She didn’t move, did not so much as breathe or blink an eyelash in response, yet, as she had been the evening before, she was suddenly and excruciatingly aware of him—aware of his strength, of the power behind the muscles that strained angrily against her, of the subtle, pleasing scent of him, the smooth texture of his tight, tanned skin.
Her mouth was burning, her soft lips throbbing where he pressed them bruisingly back against her tightly clenched teeth. And her breasts—the damning traitors that they were—were responding to the heated pressure of his hard chest, the sensitive tips hardening into tight, tingling sensors of pleasure as they pushed eagerly towards him.
He muttered something in his throat and whipped a hand around the back of her neck so that he could arch her backwards, the other hand coming up between them to let a throbbing nipple push against his palm.
Annie gasped at the shocking insolence of the action, trying to pull away from him. But her gasp gave him entry into her mouth, and the next thing she knew she was being flung into a heady vortex of hot, moist intimacy.
Never—never since Alvarez—had she let a man kiss her like this. The very idea of it had always appalled her. But with this man it was the most achingly sensual experience of her life!
And that appalled her. It appalled her to know that she could be so receptive to a man who held her in such open contempt! And when he eventually lifted his head it was an act of sheer self-preservation that made her stare up at him with apparent indifference to the attack when in actual fact she was slowly and systematically collapsing inside.
‘Well, well, well,’ she heard herself murmur with an inner horror at her own gall. ‘So you too are prepared to use sex to get what you want. And there I was, thinking you way above that kind of thing. How very disappointing.’
He stiffened violently at the taunt, then smiled ruefully when her meaning sank in. ‘Ah,’ he drawled. ‘You are implying that we are similar creatures. But that is not the case,’ he denied. ‘You see, I do not sleep around—especially with promiscuous bitches who run a high risk of contamination.’
That cut—cut hard and deep. Not that she let him see it, her bruised and trembling mouth taking on a deriding twist as she taunted softly right back, ‘Then I think you should tell your body that, because it seems to me that it’s quite fancying a bit of contamination right now.’ And she let her eyes drop to where the evidence of his own response to the kiss thrust powerfully against Annie’s groin.
He dumped her so suddenly that she flailed back into the soft cushions behind her, but she barely noticed because her gaze was fixed incredulously on his hard, angry face.
He’d flushed—he’d actually flushed! She had absolutely thrown him by daring to point out his own sexual response, and elation at managing to get to him made her eyes flash with triumph.
Spinning away from her, he went to pour himself a drink—not coffee this time, but something stronger from a crystal decanter standing on a beautiful mahogany sideboard by the fireplace.
Annie got to her feet, studying him with more curiosity than fear now as that small revelation helped her to diminish the godlike proportions she had been allowing herself to see in him.
How old was he? she found herself wondering curiously. Thirty-one—thirty-two? Not much older, she was certain, though her original impression last night—had it only been last night?—had been of a much older, more mature man.
‘Don’t you think it’s time you told me exactly what it is you do want from me?’ she suggested when the silence began to drag between them.
He turned with glass in hand. ‘What I want from you is quite simple,’ he said, having got his temper back under control, she noted. ‘I want you taken right out of Hanson’s life, and I intend personally to make sure it happens.’
Todd? She stared at him, amazed that she could have forgotten all about Todd! Even when he’d brought Susie into this Annie had only connected the other girl with their modelling war. Susie’s connection with Todd had not even entered her head!
Stupid! she berated herself. How damned stupid can you get? Of course this was all about Todd and Susie, and not just Susie and the Cliché contract!
It was like being on a see-saw, she likened heavily. One minute feeling the uplift of her own confidence returning before she crashed down again so abruptly that she was starting to feel dizzy.
‘How long have you known Hanson?’ he asked her suddenly.
Almost all my life, Annie thought, with a smile that seemed to soften the whole structure of her face. Then she shrugged, slender shoulders shifting inside the white cotton top. ‘None of your business,’ she said.
He grimaced, as if acknowledging her right to be uncooperative. Yet he tried again—on a slightly different tack. ‘But you have been lovers on an off for—what—four years, is it now?’
‘No comment.’
He took a sip at his drink, green eyes thoughtful as they ran slowly over her. Annie fixed him with a bland stare; she was determined to give him no help whatsoever.
‘You are very beautiful,’ he remarked, making her eyelashes flicker in memory of the way he had said that to her the night before. ‘Incredibly so for someone who has led such a chequered life. It is no wonder my brother-in-law lost his head over you.’
‘Something you are determined not to do,’ she reminded him, smiling although the fact that just thinking of Luis Alvarez was enough to turn her stomach.
‘And Hanson,’ he contin
ued, as if she had not spoken. ‘He cannot seem to help himself where you are concerned.’
‘Is this conversation supposed to be leading somewhere?’ she asked. ‘Only, if it is, would you kindly get to the point so I can get out of here? I am tired and would like to get off this island so I can book into a hotel somewhere and get some sleep tonight.’
‘Oh, you will get your sleep, Miss Lacey,’ he assured her smoothly. ‘Plenty of it—in the bed already waiting for you upstairs. You see…’ He paused—entirely for effect, Annie suspected. ‘As from tonight you became my mistress, and therefore will sleep wherever I sleep.’