may see it as a flaw, but at times it can be useful.’
Lance shook his head. The way the female mind worked sometimes was beyond his comprehension. ‘There are some things that would tempt a man beyond good sense. Your smile is one of them. However, the ease with which you have managed to get into my house tells me that I must have a word with my butler about increasing the security. Any miscreant from the street could enter. You encountered no one?’
‘No—and I can find my own way to the coach.’
‘I’ll make sure you leave the house without being seen. I insist. I certainly don’t want any of my guests confronting you looking like that.’ Taking her jacket from her, he held it while she thrust her arms into the sleeves. ‘I apologise for the rip. A good seamstress should be able to repair it.’ Placing his hands on her shoulders, he turned her round to face him. ‘I would like to apologise for last night,’ he said calmly. ‘I can’t remember the last time I apologised for anything, so you must forgive me if I appear awkward.’
Belle was not to be so easily mollified. ‘What an arrogant man you are to think that after what you did to me last night and the violence that you threatened, I can be placated with a few words of apology. You can apologise all you like, but it still does not absolve you or solve the problem I shall have explaining what you have done to my grandmother.’
His face darkened with annoyance, and Belle could almost feel his struggle to hold his temper in check. ‘I could say that your own behaviour—by coming here tonight and breaking into my home, is not beyond reproach either. However, I am truly sorry if I frightened you last night. Despite how it looked, it was never my intention to hurt you.’
‘You didn’t hurt me. I was simply furious that you should have the audacity to do what you did. And now if you don’t mind I would like to leave.’
Turning on her heel, she went to the door. Lance followed, halting her by catching hold of her arm and speaking close to her ear from behind. ‘Of course you must go, but before you do, Belle, I will give you a warning. Just one,’ he enunciated coldly. ‘Call it advice, if you prefer.’
‘If I wanted advice,’ Belle retorted, spinning round, her eyes sparking green fire, ‘I would not come to you.’
‘I don’t normally receive guests in my bedroom—but then, you are not my guest, are you? If you break into my house again and come to my room and search through my personal belongings, I will lock you in and not release you until you are well and truly ruined. Do you understand me?’
Belle felt a sudden stillness envelope them. Vividly aware of the heat of his body and the spicy scent of his cologne, she was overwhelmingly conscious of the man behind her. She was irritated by the way in which he had skilfully cut through her superior attitude. She knew she had asked for it, but the magnetic attraction still remained beneath all the irritation.
‘I’m sure you would like nothing more, but I will not give you that satisfaction. Now, can we go?’ He was far too close and Belle was beginning to feel distinctly uncomfortable. The tight tension of regret was beginning to form in her chest that she had dared to come here.
Lance continued to hold her arm. Now the issue of the necklace was out of the way he was reluctant to let her go, and to his way of thinking it was time she received her comeuppance and realised the danger of coming uninvited to a man’s bedroom.
‘Not yet. I have not quite finished with you.’
‘Are you saying I am in danger?’
Black brows arched above gleaming blue eyes. ‘Of the worst kind, I fear. Tell me, Belle, have you ever been kissed?’
The tension in her chest was tightening. ‘No man kisses me except the man I want.’
An almost lecherous smile tempted his lips as his eyes did a slow perusal of her lips before travelling to the slim, erect column of her neck, to the beckoning fullness of her breasts straining beneath her blouse. The all-too-apparent womanliness of her and the heady scent of her perfume evoked a strong stirring of desire, and he felt a familiar stirring in his loins.
‘Then I will have to make you want me, Belle.’
He moved closer, close enough so that she was trapped and could not move without coming into contact with him. He braced his forearms against the door and gazed down at her face. He ached to caress the womanly softness of her, to hold her close, and ease the lusting ache that gnawed at the pit of his belly.
His nearness threatened to destroy Belle’s confidence and composure, but only threatened. This man was far too bold to allow even a small measure of comfort. She lifted her head imperiously, and her eyes glinted as they glared into his.
‘I don’t want you to show me. I don’t want you to touch me, so kindly step back and let me go at once.’
‘Not a chance,’ he drawled. Gripping both her upper arms, he pulled her to him, holding her tightly against his chest, his fingers digging cruelly into her soft flesh.
Resolutely she squirmed against him. She saw his eyes darken in the dim light, his lean and handsome features starkly etched. A strange feeling, until this moment unknown to her, fluttered within her breast, and she was halted for a brief passing of time by the flood of excitement that surged through her. With renewed determination she forced it down.
‘I asked you to release me. I really must go.’
‘What’s the rush?’ he murmured against her ear and brushed warm kisses along her throat. ‘I’d like to show you that I in no way resemble those fancy bucks who dance attendance on you night after night, pouring flatteries and endearments into your ears they do not mean.’
‘Leave me be. And don’t get any high-handed ideas that you are any better than they,’ she stated shortly.
‘Say what you like, Belle, but I suspect that you’d prefer a real man to warm your bed than any of them.’
His statement brought a bright hue creeping into Belle’s cheeks. ‘I find that remark extremely insulting and uncalled for. The conduct of the men I meet at the affairs I attend has been exemplary and I have no complaints. You speak as if you are some great gift to womankind, whereas you could learn a lot from them. And now I wish to leave. Anything is preferable to this. At least they are gentlemen and wouldn’t take advantage of a woman as you are doing.’
‘Don’t you bet on it, but relax, Belle. I’m not going to hurt you.’
An iron-thewed arm slipped about her waist and brought her against that broad chest. Belle thought to remain passive in his embrace and did not struggle as his mouth lowered upon hers, but they flamed with a fiery heat that warmed her whole body. That was when she realised the idea was ludicrous and a gross miscalculation of her power to deny him, for the kiss went through her with the impact of a broadside.
Her eyes closed and the strength of his embrace and the hard pressure of his loins made her all too aware of the danger she was in, that he was a strong, determined man, and that he was treating her as he would any woman he had desire for. Her head swam and she was unable to still the violent tremor of delight that seized her, touching every nerve until they were aflame with desire. Her world began to tilt, and she was lost in a dreamy limbo where nothing mattered but the closeness of his body and the circling protection of his arms.
Moments before she had thought
