by Amelia Elias
And very, very turned on.
Sian shivered against him and it was all he could do not to toss her onto the couch and claim her in the most primitive of ways. “That’s what I wanted to talk to James about,” she whispered. “I can’t wear what he got me.”
God bless you, James, Diego thought vaguely, letting his mouth go exploring down the side of her throat again. She gasped and he tightened his arm around her waist, pulling her harder against him, needing her to have no doubt of how much he wanted her. His mouth found her pulse and he drew in a shaky breath as it fluttered much too fast under his lips. He gave in to the urge to run his tongue over it, wanting a taste of her more than he wanted his next breath.
Sian suddenly tore herself away. Diego let her even though it was the most difficult thing he’d ever done. She stared at him, breathing hard and blushing, and Diego took a step back in self-defense. He wouldn’t take what she didn’t wish to give, but no one said resisting temptation would be easy.
“I’ll get you what you need,” he said, the thought of buying panties for her sending another wave of desire through his already overheated body. He wondered what James had bought and hoped whatever it was, he could bring her exactly the same thing.
Knowing Sian was bare beneath her skirt was erotic as hell, and he didn’t want to cover her any sooner than he absolutely had to.
She went crimson. “I prefer to choose my own lingerie, thank you very much.”
“You let James do it,” he pointed out, wondering if he should say something to his Steward about overstepping his bounds and deciding against it. He’d clearly done a perfect job.
“Yes, and see the trouble it’s caused,” she snapped back. “I don’t want you to do it, Diego, and that’s final.”
He grinned and leaned against the back of the couch. “Well, I guess I’ll have to take you shopping then.” He imagined watching Sian make her selections, then trying them on for him. Dios, if he didn’t get control of his thoughts he was going to spontaneously combust, but the devil was in him now and he couldn’t stop. “Too bad all the shops are closed for the night. Oh, and tomorrow I’m likely to be busy. It’ll have to be later in the week—if something else doesn’t come up. And since I’m understandably concerned about your safety, I won’t be able to let you out of my sight. Of course.”
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “You wouldn’t.”
He laughed. “Try me.”
Sian opened her mouth as though to protest again but shut it with a snap, clearly seething. “Fine, you do it. But you’d better get me something decent this time.”
He straightened and stepped toward her, noticing how her eyes widened as he stalked her. There was no other word for it and he didn’t even try to hide his intentions. “I am consumed with curiosity,” he said, bracing a hand on either side of her head as she pressed her back to the wall. “I’ll need you to describe what James bought and why it’s unsuitable. You’ll have to tell me exactly what you want.” He leaned closer until his elbows touched the wall and her body was only inches from his. Her tongue flicked out and moistened her lower lip, and Diego felt the nervous little movement all the way through his body. He bent until his mouth was a breath from hers. “In detail, querida. I’d hate to make the same mistake.”
She ducked under his arm and danced away and Diego laughed. “Chicken,” he taunted softly.
“Pervert,” she shot back. “I’m not describing my underwear for you. Just get something you’d buy for your mother and you’ll do fine.”
“Will you let me put them on you when I get back?” She gasped in outrage and he couldn’t resist needling her further. “To check the fit, of course.”
She glared. “You’d better enjoy touching my panties when you buy them,” she said, lifting her chin regally, “because it’ll be the last time you’ll ever get near them.”
Diego watched her disappear through the door and laughed again even though he was so hard every movement was painful. There had been desire in her eyes. He’d seen it clearly before she’d escaped. His little wildcat wanted him, and that made all the difference in the world.
Suddenly this situation didn’t seem quite so intolerable.
He sat back down at his desk, starting an internet search on Enrique Santonyo and assembling a mental list of excuses to put off this shopping trip as long as possible.
* * *
Chapter Seven
Sian yawned as she rinsed her dinner dishes hours later and tried to convince herself she wasn’t tired. Diego was deeply into this vampire thing, staying up all night like it was nothing, and if he could do it, so could she.
She avoided him like the plague since the scene in the den. She closed her eyes, a wave of heat flooding her at the memory of his hand caressing her hip and the skin of his arm against the exposed strip of her waist. Why did she have to keep wanting him? It wasn’t fair!
He certainly wanted her and made no bones about it. When he’d trapped her against the wall she’d had the craziest urge to lean into him and taste the passion his eyes had promised. Only a belated sense of self-preservation had made her pull away.
She still wasn’t sure if she was glad she had or not.
She’d heard about captives being brainwashed to sympathize with their kidnappers, but she thought it should take more than two nights to accomplish. No, the man just possessed more raw sex appeal than the law allowed and he had no qualms about using it, and she was woman enough to notice. It was pheromones or something. Surely she could ignore it long enough to come up with an escape plan.
She yawned again and rubbed her eyes. She couldn’t stay awake any longer. It was time to bite the bullet and demand Diego give her a room of her own. She hung up the dishtowel and left the kitchen, passing the flats she’d kicked off earlier without picking them up and heading for the den.
It was empty. She bit her lip. “Diego?” she called. There was no answer and she started to search the other rooms downstairs. There was no sign of him in the dining room or either of the living rooms. The library and the game room were also empty. Was he even home? She kept opening doors, wondering if she’d had a perfect chance to escape tonight and missed it because she’d been hiding from Diego.
