by Lynne Graham
‘I didn’t take it, so I don’t know where you expect to go with this. I haven’t got the information you’re asking for,’ Kathy framed tightly.
Implacable dark as ebony eyes rested on her. ‘Then I hand you over to the police.’
All Kathy could think about was the threat of being sent back to prison. For a split second she was back there in a cell with endless empty hours to fill without occupation or privacy. She was back in the grip of the powerlessness, the despair and the fear. The scar on her back seemed to pulse with remembered pain. Perspiration broke out on her short upper lip, gooseflesh on her exposed skin. Unlike Bridget’s daughter, who had never come home again, Kathy had coped and she had survived. But the prospect of being forced to cope a second time with the loss of all freedom and dignity was too much for her to bear.
‘I don’t want that,’ she admitted half under her breath.
‘Neither do I,’ Sergio confided lazily. ‘Having to admit that I shagged the office cleaner would be tacky.’
Her facial muscles tightened at the insult, while her brain discarded the degrading words as an irrelevance. Her mind was on a frantic feverish search for any solution that might persuade him not to involve the police. Only something unusual was likely to appeal to Sergio Torrente. He liked danger and he liked risk and he loved to compete.
‘If I can beat you at chess tonight, you let me walk away,’ Kathy shot that proposition at him before she could lose her nerve.
That sudden turnaround in attitude took Sergio by surprise. In that one reckless sentence she’d acknowledged her guilt as a thief and bargained with him for her freedom. But she’d done both without apology or explanation. He found her audacity a turn-on. ‘You’re challenging me?’
Her green eyes were alight with defiance, but deep down inside she was a mass of panic and insecurity because she knew that she was literally fighting for the chance to keep her life from falling apart again. ‘Why not?”
‘What’s in it for me? A good game?’ Sergio derided. ‘That watch was worth at least forty grand. You set a high rating on your entertainment value.’
Consternation gripped Kathy at that news. Forty thousand pounds? It had not occurred to her that the missing item might be so valuable. Her apprehension increased. ‘The choice is yours.’
‘If you lose, I want my watch back,’ Sergio delivered with sardonic bite. ‘Or, at the very least, the details of where it was disposed of.’
As he asked for the impossible again Kathy was careful not to meet his astute eyes in a direct collision. But his tacit agreement to her challenge sent the adrenalin zinging through her veins again, loosening the fierce tension in her spine and lower limbs. He would play her and whatever it took she had to win. If she lost she would be right back where she had started out, with the added disadvantage that he would be outraged when she was unable to provide either the watch or the information that might lead to its return.
‘Okay,’ Kathy agreed, toughing out the pretence that she could deliver that deal because he had given her no other choice.
‘And I think that, whatever the result, I should enjoy a reprise of the best entertainment you can offer, delizia mia,’ Sergio murmured, lifting the phone to request that a chess set be brought in.
Her fine brows pleated. ‘Sorry?’
Sergio dealt her an appreciative glance. Her outfit gave her the tantalising femininity of a delicate tea rose but her suggestion that they play for what was, after all, his watch was as ingenious as it was in-your-face impudent. ‘We finish the contest in bed.’
Kathy went rigid, colour splashing her wide, high cheekbones, anger rising and soaring high within her. She was shattered by that demand, for she thought it was utterly unfair. ‘Regardless of who wins?’
‘There has to be something extra in it for me.’
Kathy focused on the superb view through the nearest window and thought of the lack of view she would have in a cell. Her tummy flipped, her skin chilled at that realistic acknowledgement of who held the true power. He had the whip hand while she had only her wits as ammunition. ‘All right.’
A manservant appeared with a polished antique wooden box and laid out a board table with stylish carved chess pieces. A maid arrived to serve refreshments. Kathy took her seat. Even though she had not eaten since lunch time, she refused the offer of a drink and the tiny tempting canapés that accompanied it. It was all so civilised that she almost laughed out loud. On the face of it she was an honoured guest, but she knew she would be playing for her very survival.
