He caught the lapels of her robe, crushing the soft fabric as he drew her closer and held her there. ‘You’ve lived your whole life as a lie up to now, so why not be truthful for once and admit what you really feel?’
‘You’re wrong!’ There was a raw ache in her voice, an ache that was spreading through her whole body. He was right, she did want him almost to the point of madness, but to admit it to him would leave her so vulnerable that she was afraid.
‘No, I’m not. That’s what scares you.’ He smoothed the silky fabric across her shoulders, smiling faintly when he saw the shock in her eyes at his correct assessment of the situation. Louise dropped her eyes, staring down at the front of his white shirt as she tried to fight the debilitating mixture of fear and desire. Despite what he’d just said, she couldn’t afford to forget what had happened between them before, all those veiled halfthreats. Was this his way of making her pay for her temerity?
The thought steadied her just enough to allow her to look up and meet his eyes. ‘What is this all about, Wyatt? Are you trying to get your own back, or is it a way to add a few fringe benefits to our deal?’ She laughed coldly, forcing scorn in her voice when she carried on. ‘Sorry, but if it’s the latter then you’re doomed to disappointment. That fee you’re paying me only covers the role I’ve been playing. It doesn’t run to any...extras!’
His eyes narrowed dangerously. ‘You’ll get your money, my sweet. Don’t worry about that. This has nothing whatsoever to do with any previous... arrangements we made. I just thought you might appreciate the chance to tell the truth for once, rather than all those lies.’
‘So you know how I feel, do you? You have this wonderful insight into how my mind works?’
‘I don’t know about your mind, but your body...’ He laughed softly as he drew her to him and tilted her face up to his, holding it firmly when she tried to turn away. When he spoke again his voice had dropped to a smoky timbre that stirred her senses. ‘I have a good idea what your body feels, Louise.’
‘I...I... No! Stop this, Wyatt. I won’t let you... you—’
He bent and kissed her mouth, swiftly, fiercely, then drew back before she could make any attempt to rebuff the caress. ‘Seduce you? Are you sure? It’s what you want, what we’ve both wanted for days now. Why not be honest enough to admit it? At least then I’d know you’re capable of something more than lies!’
There was a note of fierce anger in his voice now that startled her. She’d thought that he was doing this as some kind of punishment, yet it seemed there was more to it than that Did it really matter to him if she was honest now? Would it perhaps help convince him that if she could tell the truth once she could do so again? The thought was so tantalising that it made her hesitate when what she should have done was push him away, and he took advantage of that momentary lapse in a devastatingly effective way.
With a rough curse he took her mouth in a kiss that drove all the breath from her body and all thoughts from her head. It was fire and ice, punishment and pleasure, so soul-stirring that she whimpered. He seemed to be drawing the very essence out of her as his lips drew a response she was helpless to refuse. There was nothing left any longer apart from her and Wyatt and this kiss that seemed to spread into eternity.
When he drew back and stared into her shocked eyes she was shaking, every bit of her trembling with a fine, tight tension that she knew he felt. He ran his hands lightly down her arms, then let them slide around her as he drew her to him so closely that she could feel the unmistakable evidence that he was just as aroused as she.
‘I want you, Louise.’ He ground the words out, his hands tightening for a moment before he eased her away and stared down at her, waiting...waiting...
‘I...I want you too.’ It was no more than a whisper, her voice breaking on a confession that was wrung from her. Deep down, a tiny voice was warning her that she was making a mistake, but she cut it off. It might be madness, the biggest mistake of her life, but she was going to make it anyway. Wyatt had wanted truth from her, and this was the only kind of truth she could give him that he would believe.
She looked back into his eyes and repeated it, so that there could be no mistake about what she’d said. ‘I want you!’
He had her in his arms before the last word had barely left her lips, his arms hard as he swept her off the ground and started towards the door. He paused as he swung it open, his eyes glittering fiercely as they met hers. ‘You won’t regret this, honey. Out of this whole mess this will be the one good memory you’ll have to take away with you. I can guarantee it!’
