And then he was there, and she was taking him in, and there was no thought of saying no again, no thought of stopping, no thought of anything except doing what he wanted, what she wanted.
Dimly she heard Byron's groan of dark triumph. And then she heard nothing, her senses whirling into the eye of an erotic storm which could only end one way.
CHAPTER SEVEN
CELESTE leant against the marble vanity-unit, and then slowly lifted her face to the mirror.
How could I have allowed that? she asked herself shakily. More to the point, how could I have enjoyed it?
She shook her head, dropping her eyes back into the basin and the water still swirling there. Snapping off the still running tap, Celeste turned away before she caught another glimpse of that humiliating reflection with its flushed cheeks and over bright eyes.
Pride battled with her ongoing desire. You can't go back out there, she lectured herself. You just can't! What must he think of you to demand such an intimacy without love?
What must he think of you now that you have given it to him, seemingly without love?
Oh,God ...
Celeste's head dropped into her hands, self-disgust beginning to override everything - till that old familiar tape clicked into play and she remembered everything that he had done to her, everything he had set in motion.
Byron might still be her Achilles' heel in a sexual sense, but he didn't have to be in any other way. OK, so she loved him somewhere down deep in her psyche, but she hated him at the same time. He might think he could use her again, but she would prove him wrong there. If anyone was to be doing the using this time, it would be her.
Picking up a hairbrush, she took her hair down out of the combs that kept it back from her face and brushed it out till it tumbled in wild waves around her shoulders and halfway down her back. There seemed little point in putting lipstick on her pink puffy lips so she merely sprayed some perfume over her totally naked body, took a deep breath and opened the bathroom door.
A pair of wintry blue eyes surveyed her nakedness as she walked across the plush-pile carpet. Not that he could make any comment when he was lying in the nude on top of her bed, his arms linked nonchalantly behind his head.
'Are you planning on staying the night?' she asked as she bent over with seeming nonchalance and picked up the robe of the negligee set.
She slid her arms into the silky sleeves and did her best to resist the urge to pull it tightly around her. 'For if you are, I'll go down and lock up.'
When he didn't say anything, she was forced to look over at him. Suddenly, the expression on his face infuriated her. How dared he lie there in judgement of her? How dared he look at her with that hard gleam of contempt in his eyes?
As always, her only satisfaction lay in apparent indifference to what he thought or felt about her. After all, she already knew he still wanted her as much as ever. She also doubted he would be able to resist the temptation to stay and taste whatever other delights he thought she offered all her lovers. That in itself was sweet vengeance.
A softly mocking smile teased her mouth as she drifted back towards the bed, the action of walking sending the robe floating back from its centre parting. She exulted in the way his eyes became riveted to her body, and the triangle of dark curls at the junction of her groin. She sat down on the bed, and crossed her legs, leaning over to place a provocative hand on his nearest thigh, then running it up over his body till it rested on his chest. His heart was hammering like mad beneath her hand and she knew he was hers, whenever she wanted him. He'd crossed a line tonight and she would never let him go back.
'I want you to stay,' she whispered huskily. 'Please, darling .. .'
His eyes flashed with the endearment, his hands whipping down to snatch her wrists and pull her up on to his body.
'You bitch,' he rasped. 'You'll pay for this. I don't know how, but you will.'
'Maybe I already have .. .'
He laughed. 'And what was the price?'
'I've never been able to assess it. What price do you put on one's sanity, or one's life?'
He frowned at this, his hands tightening around her wrists as he dragged her further up on to him. 'What the hell are you talking about?'
'That's what I'm talking about. Hell. A living hell.'
He laughed again. 'Yes, that's what you are all right, Celeste. A living, breathing hell. You've never been any different. Even when you were little more than a child, you were the devil's child, tempting me, corrupting me.'