‘Oh, but I can. I have,’ he added with satisfaction.
Lia blinked up at him, her heart thumping wildly now, her palms feeling damp. ‘This is insane.’ She was insane. Because a part of her—certain parts of her—was responding to the flickering flames in those coal-black eyes.
Her skin felt incredibly sensitised. Her nipples were tingling and between her thighs she was becoming slick with arousal.
‘Is it?’ Gregorio raised a hand and tucked a loose curl behind her ear before running his fingertips lightly down the heat of her cheek.
‘Yes...’ she breathed, even as she felt herself drawn to leaning into that caress.
Her father’s death and David’s defection meant it had been a long time since anyone had touched her, held her, apart from Cathy’s brief reassuring hugs. Lia’s body cried out for another kind of physical connection.
From Gregorio de la Cruz?
This man was a corporate shark who felt no compunction in gobbling up smaller fish. He was also a man who had a different woman on his arm in every news photograph Lia had ever seen of him. He bought and sold women—usually tall and leggy blonde women, who looked good on his arm and no doubt filled his bed at night—as easily as he bought and sold companies.
Lia wasn’t tall, leggy or blonde.
Nor was she for sale.
She stepped back abruptly—only to give a shiver as she immediately felt the loss of the heat of Gregorio’s body.
‘I’m going to my bedroom to dress. I advise that you be gone by the time I come back.’
His sculpted lips curved into a smile. ‘I make it a rule always to listen to advice, but I rarely choose to take it.’
Her chin rose challengingly. ‘Is that because you’re always right?’
His smile widened, revealing even white teeth. ‘I have a feeling that however I answer that question you will choose to twist it to suit your own purposes.’
He was right, of course.
As always?
‘Or should I say to suit the opinion you have formed of me without actually knowing me,’ he added harshly.
Lia eyed him impatiently. ‘I know enough to know I don’t want you here.’
‘And yet undoubtedly here I am,’ he challenged.
‘That’s because you... Because I... You know what? Get the hell out of my apartment!’ Her
earlier agitation had returned, deeper than ever. ‘Whatever sick game you’re playing, I want no part of it.’
He sobered. ‘I do not play games, Lia, sick or otherwise.’
‘That’s odd, because I’m pretty sure you’re playing one now.’
Gregorio drew in a deep and controlling breath. Lia made no effort to hide her distrust and dislike of him. And right now her body couldn’t hide her physical reaction to him.
Her breasts had plumped, her nipples hard as they pressed against the covering towel, and Gregorio’s nostrils flared as they were assailed with the scent of her sweetly perfumed arousal.
Lia might distrust him, might think she had every reason to dislike him, but the response of her body told him she also desired him as much as he desired her.
He could wait to satisfy that desire. If he had to. And for the moment it seemed he must.
‘I agree—you should go and put some clothes on.’ He nodded abruptly. His self-control was legendary, but even he had his breaking point. And Lia, wearing only a towel to cover her nakedness, was it.
‘Thanks so much, but I really don’t need your permission to do anything!’