Sergio lifted a white and then a black pawn and closed his hands round them. Kathy picked a fist and won white to play. She told herself it was a good omen and her concentration went into super mode. She had no sense of time, only of the patterns and combinations on the board in front of her. He was an aggressive player, who made a steady advance. But her strategy was more intricate, her moves lightning-fast to push up the pace. She let him capture her bishop and then slid her knight behind his.
‘Check,’ she breathed softly and a short while later she trapped his king.
‘Checkmate,’ Sergio conceded, stunned by the level of her brilliance and incensed that she had concealed the extent of her skill during their two previous games.
Kathy snatched in a slow quivering breath. It was over; she was safe. Her skin was damp with stress. Adrenalin was still pumping through her on a high octane charge. Pushing back her chair, she got up.
Dark golden eyes shimmering, Sergio followed suit. ‘You fixed the tie last time we played,’ he condemned.
‘Maybe it was my way of flirting with you.’ Kathy threw her head high, reacting to the electric tension in the air. ‘Guys don’t like being beaten, do they?’
‘Some prefer a challenge,’ Sergio traded.
‘But you’re not one of them,’ Kathy dared with scorn. ‘Your past features a remarkable number of airheads.’
‘Horses for courses,’ Sergio rhymed unabashed. ‘Is this the real Kathy Galvin? Or is there yet another Kathy waiting in the wings? You’re full of astonishing contradictions.’
Annoyed he had not reacted angrily to her taunt when she was keen to keep him at a distance, Kathy was noncommittal. ‘Am I?’
‘A cleaner, when you could be a model. A virgin. A chess player, who could make an Olympic team, and a thief.’ Sergio lifted a hand and laced lean brown fingers into the luxuriant thickness of her amber and copper streaked hair. ‘I don’t like what you are but you fascinate me, cara mia.’
His thumb stroked the delicate skin below her ear and she trembled. He was so close she could smell his cologne, a fragrance that had already acquired an aching familiarity that awakened her senses. The proximity of his lean, powerful body was impossible to ignore. Her mouth knew the taste of him. Her body was already remembering him and wantonly keen to relive the experience. Her breasts felt warm and heavy inside her bra. Her breath fluttered in her throat as she fought the treacherous demon of her own sensuality.
He tipped her head back. Merciless golden eyes assailed hers and forced a connection. ‘You keep the watch…and tonight I keep you,’ he reminded her with ruthless precision. ‘But I don’t want a martyr in my bed.’
Kathy had no intention of playing the victim and she was too proud to try and reason with him again. She knew how he operated. If she ruled the chessboard, he would rule the bedroom. She had made the deal and she refused to let herself think and react with her emotions: she was tougher than that. Life had gone wrong again, but she would handle it just as she had before, she told herself fiercely. He closed a hand over hers and led her into the hall and down a corridor.
The master bedroom suite overlooked a big roof garden. She could hardly credit that something as beautiful as that garden could exist so many floors above street level. She focused on it while he unzipped her dress and spread back its edges. Her heart starting to hammer like a road drill, she watched his reflection in the sunlit wall of glass. He bent his proud dark head and pressed his expert mouth t
o a narrow white shoulder blade. He found a place she didn’t know existed and triggered a frisson of response that slivered through her, shocking her back into awareness of him.
Sergio laughed softly. ‘I don’t want a woman behaving like an exquisite automaton. I want you wide awake, delizia mia.’
‘What do those words mean?’ she whispered.
‘My delight—and you are. Wildly inventive dreams about you have disturbed my sleep ever since I left London,’ he confided thickly.
‘So my being a thief really didn’t make much difference to you?’
His big powerful frame tensed behind hers. He spun her round to look him. Forbidding dark eyes flared down into hers.
But Kathy was untouched by that silent censure. Indeed she was almost provoked by the anger she could feel contained within him, firmly controlled by self-discipline. ‘You’re more sensitive than you might seem.’
‘Where is your shame?’ he demanded.
‘Are you ashamed that you are using your power over me to get me into bed again?’
Sergio dealt her a fulminating appraisal and then he startled her with a shout of laughter. ‘No,’ he conceded, his strong, hard-boned face spectacularly handsome as grim amusement splintered his usual sombre mien. ‘But then why would I be? You want me just as much.’