Louise felt tears burning behind her eyes, but she fought to control them as she placed her mouth against his and kissed him. She would regret it. She would probably regret it until her dying day, but she couldn’t prevent what was about to happen. To have Wyatt love her and love him back was the only act of honesty in a relationship that had been founded upon lies.
CHAPTER NINE
LOUISE and Wyatt made love slowly, taking their time to learn the new, unfamiliar contours of each other’s body. Wyatt seemed to know exactly how to touch her to make her tremble with need, but strangely she too seemed to know how to respond. She had never made love before with any man, never wanted this closeness and intimacy, yet she felt no fear, no embarrassment. She wanted this, wanted it with a desire that defied reason. It was a miracle that grew and grew with each slow, delicate touch, each softly lingering kiss, and filled her with a heady kind of joy.
When he captured her hands and held them away from him as he stared down into her face she smiled, her body arching up to press against his in a way that tore a groan from his lips. ‘God, Louise! Have you any idea what you’re doing to me? I’m as het up as a boy with his first woman!’
‘Good.’ The soft word whispered from her just a moment before she slid her mouth along the strong column of his neck, the tip of her tongue tracing his skin in tiny fleeting touches that sent a deep shudder rippling through him. He captured her chin and turned her head so that he could take her mouth in a hungry kiss that made her whole body throb with need, an echo of what she’d felt in him. Slowly he drew his mouth from hers and let his lips trail down her throat, then carry on to the rigid tip of her breast. Delicately he caressed it with his tongue, then drew it further into his mouth and bit gently. Louise whimpered, her body arching, taut as a bow, her hands clenching and unclenching on the pillow beside her head. When he turned his attention to her other breast and repeated the slow, tormenting actions she cried out, naked desire echoing in her voice.
He raised his head, his face faintly flushed, the tanned skin stretched tight over the lean planes as he studied her passion-drugged eyes. ‘This is the truth, isn’t it? For once in your life there’s no pretence. What you’re feeling now is real!’
There was a kind of triumph in his deep voice that grated.
‘Wyatt, I—’
She got no further, all thoughts fleeing as he captured her mouth again in a kiss of burning passion that sent the blood thundering in dizzying waves through her veins. When his leg slid between hers she made no move to stop what was about to happen. This was meant, right from the moment they had met, and all she wanted was the fulfilment that she sensed he could give her.
Her hands slid up his back, her nails biting into the smooth, sweat-slicked skin as she drew him to her and held him, feeling the thundering beat of his heart against her breast, an echo of the heavy beating of her own. She wanted this, wanted it so much because she loved him.
The thought came from nowhere, sliding quietly into her mind. She felt no shock, just a sudden relief that so many unanswerable questions had now been answered so simply. She loved Wyatt; that was why she had always responded to him, why she was responding to him now. Her mind had kept as a secret something her body had always known.
A fierce joy consumed her and she arched towards him as he drove deep into her softness, then gasped with pain as her body resisted. He stilled at once, quivering with shock as r
ealisation hit him.
‘Damn you, Louise! Damn you to hell!’
There was a moment when she thought that he was going to draw back, then he groaned deeply in something akin to anguish as passion claimed him as its victim and his body responded to the need he felt. He drove them both on, taking that first fleeting pain she’d felt and turned it into an ecstasy that had her calling his name over and over as they climbed to the heights and fell, spinning, back to earth.
Moonlight filtered through the window, bathing the room in its silvery pale light. It seemed to steal all the colour from the rich furnishings, turning the whole room into a negative of light and dark, shade and shadow. Louise sat on the edge of the bed, huddled into her robe, wondering why she felt as though she was a part of the strange scene. She felt somehow unreal, devoid of light and colour, as though the moonlight had touched her and stolen all the warmth and life from her body.
‘Why, Louise? What did you hope to gain from what you did? Tell me, damn you!’