When she turned up no sign of him, Sian strode back to her shoes, slipped them on and hurried resolutely to the front door. James was gone and Diego was nowhere to be found, and she was getting out of here.
She pulled open the front door and jumped when Diego strode up the steps. “Going somewhere?” he asked mildly, urging her back inside and closing the door behind her. “At least you wore shoes this time.”
“I didn’t have any shoes last time, and where were you?”
The moment the words were out of her mouth Sian regretted them. She sounded like a wife calling her man to task for being out late. Diego grinned at her and she stepped back again, suddenly desperate to put some distance between herself and his potent animal magnetism.
“You’ve had dinner?” he asked. She frowned at the random question but nodded. He smiled again. “So have I.”
She was absolutely not going to ask what he meant by that, especially after finding a bag of whole blood in the back of the fresh vegetable compartment in the refrigerator. She knew now why James had recommended she stay out of there, but honestly, she had to eat. She really hadn’t been snooping.
Really.
Diego urged her toward the stairs, his hand very large and very warm at the small of her back. “Dawn’s near and you’ve been up all night. Time for bed.”
Sian spun away from him, crossing her arms and raising her chin. “I’m not going to bed with you,” she said. “If you insist on keeping me here, I want my own room.”
Diego merely picked her up and carried her toward the stairs. “Too bad.”
Sian shoved at his shoulders, trying without success to get away from him. Good Lord, the man was strong. She’d never encountered anyone who could hold her when she didn’t want to be held. “W
hat the hell is it with you and carrying me around?” she demanded, pushing at him again. “I’m perfectly capable of walking on my own, you know!”
“Yes, but you wouldn’t go where I wanted you to if I let you,” Diego replied as though this was the most reasonable argument in the world. “Besides, I love the way you feel in my arms.”
That confession sent a totally unwelcome shiver through her body. “Well, I don’t love it,” she lied. “Put me down right now, you beast!”
He laughed and ignored her struggles. “Don’t tire yourself out,” he advised. His bedroom door opened as though it had been triggered by a switch but Sian hadn’t seen him touch anything. The door closed behind them, also without anyone apparently touching it, and she heard the definitive snick of the lock.
Only then did Diego put her down. “Your nightgown is in the top drawer,” he said, nodding toward the dresser.
She stared at him in shock, only now realizing the neat stacks she’d made of her clothes were gone. “What did you do with my clothes?”
He pulled off his shirt and tossed it at the hamper in the corner. “Put them up,” he said. “Can’t leave them out, can we?”
He reached for his belt and Sian spun around. “Keep your clothes on!” she cried, panicking.
He laughed again. “I’ve slept in jeans for two nights in a row,” he said. She heard the distinctive sound of a zipper and closed her eyes, feeling her cheeks heat. “It’s uncomfortable as hell and I’ll be damned if I’m going to do it again. I normally sleep in the nude but if it’ll make you feel better I’ll put on some pajamas.”
“You can sleep however you want because you’ll be doing it alone. I refuse to stay in here!”
She didn’t hear Diego move but suddenly his hands were on her shoulders. Sian stiffened, fighting the surge of desire that tried to drown her at his nearness.
“You’re staying here with me today, Sian,” Diego murmured in her ear. His warm breath caressed the sensitive skin and an answering shiver worked its way all the way down to her toes. “No trying to run while I’m sleeping. You’re exhausted and you need the rest as much as I do.”
His bare arm reached past her and pulled open the drawer he’d indicated. The gown James had picked out for her lay beside the pornographic lingerie he’d bought. Sian snatched it and slammed the drawer, almost catching Diego’s fingers in it.
“I am not sleeping in that bed with you,” she repeated stubbornly, afraid to turn around and deliver her ultimatum to his face in case he truly was nude now. Surely the man had some sense of modesty. He wouldn’t really strip to the skin right in front of her, would he?
“Turn around and find out,” he whispered, brushing her hair aside and nuzzling her ear. His rough whiskers tickled her earlobe just before he nibbled it. “Modesty’s never held much appeal for me, querida, and if you don’t want to sleep, that’s more than fine with me, too.”
Sian scooted away from him at top speed, not pausing until she was in the bathroom with the door firmly locked between them. The way he seemed to know exactly what she was thinking was downright eerie. “That isn’t what I meant!” she protested. She heard him laugh again and wanted to throw something at him.
Even his laugh was sexy. It wasn’t fair.
She sighed and scowled at the mirror. The man was pure sex from his head to his toes. She’d have to be a fool to even consider getting anywhere near a bed with him in the vicinity!
Another yawn surprised her and her shoulders slumped. She hated it but he was right. She was exhausted. She looked around the bathroom, briefly entertaining the idea of making a pallet of towels and sleeping in there, but there wasn’t enough room. In the end, she pulled on the satin gown, too tired to hide any longer. She reached for the towel rack to retrieve her panties and blinked in confusion at the empty rod.
Her panties and bra were gone.
