most of her mild cockney accent out of her. She’d come from a broken family where finances were erratic. Raul had grown up with wealth and social standing and had all the arrogance such an upbringing instilled.
They couldn’t have been more wrong for each other if they’d got a computer program to determine their worst matches.
But the computer would have got their desire for each other right.
‘That was when I loved you,’ she said hoarsely. For love had grown from the lust, a greater love than she’d ever imagined could exist. Leaving him had been easy. Staying away had been almost unbearable.
And now that love had twisted into hate. But the desire was still there, however deeply she’d thought she’d buried it. ‘If you ever felt anything for me you wouldn’t ask for such a...a despicable thing from me.’
‘Oh, I still feel a great deal for you.’ He swept his fingers up her neck, pressing even closer.
She smothered the gasp that wanted to break out at the feel of his hardness against her.
Take control, Charley. Don’t show your weakness for him.
‘You can’t force me.’ The words she’d intended to come out forcefully were expelled with a whisper. Every inhalation brought him into her tight lungs, that masculine smell that had become as familiar to her as the scent of her home.
Her body remembered. His scent made it sing with delight.
He laughed softly into her ear and traced his fingers up her side. ‘I don’t need to force you.’
As if proving his point, he cupped her breast over her blouse and ran a thumb over a nipple straining against the suddenly restrictive bra she wore. The heat that had pooled low within her deepened, and she pressed her thighs together in denial.
He could demand all he wanted, but she would never give herself to him willingly, not now he was showing his true colours, the colours her love-blinded eyes had forgiven for far too long.
Mortified at her lack of self-control, she tried to wriggle out from beneath him but he was too strong.
‘See, cariño,’ he said, smothering her hands in his own and resting them on the table by her sides, his grip unyielding. ‘The desire between us is as strong as it ever was, however much you try and deny it. When I ask you to open yourself for me, your head might want to say no but your body will be begging for it.’
That his words were true only served to shame her further, which she knew for certain was his intention. She’d humiliated him by leaving him and this was the price he was forcing her to pay.
The worst of it was, her treacherous body was eager to pay the price.
‘I hate you.’
‘I know.’ He dipped his head and nipped her earlobe. ‘Imagine how incredible it will be, all that hate fuelling all that lust.’
Sensation filled her, every crevice of her coming alive at his touch and the whisper of his breath on her skin.
Two years without this...
Somehow she managed to pull her hands free from his grasp, fully intending to use them as weapons to push him off her. Instead, working of their own accord, they hooked around his neck to pull him in for her hungry lips to connect with his. She had no sane comprehension of what she was doing, instinct taking over to seize what her body so desperately wanted.
In that instant, any sort of rationality dissolved from her mind.
In a mesh of lips and tongues, they came together, devouring each other, her fingers digging into his scalp, one of his hands sweeping up her back and nestling into her hair, clasping her head tightly.
His taste filled her, his warm breath merging with her own sending deeper darts of need into her, every part of her aching for his touch, his kiss, his caress...
The hand not cradling her head so possessively swept up her thigh and under her skirt, his mouth still hot on hers, his tongue swirling in her mouth. His finger found the band of her knickers and slid beneath it to feel the heat and dampness at the heart of her.
When he found her, already swollen and aching for him, she gasped...
And then he pulled away, releasing his hold so quickly her legs would have given way if the table hadn’t been there to support her.
There was the tiniest moment when she caught Raul’s own dazed incomprehension before his composure snapped back into place.
He smoothed his shirt down and nodded at the window. ‘The gardener,’ he said tightly.
A rumbling sound played in the distance and through the glass she caught a glimpse of a figure on a ride-on mower just metres from where they were...
It was enough to bring her to her senses.
What on earth had possessed her?
She tugged her skirt back down before straightening.
A taunting smile now played on his lips. ‘See, cariño? I was right. All that hate fuels lust beautifully.’
She wiped her mouth defiantly, loathing herself for being the one to instigate the kiss as much as she loathed him for the mocking tone of his voice and his unscrupulous mind and the power he held over her.
‘It won’t happen again,’ she promised through ragged breaths.
‘I think you’ve told enough lies this past week, don’t you?’
Raul sat back down and reached for a breadstick, waiting for the thunder beneath his ribcage to abate.
How had things got out of hand so quickly?
He’d been taunting her, teasing her, asserting his control, spelling out to her how much he held the upper hand. He’d enjoyed it but had kept his mind firmly on the seduction in hand.
She’d been the one to kiss him, a fact that, from the look on her face, she regretted hugely.
She’d hooked her arm around his neck and his mind had gone blank, desire overshadowing everything else.
The chemistry between them had always been explosive but that...
It had felt as if a coil locked in a too-tight box had finally sprung free.
He’d been seconds away from taking her on the table.
In his haste to free the house for them, he’d forgotten about the ground staff. If he hadn’t heard the sound of the mower, who knew how far they would have taken it?
She still stood by the table, her green eyes firing their hatred at him.
Who did she hate the most? Him for compelling her back into his bed? Or herself for wanting it?
‘So, cariño, do we have a deal?’ He was gratified to hear his voice functioning as normal. He would never allow himself
