A Passionate Revenge

by Sara Wood

  ‘He liked me to cook for him and his business friends.’

  ‘Hmm. And do you prefer an undemanding relationship?’ he pursued.

  Her mouth pruned in. ‘I thought I did.’

  His eyes flickered. ‘But now?’

  ‘I… Let’s keep my private life out of this, shall we?’ she said sharply.

  ‘He can’t come here again, Anna,’ he warned.

  ‘He won’t.’ And she burst out with the words he’d been waiting for. ‘Our engagement has been broken off.’ She frowned, clearly seething. ‘To be accurate, he dumped me!’

  ‘He what?’

  ‘You heard,’ she muttered.

  ‘You’re angry.’

  Flashing silver eyes met his. ‘Angry? I’m boiling! I was going to let him down gently but he got in first. He just said quite baldly that our engagement was over because he realised that I wouldn’t help him reach his full potential!’

  ‘And you said?’

  ‘I was speechless! Then I told him I didn’t know that had been my role because I’d been born in the twentieth century, not the nineteenth. And he said I had a lot to learn about men—’

  Muttering something he didn’t catch, she broke off. Stormed over to the sink and began to crash pans about. Her body quivered with appealing indignation.

  ‘He’s wrong. I’ve learnt enough for a lifetime,’ she growled.

  But not about him, he thought. And he intended that she should discover every inch before dawn.

  ‘I’m supposed to do those today,’ he murmured, moving close behind her wonderfully supple back as it swayed this way and that in swift, economic movements.

  ‘Well, I’m relieving you of that duty. I need an outlet for my temper—’

  ‘Denting saucepans? I don’t think so,’ he said, putting his hands on her tiny waist and spinning her around. Now he would kiss her. Suggest they move somewhere more private. He smiled into her storm-washed eyes and said throatily, ‘I have a much better way of releasing your passions.’

  CHAPTER SIX

  FOR a fraction of a second she resisted. Her body arched back, and he saw a look of shock on her face. Then he jerked her towards him and she came tumbling into his arms. His face bent to hers and he marvelled at how warm and firm she was. Hot and sweet, the blood in his body began to course faster through his veins.

  His mouth closed over hers, stifling her muffled protest. Her lips opened beneath his. He groaned, his arms enclosing her more surely, one hand curved around a taut buttock and pushing her harder into his hungry loins, the other cradling the back of her head to drive their mouths harder together.

  Suddenly he realised that she wasn’t wearing any briefs. The thought made his insides turn over. There was a lack of inhibition about her that he’d never imagined.

  Fascinated, he explored. Every move of his questing fingers rewarded him with an intimate knowledge of her curves. His hand splayed out to encompass her toned rear in its entirety and she moaned, jerking against him.

  He devoured her. Kissed and nibbled. Let the tip of his tongue explore the line of her lips while her soft breath grew hotter with every passing second, teasing his flesh every time she gasped.

  The silk of her hair slid seductively through his fingers like water. He kissed her eyelids. Across her brows. Down the perfect line of her nose. Lingered on the little channel above the lush bow of her mouth.

  Gently his fingers drifted down the long line of her neck to the gentle swell of her breasts.

  ‘No!’ she whispered.

  But contrarily she was melting against him, squirming and pushing her pelvis into his and inflaming him further. And then his fingers lightly brushed across one of her hard, inviting nipples and she let out a tell-tale moan.

  ‘Anna!’ he breathed, choking with desire.

  Her fury and hunger exploded in one fatal moment. Helpless to stop herself, she lifted up her arms and drew his head down, kissing him with frenzied passion.

  The touch of his fingers on her breasts was driving her wild. Gentle and insistent, the rhythm drummed into her body till it began to vibrate and open like a flower for him.

  She didn’t protest when he gently slid down her straps. With all the boldness of a true wanton she lifted both her breasts and offered them to him.

  ‘Dio!’ he breathed. ‘You are so beautiful!’

