Harlequin Presents--June 2021--Box Set 1 of 2

by Dani Collins

  ‘Yes, it is.’

  ‘So you have done well to secure a position at the Paladin?’

  ‘Yes.’ He briefly sensed her pride before she checked herself. ‘Though I have to confess this is the first solo interview I’ve done. Up until now I’ve been mostly shadowing the features editor, checking facts, writing up his pieces for him.’

  ‘Which explains why you were so determined it shouldn’t be cancelled.’

  ‘Yes.’ He finally heard her smile. ‘There was no way I could go back to Don saying I’d failed.’

  ‘Then I’m sorry I made it difficult for you.’

  ‘That’s okay.’ She turned to him. ‘We got there in the end.’

  Leo stopped the car at a red light. It was a warm night so he lowered the window, resting his arm on the sill as he gazed at the near empty streets. A small group of people was clustered around a kebab van on the corner.

  ‘Are you hungry, by any chance?’ He turned back to his companion.

  ‘No!’ That startled negative again, just when she had been starting to thaw.

  ‘Do you mind if I get one?’

  Pulling the car over, he sauntered across to join the short queue. Looking back, he could see Emma’s outline in the passenger seat, just make out that she had pulled down the visor to check her reflection in the mirror. So not totally without vanity. And not totally impervious to him. The thought pleased him and as he gave his order to the proprietor, a large gentleman wielding a lethal-looking serrated blade, he decided Ms Emma Quinn was his challenge. He would find a way to break through that prim exterior even if it took all night. It was a surprisingly tempting thought.

  * * *

  Emma had no idea how she had ended up sitting on a bench on the bank of the Thames at two o’clock in the morning with a handsome Italian billionaire by her side, but somehow she had.

  The kebabs had been eaten watching the wide, dark river snake its way past. Despite her saying no, Leo had come back with two polystyrene boxes, handing her one in such a way it would have been churlish to refuse. And all pretence of not being hungry had vanished with the first bite. She was starving.

  Conversation between them picked up between mouthfuls, being outside, cocooned in the dim light, doing something as ordinary as eating a kebab breaking down the barriers between them until Emma felt herself start to relax. More than that, she felt happy. Leo, too, appeared to be at ease. Not the practised, urbane charm he had shown her in the club, but a more casual, laid-back style that only made him all the more attractive.

  Asking about her job he appeared to be genuinely interested in her replies, following up with inciteful comments, anecdotes of his own. Conversation had flowed easily, from her favourite places in London to whether she liked chilli sauce. Musings about how deep the Thames was, where pigeons went to sleep. Safe, silly things.

  Leo was clever, quick-witted, good company. He made her laugh. And he also made her tingle with desire. All over. Everywhere. From the top of her scalp to the tips of her toes. Like she had been electrified. Like he only had to touch her and a bolt of light would fizz between them. Somehow his inherent sexiness had infiltrated her veins like a silent assassin.

  ‘It’s a clear night tonight.’ Running his arm along the back of the bench behind her, Leo tipped his head back to look at the sky. An hour had passed and still neither of them had made any attempt to move.

  ‘Yes.’ Emma copied him, her head thrown back. ‘I love looking up at the stars. As a child I tried to learn the different constellations.’

  ‘Then here is your challenge, Ms Quinn.’ He moved closer. ‘What can you see up there?’

  ‘Well, there’s a lot of light pollution...’

  ‘No excuses.’

  ‘Okay!’ Emma laughed. ‘Well, there’s the Big Dipper, right overhead. Though technically it’s not a constellation, just part of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. If you follow the handle towards the southwest, the next star you meet is Arcturus.’

  ‘Fascinating.’

  ‘And beyond that Corona Borealis.’

  ‘Did anyone ever tell you that you have a beautiful neck?’

  ‘N-no.’ Emma stopped breathing, her head still thrown back, her heart racing.

  ‘And I should very much like to kiss it.’ So close now, his breath felt like the flutter of a bird’s wing against her skin.

