The Dare Collection: July 2018. Nicola Marsh

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СКАЧАТЬ and watched him press his forehead to her stomach as if trying to get control of himself.

      As if fighting not to rise and drive that glorious cock into her right then.

      Finally, he helped her get her foot back into her yoga pants and stepped back while she righted her clothing. Roman didn’t speak, didn’t look at her, and she couldn’t help the dip of disappointment deep in her stomach.

      Allie took a fortifying breath and turned for the bar. She needed a drink and to get the hell out of there. She could smell him on her skin, and between that and the orgasm, she was having a hard time remembering why Roman was off-limits.

       So off-limits that I just had his mouth all over me.

      She managed one step before a hand closed around her arm. Allie looked back, waiting to see what he’d do. Roman finally cursed and released her. “We need to talk, Allie. Actually talk.”

      Disappointment warred with righteous anger. “Wrong. As I’ve said half a dozen times already—I am on vacation.” Her orgasm-induced high brought more words. “On the other hand, if you want this.” She motioned to herself. “Then that’s something we can negotiate.” At the look on Roman’s face, Allie almost took the offer back.

      He stepped closer. “You want to separate business and pleasure.”

      “Business and pleasure should always be separate.” She lifted her chin, half-amazed at how brazen she was being, but it wasn’t as if she had anything to lose. Roman wasn’t going to give up—the limited interactions she’d had with him up to this point reinforced that belief—and she also wasn’t going to back down. They could either blow off some steam here on the island before they got back to her dodging his calls and his trying to buy her business out from under her, or they could go their separate ways now.

      There was no happy medium. Not for them.

      His gaze dropped to her mouth. “I can’t promise that. The timeline is too tight and—”

      “I don’t want to hear it,” she cut in. “If you can’t promise you won’t talk about business, then don’t talk at all.”

      That delicious muscle in his jaw ticked. “You make it sound so simple.”

      “It is. It’s exactly that simple.”

      Roman stared at her long enough that she had to fight not to squirm. He smiled, the expression doing nothing to quell the urge. She crossed her arms over her chest. “What?”

      “I don’t have to make any deals with you, Allie.”

      Again, disappointment tried to take over. She fought it back down, but she was less successful this time. She had to make a conscious effort not to let her shoulders dip or her spine bend. “And why’s that?”

      “Because you want me as much as I want you.” He traced a single finger down her throat and over her sternum. “You want me so badly, if I crooked my finger, you’d be back at my villa, naked and coming on my cock. You say you’ll draw the line in the sand, and that’s fine, but you’ll be fighting yourself more than you’ll be fighting me to keep from crossing it.”

      Her growing anger was almost a welcome relief. Allie knew how to be angry. She didn’t let it control her, but most of her successes in life could be chalked up to doing things out of spite. A trailer trash girl from upstate New York couldn’t go to college? Like hell she couldn’t—and she’d get the majority of it paid for while she was in the process with volleyball scholarships. Having a forward-thinking women’s-only gym that paired with a women’s shelter was unconventional? Sure, it was. But that wasn’t going to stop her from going for it full throttle.

      Roman thought he could sit back, kick up his heels and let the lure of his cock draw her in after she’d laid out her terms?

      Not fucking likely.

      She pushed his hand away from her. “You’re wrong.”

      “Am I?”

      She wanted to smack that smug look off his face, but that wasn’t how she operated. She stepped back and then stepped back again. “The terms are what they are. If you can’t respect that, stay the hell away from me.”

      He blinked, as if he hadn’t expected her response. “Allie—”

      “No, you will not ‘Allie’ me as if I’m being irrational. I want you. We both know it. What you don’t seem to be able to wrap your brain around is that while you might be ruled by your cock, I am more than capable of making decisions that aren’t based in sex.” She forced herself to turn around and walk away from him. “If you change your mind, you know where to find me.”

      She didn’t give him a chance to respond before she picked up her pace and made her way back into the lantern light now illuminating the bar area. Becka turned away from the handsome bartender and raised her eyebrows. “You look like you’ve been up to no good.”

      “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She took the bar stool next to her friend and downed the tequila shot waiting for her without hesitation.

      “That was mine,” Becka said mildly.

      “I’ll get you the next one.” She shook her head. “What am I saying? They’re included.” She’d lost her damn mind. There was no other explanation for how she was acting—like a horny teenager who didn’t care what was at stake as long as she got hers. Allie was better than that. She had to be.

      The bartender poured them each another shot and set a fresh margarita in front of Allie. “Ring the bell if you need me.”

      “Sure thing, sweetie.” Becka barely waited for him to walk out of eyesight before she swung around to face Allie. “Explain yourself. I didn’t think you needed assistance, but I can’t tell if you’ve been in a fistfight or fucking against a tree.”

      Allie’s face flamed. “We didn’t have sex.”

      “But you did something against a tree.” She shook her head. “For a woman who says you despise that man, you are having a hell of a time keeping your hands off him.”

      She started to protest, but what was the point? Allie could chalk up the night before to her not knowing who he was, but she didn’t have that excuse this time. She knew who Roman was and why he was here, and she’d still stuck her hand down his pants. “I get around him and my rational brain shuts off. It’s like I have a lady Neanderthal in there, and she’s decided she really likes the look of Roman and wants to bang his brains out and to hell with the consequences.”

      “This is a new thing for you.” Becka downed her shot and set the glass on the bar with a faint clink. “It’s disconcerting, huh? To have rational Allie who follows all the rules overrun by the hindbrain.”

      That was exactly it. She kept saying she didn’t do things like this, but only because it was the truth. Back in New York, Allie never would have laid down the offer she’d just given Roman. She wouldn’t have gone home with him in the first place. She glared at her tequila shot. “I think they pump something into the air on this island to make people act irrational.”

      “Or maybe...just maybe—” Becka nudged the shot into her hand “—it might СКАЧАТЬ