Uncertain Destiny. Carole Mortimer

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СКАЧАТЬ of going to bed shortly after Tony had left when the telephone began to ring. Envisaging another unexpected night on duty when one of the night-staff had let them down, she picked the receiver up with a groan.

      ‘So you and Shepherd don’t sleep together,’ came the husky greeting.

      Caroline stiffened, instantly alert, moistening suddenly dry lips. ‘Justin?’ she said uncertainly.

      ‘Unless some other man questioned you tonight about your relationship with Shepherd,’ he acknowledged drily.

      She gave an irritated frown; she had expected to hear from him, but this! ‘I don’t know anyone else that arrogant,’ she admitted abruptly, somehow knowing that amusement had darkened his gaze. ‘How did you get my number?’ she prompted waspishly.

      ‘I telephoned Paula first and asked her,’ he revealed calmly.

      ‘You—–’ She gasped, closing her eyes as she imagined what the other woman had made of that, the answer not a pleasant one.

      ‘Would you like to add “bastard” after the “arrogant"?’ he mused.

      ‘Yes!’ she snapped. ‘And how do you know Tony isn’t waiting in the bedroom for me right now?’ she demanded angrily.

      ‘Paula was only too eager to tell me that you and her brother don’t sleep together,’ Justin mocked. ‘I believe she imagined it would deter my interest.’

      Caroline gripped the receiver tightly, ashamed of how much she hoped that hadn’t happened. ‘And did it?’ She waited breathlessly for his answer.

      ‘Not in the least,’ he answered confidently. ‘I like a woman who can be a little choosy about who she goes to bed with.’

      Did he also like a woman who hadn’t been to bed with anyone? she wondered a little dazedly. Really, the man had no scruples at all, telephoning her in this way!

      ‘How do you know that choice will include you?’ she snapped, annoyed at the awkward situation he had put her in with Tony and his sister.

      ‘Are you saying it doesn’t?’ His voice had gone huskily soft.

      She didn’t even know why she was having this conversation with him! He wasn’t her type at all, was too worldly, too sophisticated, too experienced when it came to women. He had known exactly how to pique her interest tonight, to keep her dangling there until he decided to draw her into his web of sensuality.

      ‘Caro?’ he prompted gruffly.

      Oh, God, just the sound of her name on his lips caused a shiver of awareness down her spine!

      ‘All right,’ he chuckled softly at her dazed silence. ‘I don’t find making love over the telephone very satisfying either. Dinner tomorrow?’

      By tacit agreement she and Tony hadn’t seen anyone but each other the last eight months, and no words of a permanent relationship had been mentioned between them, yet she knew it was an accepted thing between them.

      She wasn’t about to jeopardise her relationship with Tony just because of a mad attraction for Justin de Wolfe!

      ‘I’ll only keep asking, Caroline.’ Justin seemed to realise she was about to say no; his voice was hard. ‘And if Tony told you anything about me at all you have to know I never give up when I want something as badly as I seem to want you.’

      Tony hadn’t exactly said that, but he had told her this man never lost, which amounted to the same thing!

      ‘Look, Caroline, if my honesty in admitting I want to make love to you is too much for you to accept, then I’m sorry,’ he said impatiently at her continued silence. ‘But I stopped going out on platonic dates years ago. And if you think I make a habit of picking up women at parties you would be wrong about that, too,’ he added in a hard voice. ‘My libido is as strong as any other man’s,’ he admitted derisively, ‘but I rarely have the time to indulge it. Now will you have dinner with me tomorrow night?’

      She had a feeling that when this man did rouse himself enough to show a preference for a particular woman he never received a lukewarm response, let alone faced the possibility of being turned down. As he was about to be!

      ‘I’m busy tomorrow night,’ she told him dismissively.

      ‘Caro—–’

      ‘I said no, Mr de Wolfe,’ she refused firmly as the silky caress of his voice threatened to once again seduce her.

      ‘I meant it when I said I would keep asking, Caroline,’ he warned grimly. ‘I can’t take no for an answer from you.’

      Her hand shook as she slowly replaced the receiver, half expecting him to ring straight back, but realising when he didn’t do so that he was wise enough to know that would just make her even angrier.

      When she met Tony the next night she knew Paula had lost no time in telling her brother of Justin’s interest. It didn’t seem to matter to Tony that she had refused to see the other man. He was furious that Justin de Wolfe had asked her out at all, seemed to think she must have encouraged the other man in some way—Justin de Wolfe, reputedly not a man to exert himself for any woman.

      But he seemed determined to do so for her, turning up at the most unexpected times during the next three weeks, meeting her as she came off duty, calling around at the flat, and always with the purpose of repeating his dinner invitation.

      Much as she hated to admit it, this show of attention from a man who rarely bothered with women at all began to affect her, and in a strange way she began to look forward to seeing him, the sexual tension between them building each time she did so. Ultimately it affected her relationship with Tony; she was no longer at ease in his company as he seemed to regard her suspiciously. Finally he lost his temper completely and told her he thought they should stop seeing each other, that she should go out with Justin de Wolfe and see how fascinating she found him when he left her after a few dates!

      She hadn’t thought Tony could mean what he had said, expecting him to come round and apologise, but after three days of waiting she realised he had meant every word. Her hurt turned to anger, and the next time Justin asked her out she accepted.

      When she opened the door to him at seven-thirty that evening she knew she had made a mistake. Tonight even the veneer of civilisation had been stripped from him, the black evening suit and snowy white shirt doing nothing to disguise his primitive savagery. Any idea she might have had about just being another conquest to him was wiped out as she met the blazing desire in his gaze; Justin was a man who usually held himself in cool control, and he no more welcomed this feeling of helplessness to desire than she did. He just knew it was useless to fight the inevitable.

      Being taken into his arms was inevitable, too. Her throat arched as Justin’s mouth came down firmly on hers, both of them exploding with a need that had barely been held in check since the moment their gazes first met.

      She could taste him, feel him along every nerve-ending in her body, knew that Justin’s veneer of sophistication had slipped because he was just as unnerved by this desire.

      He kissed her deeply, hotly, his hands moving over her body with fevered insistence, cupping one pert breast to caress the pulsing nub with fiery rhythm.

      Her СКАЧАТЬ