toy with people for his own entertainment.
The aroma of his cologne hit her and the insistent presence of his body against hers made her falter as she spoke. “Rex, stop playing games. If you’re going to make an offer, please do so.”
He seemed so much more in control than she was, and his mouth was now set in a determined line. “Two weeks,” he stated definitively. “We live together at the house for two weeks, and then you can have it.”
“Live together?” It had to be a joke.
Besides, why did he even want that? He’d never wanted to be at the house. There was more to it, there had to be. It couldn’t be as simple as that. She stared up at him and his intense blue eyes were so vivid they seemed to burn into her. “How much do you want for your share?”
A slow smile spread across his face, his eyes gleaming as he gazed at her, looking at her lips as if he was about to devour them. “I don’t want money.”
Lord, he was more irritating than ever.
Then he moved his hands higher, and squeezed the underside of her breasts. Carmen couldn’t stifle her gasp. His touch knew no bounds, no protocol. It was breathtaking.
He licked his lips. “But I want it all, for two weeks.”
Confusion gripped her. “All? How much?”
“No financial exchange. Just you—” he locked eyes with her “—in my bed, refusing me nothing.”
In his bed?
Carmen stared up at him, shocked to the core. The man would do an
ything for a thrill. And yet, even though she was appalled by his proposal, a deep part of her responded to it. In his bed? Images flashed through her mind, images of them, naked and locked together in fierce passion. Desire flooded her. Fighting the rising tide back, she shook her head, attempting to move aside.
That was futile. He wasn’t letting her go anywhere.
“Surely you can’t be serious?” she blurted.
“Ah, but I am, entirely so.” As if to emphasize his point, he moved one hand inside her jacket, where he cupped her breast and ran his thumb over her nipple.
The only barrier between his skin and hers was her shirt and the sheer lace bra she wore beneath it. Her nipple knotted and tingled. Carmen had to swallow hard to steady herself. Her emotions were in chaos, and her trust in her body and its responses was fast waning. “So, you think that you can have any woman you want, is that it?”
“Not necessarily. But I want you, and you want the house. I see this as the perfect opportunity for us both to get what we want.” His voice was husky, his message insistent.