Untamed Billionaires: Marriage: For Business or Pleasure? / Getting Red-Hot with the Rogue / One Night with the Rebel Billionaire. Элли Блейк

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      While the bath filled she paced the bathroom, fiddling with the fancy toiletries, picking them up, putting them down, trying not to stare at her reflection as she did so.

      The odd times she caught a glimpse in the disastrously monstrous mirrors, she didn’t like what she saw.

      A woman in sexy lingerie with thoroughly kissed lips, shining eyes and a glow no amount of blush could induce.

      A woman who’d subconsciously bought the sheer ivory lace demi-cup bra and matching knickers edged in rosebuds in the hope the man she still fancied might get to see it.

      A woman who was kidding herself.

      That stung most of all, the fact she was a smart, astute businesswoman yet here she was playing silly games with herself.

      She wanted Nick.

      It all came back to that.

      Her job and the promotion might be the reason she was here but right now, this very second, Nick was her motivation for staying in this suite when she could’ve quite as easily escaped.

      She hated manipulation, hated lies: dear old Dad had seen to that. So why was she wasting time lying to herself now? She’d be gone in a few months, back to her orderly life. Why not make the most of the time they had?

      For if she slept with Nick or not, spending the next eight weeks with him would break her heart regardless. At least this way she’d have some fun.

      After closing off the gold taps, she carefully slipped out of the lingerie—she had high hopes for the stuff now—and dipped under the lavender-scented bubbles to her neck, resting her head against the giant Jacuzzi and sighing with pleasure.

      Closing her eyes, she savoured the lavender scent infusing her senses, soothing, relaxing, helping her mind wander. And wander it did, taking a stroll down memory lane, to the first time Nick had made love to her.

      Inviting her to dinner at the plantation when Papa had taken a business trip to Brisbane, the lukewarm pizza they’d fed each other while sitting on the frayed love seat on the back veranda, the icy cola fizzing up out of the can and dousing her in stickiness, Nick’s tongue licking it off her…

      He’d made her first time beyond special. He’d been caring and gentle and amazing, treating her virginity like a precious gift she’d given him.

      She’d never forgotten it, never forgotten him and it was high time she stopped pretending she didn’t want to recreate the magic they’d once shared between the sheets.

      Sinking under water to sluice away her memories, she thought she’d done a fair job by the time she resurfaced.

      Until she opened her eyes and saw Nick leaning against the bathroom door, staring at her with barely disguised lust in his incredible dark eyes, looking like a man in definite need of a bath.

       CHAPTER EIGHT

      NICK took several surreptitious breaths, willing his pulse to slow and his heart to stop pounding. At this rate, he’d collapse on the spot if it kept thumping with such ferocity.

      ‘You came back.’

      Her tentative smile had him gripping the door jamb to stop from striding across the bathroom, sweeping her out of the bath and holding her close.

      Thankfully, only her head was visible, the rest of her delectable body submerged under a bubble cover that threatened to spill out onto the black-and-white-tiled floor. Not that the bubbles hampered his imagination. He could picture exactly what delights were hidden beneath those bubbles and the images weren’t helping his heart rate.

      ‘Yeah, couldn’t stay away.’

      ‘I’m glad.’

      Her tongue flicked out to moisten her bottom lip in a totally innocuous gesture that slammed into his conscious like a bull ramming a gate in mating season.

      ‘Are you?’

      He was too old to play guessing games, too wound up to figure out why the turnaround.

      He’d come back because this was his wedding night and, while lust might have temporarily blinded him to the real reason behind this marriage, the sight of more international guests checking into the hotel had alerted him to the fact he needed to make this marriage look real for investors to accept him as one of their own.

      It was the reason he’d come up with this crazy scheme in the first place but somewhere along the line—probably around the time he’d first set eyes on his beautiful bride—his motivation had blurred until all he could see was Britt.

      She nodded, gathering more bubbles with her hands on the surface and bringing them towards her chest. Damn, what he’d give for a fan now.

      ‘Uh-huh. I didn’t like how things ended before. Why don’t you let me finish up in here and we can talk?’

      Talk? She wanted to talk?

      With that small smile curving her lips, droplets clinging to her eyelashes and her hair falling in tendrils around her face—he wasn’t even going near those damn bubbles—talk was the furthest thing from his mind.

      The corners of her mouth twitched as if she knew exactly what he was thinking and he quickly thrust his hands in his pockets and back-pedalled a few steps.

      ‘Fine.’

      ‘Give me five minutes and I’ll be out.’

      Her smile could’ve fogged up the mirror a lot more than the fragrant steam rising from the water and he managed a terse nod before backing out and closing the door.

      Damn it, why hadn’t she closed the door in the first place? Didn’t she know the effect she had on him?

      Of course she did. Then why the nasty thought that suddenly insinuated its way into his lust-hazed brain, making him see sense in her behaviour.

      Since she’d arrived, she hadn’t shown much interest in him as a man. Sure, she’d teased him, but that was nothing new, she’d always done that. The teasing often included flirting but that came naturally too.

      He’d been the one to kiss her when she’d first arrived home.

      He’d wanted to kiss her after dinner at his place and she’d pulled away.

      He’d wanted to share a room tonight; by her reaction earlier it was pretty obvious she didn’t.

      Sure, she’d responded to his kisses, but maybe that had been for old times’ sake? Giving in to him not to antagonise him, not to jeopardise their deal and her precious promotion? Made sense.

      In reality, how far did he want to take this?

      She’d be gone once her business here was finished, back to her high life in London, and he’d be left behind again, pretending he had a modern marriage where two busy business people lived on opposite sides of the planet.

      He’d СКАЧАТЬ