‘I usually put a condom on at this point.’ His voice sounded rough. Gravelly.
Angelique gave him a seductive look from beneath her lashes. ‘There isn’t time.’
‘But I— Oh God.’ He sucked in another breath as she set to work on him.
It was thrilling to have him so in her power. She had never realised how arousing it was to feel him and hear him struggle for control. She was ruthless as she drew on him, not giving him a chance to pull away. She tasted the hot essence of him against her tongue, felt the tension in him against her lips as she moved them up and down his shaft.
He grabbed at her head with both of his hands, presumably to push her away, but she refused to budge. She hummed against his swollen flesh and he gave a quickly muttered curse and then spilled.
After it was over he fell on the bed on his back, his chest rising and falling as he tried to get his breathing under control.
Angelique trailed a light fingertip up and down his chest. ‘Better than average?’
He turned his head and gave her a sinfully erotic look. ‘The best.’
‘Are you just saying that?’
‘No.’
Wow. Oh wow. Her fingertip came back up and circled one of his flat, dark nipples. ‘How soon before you can go again?’
‘Why do you ask?’
She gave a casual little shrug. ‘Just wondering.’
He rolled her back over and trapped her within the cage of his arms. ‘You still want to play, mon trésor?’
She traced his lower lip with her fingertip. ‘Might as well make the most of our time together.’
He stopped the pathway of her finger by holding her hand in his. ‘Just so we’re clear on this—I’m not making any promises about Tarrantloch. I won it fair and square. I don’t do sentimentality or guilt trips. You need to understand and accept that.’
‘But I thought you said—’
‘If we continue to sleep together, it’s because we want to satisfy the mutual attraction we feel. It’s not about and should not be about anything else.’
Angelique knew how determined he could be, but then so could she. Clearly locking horns with him wasn’t going to work. It had never worked before. She would be better served in finding another way to appeal to his sense of fairness—assuming he had one, of course. Charm him. Woo him. Beguile him. Outsmart him.
She tiptoed a fingertip down his sternum again. ‘Do you ever not get your way?’
He gave her a lazy smile. ‘Giving in is about as much in my nature as submission and demureness is in yours.’
‘I don’t know about that.’ Angelique gave a little sinuous movement beneath him. ‘I’m feeling pretty submissive right now.’
His eyes glinted as his hands pinned her arms either side of her head, his strong thighs trapping hers with erotic intent. ‘Then I’d better make the most of it.’
And he did.
CHAPTER TEN
ANGELIQUE BREATHED IN the sharp, clean air of the highlands as Remy helped her out of the car the following day. Tarrantloch in autumn was bleak and cold but that was part of the raw beauty of it. The turreted grey stone mansion had been in her mother’s family for over three-hundred years. It was set in a large verdant clearing in the middle of a forest and had its own lake and a burn that ran with ice-cold water full of salmon and trout.
She had spent some of her happiest times here as a child before her mother had turned into a browbeaten shadow of her former self. Coming here had been something Angelique and her mother had done together in the early days to spend time with her maternal grandparents while Henri had been busy with his business affairs in Europe.
But, once her grandparents had passed away within a year of each other, Tarrantloch had been left idle with just a handful of servants, as her father had insisted on living in his homeland of France so he could commute more easily to Italy, where he had his major business interests, including those with Vittorio Caffarelli.
Over the last couple of years, however, he had come back and taken up residence, strutting around like a proud peacock as he conducted various house parties with his business cronies. It disgusted Angelique to see her mother’s home exploited by her father and she had mostly kept well away unless she knew he was abroad on business.
Angelique hadn’t been to Tarrantloch since the summer when she’d had a ten-day break from her schedule. It seemed surreal to be here now, officially married to Remy, knowing the house was no longer hers.