The Heat Of Passion

was becoming increasingly hard to control. 'I would

never have come to you. I hated you for your primitive

macho outlook and '

'I am not primitive.1 The insertion was immensely quiet but the temperature had shot up. 'I have Greek blood.' For a split-second she was tempted to laugh. So vast an amount of blatant pride and arrogance dwelt in that assurance. But then she clashed with golden eyes that burned with the ferocity of a tiger about to pounce and all desire to laugh was stolen from her. Instantly the alarm bells rang in a frantic peal inside her head. That ferocious, utterly terrifying temper... She found herself instinctively glancing round to measure the distance to the door.

‘ And you are not my equal. You proved that six years ago!' he shot at her. 'Most conclusively did you prove

your stupidity '

Her small hands clenched into fists. 'If you call me stupid just one more time, Carlo, I won't be responsible for what I do!'

'Per Dio,' he murmured with a brilliant, slashing smile. 'If I push a little more, will you rip off my shirt and beg me to take you the way you did the last time?' 'Dear God, how can you talk to me like that?' 'Easily. Then,’ Carlo spread two very expressive hands, 'I have no respect for you. What did you expect?'

The rage was beginning to gain on her self-control. She was having a very tough time holding it in.

'You behaved like a whore '

'You swine!' she positively spat at him, powered by a tremendous wave of aggression.

'You were true neither to me nor to Turner,' Carlo drawled with caustic bite. 'He offered marriage. I offered something less secure. You went for the wedding-ring. And you lost,’

'I married the man I loved... I didn't lose anything!' Jessica slung back hotly, her adrenalin pumping madly through her veins.

Carlo threw his darkly handsome head back and laughed uproariously. 'Are you telling me that you didn't

think of me in the dark of night? That you didn't crave the passion I alone could give you? If you'd responded to him the way you responded to me, he'd have run away from you in terror!'

Jessica launched herself at him like a lioness. Two in

credibly powerful hands snapped round her wrists and

held her back. An insolent smile curved his hard mouth.

'You dress like a fifty-year-old spinster but you're a little

animal at heart, aren't you, coral I scratch the surface

of that ladylike exterior and I find teeth and claws. I

like that. It excites me '

'You filthy swine.. .shut upV she screamed.

'And it excites the hell out of you too!' Long fingers hauled her closer as she attempted to kick him. He caught both flailing hands in one large male hand and pinned them behind her back, forcing her closer, staring with sardonic amusement down into her blazing violet eyes and pressing a long muscular thigh against her stomach as she twisted and tried to apply a well-aimed knee. ‘A11 that howling sexual frustration just begging to be released. I could take you now here... up against the wall, on the floor, anywhere and you'd love it!’ he asserted with rawly offensive confidence. 'Is that what you want?'

CHAPTER TWO

'NEVER!' Jessica gasped breathlessly, searing his dark, savage visage with all the tortured fury of her ignominious and powerless position. "The very idea of you touching me again makes me feel physically sick!'

'One lesson wasn't enough for you, was it?' Carlo murmured huskily, narrowed eyes raking over her outraged features. 'Don't you remember what it was like when I made love to you?'

"That wasn't love,' Jessica vented fiercely. 'That was

lust!'