‘You will.’ As if to prove his point she felt the zip of her dress being pulled down to the base of her spine, his hands moving freely across her bare back. ‘Like now.’ He gently bit her earlobe, not hard enough to cause pain but enough to make her aware that he was in control of the situation—and her. ‘We’re going to prove that I can merit ten out of ten,’ he rasped, ‘on any woman’s scale!’
‘Alex, no … Don’t, please!’
He grinned down at her. ‘I think I’d like you to beg, Lauren. But not to be set free,’ he murmured against her lips. ‘I’d like you to beg for something quite different.’ He slipped the thin ribbon strap off one shoulder, the gown slipping down to reveal her bare breasts. ‘No bra,’ he said gruffly, making no effort to hide his reaction to her nakedness. ‘I like that.’
‘No … Please. Please, Alex!’ She dragged the dress back up, her hands at her back as she tried to pull up the zip. ‘Let me go,’ she pleaded, her relief immense as she felt the zip slide easily up her spine.
His hands were at her nape. ‘You know you don’t mean that,’ his mouth ate into hers, the kiss slow and languorous. ‘Come into the bedroom,’ he invited huskily.
‘No! No, no, no!’ Lauri wrenched fully away from him. ‘You had no intention of taking me out this evening, did you,’ she accused. ‘You intended bringing me back here all the time,’ her eyes were deeply green in her anger.
‘Eventually,’ he drawled. ‘But I did intend taking you out first.’
‘First?’ she echoed, startled.
‘I always believe in wining and dining my girl-friends before taking them to bed,’ he told her calmly.
‘You—I—You aren’t getting me into bed,’ she spluttered. ‘Whether you wine and dine me first or not.’ She swung away from him, for some reason her eyes alighting on the car keys he had discarded on entering the apartment. She snatched them up, almost running to the door.
‘Where do you think you’re going with my car keys?’
When she turned he was still standing in the place she had left him, making no effort to stop her or retrieve his keys. ‘Where do you think?’ she scorned, throwing open the door.
‘I hope you don’t intend driving it,’ Alex drawled. ‘That, added to the accident you had at the beginning of the week, should be quite interesting to the police.’
She met his gaze defiantly. ‘I have no intention of driving your car. But I do intend throwing these keys in the river. I only wish I could do the same to you!’ She slammed the door as she left.
CHAPTER SEVEN
LAURI went into a public phone box and called for a taxi, getting the driver to stop on the way home so that she might do as she threatened and hurl the keys to the Ferrari into the murky depths of the river flowing below her.
She would teach Alexander Blair for thinking she would meekly jump into bed with him! It might be a childish gesture to dispose of his car keys, but it had given her infinite satisfaction, almost as good as being able to dispose of their owner in the same way. How dared he touch her so intimately, caress parts of her body no other man had ever seen!
Her cheeks were flushed as she ripped off the stained dress and threw it down on a chair, pulling on her ankle-length towelling robe. She would never be able to face him again, would have to leave her job, would have to—What was that noise? She frowned as she heard the opening and closing of the front door. Steve was home early, possibly because he realised she would be here on her own with Jane away.
Lauri went downstairs, brushing her hair into a red-gold cloud about her shoulders. ‘I’m home, Steve. I—My God, what are you doing here?’ she exclaimed as she came up against Alexander Blair’s hard chest.
‘Lauren,’ he steadied her, wincing slightly, ‘much as I would like you close to me my chest is hurting like hell.’ He put her away from him.
‘How did you get here?’ she asked dazedly.
‘By car, how else? I have a spare set of keys to the Ferrari, although I could have used the Rolls, you know.’
‘Oh yes,’ she sighed, ‘I forgot about that. I—I’m sorry about your keys. It was a stupid thi
ng to do.’
‘Yes,’ he agreed unhesitantly, ‘very stupid.’
‘You goaded me into it,’ she said resentfully. ‘Talking about taking me to your bed in that way!’
‘Did you actually throw them in the river?’
She gave him a nervous glance. ‘Yes,’ she bit her lip.
‘Really?’
‘Mm,’ she nodded.