‘Sorry. I meant to be, but I got reading and forgot the time.’
‘It must have been fascinating.’
‘It was. Look.’ She showed him the folders. ‘They’re from the place I was studying fashion when I was here before. I’m going back.’
‘You mean as a pupil?’
‘Yes. The current term will finish next week but they’re going to let me join the lessons, just to see if I can still fit in. Then I’ll enroll properly for next term.’
Vincente browsed through the papers while she hurried to get dressed. When she returned he was frowning, but he said nothing until they were settled in a restaurant in the next street.
‘You don’t need to do this now,’ he said.
‘But I want to. I can’t live a useless life. I need to be busy. I’m going to see the estate agent and insist that he makes a real push to sell the apartment, so that I can find something smaller. Then I can have some sort of life of my own.’
‘Are you going to have any time for me?’ he asked satirically.
‘I’ll make a little time,’ she teased. ‘If you’re good.’
‘Good?’
‘I meant virtuous.’
‘Oh, you meant that, did you?’ he demanded sardonically.
‘Now, what else could I possibly have meant?’
‘Eat up, you little shrew.’
Afterwards they strolled back to the apartment, but at the street door he said thoughtfully, ‘I suppose this is the moment when I kiss you virtuously goodnight and go home.’
‘You do and you’re dead.’
Laughing, they went up together. The love-making was delightful and satisfying, but she thought she detected in him a kind of wariness.
‘Why do you keep looking at me like that?’ she asked.
‘I keep wondering what you’re thinking of. Me, or your new career?’
‘Anyone would think you were jealous.’
‘Let’s say I’m possessive. I want you to myself. Jealousy is for people too weak to do anything about it. Don’t ever expect me to behave like a gentleman and bow out. Because, I warn you, I’m no gentleman. Never try to brush me aside.’
She gave him a considering look. ‘Is that what I’m going to do?’
‘You might be foolish enough to try.’
‘And if I did?’
‘I wouldn’t let it happen.’
An awkward imp made her say, ‘But suppose I really wanted to drop you? That would be my decision.’
‘No,
His voice was soft, and in that very softness she thought she detected a hint of menace. The imp grew annoyed.
‘Are you saying that you’d try to force me?’
‘That depends on how you define force. Let’s say that I’d make you change your mind.’
‘And when I’d said the right words-’
‘I’m not talking about words. You would have to really change your mind, really want me, because I’d be satisfied with nothing less.’
‘Good grief, you’re sure of yourself,’ she snapped. ‘Suppose one day things don’t work out to suit you?’
Vincente didn’t answer in words. He simply took her hand, turned it over and laid his lips against her palm. She tried to pull away but his grip, while seeming gentle, was unbreakable. His breath was like a furnace, and his lips tickled her softly so that insistent tremors went through her hand, up her arm.
Yet, even as she responded, she knew that there was something here that was alarming. This wasn’t love or even desire, but a simple demonstration of power. He wanted her to know that he held her prisoner, not with locks and chains, but simply by subverting her own will, making her flesh act in defiance of her mind. And, if he could do that, then he was her master indeed.
She must escape him.
She did so, sliding off the bed and reaching out for her robe, but before she could touch it, it was whisked away, tossed into a corner, and his fingers surrounded her wrist.
‘Let go of me at once,’ she said breathlessly.
‘I only want to talk,’ he said, still holding her. ‘There are things we need to get straight between us.’
‘I said
He ignored her and leaned back, drawing her slowly but inexorably towards him. It was unnerving that such a light grip could be as unbreakable as steel, but there was nothing she could do. When she reached the bed he put his other arm about her waist so that she was forced to sit beside him, unable to move.
‘Don’t fight me, Elise,’ he murmured. ‘Don’t ever fight me. You can’t win. I won’t let you.’
‘It won’t be up to you,’ she said through gritted teeth.
He smiled then, and it almost frightened her. There was no amusement behind it, only a kind of sardonic pity.
‘Don’t fool yourself about that,’ he said. ‘What happens is always up to me.’
‘Never,’ she snapped. ‘You don’t own me and you don’t control me.’
‘Really?’
‘You’re deluding yourself. Let me go at once.’
He ignored her, pressing her back on to the bed with his hand on her shoulder. It was the lightest of touches, with barely any pressure behind it, yet when she tried to escape, she couldn’t. This was like everything else he did, she thought wildly. Determined, calculated-whether it was taking over a company, silencing an enemy or subduing a woman. He was watching her with shadowed eyes, dark enough to swallow all feeling. She could sense only his unrelenting purpose.
When he was sure that she knew resistance was useless, he let his hand drift away from her shoulder towards her breasts, already peaked and firm in readiness for him. Deny it as she might, she was aching for his caress, but when it came it was light, brushing carelessly over first one breast, then the other, almost as though he hadn’t noticed their message.
She lay looking up, furious at her own nakedness and his, more furious still at the fact that her chest was rising and falling with renewed desire, and that there was no way to hide it from him.
He’d only just left her body, she thought, enraged. Just a few minutes ago she had felt satiated, yet with a look and a word he had brought her back to the edge, tense with frustration, raging for the feel of him inside her again, filling her with his power. And he knew it, damn him! He knew everything.
He dropped his head and let his lips trail across her flesh so that wherever he went she was aflame. Then she felt the flickering of his tongue and a groan burst from her, despite her best efforts to silence it, and she raised her hands to her head, digging the fingers into her hair, and arching her back.
Then she realised that he was changing her position, turning her over on to her front and running his hands along her spine. His mouth followed them, while his hands slid down to caress her behind. Her back was tingling as never before. It was a good feeling, yet she wanted to turn over and face him. This position made her so helpless.
Then she forgot everything but what he was doing to her, and how good it felt. Suddenly she let out a sound that was almost a cry. He’d discovered a place at the back of her neck that sent fierce, hot sweetness forking through her. No man had ever touched her there before, and she’d never dreamed that it was a special sensitive place until Vincente discovered it.
He kissed her there with lingering skill, while she lay shaking. Then he gently turned her over, watching her, to know whether his moment was here.
Let it happen, Elise thought crazily. It would be his victory but she no longer cared. Let him have the triumph of claiming her, feeling her enclose him avidly, frantic for what only he could give.
