To no avail.
He hadn’t wanted her. So what the hell was he doing now?
“Are you saying you want me to go away?”
She swallowed hard, the lump in her throat making that difficult.
She hated that she couldn’t answer that with an unequivocal ‘yes!’. She met his gaze fiercely though, her eyes burning with contempt. “You shouldn’t have come.”
It was the best she could do. She allowed herself to study him for one second longer and then she pushed past him, refusing to speak to the man who’d made her so miserable.
Only his hand caught her wrist, arresting her, and he pulled her towards him so they bumped into one another; her breasts crushed to his chest, his fingers on her flesh warm and engaging, circling invisible patterns over her skin.
His eyes bore into hers and she couldn’t look away now. Her breath was burning through her body, her knees felt weak, completely insufficient to support her weight. She stared up at him and with every second that passed she felt herself slipping back in time, back to when he’d been the sun and the moon to her earth. “Why did you come here?” The words emerged as a groan.
He shifted his body then, pushing her against the wall, and she was grateful for the support even when she was held up by his strong frame, his body pressed hard to hers so she felt every edge and plane of him, so she wanted to moan for how good that felt.
“Why do you think?”
She shook her head, unable to comprehend, unable to offer any answer that made sense.
“You were my wife, Alessia.”
The statement was sobering. “I was a woman you married, not your wife. There’s a difference.”
“And what is that difference?” He pushed, moving his hips so she felt the hint of his arousal and had to bite down on her lip to stop from making any kind of verbal response to that.
“You know the answer to that.”
“Sex?” he prompted, moving his hips once more.
She swept her eyes closed, unable to think clearly, unable to speak when her pulse was hammering so wildly inside of her body. She had wanted him in a way that had made her desperate and almost mad with longing. And he’d rejected her again and again.
His rejection had critically undermined her confidence and belief in her sexuality – she’d never been with a man because deep down she knew herself to be completely undesirable.
So having Max here now, proof of his desire hard against her belly, she wanted to scream at him, to claw at his chest and she wanted, almost more than anything, to go to bed with him.
And she hated that weakness.
“A lack of sex was one reason our marriage failed.”
“Actually, our marriage failed because of the presence of sex,” he reminded her, the words firm like stone. “Specifically, you having sex with another man.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to deny that – she’d let another man kiss her, in a childish, drunken attempt to make Max jealous – but that had been the end of it. She’d hated it. She’d hated the feel of another man’s lips on hers, his hands on her body. She’d pushed him away just as soon as the journalist had got their photo.
“What did you expect, Max? That I’d wait until you realised I was a flesh and blood woman?” Much better. Bringing it back to his disinterest in her was safer than discussing her alleged infidelity.
“I expected you to honour our marriage vows, at least.”
Five years ago, she’d been glad for Max to think she’d cheated. She’d relished throwing it in his face, hoping it would inspire a reaction of some kind from him. Five years ago, she’d been hurt, wounded and childish, acting out of pain and heartache. What was her excuse now?
Desire might have been burning through her, making thought almost impossible, but she had better instincts now. She was a grown woman and letting him believe her capable of that no longer sat well with her. Especially when she knew how he felt about infidelity, and why.
“I did honour them.”
His laugh was harsh, but he stayed where he was, so she was losing her grip on sense and rational thought. “Sure you did.”
“No, you don’t understand.”
His eyes were fierce though, the anger and emotion she’d desperately wanted to see five years ago deep in his expression now. Had it been there then and she’d missed it? Had her own wounds been too deep?
No. He’d been cold. Emphatic. We shouldn’t have done this. Our marriage was a mistake. I’ll find another way.
She’d never known what he meant by that.
“I understand.” His breath was warm on the side of her face, his body something she craved with all her senses. “I – along with the rest of the world – saw the pictures.”
She closed her eyes a moment, those damned photographs as real now as they’d been then. It had looked like a passionate kiss, as though they couldn’t keep their hands off each other.
“The pictures painted the wrong story. It was just a kiss.”
He stilled for a moment and she forced herself to look at him, saw the emotions wrestling inside of him. Surprise, disbelief, cynicism. “Sure it was.”
