Sharon Kendrick Collection. Sharon Kendrick

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       CHAPTER SIX

      THERE was silence in the garden for several minutes, although Romy quickly realised that the silence was not complete.

      Firstly, there was the sound of Dominic’s breathing—ragged and uneven and then gradually approaching something resembling normality.

      And her own.

      She had grown breathless, too, and that had been why she had quickly rolled away from him, for she had correctly recognised her breathlessness as desire.

      And surely giving in to desire would tip the scales in Dominic’s favour once more?

      ‘So what was that called?’ he asked eventually, his voice still sounding sweetly slurred with passion. ‘Revenge for having seduced you with equal ease in the lift that day, perhaps?’ he questioned sleepily. ‘Though if that’s revenge then I’m all in favour!’

      His eyes were still closed, and there was a rueful half-smile on his face.

      ‘Revenge?’ she queried, trying her hardest to keep her voice calm.

      ‘Mmm. Did you cold-bloodedly decide to do to me what I had done to you?’ he murmured, and, turning onto his elbow, he caught her in the dazzling silver blaze of his eyes. ‘Was that your own particular power-trip, Romy—to have me helpless beneath those exquisitely skilful hands of yours?’

      ‘There was a bit of that,’ she admitted cautiously, because she had not intended to tell him anything. And yet somehow, when he looked at her like that, she found herself wanting to pour her heart out to him.

      ‘I see. And did it turn you on? To watch me peak in the middle of the garden in broad daylight, even though you knew that I had misgivings about it all along?’

      Romy hid a smile. ‘Then you disguised your misgivings very well.’

      He cursed softly beneath his breath. ‘Oh, the misgivings disappeared within seconds,’ he murmured. ‘Couldn’t you tell?’

      ‘Then they must have been extremely pathetic misgivings in the first place!’ she challenged, delighted when she heard his deep laugh ring out without inhibition.

      ‘Unimportant ones, certainly,’ he agreed. He shut his eyes and yawned luxuriously, and Romy blushed a deep pink as she allowed her dark eyes to secretly flick over him, realising with a sense of sudden, rather prudish shock that he was completely at ease with his partially clothed state. He didn’t seem at all bothered by the fact that he was lying there with his clothes all in disarray!

      But Romy was. Hot and bothered.

      She stood up quickly and smoothed her white dress down over her thighs.

      ‘Running away?’ he quizzed softly, and she saw that his eyes were not closed at all, but that he was surveying her coolly from between lush black lashes. ‘Just when it was beginning to get interesting, too. Shame on you, Romy—we really can’t keep on doing this to one another.’

      ‘I know,’ she agreed miserably.

      Their eyes met in a long, candid stare and Romy realised with a shudder of horror just what sort of dreadful person she had become.

      And she knew why, too.

      It seemed that all her efforts to change and modify her behaviour had been doomed to failure from the word go—because underneath she was obviously no better than a clone of her shallow and promiscuous mother.

      ‘There is such a thing as mutual satisfaction, you know,’ he pointed out softly.

      ‘And there is such a thing as no satisfaction at all!’ Romy declared irrationally. Because she was damned if she was just going to let him lead her upstairs now, like a lamb to the slaughter.

      ‘So I take it that bed is out of the question?’ he drawled as he began unhurriedly to pull his jeans back up.

      Unfortunately, Romy did not manage to avert her eyes in time. Instead she found herself unable to look away from him, her gaze drawn hypnotically to the wicked glint in his eyes as he slowly zipped up his jeans, in the most deliberately provocative way possible.

      ‘Bed?’ he mouthed at her again, with a lazy smile.

      For a moment, Romy could not deny that she was tempted—sorely tempted. And who in their right mind wouldn’t have been, when the sight of Dominic sprawled sexily on the grass would have tempted a saint?

      ‘Do you usually proposition women quite so blatantly?’ she demanded, her cheeks growing even hotter.

      ‘No,’ he answered slowly, his eyes never leaving her face. ‘But then I have never met a woman who was so refreshingly at ease with her body. Or mine,’ he added, with a grin.

      ‘You make the whole thing sound so commonplace and mechanical,’ she complained.

      He jumped up to tower darkly over her. ‘Do I?’ he mused. ‘Well, it isn’t. Certainly not with you, anyway. In fact, my experiences with you to date, Romy, have been the most unpredictable СКАЧАТЬ