Sian ran a hand through her hair, wondering why she was even surprised. “Are you dressed out there?” she called through the door, preparing to give him hell for hiding the only decent panties she had.
“Come out and see for yourself.”
Now that was less than comforting. Sian scowled at the door for a minute before Diego laughed again. “Oh, all right, I’m dressed,” he reassured her. “For a wildcat, you can certainly be a chicken at times.”
Sian opened the door and pointedly avoided looking at him just in case he’d been lying about his state of dress. “What did you do with the lingerie I had hanging up in there?” she asked, staring fixedly at the corner.
“What makes you think I did anything with them?”
Unwilling to chance looking at him, Sian gave the corner her evil glare of death. “Diego, don’t make me hurt you. I hung them up in there to dry earlier and I doubt James messed with them. What happened to them?”
“Well, you see, there was a little problem,” Diego said, and something in his tone made her heart sink. “I thought I would hurry the drying process for you and use a hair-dryer on them, and—”
“Oh, no,” Sian groaned, covering her face with her hands. “Those were silk, Diego!” And she didn’t want to imagine how the delicate fabric had reacted to the heat. She forgot her determination not to look at him and transferred the death glare to him. “I hope you don’t want me to believe it was an accident.”
He merely grinned at her and her heart turned over at the sight of him standing there in a pair of black silk pajama bottoms and nothing else. She’d never seen a more ripped set of washboard abs in her life and she hated herself for even noticing them. Why couldn’t he be short, fat, and balding?
“I guess you won’t believe me if I say I’m sorry, either,” he said, not sounding apologetic in the least. His abs contracted enticingly beneath his tanned skin with every breath, distracting her wickedly. “And I guess you’d be right, because I’m really not.”
She managed to tear her eyes away from his awe-inspiring body and tried to glare at him again, but something in his unrepentant expression made her want to laugh despite her anger. She rolled her eyes instead and marched to the bed, yanking the comforter down and starting to line up a row of pillows straight down the middle. Diego’s gaze burned her and she did her best not to bend over too far. No point in giving the blasted man a free peep-show.
“And what is that for?” he asked at last, his amusement coming through loud and clear.
“If you won’t be a gentleman and give me my own bed,” Sian climbed into her side without looking at him, “the least you can do is divide this one.”
Diego laughed. “Of course, now it makes perfect sense. That veritable mountain of pillows would certainly stop me if I decided to ravish you. There’s no way in the world I could get past it. Good thinking, Sian.”
“Shut up and turn off the light.”
“Yes, ma’am. Absolutely, ma’am. Your word is law.”
The mattress shifted as Diego lay down and Sian closed her eyes, trying to pretend he wasn’t there. His quiet breathing wrecked any attempt she made to relax and she tossed fitfully, trying without success to block it out.
“You know,” Diego said conversationally a few minutes later, “you seemed awfully comfortable in my arms yesterday.”
“So what?” Sian snapped, hating the intimacy of his voice vibrating along her skin.
Or wishing she hated it was more accurate.
“Merely making an observation.”
“Well, don’t.”
Sian rolled onto her side and punched the pillow, searching for a comfortable position and not finding one. She punched it again for good measure, just to let off steam.
Steamy pretty much described every thought in her head right now, too. She wished Diego hadn’t reminded her of how good it had felt to snuggle up to him. She didn’t want to remember the warmth of his body next to hers, the comforting weight of his arm around her waist, the slow lullaby of his heart beating beneath her ear.
She flopped back onto her back with a sigh. It was n
o use. There was no way she could sleep with Diego right beside her, not when she was so achingly aware of him.
“You know,” Diego said again a minute later after she’d changed positions three more times, “I’d be happy to rub your back if it’d help.” He paused. “I’ll rub anything else you’d like, for that matter. I could even make suggestions.”
Sian snatched a pillow off the stack she’d created between them and swung it blindly at him. He laughed and caught her arm, pulling the pillow from her hand and entwining his fingers with hers. “I want you to notice who breached the impenetrable wall of pillows first,” he teased, bringing her hand to his lips. “I was being good. You’re the one who can’t stay away.”
She tried to pull her hand back without success. “Would you stop?”
“No.” His mouth found her palm and slid down to her wrist. Shivers chased up and down her spine when his tongue flicked across her pulse. “Do you really want me to?”
“Yes!”
He laughed softly again, nipping the sensitive skin of her inner wrist. “Liar.” Before she could demand he stop again, he moved her hand down to his chest, trapping her palm against his bare skin and holding it there. “Go to sleep,” he said, his tone still frustratingly amused. “Delightful as this game is, the sun’s coming up and I can’t stay awake any longer.”
“Oh, bully for you,” Sian grumbled, but he didn’t reply. She risked raising her head a few inches and peeked over the pillows at him.
He was asleep.
She gaped at him. He’d dropped off just like that? How in the world could he go to sleep as though she wasn’t even there?
Sian rolled onto her back again, trying one last time to reclaim her hand and failing. Even in sleep he kept his hold on her. She sighed and closed her eyes, trying to shut out the feel of his heart beating under her palm, the warmth of his bare skin against her fingers. There was no way she’d get a wink of sleep like this.