  There was a second’s stillness and then his lips were at the base of her throat, hot and damp, gentle yet firm. Emma’s eyes closed, pinpricks of desire shooting through her body, all over, everywhere. Slowly, almost imperceptibly his mouth moved up her neck, goose-bumps trailing in its wake, the brush of his hair another, exquisite torture. At the base of her ear he stopped, pulling back, waiting. Emma opened her eyes. The stars were still above her. Very slowly she raised her head. Their eyes met. Leo’s dark head moved closer. And then his mouth was on hers.

  Sensations detonated in her head, elation flooding every part of her body. Tingling, clenching, twitching feelings, assaulting her nerve endings, affecting all of her. So this was what a kiss could be like. Something extraordinary. Something that made you feel things you’d never felt before, leaving you reaching for an unknown that you couldn’t quite grasp, yearning for something you had never even known existed until that moment, but which now seemed vitally important. Hanging on to the yearning sensation, refusing to let it slip away, because that, too, was beautiful in its own right. Affecting, astonishing.

  On a shared gasp of breath, they pulled apart, just enough to find each other’s eyes. Leo’s fingers gently threaded through her hair, cradling her head, the swelling silence holding them still but offering no answers. A swallow moved the column of his throat and for a moment it looked as if he was going to speak. But instead he angled his head until his lips were on hers again.

  An explosion ripped through Emma once more, her neural pathways ready for him this time, like following the flattened track through a field of corn. Her arms went around his neck, registering the heat of him, the form of his shoulders, broad and strong, the powerful, sleeping strength. Beneath closed lids she let herself drift without thinking, take without question, give without shyness. She let herself go.

  Leo’s arms strayed to her waist, and then they were both standing, the kiss still hard and hungry, Leo leaning in to her until she could feel all of him beneath his clothes, hard planes, jutting bones, warm skin stretched over bunched muscles. And the unmistakable swell of arousal pressing against her stomach. Emma edged closer, seeking more, her hands shaking until she linked them behind Leo’s head, pressing as tightly as she could to make them stop, to prevent her whole body from convulsing. Even if that felt like heaven too.

  ‘Emma?’ Her name on his lips was both a question and a promise. A search for truth wrapped in a quiet dare.

  He waited, but when met only with Emma’s thrumming silence he continued anyway. ‘My hotel is not far from here.’

  Emma swallowed, the frantic pulse of her blood acknowledging exactly what he was saying, the pound of her heart repeating it over and over. Dragging her eyes away from Leo’s black gaze, she took a step back until Leo’s arms dropped down by his sides. She looked down at herself, expecting to be somehow changed, altered by what had just happened. By the tumult still coursing through her. But, no, she looked exactly the same, the plain navy suit still stopping demurely at her knee, the jacket buttoned at the waist giving no sign of the tumult beneath—breasts swollen with heat, skin pulled tight, nipples hardened peaks. No visible sign of the pulsing ache that was gripping her core.

  She turned her head, making herself focus on the wide pavement in front of them, the ornate streetlights, and beyond that the river, quiet and dark.

  Leo Ravenino was dangerous—she knew that. His reputation went before him, she had seen the evidence for herself. Vogue Monroe’s outburst in the foyer of Raven Enterprises a classic exa
mple of a woman scorned. The stories Nathalie had told her only confirming everything she’d thought she knew. In affairs of the heart, Leo Ravenino was a dark and lethal force.

  But forewarned was forearmed. Emma tried to order her thoughts. She knew exactly what Leo was offering. She also knew with every sensible, practical bone in her body that she should turn him down. And before that kiss she would have done. No question. Even though Leo’s seduction had been in the air all evening, it had been sufficiently subtle, casual for Emma to ignore. She had just assumed he was programmed to do it; part of who he was.

  And equally she was programmed to repel such advances. Not for nothing had she earned the nickname Ice Quinn by the teenage boys who had found their advances swiftly rebuffed when she’d been younger. A moniker that had lodged in her brain all this time.

