Brand of Possession

‘And what else did you expect?’ she taunted. ‘That just because I’ve found out your real identity I should suddenly start to be subservient? I might have been if I’d known who you were when we first met, but not now, not now I know you for exactly what you are.’

‘And that is?’ he asked, deceptively soft.

‘A liar!’ she told him fiercely. ‘A liar and a cheat. You would have seduced me this afternoon with no feelings of guilt, even though you were deceiving me about your very identity. I don’t call that the action of an honourable man.’

‘You’re beyond reason at the moment,’ he said with a sigh. ‘We’ll talk later, when you’ve had time to calm down.’

Stacy walked angrily to the door. ‘We won’t talk later, or at any other time for that matter. I would rather go out with Paul Forbes than you. He may be a flirt, but at least he’s honest about his intentions.’

‘So was I!’ Jake swung her round, his fingers digging painfully into the fleshy part of her upper arm. ‘I told you last night that I wanted you, I never pretended otherwise.’

‘You just had no intention of telling me who I would have the honour of sleeping with!’

‘Oh hell!’ He ran an agitated hand through his thick dark hair. ‘You’re completely misunderstanding my reasons.’ He turned away from her to pace restlessly up and down the room. ‘I don’t know how to explain all this without sounding the conceited swine you already think me.’

‘Don’t even bother to try. Just open the door and let me get out of here.’

‘No,’ he refused sharply. ‘You could at least listen to what I have to say to you.’

Her mouth thinned. ‘All right, go ahead. But I doubt it will change anything. I don’t even know why you want it to, there must be dozens of women in this hotel alone who would be only too happy to go out with Jake Weston, to be seen with him.’

‘Exactly,’ he said with satisfaction.

She looked at him sharply. ‘What do you mean?’

‘That women like to be seen with me. Because of who I am, what I am, women have always been in great supply. But with them I could never be sure if it was me they were attracted to or the glamour they seem to attach to my profession. When you didn’t realise who I was I decided to keep up the pretence. I would have told you the truth when I was more sure of you.’

‘Last night I can perhaps understand, but today I can’t forgive. I would have found out later today anyway, my friends would all have been agog with my success.’

‘I would have told you myself over dinner this evening,’ he said with a sigh.

Stacy gave a short laugh. ‘You can say that now, now that you’ve been found out.’ She turned back to the door. ‘I’m still waiting to leave,’ she told him pointedly.

Jake turned her roughly, pulling her into his arms. ‘You aren’t going anywhere,’ he said forcefully. ‘Except into my arms.’

She struggled against him, once again feeling his sensual magnetism weaving its spell about her, aware of the hardness of his body pressed unyieldingly against her own. ‘Let me go,’ she ordered through gritted teeth, her panic clearly written in her eyes. ‘Let me go!’

He shook his head. ‘No,’ he said huskily, holding her flaying arms with arrogant ease. ‘I have no intention of letting you out of this room until I’ve convinced you that I wasn’t playing some sort of sick joke on you.’

Stacy looked up at him with challenge in her green eyes, her arms held firmly behind her back by just one of his. ‘And how do you propose to do that?’

‘Like this,’ he groaned, his hand moving to hold her chin and so keep her head immobile as his mouth plundered hers with ruthless insistence.

Stacy obstinately kept her mouth closed, no longer fighting him, but having difficulty trying to resist the seduction of that firm caressing mouth. He was an expert when it came to evoking a response and she had almost weakened when he finally lifted his head to look at her with deeply blue eyes, his own arousal unmistakable.

‘Kiss me, Stacy,’ he commanded softly. ‘Open your mouth and kiss me!’

She shook her head in obstinate refusal. ‘I can’t stop you, Mr Weston, but I certainly don’t have to make it easy for you. You’re accomplished at this sort of thing,’ she sneered. ‘I’m sure you aren’t going to let the refusal of one almost unknown actress stand in the way of your own egotistical demands.’

His eyes sparkled with suppressed anger and his mouth descended on hers with ruthless determination. This time he was giving her no chance to resist him.

As the fight ebbed from her body he released her hands from behind her back, threading his own hands into her shimmering hair and making it impossible for her to evade that punishing mouth. Her legs seemed to buckle beneath her and she clung to his broad shoulders to stop herself from falling.

It was the hammering on the door behind them that finally broke them apart, and Jake turned to glare resentfully at the door. ‘Who is it?’ he rasped coldly.

‘It’s Brad, Jake. Can I come in?’

‘Wait a minute,’ he growled at the man. ‘Don’t leave, Stacy. I’ll get rid of him.’ He took the key from his trousers pocket and unlocked the door.