Stacy watched him with wide frightened eyes, holding on to the door for support. She had expected him perhaps to be angry, but he was in such a cold rage he wasn’t even asking for an explanation, condemning her unheard. She shook her head in answer to his command.
Jake came towards her with controlled violence, wrenching the door out of her hand and slamming it noisily before pulling her roughly into his arms and taking fierce possession of her lips.
Stacy felt her knees buckle at the violence behind his kiss, trembling with uncontrolled fear at the determination behind his plundering of her mouth, viciously forcing her lips apart so that he might kiss her more intimately.
‘Kiss me, damn you,’ he muttered through gritted teeth. ‘Show me some of that passion every other man seems to get from you.’
Twice in as many days she had been physically attacked, and yet with this man she found not revulsion but the stirring of pleasure, feeling herself weakening towards him as his mouth claimed hers once more.
Jake held her head immovable as he deepened the kiss, bending her back over his arm so that she couldn’t move away from him without falling over. Not that she really wanted to move away from him, kissing him back now as she smoothed the dark thickness of his hair at his nape.
‘That’s better,’ he murmured against her throat, and pulled her down into the armchair so that she lay across him. His lips burnt a trail across her throat, her shoulders, and down to the hollow between her breasts.
Stacy gasped as she felt him pulling the pins out of her hair. ‘What are you doing?’
He wound the long red tresses around her throat. ‘I’m debating whether to strangle you right now or wait until after I’ve made love to you.’
She pushed against him but was firmly wedged against him in the confines of the chair. ‘But you—you can’t,’ she pleaded.
He tightened the pressure of her hair. ‘It would be so easy, and I would enjoy it.’
‘I meant you can’t make love to me.’
His taunting blue eyes ran insolently over her defenceless body. ‘I can’t, can’t I? There’s a bed over there, you’re in my arms, and I think you owe it to me.’
‘I owe it to you? Why you—’
He stilled her struggles. ‘Yes, you owe it to me!’ he said savagely. ‘I’ve stood back while you’ve flirted with Day and Forbes, given them the pleasure you deny me, and I’m not going to stand back and watch any longer. You’re very deceptive on film, Stacy, I felt sure you were as innocent as you look. And yet you’re constantly with one man or another.’
‘No, Jake, that isn’t true! Matthew—’
‘I don’t want to hear about your other men,’ he snapped, standing up with her held firmly in his arms. ‘Tonight I’m going to be the only man on your mind. Going on the amount of men you have interested in you here alone I would say that innocent look of yours hides an experience that could prove very entertaining.’
‘No!’ She fought against him as he lowered her on to the bed before discarding his jacket to join her. And she had thought he would never force her into a relationship she didn’t want. Right now he was beyond reason! ‘No, please, I don’t—’
‘Shut up, Stacy,’ he rasped. ‘I have no idea what you thought you would get if you held out against me, but I’m afraid I’m past being convinced now. I left you alone for a few hours this afternoon and you were off with Day. So now I know you for what you are you can forget trying to dupe me. I’ll buy you all the usual trinkets, but please, no more pretending.’
Stacy was speechless. Jake truly believed her to have been playing a part, and he was set on making love to her right now!
He smoothed her hair back from her face, his lips trailing across her eyes and cheeks. ‘You’re very young to have become so promiscuous,’ he shrugged. ‘But who am I to judge the way you choose to live? I just want you—and now,’ he added urgently.
His mouth was seductive now, playing with her senses as his hands ran caressingly over her body. Stacy’s eyes closed as she felt him release the two thin straps that secured her dress, trembling as his long tapered fingers touched her breasts, bringing them to full pulsating life.
‘Jake, I—’ she gasped her pleasure. ‘Please be gentle,’ she pleaded.
‘Don’t worry, I realise you don’t like rough handling. Your reaction to Forbes showed me that,’ he murmured, his head bent as his mouth probed her sensitive skin.
That wasn’t what she meant at all. She could see no way of stopping him taking what he wanted from her, and if he had to take her then she wanted him to be gentle. If she had to become someone’s mistress it might as well be the man she
was in love with.
She fought for sanity against his mouth teasing and caressing her breasts, knowing she had to tell him the truth about herself before he went any further, had to tell him of her complete inexperience. ‘Jake, I—’
‘I don’t want to talk,’ and he claimed her mouth once again.
Stacy was feeling dizzy by the time his attention returned to her hardened nipples. ‘Please, you have to listen,’ she begged. ‘If you have to do this to me then at least know you’ll be the first.’
He became very still beside her, drawing a ragged breath, finally lifting his head to search her feverish features for the sincerity of her words. Finally he shook his head. ‘I don’t believe you. Nothing you can say can stop me now. You may not be what I first expected, but I’m still determined to have you.’