The voice came from the door, but she didn’t turn. She didn’t need to. She’d known he would come back ever since he’d left. There had been something in his pale eyes that had told her the torment hadn’t ended when he’d pulled away from her and dressed before walking from her room. She’d got up from the rumpled bed and showered and dressed in her robe, then sat down again to wait for him, wondering what she would say to the questions. But he was here now and she still didn’t have any answers, or at least none that she would give him. The love she’d so recently discovered was too precious to reveal and listen to him try to destroy it with harsh words. When she left here it would be all she had to take with her to see her through the long, lonely days to come.
‘I can’t tell you why, Wyatt,’ she said, softly, staring at the window.
‘Can’t or won’t?’ He closed the door with a restrained violence that was far more terrifying than any show of anger. When he stopped in front of her Louise forced herself to look up at him, then looked away, feeling her heart tearing itself into a thousand tiny pieces. He hated her, now more than ever, hated her for what he’d seen as yet more trickery and deception.
‘I still can’t believe what happened, can’t believe that you...you...’ It was the first time that she’d ever heard that note of uncertainty in his voice, and she smiled bitterly.
‘That I am—or rather, was—a virgin. Is that what you are trying to say, Wyatt?’
‘Yes! It just doesn’t fit with what I know about you. How could it be so?’
‘When I lead the kind of life I do?’ She laughed with a touch of hysteria, then bit her lip, knowing she was within an inch of losing control. ‘Does it make you wonder if you just might be wrong about me, Wyatt?’
He shook his head, his pale eyes glittering cold as ice as they met hers. ‘I’m not wrong! This is just another twist to an old tale.’ He ran a hand through his hair, then laughed harshly. ‘I’d say that you are far more clever than I gave you credit for, honey. What have you been holding out for for so long—some poor fool who’s rich enough to pay for the privilege of knowing he’s the first? Well, if you were hoping that I’d feel especially grateful, my sweet, I’m afraid you’re doomed to disappointment!’
His cruelty hurt so much that she wondered how she could bear it. She wanted to plead with him to understand, beg him to listen to what she wanted to tell him, but what would be the point in doing that? He would never change his mind about her even though he had proof that he’d been wrong all along.
It was pride that held her together, pride that brought her to her feet to face him. “There’s none so blind as those who refuse to see; isn’t that a fact, Wyatt? But I don’t intend to waste my breath trying to convince you just how wrong you are.‘ She glanced at the small clock on the bedside table, then stared quietly back at him. ’It’s very late. I’m tired, so I’d be glad if you would leave now. I really don’t think that there is anything left to say.‘
He swore roughly as he caught her arm and dragged her to him, holding her just a hair’s breadth away from his powerful body. He’d not bothered to put his shirt back on, dressing only in the black trousers, his broad chest bare. Louise could feel the heat of his bare skin, smell the musky aroma of his body, and a pain so sharp and intense that it nearly tore her in two cut through her.
‘Wyatt, I—’
He cut her off, his eyes like steel, his fingers biting into the soft flesh he’d caressed such a short time before. ‘Did you really think I’d fall for such a trick? That I’d be willing to pay—and pay heavily—for sleeping with you?’
‘It wasn’t like that. You...you were the one who started it by making me admit how I felt!’
If he heard the pain in her voice he made no concession for it. He smiled harshly down at her, his eyes filled with contempt. ‘Yes, I did. At least I can feel satisfaction at being proved right, but as for the rest of it... that priceless gift you decided to give me... Sorry, honey, but you should have saved it for someone who would really appreciate it. It doesn’t alter our agreement one iota, understand?’
She pushed him away, her whole body shaking with a tension she could barely control. ‘I understand. Don’t worry, Wyatt. I don’t intend to make a scene. After all, you can’t blame a girl for trying, can you?’
Just for a moment she thought that he was going to strike her as his face turned into a mask of rage. Then he turned and strode to the door and left without a word. Louise sank down on the bed, clasping her hands so tightly that her fingers ached. She wouldn’t break down. Not yet. Not in this house. Not in front of Wyatt. Pride was all she had left.