  But she didn’t feel like an ice queen now. She felt heat in every part of her body, every cell jumping with excitement. She felt a recklessness urging her on, ordering her to take this chance. Sucking in her kiss-swollen lips, she waited for sanity to kick in, for her rational voice to finally pipe up and tell her to primly decline Leo’s offer and ask to be driven home. It was what she would have sworn her reply would be if you had asked her at the start of the evening. And yet...still that voice didn’t come. Instead there was another one clamouring for her to take this opportunity, to step out of her straitjacket and live life for the moment for once.

  Watching those dancers in the nightclub, their bodies so fluid and loose, so uninhibited, had made her see how tightly she was strung. Back then, held in Leo’s arms, she had been rigid with tension. But not now. Suddenly one night of reckless indulgence seemed overwhelmingly tempting. One night when she threw off the shackles of responsibility and stopped being so damned sensible, just living for the moment, impossible to resist. One night when she let herself go to see what would happen.

  Leo was waiting for her answer, the patient silence belied by his heated stare. Eyes that shone as black as night. Under the streetlight his short, dark hair gleamed richly, shadowed hollows shaping his face. The air was thick with the pull of his magnetism, but he made no move to touch her again, to influence her decision with another bruising kiss. Instead an old-fashioned courtesy prevailed, a quiet respectfulness she hadn’t expected of him. Sure, there was an arrogance in the way he held himself, an inbuilt confidence, but it was clear that the decision was hers and hers alone.

  And Emma knew she had already made it. She swallowed hard, flashing Leo a smile that arrowed straight to his groin. ‘Let’s go.’

  Finally letting the air out of his lungs, Leo felt for Emma’s hand, holding it tightly in his, as if to bind her to him. Waiting for her to make her decision had tested him to breaking point. With rampant impatience firing every cell of his body, he’d had to harness all his self-control not to make the decision for her, in the form of another blazing kiss. But somehow he had managed to restrain himself and now the wait was over. Almost.

  They were only ten minutes from his hotel. He could last that long. He took in a breath that did nothing to calm his libido, both fascinated and shocked by the extraordinary effect she was having on him. What had started as a mild attraction had rapidly morphed into a desperate need. He wanted Emma more than he had wanted any woman in a very long time.

  With unseemly haste he led them back to his car. Ten minutes, he told himself. That’s all. Opening the door for Emma, he waited, expecting her to slide inside, but instead she turned to face him, tilting her face up to his, her expression hard to read in the low light. Solemn, thoughtful, but still as sexy as hell. She had changed her mind, was that it? Leo braced himself for the crushing news that he would be taking her home, chastely dropping her at her door.

  But instead her arms wound around his neck, lowering his head until it met hers. A fresh bolt of arousal jerked through him as she started to kiss him, tentative at first, but then long and deep, full of hunger. Dio, what was she trying to do to him? His hands felt for the button of her jacket, sliding beneath to the silky shirt, over the gorgeous swell of her breasts, nipples tightening beneath his touch. He wanted more. So much more. He longed to feel those curves beneath his fingertips, to make her tremble beneath his caress. But not here, like this.

  Urgency fuelling every movement, he got them both in the car, the roar of the engine echoing the roar in his blood as he navigated the empty roads back to his hotel in a silence that thrummed with need. Chucking the car keys to the doorman, he hurried Emma inside, their footsteps echoing across the marble lobby, their lips meeting as the elevator doors slid closed, still locked when they opened again.

  Clasped in each other’s arms, they half stumbled in the direction of the bedroom, tripping over each other, laughing at their eagerness, the madness of what they were doing, the heat of their breath flushing their faces, the hammering of their hearts loud enough to feel. But no words. Words were superfluous.

  Arriving at his bed in a tangle of twisted clothes and eager limbs, Leo took a moment to stare down at Emma. So beautiful. How had he not noticed it right from the start? Wide eyes, full lips, her shoulder-length brown hair spread out on the pillow. The jacket already gone, now he undid the buttons of her blouse as slowly as his desire would let him, moving the fabric to expose her bra, the swell of her breasts. His breath was as hot as fire as his tongue found the valley of her cleavage, dipping down as low as he could reach. Her soft moan drove him on, matched by a groan of his own as she reached behind to undo her bra, shrugging it off along with her blouse.

