by Lynne Graham
‘That night on the beach you pushed me away, …’
‘I thought all I was getting offered was sex. You’re one heck of a good actress. You were friendly but you were distant. Hey …’ A furrow carved between his brows as he gazed down at her. ‘What are you doing?’
‘What do you think?’ Set free of her own insecurities, Claire was bent on indulging every fantasy she had ever had on her long, lonely nights over the past year. She was fingering through a mental array of erotic possibilities when what came naturally took over. Turning her lips against the fast beat of his heart, the tip of her tongue teased a path through the dark, curling hair smattering his chest to a flat, male nipple.
‘Oh, God …’ Dane went satisfyingly rigid. Probably with shock, she allowed, her hand sliding caressingly over his flat stomach, swiftly followed by her mouth. A long shudder racked his lean, exquisite male frame and she embarked on his belt buckle with heightened courage.
‘You don’t have to do this.’ Claire clashed with bright, anxious eyes and the storm of desire he couldn’t hide there. He lost his immobility when her wandering hands smoothed slowly up over his taut thigh muscles. ‘You’re right, we do.’ He caved in by tugging her down on top of him. That’s the first time you’ve ever encouraged me!’ and there was wonderment in his husky drawl. His brilliant eyes clung to hers for a split, mindblowing second before his hands cupped her breasts and his mouth took hers with a sudden fierce urgency. A soft moan broke low in her throat, and he needed no further invitation. Clothes were discarded in haste and all the time he kept on kissing her and her temperature kept on shooting higher, the excitement exploding between them, uncontrolled and intense.
It wasn’t an orchestrated seduction. It happened so fast. He entered her with a single compelling thrust and the world splintered around her simultaneously. Dane gave a groan of wondering pleasure that she would have echoed had she had the oxygen. It made her feel the most desirable woman on earth, and then the glorious all-encompassing power of his lovemaking consigned every remaining thought into oblivion.
‘I feel so good.’
He grinned. ‘No need to sound so surprised.’
‘I feel like I could fly.’
‘Not without me!’ Dane propped himself on his elbow and just stared at her, everything he’d never permitted her to see before brimming in his jewelled eyes. ‘This is happy,’ he muttered half under his breath, and her eyes swam with tears and she just held him the way she’d always wanted to hold him.
‘You should never have let me leave Dominica,’ she complained unsteadily.
‘Shoot, Claire, that was the most unselfish thing I ever did in my entire life!’ Bleak humour glittered beneath his luxuriant lashes. ‘It made me feel good for all of an hour. I’m not very good at being patient.’
In the Caribbean she had traced his every move back to an over active conscience. That modest misconception had become an impregnable barrier, and how nearly they had lost each other completely! Dane gently stroked her hair back from her brows. ‘You see, I hoped you might find out Max wasn’t to your taste after all, and when you never wrote to Lew demanding a divorce, my hopes started to rise. I couldn’t picture you living happily in sin, but Claire, don’t ever make me jealous again,’ he urged with shadowy self-mockery. ‘Jealousy is hell. Thinking of you being with him all those months.’
She pressed her lips against his smooth shoulder. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know.’ She swallowed. ‘Was there anyone else?’
‘I didn’t want anyone else,’ Dane told her firmly. ‘Five-foot-one-inch redheads with giant-sized inferiority complexes don’t exactly strew every corner. I wanted you and only you.’
He looked so fantastically good-looking and sexy, she treated him to a slightly pole-axed smile, euphoria flowing through her in an ecstatic tide of acceptance. He really was hers, all hers.
‘And Mei Ling …’ He threaded fingers through her silky hair ruefully. ‘I didn’t exactly push her away when I heard you coming. I brought her to the house deliberately. I wanted to see if it bothered you. No … you’re right, it wasn’t the cleverest stunt I ever pulled.’
Her fingers skated suggestively down over his lean ribcage. ‘Next time I catch you being pawed …’
‘I’m reformed.’ He dealt her a look that just dared the smallest cloud of distrust.
‘And just like the carpet and the sheets on the bed you belong to me, right?’
‘What did I say about your self-confidence?’ He rested back, sleek and tawny against the pillows, sheer provocation cloaked in human flesh. ‘I didn’t even get to grovel tonight. I was going to.’
‘I love you.’
‘Keep on saying it.’ His arms tightened round her and he started to kiss her again. She made a mental note to tell her daughter when she grew up that fantasies did occasionally come true.
ISBN: 978-1-474-02959-9
BITTERSWEET PASSION
© 1987 Lynne Graham
Published in Great Britain 2015
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ®are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
www.millsandboon.co.uk