wasn’t like that,’ Freya defended herself. ‘I wanted us to have a normal life like other couples, to spend weekends together and the occasional evenings rather than you coming home at midnight and taking me to bed like I was a…a whore you paid to pleasure you.’ She set down her coffee-cup with a clatter, her whole body tensing in rejection when Zac strode across the room and stood, towering over her.
‘But that’s exactly what you were,’ he said savagely. ‘I kept you as my mistress and paid for every conceivable luxury you could want, in return for your…services.’ The withering contempt in his eyes as he stared down at her made her feel sick and she shook her head wildly.
‘I never asked you to buy me clothes and jewellery. I never asked you for anything, apart from your time. I wanted you, Zac, not the things you could give me,’ she whispered, but he snorted impatiently and dropped down onto the sofa next to her, trapping her against the cushions.
‘I know exactly what you wanted, and when you decided that you weren’t getting enough from me, you slept with your foppish artist.’
‘I did not sleep with Simon.’ Hurt and frustration exploded inside her and she lashed out at him, only to have him capture her hands and drag her across his lap.
‘The bodyguard saw you,’ he said with a steely calm that alarmed her more than if he had shouted at her. His eyes were hard and utterly implacable and she gasped in shock when he caught hold of the straps of her dress and dragged them down her arms with such force that the material ripped. The bodice of her dress instantly slipped down, leaving her breasts exposed, and when she fought manically to free herself from his hold he pushed her so that she was lying flat on her back.
‘Zac, don’t,’ she pleaded fearfully, terrified not of him but of herself and the certainty that she would not be able to resist him. His barely leashed savagery only added to her feverish excitement and, although she hated herself, she could feel her body’s treacherous response when he skimmed his hands over her ribcage and cupped her breasts in his palms.
‘Don’t deny that you want me, Freya,’ he warned softly. ‘Not after what happened on the dance floor tonight. You don’t know how close I was to spreading you across the nearest table and taking you in front of a room full of onlookers,’ he growled, his voice thick and his accent heavily pronounced as he relived those few seconds when she had trembled in his arms. The shocked confusion in her green eyes had driven him to the edge and since then his arousal had been a throbbing force that he was impatient to assuage.
‘That shouldn’t have happened,’ she muttered, her face flaming. ‘It was just a horribly embarrassing physical reaction. I haven’t dated anyone since we split up. Even if I’d wanted to, I couldn’t when I had Aimee to care for. But I have the same urges as anyone else.’ Although it seemed that only Zac could satisfy those urges, she conceded bleakly. If he could bring her to a climax simply by dancing with her, what chance did she stand if he decided to make love to her properly? she wondered despairingly. But it no longer seemed to matter; his hands were gently moulding her breasts and now his thumb pads were stroking across the tight peaks of her nipples, backwards and forwards until the pleasure was almost unbearable and she felt a sharp tug of desire.
This was dangerous territory and she should beat a retreat, her brain warned, but a curious weakness seemed to have invaded her limbs and she could do nothing but watch as he lowered his head and flicked his tongue across one sensitive crest. With a low cry she put out her hands to push him away, but her wayward fingers strayed to his shirt buttons and worked them free before she pushed the material aside and revelled in the feel of his warm golden skin beneath her fingertips.
It had been so long since she had touched him. She loved the solid strength of his chest and powerful shoulders—loved him, whispered a tiny voice in her head. She was his, totally, and she murmured her approval when he transferred his mouth to her other breast and drew her nipple fully into his mouth. The exquisite sensation built on the need that had begun on the dance floor and was now a greedy, clamouring ache to feel him inside her.
Zac stared down at her flushed face and muttered something beneath his breath before he claimed her mouth in a kiss of pure possession, drawing a response from her that she could no longer deny. A tremor ran through his big body and he tore his mouth from hers to drag her dress over her hips. He loved watching her unguarded response to him and held her gaze as he drew her knickers down and pushed her thighs apart with deliberate intent.
Her eyes darkened to the colour of a stormy sea and she made a little half murmur of protest when he ran his hand through the soft blonde curls and then parted her and slid his fingers deep into her.
Freya held her breath, torn between the need for him to continue his wickedly intimate caresses and the dictates of her pride, which were telling her that she must stop this madness now, before it was too late. But Zac was a master of seduction and his skilful fingers continued to move inside her, while his thumb pad stroked with delicate precision over her ultra sensitive clitoris, building her excitement so that she twisted restlessly and tried to control the delicious spasms that were threatening to overwhelm her.
‘Zac…’ His eyes were focused on her face and there was something shockingly erotic about the way he was watching her while he pleasured her. She was going to die of shame in the cold light of day, but his fingers were moving faster in a sensual dance and with a groan she tipped her head back as wave after wave of incredible sensation tore through her. Only then did he lower his head once more to capture her mouth in a slow, drugging kiss, his tongue dipping between her lips as he mimicked the actions his fingers had performed seconds before.
‘Tell me, chérie, am I the only man who can turn you on like that, or will anyone do when you’re desperate—Brooks, for example?’ Zac’s coldly mocking voice shattered the sexual haze and Freya tensed as pain ripped her apart. His opinion of her hadn’t changed; he still regarded her as unfaithful and his readiness to believe the worst of her was unbearable. Her desire drained away, leaving her so cold that her teeth chattered, and when his hand moved to the zip of his trousers she felt sick with misery.
‘Don’t,’ she pleaded through numb lips, her eyes huge and overbright in her white face. ‘I don’t think I could bear it. You’ve made your point, Zac, and we both know that I’m pathetically incapable of resisting you. But if you make love to me tonight I think I might hate you almost as much as I hate myself.’
For a few mindless seconds, Zac was tempted to ignore her. He had never wanted a woman the way he wanted her, never been held at the mercy of such a gnawing hunger that caused a cramping pain in his gut. He was in agony, damn it, and he knew he could make it good for her too. But the glimmer of her tears was getting to him, even though he despised women who were able to turn on the waterworks whenever it suited them. Freya was not one of those women, he conceded grimly, and the stark vulnerability in her eyes unearthed a flare of compassion in him that he’d never known he possessed.
With a furious oath he jerked away from her, his nostrils flaring with the effort of controlling his urge to take her. ‘Cover yourself and get out,’ he growled, flinging her dress at her before he strode over to the bar. He’d known from the moment he stood by her hospital bed that she would be trouble and he couldn’t fathom what madness had made him bring her back here. The day couldn’t come too soon when he would be able to dismiss her from his life for ever, he thought savagely as he slugged back his drink and poured himself another. But when he swung round to tell her, she had gone.
Freya leaned over the cot and brushed her lips over Aimee’s velvety soft cheek. The toddler’s lashes were already drifting down and within seconds she was asleep, worn out from an energetic afternoon playing with Jean Lewis in the roof-garden.
Jean