‘Don’t men always tell themselves ego-boosting stuff like th-that?’ Her voice succumbed to a slight nervous jerk as he eased her dress down over her wrists and lifted her free of the rich brocade fabric as easily as if she were a doll.
In answer, Sergio bent his arrogant dark head and kissed her. The moist curl and flick of his tongue against the roof of her mouth made her shiver. The emotion she had walled up inside her burst out in a hungry surge. She wanted, wanted, hated wanting him, refused to surrender to it. As her defensive stiffness grew he gathered her close and tasted her soft pink lips with an intoxicating sweetness that was so unexpected it transfixed her. He followed that tantalising assault with a passionate urgency that sent sparks of fire dancing through her veins. With a roughened sound in his throat, he wrenched her bra out of his path and closed a hand over the silken soft curve of her breast. Her knees went weak, her body burning.
‘You want me too,’ Sergio husked against her reddened, love-bruised mouth. ‘Admit it.’
‘No!’ Her green eyes flashing like polished emeralds, she pulled free. Picking up the yellow dress, she shook it out and laid it carefully across a chair.
‘Even though it might pay to please me?’ Sergio traded, smooth as silk.
‘You get one night and that’s it—you don’t ever come near me again!’ Kathy hissed back at him like a bristling cat. ‘You got that?’
‘I got it, delizia mia,’ Sergio intoned, sweeping her up into his arms to carry her over to the bed. ‘Whether or not I’ll accept it is another question. I dislike doing what other people tell me.’
‘Tell me something I don’t know.’ Finding herself sprawled on the bed clad only in her briefs, Kathy became suddenly less strident. Uncomfortable with her semi-unclothed state, she flung a look of dismay at the sunlit windows. ‘For goodness’ sake, close the curtains!’
Amused by that sudden lurch from feisty cool to panic, Sergio hit a button and flicked another to put on the lights. He shed his jacket and his tie while he watched her with the single-minded golden gaze of a predator. Her beautiful eyes were wary, her colourful hair tousled. He recognised her extraordinary magnetism. On his bed she was as unusual and exotic as a tiger strolling through a drawing room.
Beneath that forceful scrutiny, Kathy was uneasy and she twisted away to conceal her bare breasts. Her shyness infuriated her, for she saw it as yet another weakness and her conscience was already shouting at her. She had kissed him back with more than toleration. How could she have responded with that much enthusiasm to a guy she loathed? On the other hand, wasn’t it as well that she could? But why could she still respond to him?
‘Madonna mia,’ Sergio was staring in shock at the jagged scar that marred the white skin of her back. ‘What the hell happened to you?’
When Kathy realised what had grabbed his attention she thrust herself back against the pillows so that that part of her body was hidden again. She was mortified that he should have seen the ugly evidence of the attack she had suffered three years earlier. ‘Nothing—’
‘That was not nothing—’
Her vivid green eyes were screened, her lithe, slender length taut. ‘But I don’t have to talk about it if I don’t want to.’
Clad in designer boxers, Sergio came down on the bed. He was tall, bronzed and boldly masculine, his powerful muscles laid over the lean, strong frame of an athlete. ‘Are you always this ready for a fight?’
Kathy was feeling incredibly tense. ‘If you don’t like it, send me home.’
Dark golden eyes intent, Sergio stared down at her with the aggressive potency of a hunter. She couldn’t take her attention from him. In response, he curved lean fingers to the nape of her neck. ‘Maybe I could get to like fighting, delizia mia,’ he husked, tipping up her mouth to the wide, sensual promise of his.
Her nerves were as lively as jumping beans; she was rigid. But the kiss was a teasing provocation that enticed and promised. Her breath feathered in her throat. The taste of him intoxicated her but she fought that truth, determined to endure his attentions rather than respond to him. He found the delicate swell of her breasts and massaged the velvet peaks to sensitive rosebud crests. Arrows of exquisite sensation were slivering through her. But still she struggled to withstand his sexual mastery.
