He looked at her coldly. ‘You’re asking me to leave?’
‘Yes,’ she confirmed rigidly.
‘Because of a little harmless surmising on my part?’
‘I don’t consider it harmless. You were being very rude about my mother.’
‘I wasn’t being rude, Lauren.’
‘Call me Lauri like everyone else does,’ she ordered shrilly. ‘I don’t like being called Lauren.’ She didn’t like this man calling her it, as if their relationship meant something special to him.
‘I’ll call you what I damn well please.’ His arrogance of their first meeting was back in evidence. ‘Lauri makes you sound like a little girl.’
‘And you like a woman in your arms,’ she sneered.
‘Exactly,’ he drawled lazily. ‘And you become a woman in my arms, Lauren.’
She glared at him, her eyes deeply green. ‘I hate you!’ she told him vehemently. ‘You think a natural physical response to experienced lovemaking is enough to make me fall into your arms whenever you choose to snap your fingers. Well, it isn’t! I could find any number of men who would evoke the same response.’
‘Little liar,’ he called her for the second time that evening.
She gasped indignantly. ‘You conceited, arrogant—’
‘How you do love to call me names,’ he smiled, pulling her effortlessly against him. ‘And how I love to silence you.’ Which he did very effectively, by kissing her!
‘I wish you would stop doing that,’ Lauri murmured some minutes later against his chest. ‘I—’ she broke off as he seemed to flinch. ‘What is it? What’s wrong?’ She lifted her head to look at him.
‘Nothing,’ he smiled down at her. ‘I think my shirt got stuck to the scratches. You pulled my shirt away by nestling against me like that. Not that I’m complaining,’ he grinned. ‘Far from it.’
‘Nevertheless,’ she moved out of his arms, ‘you’d better undo your shirt and let me have a look at your chest.’
‘Gladly.’ Alex shed his jacket with a grin, unbuttoning the black shirt he had changed into.
‘That will be enough,’ Lauri stopped him from actually removing the shirt altogether, all too aware of the potency of this man. ‘Mm,’ she bent her head to look at the angry red marks, ‘I think you ought to get a doctor to take a look at these.’
‘Oh yes?’ he taunted. ‘And what would I tell him?’
Colour floded her cheeks as she bit her bottom lip. ‘I never thought of that. But it doesn’t look very good.’
‘That’s just the antiseptic working. Don’t you know the saying “It always gets worse before it gets better"?’
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‘Yes. But—’
‘Don’t fuss, Lauren.’ He made no effort to rebutton his shirt. ‘Now would you like me to soothe your bruises better?’
‘You’re very persistent,’ she said lightly. ‘I think my bruises will disappear without any help from you.’
‘Sure?’ His deep blue eyes held her mesmerised as his hands moved to the lapels of her towelling robe, slowly parting them to reveal her bare breasts and bikini briefs. He bent his head to kiss the hollows of her throat, moving lower and lower until he had one hardened nipple between his lips, evoking pleasure with his tongue.
Lauri felt as if her body were melting into his, waves of ecstasy washing over her. This pleasure was like nothing else she had ever experienced, tension of a kind she didn’t understand starting to build up inside her.
‘Sure?’ Alex repeated huskily, for the moment giving her respite from his lips but caressing her hips with his sensitive hands.
‘No, I’m not sure.’ Her fingers were tangled in the dark thickness of his hair. ‘Kiss me some more, Alex,’ she pleaded.
‘Here?’ He kissed her throat.