He took them in his long, brown fingers and then calmly dropped them on the floor. The next thing she knew, she was locked in his arms. Her shocked exclamation earned her nothing but the fierce pressure of his mouth and the hot, hard, probing thrust of his tongue. In the dim distant swell of her own pounding heartbeat, she was aware of the hunger he fed into that kiss and the tension locked into his hard-muscled frame. One of his hands took a rough hold of her hair, while the other was a clamp on her hip that kept her pressed tightly up against him.And if she had never experienced the full force of a man’s passion before, then she was learning all about it now. He kissed her deeply until she whimpered, letting her feel the growing power of his desire. He muttered something when she trembled against him, then he swung her off her feet and carried her to the bed."Don’t," she choked out when he lowered her down there and looked as if he was going to follow.But he didn’t follow. He sto
The next thing Charley became aware of was stepping out of the church into brilliant sunlight and a cacophony of sound. Cameras flashed, her heart fluttered into sudden panic, and the man standing beside her drew her closer to his side. Two rows of dark-suited security men formed a barrier to hold back the curious onlookers, and Dami hurried her down through this corridor of safety to a waiting limousine, his arm not leaving contact with her until he had seen her safely shut behind the car door.The car sped off the moment he’d settled beside her. The hazy glaze lifted from her eyes. Silence stung. It was over. She’d done it. She’d married her best friend’s fiancé. The air sounded choked as it left her lungs."So you do remember how to breathe," Dami’s quietly sardonic voice said beside her."It seems so," Charley thought without attempting to offer a reply.Instead, she looked down at her hand, where a traditional gold band now adorned her slender white finger. Across the gap separat
The car slowed then, sending her eyes to the side window to see that they’d arrived back at the villa without her noticing. Her biggest surprise was that she hadn’t known there was a different way into the villa than via the lake. Now a huge pair of heavy iron gates were in the process of swinging open. The car glided through them and on through extensive gardens to pull to a smooth halt beneath a covered portico at the side of the house.She hadn’t dared to come outside while she’d been staying here because she hadn’t wanted any members of the press to snatch a picture of her from their siege position on the lake. But glancing towards the lake now as Dami helped her alight from the car, she was stunned to see that it was no longer there! All view of the lake had been totally blocked by a wall of sturdy white canvas that had been erected along the cliff edge—she assumed to frustrate greedy camera lenses from taking pictures of the wedding celebration about to take place.The whole cel
Oh, please don’t, Charley thought helplessly, so horrified that Dami was intending to take this romantic stuff that far that her lips came together with a snap to stop the groaned protest from slipping out.But the protest glowed in her eyes as she came back downstairs dressed in a soft green wraparound dress that clung lovingly to her figure and swirled around her knees.Dami was already waiting at the bottom of the stairs for her. He had changed too, into a soft coffee-colored linen suit and a simple tee shirt that made him look cool and casual and superbly stylish—and just too darn sexy to be fair.He looked up at her, and something flared in his eyes that made her steps falter as her heart gave a fluttering stir. Then the expression was gone, and he was holding out a hand in a silent command for her to continue down the rest of the stairs.When she came close enough, he took hold of her hand and drew her towards him. His lips arrived at her temple; she felt the heat from his body
He was lounging in the seat beside her, the absolute epitome of casual nonchalance, but Charley saw the tension around his mouth."Why?" she breathed.His golden eyes flickered over her. "He upset you."He upset her, "He’s my father," she snapped out. "He’s allowed to upset me!""I am your husband," he countered. "I am allowed to remove all upset from your life."Charley threw him a look of burning dislike. "You upset me." Does that mean you’re going to remove yourself from my presence?"Not while we are flying at ten thousand feet." He grinned—then stopped grinning and sighed instead. "Stop spitting hatred at me, Charlotte, and explain to me why your father believes he can treat you the way that he did today."So she told him about her mother in a cool, flat, dignified voice, unaware that he watched every fleeting expression that passed across her face because she refused to look at him as she talked."So you see," she concluded, "he sees his worst fears for me materializing in our w
And the skin covering the muscles she could see shaping his body wore a sheen that made her think of suntan oil, though she knew the effect was due to his own natural oils conditioning his skin while he slept.Her husband, she thought, trying the title out to see how it felt, and still finding the concept as alien to her as having the two of them lying here together in this bed."Grey," a deep, dark, slumberously warm voice murmured.Charley started, her eyes leaping up to his face. He was awake. She tensed, her fingers gripping the duvet. She would have dived right out of bed if she weren’t aware that she was wearing the sheerest leaf green bra ever fashioned and matching panties that made a mockery of the name."Sexy soft smoky gray—no, don’t move away," he said when she went to do just that, and with a lithe shift of his body, he rolled onto his side and propped his head on the heel of his hand so he could look down into her wary face and the scented fire flow of her hair where it
With a softly uttered, tense expletive, he came back to her mouth, his hand sliding beneath her to draw her up against him. The next thing she knew, the clasp of her bra had sprung free, and he was lying her back against the pillows again, and the scrappy bit of mesh was being trailed away."You are exquisite," she heard him rasp through the hazy mists of her ravaged senses.Then he was taking her mouth once again, crushing the pulsing softness of her lips and dipping deep and hungrily with his tongue at the same time that his hand closed around her breast again, naked now and so alive to his touch that she cried out in half protest, half sense spinning pleasure, and grabbed blindly at his head, her fingers clawing into the glossy thickness of his hair.He kneaded and shaped and kissed her breathless. She could feel the tremors attacking him, the fevered flush of his body, and the tension in him. She trapped his groan with her tongue when he pressed the distended tightness of her nipp
Snatching up her skirt and shimmying into it, she finally felt brave enough to turn around. He was standing on the other side of the bed, with the bulkhead almost touching his broad shoulders. And he was still so boldly naked that she wished her ravished senses would just curl up and die. The soft light from the bedside lamp played across the flexing muscles in his shoulders as he pulled on his trousers, the taut clench of his stomach, and his hair-roughened chest.Dragging her eyes away from him, she missed the way he lowered his own eyes to the burgeoning fullness of her breasts, moulded by fine knit fabric so the tight peaks of her nipples pushed against the cloth."I’m not going to apologize for calling a stop to what you said was not going to happen," she tossed back her hair and said.He hooded his eyes and brought the old cold cynicism back with a vengeance. Bending down towards the bed, he picked up something. ‘Here…’ He tossed it at her. "You had better put this on before you