A flush of color stained her cheeks and her eyes shimmered with moisture making them look bigger and even more vulnerable than ever.
“Look, I admit I made a mistake,” she said fervently, her voice even more wobbly now, “but no harm came of it and I promise you I will be far more vigilant from now on. She won’t move an inch without me being on her shadow.”
“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head and fighting back the growing physical need to reach for her that rose inexorably from deep within him.
“She needs a nanny. If not me, then who else is there, Raoul? Catherine’s not even two weeks out of surgery and she won’t be home from her sister’s for a couple of weeks yet. She couldn’t possibly be capable of chasing and looking after an active child at that point—she’ll barely be able to care for herself. Ruby could very well be walking by then, if the past few days are any indication. Who else can look after her? You?”
A cold dash of terror quelled the heat of his desire. There was no way he was assuming sole responsibility for Ruby. He simply couldn’t. If Alexis, a trained nanny, could make a mistake like today, what hope did he have?
Alexis continued with her tirade. “I suppose you could always put her into day care but is that really what Bree would have wanted? Wasn’t it always her wish to have her children raised at home? Can’t you at least respect her wishes in that? You lock yourself up in this house as if you want to bury yourself in her memory, but don’t you know how furious she’d be with you for pushing everyone away?”
“Enough!” he all but shouted back. “You’ve made your point. You have one more chance. But that’s it, Alexis.”
“What’s the matter, Raoul?” she goaded. “You don’t like to hear the truth?”
“Don’t,” he warned. “Don’t mess with what you know nothing about.”
“I know Bree would have hated to see you like this. So cold and closed down that you can’t even show love or care to your own daughter!” Alexis persisted.
Raoul flew out of his chair and around the desk, grabbing her by her upper arms and swinging her around to face him.
“You think I don’t feel? That I’m cold and don’t care? Let me show you just how wrong you are.”
Without thinking, he lowered his mouth to hers, his lips laying claim to hers with a sense of purpose that drove him to take and to plunder with little care for the consequences. She uttered a tiny moan, her arms coming up around his shoulders, her fingers pushing into his hair and holding him. Even now she sought to comfort him, it seemed.
But comfort was the last thing on his mind.
He softened his onslaught as he took the time to luxuriate in the soft plumpness of her lips, to taste the sweetly intoxicating flavor of her mouth and to—just for this moment—lose himself in sensation.
A shudder racked his body and he pulled her in closer to him, molding her body along the length of his own. Her hips tilted gently against the growing ridge of his erection, sending a spear of want through him that threatened to make his legs weaken beneath him.
His hands reached for her waist, for the hem of her shirt. He lifted the thin fabric, groaning against her as he felt the soft delicate heat of her skin. He stroked his hands upward until they came into contact with the rasp of her lacy bra. Beneath the lace her nipples jutted out, tight beads of flesh. He brushed his thumbs over them, once, twice. Oh, what he wouldn’t give to take them, one by one, into his mouth right now. To tease her and taste her. To discover every last secret of this woman who’d remained a shadow in the back of his mind from the day he’d first met her.
The thought was as sobering now as it had been back then. Reluctantly Raoul dragged his hands out from beneath her top and reached up to disengage her arms from around his neck. As he gently pushed her back his eyes met hers.
Desire reflected back at him, magnifying the demand that still surged and swelled inside him. Her lips were slightly swollen, glistening with temptation.
Raoul let her go and took a step back.
“Trust me, I feel,” he said, his breath coming in heavy puffs. “Too damn much.”
Six
Alexis stood in the study, watching Raoul’s retreating form with a stunned expression on her face. What the hell had just happened? Well, okay, realistically she knew exactly what had just happened—but why?
One second they’d been arguing, the next... She raised a shaking hand to her lips, lips that still felt the searing heat of his possession. Her entire body pulsated with energy. Energy that begged for release. She slowly shook her head in disbelief. She’d always been attracted to him, she’d known that, but this...this reaction went way further than simple attraction. This went bone deep, soul deep. And it left her wanting so much more.