It Started With A Proposition. Miranda Lee
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Название: It Started With A Proposition
Автор: Miranda Lee
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Короткие любовные романы
Серия: Mills & Boon M&B
isbn: 9781474035453
isbn:
‘You do realise I will hate you for ever for doing this?’ she grated out under her breath.
‘It’ll be worth it,’ he returned coldly.
What would be worth it? she wondered, and worried.
An image popped into her mind, that of herself standing naked in front of him last Friday night and swearing that he would never see her like that again.
Bold, brave, foolish words. Words which Gino was obviously determined to make her regret.
The waiter taking away their empty entrée plates put paid to any conversation for a short while. The second of their crystal wine glasses was filled. Still white, but a Chardonnay this time, instead of the crisp Chablis which had accompanied the seafood cocktail. Clearly the main course was going to be something light.
‘I should tell you to go to hell,’ Jordan bit out, once the waiters had moved away from them.
‘You should, but you won’t. You’ll do what I want.’
‘Don’t be so sure.’
‘But I am. Because I’m not the only one here who’s heartless and conscienceless. Not to mention ambitious. Oh, yes, let’s not forget ambitious.’
‘You know nothing about the woman I am.’
‘Neither do I want to. I might have once. But I now prefer to keep my knowledge of you to the biblical kind. So is it a deal, Mrs Stedley-to-be? Will you trade total surrender of your body tonight in exchange for my silence?’
‘Total surrender?’ she repeated, aghast and aroused at the same time.
‘Didn’t I mention that?’
‘No,’ she said, shaken by the level of her sexual excitement.
‘I will not ask you to do anything you haven’t done with me before,’ he said.
Jordan suppressed a groan. That didn’t leave much, if anything at all. Her sex-life with Chad had never been as adventurous as it had been with Gino. Not even remotely.
‘You have ten seconds to seal this deal,’ he said, with chilling finality, ‘or I will do what I said I would. Immediately. I have your fiancé’s personal phone number in the menu of my cellphone. A simple visit to the gents will give me the opportunity to call him right now.’
Jordan would have called his bluff if he’d been any other man.
But she knew Gino meant it.
‘In that case,’ she said, her stomach contracting as she tried to imagine the consequences of Gino’s appalling ultimatum. ‘It’s a deal.’
WHEN she agreed, it confirmed to Gino what he’d suspected all week: the sweet, sensual, sincere girl he’d once known and loved had turned into a cold-blooded, gold-digging bitch.
She didn’t love Chad Stedley. How could she when she’d gone to bed with him last Friday night?
But she was wearing Stedley’s engagement ring.
Gino had been furious when he found out she was engaged.
No, furious didn’t do his emotions justice; he’d been absolutely livid.
He’d come here tonight without any definite plan in mind. He’d just wanted to look her in the eye and let her know that he knew what kind of woman she was. But the moment he’d set eyes on her, standing there with her back to him, looking sexy in that prim little black dress, desire had consumed every pore in his body. By the time she turned round, he’d hated her for the way she could make him crave her, despite everything.
Blackmailing her into bed had not been on his agenda, however, till she’d added insult to injury by arrogantly pretending she didn’t know him.
That had been the moment when he’d resolved to bring her down a peg or two. To use her own ruthless ambition against her, at the same time satisfying his own rapidly escalating desire.
Even so, he’d still been shocked when she’d agreed to his proposal. Shocked and stirred. Right now, he was so turned on it would have been embarrassing if he hadn’t been sitting at a table.
‘I hope you’re happy now,’ she muttered.
Happy? No, he wasn’t happy. How could be happy when the only reason she was going to go to bed with him was so that she could marry someone else?
Or was that really the case?
A sidewards glance showed him that her face was flushed. Was that anger, or the same kind of excitement currently heating his own blood?
The sexual chemistry between them had once been electric. That chemistry had still been there last Friday night. There was no reason to believe that had changed just because she’d found out he wasn’t who she thought he was.
Jordan might hate him, but underneath her hatred lay a desire as insidious and as irresistible as his own for her.
Gino could not wait to have her to himself—to have her stand naked for him the way she’d said she never would again—to have her do all the things he’d taught her ten years ago.
The main course arriving only slightly soothed the primitive passions which had begun boiling up within him.
The waiter announced that it was grilled Barramundi, served with a tomato and cucumber salsa, along with baked sweet potato and a fresh garden salad.
Gino fell to eating the meal with gusto. His appetite was always good when his testosterone was up and running.
Jordan, he noticed, just picked at her food. But she drank plenty of wine.
Good, he thought. She was even sexier when she was tipsy, and beautifully co-operative. Or she’d used to be.
‘When?’ she suddenly whispered.
He did not turn his head to speak.
‘When, what?’ he muttered, then forked some more of the mouthwatering fish between his lips.
‘When does all this begin? And where?’
He let her wait for his answer till he’d savoured the fish, then swallowed.
‘As soon as we can get away from here. I’ve booked a suite at the Regency. One of their themed honeymoon suites.’
He could feel her eyes burning into him.
‘How could you?’ she breathed.
‘How could I what?’
‘Book a honeymoon СКАЧАТЬ