“It’s the truth. I didn’t sleep with Andrew. He kissed me. I let him.” Pink lifted in her cheeks. She’d known there were photographers at the A-list hotspot. She’d been glad to have her picture taken, glad to think her inattentive husband would see it.
“There’s no need to lie. Five years is a long time. There’s a lot of water under the bridge, for both of us.”
“More for you than me, I think,” she retorted, barely needing to think to remember the articles that had run about Massimo. Photo upon photo upon photo of him quickly resuming his single life, dating – sleeping with – myriad beautiful other women. For a year, she’d found it almost impossible to go through the motions of life. She’d continued her medical degree, because it was a habit and a distraction, but she’d shut everyone else out. Friends, family, she’d barely eaten, she’d stayed indoors, she’d been destroyed and distraught.
She would never let a man hurt her that way again. Even when Dom ended their engagement, she’d been surprised, and disappointed, but not hurt. Her emotions had never really been involved with him, because she knew better than that now.
“You forget, Alessia, I have first-hand experience of your libido.”
She drew in a sharp breath, her eyes unconsciously revealing her hurt at the low blow. If only he knew the truth! She was a virgin, completely inexperienced with members of the opposite sex. And that was, in large part, thanks to him. “A libido you never indulged.”
A muscle throbbed at the base of his jaw, and his eyes burned their way right into her soul. “I’d like to rectify that tonight.”
Her stomach looped a thousand times. She wanted to say ‘yes’ with all her being but anger kept her strong in the face of that. “How dare you?”
“I dare because you were my wife.”
“’Were’ being the operative word. Past tense, Massimo. You’re nothing to me now.”
He nodded slowly, and something burst inside of her. Pain – fresh pain, because he was going to disappear, just like she was asking. And she didn’t want him to.
“You shouldn’t be here.” She bit down on her lower lip, surrender in those words, a surrender they both heard.
“Tell me something I don’t know.” That had her dragging her eyes to his and for the smallest sliver of time she saw the same torment deep in his gaze that she felt in her heart. It was as though he was fighting a battle all of his own, his apparent desire at odds with what he knew he should be doing.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she repeated, but he stayed where he was, and she did the same, locked between her ex-husband and a wall of a corridor here in the Four Seasons hotel.
“Tell me to go and I will.” There was almost a plea in those words, like he wanted her to send him away. As though he’d be grateful if she did. It was all she had to do – tell him to go. Tell him he didn�
�t belong here, that he didn’t get to look at her, much less touch her.
But oh, it wasn’t so easy.
Alessia hadn’t loved her fiancé. Dom had been kind and sensible and she’d truly believed their marriage would be comfortable and happy, but there’d been no passion, no love, nothing that could ever hurt her. So his rejection of her – when he’d been a ‘safe’ choice – had cut deeply. She felt discarded, unvalued, unwanted.
Having Max – the man she’d believed she loved at one stupid time in her life – offering himself to her? It set every spark in her body alight.
Could she do this though? Despite how he’d treated her? Despite what he thought of her?
Yes. This wasn’t about him. He didn’t matter. He was – to some extent – irrelevant. She wanted to have sex with him. To use his body to slake the needs within hers. She wanted to lose her virginity – finally – and to a man who, admittedly with good reason, thought the worst of her. She wanted to show him how wrong he’d been. She wanted to take what she needed from him, finally, as a way of righting a past wrong, and then she wanted to walk away without a backwards glance. Because he didn’t deserve that.
“I’ll never forgive you,” she said darkly, needing to assert herself, to remind him that desire didn’t change anything.
“That goes both ways.” He volleyed back, so something like a whip jerked against her spine.
She took his anger and held onto it – it was good to remember why there was no love lost between them.
“I don’t ever want to see you again,” she added, for good measure, wondering at the pain in her chest as she threw those words at him.
His eyes narrowed, a small crevice forming between his brows.
“After tonight,” she clarified. His expression shifted by degrees, features relaxing a little.
“After we’re done,” he amended, sending a little shiver of anticipation down her spine. It spoke so specifically of what he was proposing. This was madness and yet it was delicious and impossibly tempting.
