He tilted up her chin, smiling with taunting humour. ‘What’s the matter, Kate? You weren’t sulky like this last night.’
‘Last night!’ she hissed. ‘You tricked me, let me get drunk so that I couldn’t think straight, and then you—’ she broke off in embarrassment.
Damien quirked a mocking eyebrow. ‘Then I what?’
‘I don’t know what you did next,’ she said impatiently, glaring at him accusingly, ‘but I’m sure you didn’t just put me to bed in your room and then meekly sleep somewhere else.’
‘You’re right,’ he nodded. She followed his gaze to the rumpled bed, her eyes taking in the twin indentations in the pillows placed side by side. ‘We both slept in that bed,’ he confirmed.
‘Oh no!’ She put up a hand to her flushed cheeks, unable even to look at him.
‘Oh yes,’ he told her lightly. ‘And you can blame Jerry Saunders for getting you drunk. Your Martini and lemonades were liberally laced with vodka. It’s a famous party trick of Jerry’s. You went out like a light.’
‘Then you—’ she looked confused. ‘You didn’t—’
‘No, I didn’t,’ Damien answered shortly. ‘I’m not in the habit of making love to unconscious women.’
Her confusion deepened. ‘But you—I was in your bed, and you did say you slept there too.’
‘That’s right, and slept is the right word. You’re really quite affectionate when you’re asleep. You snuggled up to me like a baby.’ He smiled, as if the memory of it pleased him.
It didn’t please Kate one little bit, she still wanted to know what had or had not happened the night before. She looked down at the pyjama jacket. ‘This,’ she pulled at the pocket. ‘How did I get into this?’
‘How do you think?’ He laughed at her shocked face. ‘Don’t worry, honey, you aren’t the first female I’ve undressed and taken to my bed. Although they haven’t usually passed out on me,’ he added in that mocking voice she hated, his glittering green eyes openly laughing at her.
‘But did you have to put me in this?’ Her anger was all the stronger at the thought of him removing her clothes.
His smile deepened. ‘Would you rather I’d left you naked? I must say that the idea did appeal to me, but even I have a limit to my control. As it is you’ve nearly driven me insane with wanting you, squirming about in my arms all night. It was only the trusting smile on your face that held me back.’
‘Couldn’t you have put me in my own nightclothes?’ She remembered the sheer baby-doll pyjamas she had packed and blushed at the picture that conjured into her mind.
‘Quite,’ he grinned as he read her thoughts, then picked up a piece of her toast and walked to the door. ‘Believe me, you were safer in that. Wait for me here—I’m just going to shave. You see how thoughtful I am, I wouldn’t like to scratch your delectable skin with my night’s stubble.’ He ran a rueful hand over his darkened skin.
‘Scratch my skin?’ she repeated dazedly.
‘Mm, when I come back and make love to you.’
‘You—you aren’t going to do that!’ She backed away from him, angry with herself for revealing her fear of him.
He halted his exit, the burning passion in his brooding eyes belying her words. ‘I’m not?’ he asked softly.
Kate clutched the pyjama jacket to her, cursing its inadequacy. She must look perfectly ridiculous, verbally denying him and yet here in his bedroom, wearing his clothing. The very air between them was full of intimacy, making a mockery of her and her denials. ‘No, you’re not,’ she said crossly. ‘As soon as you get out of here I’m getting dressed and leaving as soon as I possibly can.’
‘You are?’
‘I am,’ she told him firmly.
Slowly he reclosed the door, his lean body as taut as a bow. ‘Then you’ll just have to suffer the stubble on my chin. I’m not giving you the chance to walk out on me. You cheated on me last night, I’m not giving you the opportunity to do it again.’
All the time he was moving closer to her, the black silk pyjama trousers resting on the arrogant swagger of his hips. She seemed to be mesmerised by the male beauty of him, the completely male aura he emitted, an aura as dangerous to women as a jungle cat to its prey. The only trouble was that Damien had his sights set on something much more prized than food.
‘I—I didn’t cheat,’ she denied desperately. ‘I had no intention of going to bed with you, either now or last night.’
He was standing so close to her now their thighs almost touched. His hard strong fingers moved up to part and caress her lips. ‘Such a kissable mouth.’ His eyes were half-closed with feeling. ‘And you’ve already been to bed with me, the only difference this time will be that I intend taking what you’ve clearly been offering all night. The only reason I haven’t already taken advantage of your offer is that I happen to like my women sober and responsive when I make love to them. And last night you weren’t either of those things.’
‘You aren’t going to make love to me! I—I don’t want you to.’
‘That wasn’t what you were saying to me last night before you passed out,’ he murmured caressingly, his slight nudge to her shoulder knocking her off balance so that she fell backwards on to the rumpled sheets. He lay down beside her, his legs pinning her to the bed. ‘Your lips were telling quite another story then. Let’s see if it’s still the same one.’
Her protests were swallowed up by the savagery of his mouth on hers, by the way his hands took possession of her body, moulding her to him until she could feel the hardness of him against her. She knew that she shouldn’t respond, but her