Miami lay white and gleaming under the July sun. Louise picked up her bag and followed Wyatt to the car that was waiting to collect them at the airport. He’d barely said a word on the flight back, and Louise hadn’t tried to make conversation. They’d said everything that needed to be said.
Her heart was heavy as she handed the driver her bag and slid into the back of the black limousine. It felt like a lifetime since she’d arrived at this very airport, buoyed up with excitement about the holiday. Now she felt years older and infinitely weary. All she wanted was to go home and put this all behind her, but it was never going to be as simple as that.
‘Where do you want me to drop you? The hotel?’ Apart from a few carefully impersonal sentences over breakfast as he’d carried on the pretence for the benefit of Carling and Lawrence, it was the most he’d said to her all morning. Louise glanced at him as he closed the car door, then turned back to stare out of the window with a brief nod of agreement.
‘Will they have kept the room for you? Miami is busy at this time of the year.’
As if he cared one way or the other what happened to her! There was an edge to her voice as she answered, ‘The room is booked and paid for until tomorrow. There shouldn’t be any problem, so don’t worry, Wyatt, I won’t come running to you for help. Once you’ve dropped me off, then we can part company.’
His jaw tensed at the open sarcasm, but he merely smiled. ‘After we’ve finalised our business arrangements, Louise.’
She glared back at him, hating him and loving him at the same time. ‘Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about that. How could I when it’s the one thing that’s made this whole unpleasant incident worth while?’ She shuddered delicately, looking straight into his eyes, although it almost broke her heart to lie to him. ‘Ten thousand dollars should go a long way towards making up for having to be with you.’
His eyes glittered back into hers. ‘I’d be careful what I said if I were you. You don’t have the cash in your hands yet. It would be a simple enough matter to decide to break our agreement.’
‘And run the risk of my telling Lawrence what has been going on? I can just imagine dear Carling’s anger if she found out the truth, can’t you? And you did say that the contract isn’t signed, yet, I believe.’
‘Don’t even think about it!’ His voice dropped, rough and dangerous now, as he leant across the
seat and hauled her to him. ‘I don’t like threats, Louise.’
‘Yet you are more than happy to use them to your own ends? What a hypocrite you are, Wyatt. I’ll be glad to see the back of you all right!’
‘I’m sure you will, but it won’t be just yet.’ He tossed her hand away as he glanced at his watch. ‘I’m due to meet with Lawrence’s lawyers in a couple of hours’ time. Once I have confirmed that the contract is ready, then I’ll pay you, not before. Just a precaution, you understand.’
‘Do what you like. I don’t give a damn!’ Tears were clouding her vision, but she held them back. He was determined to treat her with contempt to the bitter end, it seemed.
When the car glided to a halt in front of the hotel she jumped out before he could offer to help her. She stood stiffly while the driver lifted her case from the boot, refusing his offer to carry it inside for her. The car moved away and she stood and watched it until it disappeared into the flow of traffic, wondering where she would find the strength from when Wyatt finally went out of her life for good.
‘Are you sure you won’t come, Louise? I hate leaving you here like this. You look...well, “lost” is the only word that springs to mind.’
Carol sat down on the edge of the bed, studying her with concern, and Louise tried her hardest to reassure her.
‘I’m fine. Honestly. Just a bit tired after that party and the storm. Give me a couple of hours and I’ll be my old self.’
‘Mmm, I wonder.’ Carol glared almost fiercely at her. ‘Look, I’m probably completely out of order saying this, but are you sure that nothing happened between you and that guy, Lord? Simon and I have been asking around, and he has quite a reputation, I can tell you. He plays the field all right.’ She held her hands up. ‘OK, OK, I know it’s none of my business, but I was worried about you. You took off with him before we’d had chance to really talk things through and make you see how dangerous it could be. You knew nothing at all about him, Louise. For all you knew, he might have been a whiteslave trader rather than one of the toughest businessmen in the USA!’
Playing at Love Page 13