His eyes dropped to the lush curves of her full lips and then lower to the firm, uptilted outline of her small, pert breasts. He swallowed hard.
Seeing the contraction of muscles in his strong brown throat was the key that unlocked the door to forbidden memories. Memories of other muscles in his lean, firm body contracting and quivering beneath the glistening surface of his sweat-soaked skin and all in response to her touch.
She had almost succeeded in locking away the steamy memory when his heavy, darkly fringed eyelids, lifted revealing an expression so hot it could have started a forest fire. Natalie’s pupils dilated until they almost obliterated the iris; similarly, the hormonal rush in her blood had a dramatic effect on her ability to think rationally—as in she couldn’t! Sweat broke out over her entire body as she tried to drag herself clear of the sensual vortex that was sucking her deeper with each passing second.
‘All my fantasies have you in,’ he told her simply.
Goose-bumps broke out over her body as she suffered yet another dramatic shift in temperature. If you believe this it’ll hurt, Nat…don’t believe…don’t…! She didn’t allow herself to respond until she had regained some sort of control over her emotions.
‘What is it with you?’ she grated, trying to frame a reply that would make him realise he no longer had anything to gain from this pretence. ‘I know, Rafe, you don’t have to keep up the act.’
‘The only thing I’ve ever pretended with you, Natalie, is that I could control the way you made—make me feel,’ he gritted with a self-derisive grimace. ‘If you’d stayed around to hear the rest of my conversation with my mother you’d have heard me say as much to her. I left her in no doubt that she’d read things wrong.’
His hard jaw clenched as his brooding glance paused hungrily on the outline of her soft, quivering lips.
‘The reason I didn’t object when you introduced me as your lover was I liked the way it sounded.’ Natalie’s fractured gasp was clearly audible in the short pause that followed his words. ‘As for playing your future husband, I had this idea that if I played the part really well you might decide to keep me on permanently.’
The blood drained from Natalie’s face. ‘Permanently?’ she parroted weakly. ‘As in living together!’
‘No.’
God, Natalie, will you never learn? ‘Right,’ she said, fighting for composure.
‘As in married,’ he slotted in coolly.
Natalie looked at her hands. They were shaking; so was the rest of her. This was all happening too fast for her to take in. ‘But you said…’
‘No, Natalie, my mother said. Think about it,’ he suggested.
She did.
An arrested expression crossed Natalie’s face. Rafe had never actually said…had he…? Could she have jumped to the wrong conclusion?
‘My mother is legendary for reading situations wrong.’ His brows lifted. ‘Now that I think about it, you two should have a lot in common,’ he mused drily. ‘Of course, if she had actually met you she would never have made that mistake. One look at you and she’d have seen that I’d be the luckiest man alive if you’d have me. Will you have me, Natalie?’
Natalie’s heart was trying to batter its way out of her chest; the tight feeling her racing pulse created made it hard to breathe, let alone speak.
‘What are you saying exactly, Rafe?’ This time she wasn’t going to jump to any premature conclusions.
A spasm of raw frustration flickered across his handsome, drawn face. ‘Do I need to spell it out?’ he asked thickly.
‘Well, yes, actually, I think you do.’
‘Marry me, Natalie.’ As her silence grew so did the tension in him. ‘I think we make a pretty good team…’
Natalie widened her eyes innocently. ‘So this is by way of being a business merger?’ she queried pertly.
Their eyes touched; when Rafe saw what shone in hers the tension seemed to drain from his body. A fierce grin spread slowly across his dark face. ‘Like hell it is!’ he growled, reaching for her. ‘Come here, you stupid woman.’
Resistance didn’t even cross Natalie’s mind as she walked into his open arms—where she belonged. His muscular arms tightened around her as his mouth found hers. The masterful kiss was raw, hard and hungry. Natalie’s lips parted eagerly beneath the pressure. When they finally broke apart she was dizzy and insanely happy.
‘Don’t you ever, ever do that to me again! Do you hear me? I’ve aged about twenty years in the last hour.’
Natalie touched the raven hair at his temple. Despite his claim there was no sign of premature greying. ‘Well, I wouldn’t have jumped to the wrong conclusion if you’d told me how you felt,’ she chastised him reproachfully.
One dark brow lifted. ‘Like you did…?’
‘I was afraid if I said anything I’d scare you off,’ she admitted.
‘And I felt that every time I tried to get closer you pulled back.’
‘I was trying to be what you wanted—a low-maintenance girlfriend who didn’t make demands…’ She intercepted his wry look and grinned. ‘Except in the bedroom,’ she admitted guiltily.
‘Let’s leave the bedroom out of this for a few minutes,’ he pleaded throatily.
‘That’s a first for you!’
Her saucy jibe earned her a long, lingering kiss.
When his head finally lifted Natalie gave a languid sigh and ran her fingers down the hard curve of his cheek. Rafe’s eyes darkened as he caught her fingers and brought them to his lips. Quite deliberately he kissed each individual fingertip—Natalie found it incredibly erotic. He pressed an open-mouthed kiss to her palm before returning her hand to her.
‘Is this real?’ The air left her lungs as his arms tightened about her r
ibcage before dropping to the small of her back. The firm pressure brought her up onto her tiptoes and sealed their bodies at hip level so that she could feel—as he intended her to—the very real state of his arousal. ‘You’ve convinced me,’ she admitted with a husky chuckle.
‘You see why I wanted to keep the bedroom out of this. I need to say stuff and I can’t think above the waist when you’re like this.’
Secretly delighted at the image of herself as some sort of irresistible Jezebel, Natalie gave a sexy little sinuous wriggle that drew a deep groan from Rafe. She gave a regretful sigh and drew back.
‘You’re right, we should talk. How about if I sit over there—’ she pointed at the sofa against the wall the opposite side of the room ‘—and you sit here.’
Rafe caught her arm. ‘Too far.’
‘And this is too close?’ she asked huskily.
‘It wouldn’t matter to the way I feel if a thousand miles separated us,’ he declared in a deep, throbbing accent. ‘Oh, my love!’ His blue eyes glittered down into hers as he laid his big hands on her shoulders. ‘I think I loved you right from the beginning. When I told myself I was protecting you by keeping my distance, in reality I think it was more about protecting myself—I just wasn’t ready to admit what I felt for you.’
‘Are you ready now?’ she whispered, hearing the thud of her own heartbeat in her ears.
She watched a slow, incredible smile spread across his face. ‘Ready, able and very, very willing.’
‘Oh, Rafe, I love you so much!’
The warm, sensuous impression left by his lips made her own tingle even after he had lifted his head. While she was smiling a little stupidly up at him he slid his hands down her arms until their fingertips were touching.
‘I think this is about as far as I feel safe letting you go away from me…’ he confessed.