body had reacted predictably to the knowledge that Tahlia was his for the taking; his arousal had been instant and uncomfortably hard. But inexplicably he’d also felt a surge of savage disappointment. When she had rejected his offer earlier that day he’d felt a grudging sense of admiration for her, but now he felt nothing but contempt. She was prepared to sell her body to protect her financial security. She was a gold-digger. He would have no compunction about taking her to bed and sating his inconvenient desire for her.
He dropped his gaze to the low-cut neckline of her dress and the provocative thrust of her breasts. Theos, she was beautiful. Heat surged through him and he ruthlessly ignored the faint whisper of regret that it had to be like this, that making love to her would be nothing more than a business transaction. What else could it be? he brooded. He wanted her; she wanted him to bail out her father. It was as simple and clinical as that.
Tahlia caught her breath when Thanos reached out and removed the diamanté clip that secured her chignon. Her hair fell down around her shoulders as soft as silk against her skin, and she watched his eyes darken as he wound a few pale red-gold strands around his fingers. He stayed like that for timeless seconds, his dark eyes scorching her, and then she gasped when his strong arms suddenly closed around her and he jerked her hard against his chest, his dark head swooping and his mouth claiming hers in a kiss of pure possession.
His dominance was absolute as he forced her head back on her slender neck and kissed her fiercely, demanding her complete compliance and proving beyond doubt his mastery. Instinct warned her that Thanos would be a skilled and highly experienced lover, but he had no idea that she was a novice—a virgin who had no real idea of how to please a man.
The hard ridge of his arousal nudging insistently against her thigh was proof that he wanted her, and his low growl of satisfaction when he slid his tongue deep into her mouth filled her with a mixture of apprehension and feminine triumph that she could have such an affect on him. Her senses were swamped by the subtle scent of his aftershave, and fire licked through her veins when she placed her hands on his chest and traced the bunched muscles beneath his shirt. He was so intensely, intoxicatingly male, and he aroused feelings inside her that no other man had ever made her feel.
But the voice of caution in her head, which she had ignored during the taxi ride to his hotel, was demanding to be heard.
This had gone way too far. She should never have started it in the first place, she thought frantically when he finally broke the kiss and drew back a fraction to stare down at her, his eyes glittering with sexual hunger. She ran her tongue over her lips; swollen and sensitive from the unsparing pressure of his mouth, and felt a lightning flare of reaction at her mental image of him making love to her. Her decision to offer herself to him had been born of a desperate desire to help her father. But to sell herself to a man who despised her, who made no effort to disguise his contempt of her? That was beyond desperation—it was insane.
She opened her mouth to tell him she had made a horrendous mistake. But as she was about to utter the words a picture flashed into her mind of her mother as she had been a few months ago, painfully thin and fragile, with a silk scarf wrapped around her head to disguise the fact that she had lost her hair after numerous bouts of chemotherapy. Tonight, Vivienne had still looked fragile, but her head was now covered in baby-fine curls and her smile had been that of a woman who had cheated death and was looking forward to the rest of her life. Her parents had suffered enough, Tahlia thought fiercely. She could not sit back and allow them to lose their home.
‘You don’t come cheap, Tahlia,’ Thanos murmured, with a deliberate inflexion on the word cheap that brought a flush of colour to her cheeks. ‘Before I agree to pay such a substantial sum for Reynolds Gems, I think it only fair that I should see what I’m getting for my money.’
‘I don’t understand,’ she faltered, snatching a sharp breath when he hooked his finger beneath the shoulder strap of her dress and drew it down her arm.
‘I think you do,’ he said softly. ‘Your dress is charming, but I want to see what is beneath the pretty packaging. Take it off,’ he ordered, when she remained rigidly unmoving.
End this now, the sensible voice in Tahlia’s head urged frantically. Tell him you’ve changed your mind, and get out of here fast.
And then what? demanded the reckless voice inside her that she had not known existed until tonight. Go back to her parents and watch her father’s emotional devastation as he broke the news to her mother that they would have to leave Carlton House?
She stared wildly at the door while her mind engaged in a fierce debate. Go—or stay, and sell her soul to the devil?
‘How can I be certain that you will buy Reynolds Gems?’ she asked Thanos shakily. ‘I need some sort of assurance.’
‘My word is the only assurance I’m prepared to give.’ Thanos’s eyes narrowed when she opened her mouth to argue. ‘Take it—or leave it,’ he shrugged uninterestedly. ‘We can call the deal off.’
Tahlia’s brain was racing. She had no option but to take him at his word. He was calling the shots. One night in his bed would mean that her parents’ retirement would be free from financial worries. They need not know what she had done to secure their future. No one would know apart from her. And faced with the choice of sacrificing her self-respect or ensuring her parents’ happiness there was no contest.
Without giving herself time to reconsider, she reached behind her and slowly slid the zip of her dress down her spine. She shot him a lightning glance, and her stomach dipped when she found him watching her intently, the expression in his dark eyes unfathomable. Don’t think. Just get it over with, she told herself. And, taking a deep breath, she drew the straps of her dress down, revealing inch by inch the silver-grey strapless bra she was wearing beneath. She prayed he could not see that her hands were shaking. For this one night she must play the part of seductive temptress.
Her silk dress whispered against her skin as she drew it down over her stomach and hips and allowed the material to slither down her thighs and pool around her ankles. Her French knickers matched her bra, and her stockings were gossamer fine, topped with a wide band of lace which secured them around her slender thighs. She stepped carefully over her dress, terrified that she would stumble on her four-inch stiletto heels. She could not bring herself to look at him, but he slid his hand beneath her chin and tilted her face to his. The sultry gleam in his eyes filled her with trepidation, and at the same time a fierce jolt of shameful excitement.
She was exquisite, Thanos acknowledged, his heart kicking in his chest. He hated himself for his reaction to her, for the urgent tide of desire that swept through his body that weakened and unmanned him. He knew Tahlia possessed the morals of a whore, and he knew the pain she had caused his sister, but his awareness of her consumed him and overrode every other consideration but his need to make love to her.
He inhaled sharply, re-imposing control over his hormones, and trailed his eyes over her in a cool assessment.
‘Very nice,’ he drawled, watching in fascination as twin spots of colour flared on her pale cheeks. Her ability to blush at will was a useful trick in her armoury, as was her air of innocence, he reminded himself impatiently. But he could not prevent himself from reaching out and tracing the fragile line of her collarbone. Her skin felt like satin beneath his fingertips, and her long pale amber hair fell in a curtain of silk around her shoulders. He brushed it aside to reveal the slender column of her throat, then lowered his mouth to the pulse beating frenetically at its base. She smelled divine, her light floral perfume tantalising his senses and driving every thought from his head other than his burning need to possess her.
Tahlia held her breath when Thanos trailed his lips
