She raised her hand and slapped him before he could say the crude word, the sound of her palm connecting with his cheek ringing in the still night air, her hand instantly burning from the contact.
The throbbing silence was menacing. It swirled around them amongst the shadows, creeping closer and closer until Hayley was sure she was going to be swallowed whole by it.
‘You know,’ he said in a tone that contained an unmistakable steely edge, ‘you really shouldn’t have done that.’
She fought hard against the trepidation that was filling her throat, making it difficult for her to swallow. ‘You asked for it,’ she said.
‘I could say the same about you,’ he returned, taking a handful of her hair, his fingers lifting the skin of her scalp as he brought her one step closer to his hard body. ‘You’re still begging for it, aren’t you, Hayley? You’ve been begging for it for years. You want me to throw you down on the sand at our feet and show you just how ruthless I can be. Go on, admit it.’
He gave a taunting laugh and tapped her on the end of her nose as he said each word. ‘You. Want. Me. Want me to prove it?’
She gritted her teeth. ‘Get your filthy hands off me.’
He pulled her even closer, his mouth now hardly a breath away from hers. ‘Make me,’ he said, his eyes narrowed and glinting in sexy temptation. ‘Go on. I dare you.’
Hayley was beyond thought or reason. Her body felt as if it were being fuelled by a bewildering combination of anger to push him away, and an even greater desire to pull him closer and have him do what he had suggested. She felt her toes curl into the sand beneath her feet, his body so close she could feel the pulse of his erection as it pressed against her quivering belly. His mouth met hers, or maybe hers met his—she wasn’t entirely sure who had made that last devastating movement, but when it happened it was like an earthquake rumbling through her whole being.
His tongue met hers somewhere in the middle, curling around hers, fighting with it, subduing it and then seducing it until she felt her legs go from beneath her. The soft sand cushioned her back as he came down with her, his body weight crushing her beneath him, his long, strong legs entrapping hers.
His hands tugged the shoestring straps of her dress down so he could access her breasts with the heat of his palms, the rough stroke of his thumbs over her nipples making them instantly peak in pleasure. His mouth came down over her right nipple, his tongue playing with it before he suckled on her, his teeth nipping at her tantalisingly before he moved to her other breast. It was wild and abandoned; the hot brand of his mouth, the rasp of his tongue and the sensual scrape of his teeth as he toyed with her, each of his caresses making her senses spin out of control.
She tore at his open cotton shirt, dragging it from his shoulders, her mouth pressed hotly to the side of his neck where she could feel his pulse thumping. She sucked on his salty skin before using her teeth to bite him, neither hard nor gently but somewhere in between, her tongue rolling over the imprint of the mark she’d made.
In amongst his ragged breathing she heard him groan as his hand pulled up her dress, tugging her tiny lacy knickers to one side so he could find the pulsing heart of her. She felt the plunge of his fingers inside her wet warmth and whimpered in delight, her pelvis lifting to bring him deeper. She tugged at the waistband of his shorts, pulling them down, his aroused body jutting towards her scented core like an arrow to a target.
She gasped in pleasure at the first deep thrust, her fingers digging into his taut buttocks to anchor herself as he drove again and again, each time harder and deeper until she was panting to keep up to his frantic rhythm. His body rocked against hers, his chest slick with sweat as he brought her closer and closer to the point of earth-shattering rapture. She could feel it building in every nerve in her body, her back arching, her legs tensing as with one last mind-blowing thrust he tipped her over the edge into the cascading, thunderous waterfall of her release.
She felt his pumping action inside her as she floated in the shallows of satisfaction, the burst of his life force dragging a deep guttural groan from the depths of his chest as he finally let go. She felt the aftershocks through the skin of his back, his muscles twitching as her fingers drifted over him.
But she felt herself instantly shrink in shame as soon as he lifted himself off her, his expression brooding as he reached for his shorts and shirt. ‘You’d better cover yourself,’ he said. ‘I can hear someone coming.’
She scrambled to her feet, pulling her straps back over her shoulders, the rest of her dress falling into place around her knees as she turned and stumbled to the path that led back to their villa.
Jasper waited until she’d disappeared around the curve of the path before he bent down to the sand and picked up her sandals. He dangled them from one hand for a moment, and then at a much slower pace followed in the direction she went, a heavy frown settling between his brows.
CHAPTER TWELVE
HAYLEY CAME OUT of the shower a long time later, pointedly avoiding Jasper’s eyes as she came into the main bedroom suite.
‘Hayley, we need to talk.’
She turned her back and rummaged through her open suitcase for her nightwear. ‘I’d rather not, if you don’t mind,’ she clipped out.
She heard him let out a frustrated sigh before she felt his hand on her arm turning her around to face him.
‘Listen to me, Hayley,’ he began.
She slapped at his hand as if it were a mosquito. ‘I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want anything to do with you. You’re an arrogant pig, that’s what you are.’
His hold tightened. ‘Will you shut up and listen to me, for God’s sake?’ he growled.
She fought against the tremble of her bottom lip. ‘You took advantage of me,’ she accused.
His expression hardened. ‘I did not do any such thing. You could have stopped me at any point but you didn’t. You were with me all the way.’
Her eyes flashed with blue and green sparks of anger. ‘You make it impossible to resist you, that’s why! I hate you for that!’
‘It’s hardly my fault if you have no self-control.’