  Leaving her just long enough to rip off his clothes, Leo reached for a condom packet, impatiently ripping it open with his teeth. By the time he was back, Emma was naked, her arms above her head, stretching her breasts, her legs together, writhing gently as they twisted around one another.

  Leo had never seen such a beautiful sight. His urge to take her more extreme, more mind-numbingly vital than anything he had ever felt before.

  Gazing into the shadows of Leo’s face, Emma tried to capture the moment, knowing she was about to be changed for ever. Dilated pupils, a jaw set hard with concentration, mouth pulled tight now, like he was teetering on the edge. Like he meant to own all of her. She had done this to him.

  Winding her arms around his neck, she threaded her fingers in his hair, pulling him down to kiss her again. His mouth came down on hers, feverish and crushing, mind numbing. This was it. She arched up to meet him, her breath stolen as Leo lowered himself down, skin on skin, the jut of his hips hard against her own, the solid weight of his erection pressing against the sweet, damp fire of her core.

  ‘Cosi bella.’ He rasped the words as he nudged himself against the aching folds, a throbbing shudder of pleasure pulsing through her. ‘So beautiful.’

  Then he was inside her, thrusting hard and deep, the cry she let out making him hesitate until she wrapped her legs around his back, urging him on as she started to convulse ecstatically around the length of him.

  And all rational thought was instantly obliterated.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  THERE WAS SOMETHING about her head on the pillow, the untidy curtain of hair, a solemnity held in her features, even in sleep. Leo allowed himself to stare, just for a few moments. But not with pleasure. And certainly not with any sense of satisfaction. Far from it. His overriding emotion was guilt.

  He watched as her eyes fluttered beneath closed lids so delicate he could make out the tiny blue veins. Her mouth twitched. The mouth that had felt so good beneath his own, that he had encouraged to explore his body, to touch and taste, leaving him shuddering with pleasure beneath its featherlike stroke. But not there...at least he had held back from that, even though she had wanted to. At least he didn’t have that first on his conscience.

  Who was he kidding? His conscience had no place to hide. In the cold light of this grey London morning he had to face the facts. Emma had been a virgin. He had taken something from her
that she could never get back. He hadn’t known, not until the last moment, but even then it wouldn’t have been too late. He could have stopped. He should have stopped. Despite Emma urging him on, he should have found the willpower to pull back, to say no, to wrench himself from temptation. Such temptation.

  But instead he had greedily taken her soft assurances at face value, firmly ignored the voice in his head telling him this was wrong. And not just once. But repeatedly. All night long, in fact. Her generous, giving body obsessing him in a way he had never experienced before. And the more she gave the more he took. After all, there was no going back now, so what difference would it make? What was done was done.

  But now he saw that twisted logic for what it was. The selfish and greedy actions of a man who thought of no one but himself. The man he had become. Somewhere along the line his power and success had taken him down a path to a place he no longer liked, turned him into a man he no longer respected. Dating a succession of beautiful high-profile women, just because he could, no longer felt like any sort of achievement, just fatuous vanity.

  As Emma stirred beneath his scrutiny, Leo felt his lip curl in self-disgust. This rare woman deserved someone so much better than him. Taking one last look, he turned away, walked quietly through the suite of rooms, picking up his belongings as he went. This he could do for her. Get out of her life before he messed it up any further. A clean break. She deserved nothing less.

  * * *

  ‘These came for you.’ Don, the features editor, appeared from behind an enormous bunch of flowers. ‘Seems like you made quite an impression on someone.’

  By ‘someone’ it was clear he knew perfectly well who. A blush staining her cheeks, Emma took them from him, laying them down heavily on top of the papers on her cluttered desk.

  ‘No need to look like that.’ Don gave a short laugh. ‘How you choose to do your research is up to you. But I’ll be expecting a great article.’ His wink as he turned to go only mortified Emma still further. ‘End of the day, okay?’