The Billionaire's Virgin Temptation
‘They woke you,’ Ruby countered. ‘Why not me?’
Sam glanced at the ball of fur at his feet and scowled. ‘Tino and Miller didn’t wake me. He did. Apparently mutts don’t keep normal sleeping hours.’
Any other time his disgruntled scowl might have been endearing, but Ruby wasn’t in an affable mood. ‘So we’re stranded here?’
‘I hardly think you can call us stranded. I can phone any time and charter a boat to come and pick us up.’
‘So why haven’t you done it already?’
Sam gave her a narrow-eyed look, clearly not liking her tone. ‘I don’t know, Ruby,’ he drawled dangerously. ‘Maybe because it’s only seven in the morning and even charter companies have operating hours. And I fell back asleep. Is that a good enough reason for you?’
Ignoring his rhetorical question, she scowled as he pushed to his feet and ambled into the kitchen. Ruby unconsciously tracked his movements, mortifyingly aware of everything about him from his broad shoulders all the way down to his muscular thighs and well-shaped feet. A curl of heat smouldered deep inside her.
‘Want a coffee?’
Aware that she’d been caught staring, she blinked, irritation at her own lack of self-control overriding her embarrassment. The man knew how good-looking he was. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t used to women staring at him.
‘No.’ She raised her chin. ‘What I want is to go home.’
Ignoring her statement, Sam started fiddling with the dials on the coffee machine.
‘Did you hear me?’ she asked briskly. Now that Miller and Valentino weren’t here to act as buffers she saw no reason to continue to hang around and pretend that she and Sam were going to be able to get along.
‘I think the charter company in Circular Quay heard you,’ he said, not bothering to turn around.
‘Good.’ Ruby tapped her foot to keep a lid on her escalating emotions. ‘I hope they send someone over quickly.’ She crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at his broad back. ‘Did you plan this?’
Sam turned slowly towards her, his expression inscrutable. ‘Did I plan what?’ His tone was low and silky and clearly annoyed. ‘Miller’s mother’s accident?’ He placed the flats of his palms down on the granite bench between them, a dangerous glint darkening his eyes. ‘Yeah. I took my private jet over to her house early this morning, knocked her down in her hallway and made it back in time to let Kong out for a toilet break. Not bad, eh?’
Ruby pressed her lips together at his sarcastic tone, determined to keep a lid on her temper. ‘That wasn’t what I meant and you know it. I was talking about Miller and Valentino leaving. If someone had woken me I could have gone with them.’
‘My apologies,’ Sam said in a voice cold enough to freeze liquid nitrogen. ‘It wasn’t that you thought I’d injured an old lady in my quest to have you, just that you think I’m so desperate to get you into my bed that I’d orchestrate Miller and Tino leaving without you. Is that it?’
Okay, put like that, it did seem a tad...hysterical. Not that she’d admit as much to him.
‘Such a high opinion of me, Miss Clarkson,’ he continued with ruthless precision. ‘What will you accuse me of next? Kidnapping? Unlawful imprisonment? A man could get at least twenty years for any one of those crimes with the right lawyer.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she snapped, rubbing her brow.
‘I’m not the one being ridiculous, angel. You are.’
She knew that. She was just too strung-out to care. ‘And stop calling me angel.’ When he did it reminded her of how it had felt to be pressed up against his hard, hot body. And how it would feel to be there again.
‘You know, I’m not sure if I should live down to your clearly heinous opinion of me and drag you into the bedroom to have my way with you, or walk out of here and let you find your own way home.’ He glared at her so hard Ruby felt like a bug under a microscope. ‘Now, do you want a damned coffee or not?’
‘Yes, I want a damned coffee.’ She needed something to get through the debacle of being stranded in this beautiful house, in this beautiful beach setting, with a man who drove her crazy.