thinking of coming back in the morning, if that’s all right with you?’
‘Of course it’s all right with me! Why wouldn’t it be?’
‘I thought you might have decided to hire somebody else in my absence. I wouldn’t have blamed you. I know your work is very important and you need somebody reliable to—’
‘Do you honestly think for one moment that I would go behind your back and hire someone else when the reason you’ve come back home is because you were assaulted by someone who worked for me?’
Clearly exasperated, Adrian dragged his fingers irritably through his damp hair, his expression almost feral. Liadan couldn’t take her eyes off him at the realisation that, despite needing a reliable housekeeper to take care of the house while he worked, he wouldn’t even consider employing someone else in her absence. Even if it meant that things were difficult for him.
‘You seem so angry, and I don’t understand why.’
‘I’m not angry with you, Liadan, even though it might seem that way. I’m merely furious with myself for hiring Steven Ferrers in the first place. For that appalling error of judgement I can’t forgive myself.’
‘You already blame yourself for far too much, Adrian.’ Her hands itched to reach out and comfort him and her body ached to hold him, but Liadan forced herself to stand her ground even though to be so near and yet so far was pure torment…
‘What do you mean?’ His dark gaze bemused, he stared at her.
She realised with horror that she’d been about to blurt out what she’d read in his newspaper about Nicole’s death. About the fact that he believed he should have died instead, that her death was somehow his fault. Instinctively knowing that that would have been just about the worst move she could make, because he wasn’t a man who would willingly admit to vulnerability in any way, Liadan furiously back-pedalled.
‘I only meant that it wasn’t your fault that Steven did what he did. We’re all responsible for our own actions, aren’t we?’
Hovering in the narrow doorway of the kitchen, Liadan smoothed her hands nervously down the front of her robe, unwittingly dislodging the material covering her chest. Adrian stared, dry-mouthed. The sensual globe of one perfect breast was almost revealed in its entirety. As heat careened straight into his groin and ignited desire almost too violent to be tamped, he nearly forgot his own name. With her long red-gold hair curling prettily over her shoulders and clearly wearing nothing but that virginal white robe, she was like one of the sirens from Greek mythology. Only it wasn’t just her soft, sweet voice that was luring him. Everything about Liadan aroused his excitement, from the way she moved her slender yet curvaceous body, to her naturally compassionate and loving nature.
Her loveliness enticed him to a temptation so great that it was impossible for him to think about anything else other than getting her naked as soon as he could and showing her in no uncertain terms just what she did to him. If he was honest, wasn’t it desire that had driven him out in the foulest of weathers to seek her? He’d needed to see her. He desperately needed to be in the same room as her and breathe the same air…
‘Come here.’
‘Why?’ Following his burning glance, Liadan gasped when she saw what he was looking at. Covering herself immediately, she silently cursed her lack of finesse. Damn! She should have thought about throwing on some clothes before answering the door. Now Adrian was making her unravel simply by looking at her, the carnal longing in his eyes brazen and unmistakable. What could he do to her already-quivering body if he touched her as if he meant it? Just as every inch of her was aching for him to do?
‘If you don’t come over here, Liadan…I’ll just have to come over there.’
She knew he was serious. Knew it in every tingling fibre of her being. Just as she knew she was too weak to deny him…didn’t want to deny him because she’d been craving his attention this way for too long…
‘What is it?’ Moving to stand in front of him on legs that felt as though she stood on the deck of a ship in a storm, she dared to meet the naked invitation in his disturbing dark eyes.
‘You can ask me that when I’m so consumed by my longing for you that I can’t think about anything else?’
There was a sharp intake of breath. Whether it was his or hers, Liadan couldn’t have said for sure. But when he curled his fingers round the edges of her robe and with one sure, firm tug exposed her breasts to his hungry, rapacious glance, the long, shuddering sigh that followed was definitely her own.
‘I want to touch you. I want to touch you everywhere,’ he growled. Then, lowering his mouth to one exposed breast, he took her deep inside his scalding heat and suckled her hard. Liadan’s slender hips bucked against him and in the next breath she was anchoring her fingers in his thick, dark hair, moaning his name and letting him push the rest of her robe from her shoulders so that she stood naked in his arms. Her craving to touch him was as passionate and rapacious as his. Desire was like a molten, flowing river pulsing unstoppably through her veins, carrying her relentlessly along with no help for it but to submit completely to its power.
Hands shaking, she helped him remove his black wool sweater, frustrated at fingers and thumbs that wouldn’t work quickly enough. Then, unadulterated pleasure rolling through her at the sight of his wonderful masculine chest, she looked her fill. He had biceps of steel and abdominal muscles of iron and Liadan ran her fingers across his flat, male nipples and would have bent her head to kiss him there had he not swept her high into his arms and carried her to the armchair. With a secret little smile playing maddeningly around his irresistibly sexy mouth, he positioned her in his lap so that he had full access to her breasts and her mouth. Then, capturing her lips in a hard, hot kiss, he unzipped his jeans, sheathed himself with the protection he’d produced from his back pocket and thrust deeply inside her.
For a moment Liadan truly thought she saw stars. In her wildest, most uninhibited dreams she’d never dreamt a man’s possession could be like this…so hot, so untamed and so unbelievably, exquisitely perfect. As Adrian’s hands guided her hips down upon him in deeply rhythmic, sensuous motion she was suddenly ferociously glad that she hadn’t slept with Michael.
‘You’re so beautiful,’ he told her with a heated, possessive glance. ‘A golden girl. So…hot and…tight…’ As much as he prided himself on making sure his lover had just as good a time as he did, Adrian knew without a shadow of a doubt it wouldn’t be long before this lovely, fascinating girl took him over the edge. Her body was sinfully beautiful. She surprised him with a wanton sensuality that he could hardly have believed, her long hair flowing over her lovely satiny breasts as she bent her head once more to receive his kiss, and Adrian knew he wouldn’t easily be able to give her up when the time came. The thought made him thrust even more deeply inside her as if staking a claim for all eternity and Liadan cried out as Adrian felt the hot, rhythmic contractions of her muscles holding him fast. Then he was quickly following her, groaning out loud with the ecstasy of it as his body succumbed to wave after wave of the most turbulent, erotic pleasure known to man.
CHAPTER TEN
‘ARE you sure you wouldn’t like a hot drink?’
Liadan was wrapped up once again in her soft towelling robe, and her glance was nervous as she watched Adrian reaching for his waterproof at the back of the door. Although she hadn’t really expected him to stay the night, she still couldn’t help feeling hurt that he was leaving so abruptly after their passionate union. But she wasn’t insensitive