Sergio tugged her down into his arms to combat her resistance. There was more urgency than patience in the possessive stroke of his hands over her slender curves. There was greater demand in the heated force of his mouth. She twisted and turned beneath the onslaught of his increasing ardour. No matter how hard she tried to stay separate he was sweeping her up into the same storm of passion where pride had no place and only fervent need ruled.
‘You want me too,’ he told her thickly. ‘It’s reciprocal. I saw it in you the first time you looked at me.’
Her lashes swept down to conceal her apple-green eyes. She wouldn’t answer but she was powerless to control the desire he had aroused. Her fingers were digging into his wide brown shoulders. The aromatic scent of his skin entranced her. At first meeting he had imprinted on her senses and she had recognised him on every level since then. The bewildering strength of that initial bonding scared her and infuriated her but it also exhilarated her.
‘You are so stubborn,’ Sergio growled in the simmering silence.
‘I’m not here to stroke your ego!’ Kathy declared.
He ground her lips apart with devouring heat and punished her with pleasure. Every nerve-ending in her body leapt in response. He worked his erotic path down over her squirming length, lingering on the rosy crowns of her breasts with his tongue and his teeth and exploring the hidden places to discover the exquisite sensitivity of her most tender flesh. The excitement became overwhelming. Her heart pounded in her eardrums, for in no time at all the yearning became a ravenous need. His caresses pushed her to an edge of frustrated torment that she found unbearable.
‘Sergio…’
‘Say please,’ he urged breathlessly.
She gritted her teeth. ‘No!’
‘Some day I’ll make you say please,’ he swore.
But Kathy wasn’t listening. Trembling with desire, she was already pulling him closer. Hot and impatient, Sergio required little encouragement. Golden eyes ablaze, he slid between her thighs and entered her with energising heat and strength. She cried out in startled acknowledgement of his invasion. He had made her burn with an irresistible hunger and now the dark, delirious pleasure began. It was glorious and her capacity for enjoyment knew no limits. His passionate intensity drove her wild with excitement. Sensation gradually became a raw, sweet agony until he sent her careening to a tumultuous peak of explosive release.
There
was a timeless moment of pure ecstasy and joy. In the sensual ripples of delight that followed, she felt wonderfully close to him, transformed and at peace. And then her brain kicked back into action and blew all those fine feelings away again. She remembered how things really were between them and felt angry, mortified and earth-shatteringly bitter. As a deep sense of hurt threatened to surface she squashed it flat and wrenched herself free of his arms in a fierce gesture of rejection.
‘Can I leave now?’ Kathy asked, snaking over to the far side of the bed and sliding her legs off the edge with an eagerness to depart that spoke more clearly than any words. ‘Or are you really going to insist I stay the whole night?’
Sergio was accustomed to women who voiced compliments and witty remarks in the aftermath of intimacy. He thought her attitude offensive.
Kathy didn’t wait for an answer from him. She rose upright in a hurry and was quite unprepared for the wave of dizziness that engulfed her. The room tilted in front of her bemused eyes and the floor threatened to rise and greet her. Her face damp with perspiration, she swayed and staggered before she sank hurriedly back down on the bed again.
‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.
Kathy was fighting an attack of nausea while taking slow, deep breaths in a desperate effort to clear her swimming head. ‘Maybe I stood up too fast.’
‘Lie down.’ Sergio pressed her back against the pillows. ‘I thought you were going to faint.’
‘I haven’t eaten in hours. That’s all that’s wrong,’ she muttered, feeling foolish at having her big exit halted in its tracks. ‘I’ll be fine in a minute.’
‘I’ll order food.’ Sergio used the phone by the bed and began getting dressed.
Kathy refused to look at him. ‘I just want to go home.’
‘As soon as you’ve eaten something and you’re feeling better.’ Lean, dark face sombre, Sergio spoke with scrupulous politeness.
Gripped by an overwhelming weariness that was as unfamiliar to her as the dizziness, Kathy swallowed hard and said nothing. She knew that there was no way she was going to feel better in the near future. He had destroyed her peace of mind and devastated her pride. What if her worst fear came true and she was pregnant? Pregnant by a guy whom she hated like poison?