Back inside the apartment, he locked the door and activated the alarm.
Chewing her bottom lip, Clelia glanced down the hallway. “Which room shall I use?”
“You mean which room are we going to use.”
She gave him a narrowed look meant to be demeaning, but her eyelashes fluttered in a nervous way. “We don’t need to share a bed.”
“Yes, we do,” he said widening his stance and crossing his arms. He might be enjoying her obvious discomfort a bit too much. Served her right for everything she’d put him through.
She planted her fists on her hips. “Why?”
“To make sure you don’t try anything as foolish as running again.” That wasn’t the whole truth. She was locked in with nowhere to go. He liked the idea of being that close to her, of sharing a bed. They’d done it once and he wanted to hear and feel her breath in the dark again. He liked her reaction, liked that he made her nervous. It showed he had an effect on her. Any effect, even her loathing, was better than nothing.
Untangling his arms, he walked closer. “Nothing is going to happen.” He added in a low voice, “Unless you want it to.”
As he expected, she fled. She turned and walked away with a stiff back and square shoulders. He grinned. The act didn’t fool him. She might walk like she owned this place, but it was still running.
“I’ll maintain control for both of us,” he called after her with a grin.
She entered the bathroom and slammed the door.
When the water in the shower came on, he brought their luggage to the room and fetched two bottles of water from the fridge, which he left on the nightstands. Stretching out on the bed with his back against the headboard, he checked his phone again. There was a message from Cain about pending notes on a mission report and an apology for interrupting Joss’s holiday.
He’d just logged into the report file on his tablet when the bathroom door opened. Clelia stood in the frame, dressed in the white nightdress he’d bought in Vannes. His finger paused above the keys as he took her in. The silk clung to her body, accentuating her curves. His gaze roamed over her, from the hard points of her breasts to the dip of her navel, finally stopping on the small mound in the center of her legs.
He swallowed. The nightdress was the only sleepwear he’d packed. Unless she was going to sleep naked, he’d given her no choice of what to wear to bed. At the time, it had seemed like a good idea. He wanted to see her in the white negligée. Maybe he also wanted to punish her a little for throwing everything back in his face. Now it seemed like the worst idea ever. Lowering the tablet, he hid the hard-on that strained against the zipper of his pants.
She flittered into the room like he didn’t exist. When she dumped the dress she’d worn in the overnight bag on the floor, she flashed him with a view of her naked back and perfectly rounded ass. Wanting had never been the burning, sweet, agonizing pain punishing him now.
“It’s late,” he said in a clipped tone, masking his lust with anger. “Come to bed.”
She turned slowly. Tracing the lace trimming on the V of the neck with a finger, she sauntered to the bed. “I thought you’d be into something more provocative.”
“More provocative?” There was nothing more provocative than her tight little body in that innocent white silk.
“You seem more like the black leather and red lace kind.” She stopped at the side of the bed.
His voice dropped an octave. “Are you teasing me?” With the seductive act, he was going to add, but she was slithering next to him onto the mattress.
She smiled, all smugness. “You’re the one who said you have control.”
The pretty witch was getting her own back. He all but growled. If this was a test, he was going to fail it miserably.
“Is this how you saw me?” She rolled onto her stomach and rested her chin in her hands. “Virginal innocence?”
More or less. Was he that transparent? He clenched his jaw.
“What do you prefer?” she asked. “In normal circumstances, I mean.”
The way the silk draped over her peachy ass left little to the imagination. Resisting the urge to throw a blanket over her as-good-as-naked body, he got up and put away the tablet. Gruffly, he said, “I like what you’re wearing.” Then he added with more snide than needed, “I bought it, didn’t I?”
“Yes, but what turns you on? Good girls or bad ones?”
You. He scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “Get under the fucking covers, Cle.”
Surprisingly, she obeyed, wiggling and ironing out the sheets until she was comfortable in her nest.
He pulled his T-shirt over his head and threw it on the chair before unzipping his pants. She watched him undress, following his actions with her eyes until he stood only in his briefs. He shouldn’t have made that promise about keeping his control. It was a dumb move that gave her too much power. She was testing that power, taking him to the limit.
“What now, Joss?” she challenged, pushing up on one elbow. “Do you still want to sleep in the same bed?”
Ah. If this was a ploy of getting him to sleep in a different room, she had another think coming.
He walked to the bed and stared down at her. “The day will come that you won’t be my little virgin any longer, and then you won’t lie in my bed and act so bravely.”
The seductive smile dropped as her cheeks paled. “I’m not yours, and I’m no longer a virgin.”
Leaning over her, he placed his palms on either side of her face. “To