“I really do hate you.” But the words were swallowed up as he dropped his head and pressed his lips to hers, the kiss hard, hungry, desperate, demanding. And now she gave into the groan that had been threatening, kissing him back with years of pent-up needs, desperate for this, desperate to peel back time and allow herself the pleasure of the man she’d married – for one night only.
LOVING THE ENEMY is coming soon!
Books By Clare Connelly
HARLEQUIN TITLES
Bought for the Billionaire’s Revenge
Innocent in the Billionaire’s Bed
Off Limits
Her Wedding Night Surrender
Burn Me Once
Bound by the Billionaire’s Vows
The Season to Sin
His Innocent Seduction
Bound by their Christmas Baby
Her Guilty Secret
Shock Heir for the King
The Greek’s Billion-Dollar Baby
Spaniard’s Baby of Revenge
The Bride Behind the Billion-Dollar Veil
The Deal
Cross my Hart (Notorious Harts Bk 1)
SINGLE TITLES
Regret Me Not
Just This One Summer
Loving The Enemy
Her Guardian’s Christmas Seduction
Stolen by the Desert King
In the Hands of the Sheikh
His Nine Month Seduction
The Sheikh’s Contract Bride
Seduced by the Vengeful Tycoon
The Sheikh’s Stolen Bride
The Sheikh’s Secret Baby
The Sheikh’s Million Dollar Bride
The Tycoon’s Virgin Mistress
The Sheikh’s Virgin Hostage
Bartered to the Sheikh
The Sheikh’s Arranged Marriage
Marrying for his Royal Heir
The Greek’s Marriage Revenge
The Velasco Love Child
The Sultan’s Virgin Bride
Bound to the Sheikh
The Medici Mistress
His Loving Deception
The Sheikh’s Convenient Mistress
The Princess’s Forbidden Lover
Marrying her Enemy
Rakanti’s Indecent Proposition
Seducing the Spaniard
The Italian’s Innocent Bride
The Greek Tycoon’s Forbidden Affair
The Terms of their Affair
A Second Chance at Love
The Sheikh’s Christmas Mistress
At the Sheikh’s Command
The Billionaire’s Christmas Revenge
Seduced by the Italian Tycoon
Raising the Soldier’s Son
Warming the Sheikh’s Bed
The Tycoon’s Christmas Captive
The Brazilian’s Forgotten Lover
Betrayed by the CEO
The Billionaire’s Ruthless Revenge
The Italian Billionaire’s Betrayal
The Sultan’s Reluctant Princess
Love in the Fast Lane
Bought by the Sheikh
The Tycoon’s Summer Seduction
All She Wants for Christmas
One Night with the Sheikh
A Bed of Broken Promises
Tempted by the Billionaire
The Sheikh’s Christmas Wish
To the Highest Bidder
The Tycoon’s Secret Baby
Bedding His Innocent Mistress
The Sheikh’s Baby Bargain
The Greek’s Virgin Captive
The Sheikh’s Inherited Bride
Claiming His Secret Baby
Blackmailed by the Spaniard
Her Surprise Baby Christmas
COMPENDIUMS
Casacelli Brides
Mediterranean Tycoons
Desert Rulers
Billionaire Bad Boys
Too Hot to Handle
Desert Kings
Happily Ever After
The Darling Buds of May Café
Royal Weddings
The Evermore Series
About the Author
Clare Connelly grew up in a small country town in Australia. Surrounded by rainforests, and rickety old timber houses, magic was thick in the air, and stories and storytelling were a huge part of her childhood.
From early on in life, Clare realised her favourite books were romance stories, and read voraciously. Anything from Jane Austen to Georgette Heyer, to Mills & Boon and (more recently) 50 Shades, Clare is a romance devotee. She first turned her hand to penning a novel at fifteen (if memory serves, it was something about a glamorous fashion model who fell foul of a high-end designer. Sparks flew, clothes flew faster, and love was born.)
Clare has a small family and a bungalow near the sea. When she isn't chasing after energetic little toddlers, or wiping fingerprints off furniture, she's writing, thinking about writing, or wishing she were writing.
Clare loves connecting with her readers. Head to www.clareconnelly.co.uk to sign up to her newsletter, or join her official facebook page.
Billionaire Brides: An Anthology Page 65