  She adored the way his voice cracked. Revelled in the look of bliss as he bent his head and gently took a throbbing nipple in his mouth. Her eyes closed from the sheer ecstasy of his sweet tugging and she pulled his hand from her hip and guided it to her other breast.

  This was why people had sex, she thought hazily, as the incredible stabs of pleasure spread throughout her body. She suddenly wanted to feel his naked flesh against hers. With shaking fingers she tried to undo the buttons of his shirt.

  He pulled away, his eyes dark with liquid desire. Moaning, she reached out but with deft movements he shed his shirt. Her fingers wonderingly touched his broad, golden chest and he quivered, tipping back his head as if her caress was unbearable.

  Then he strode over to the huge pine table and pushed aside the discarded dishes with one sweep of his brawny forearm. Her heartbeat rocketed. Dry-mouthed, she tried to say something, to stop him before it was too late, but her conscience and common sense had taken time off and all she could think of was that she wanted him more than she’d ever wanted anything in the whole of her life.

  He looked at her and she closed her eyes with a little moan of need. She heard him come close and she waited, almost screaming with the crucifying desire to be touched.

  He took her face in his hands and kissed her fiercely with a roughness that she welcomed. Her mouth was coaxed open and she discovered what it was like to be kissed deeply, to feel the moistness of Vido’s mouth and the unbelievably sexy caress of his tongue that was mimicking what she really wanted.

  Her hands spread over the hard planes of his chest. Slid to his small buttocks, hard and taut beneath the gloriously tactile fabric. He muttered something into her mouth and then she was being scooped up and carried. The hard surface of the table hit her back. Her eyes widened.

  The raw nature of his onslaught made electric thrills activate her nervous system. This was wild and wicked and she loved it.

  Dark and impassioned, he loomed over her, kissing a path from her throat to each breast in turn and she bucked at the intolerable sweetness of his marauding mouth.

  The weight of his body was wonderful. The movement of his hands tantalised her. Lightly at first, they caressed her calves. The soft skin behind her knees. She held her breath in anticipation and sank her teeth gently into his shoulder, working her way along it with slow thoroughness to alleviate her frantic physical ache.

  The touch of his fingers had become even more delicate as they pushed up her skirt and glided up her thighs. She began to gasp. To cry out. To beg. But he didn’t hurry.

  She became angry in her frustration, savaging his throat with her mouth. And then she felt it. A light caress that made her freeze in delight. A furnace had been lit in her body, ignited by that one touch.

  Slowly Vido’s fingers slicked against the hard bud, bringing her to nothing more than a pleading, melting submission as she arched her body beneath his, doing everything she could to entice him further, to hurry him, to demand satisfaction.

  His dark head lifted from her breast, his eyes as black as the darkest night.

  ‘Anna!’ he whispered as if caught up, like her, in unstoppable passion.

  And then he slid down her body and she could feel the moistness of his mouth on the silk of her thighs before it enclosed her hot wetness and she completely lost all sense of time and place.

  She bucked with involuntary movements. Heard dishes crashing to the floor. She growled her anger with him, wanting that hard male heat inside her, furious that he was depriving her of the one thing that she wanted. And yet…

  Such exquisite caresses… Her head began to whirl. Sensatio
n after sensation hurtled through her body. Every nerve was screaming, strung as tight as it could be. His hands were everywhere, reducing her to a mass of feeling, and all she could do was to tear at him and moan while delirium caught at her and finally pitched her to a peak of excitement, leaving her to gasp and pant as her body slowly climbed down and she lay beneath him, quivering and shuddering from each little ripple that rode through her like waves on the shore.

  The world stopped spinning. He was kissing her. She felt too languid to do anything at all. It was a long time before she lazily opened her eyes and by then Vido’s mouth had caressed every inch of her body.

  She wondered if she’d been any good. Felt, surprisingly, no compunction at all at the hoydenish way she’d behaved. It had been what she’d wanted.

  Except that now she wanted even more.

  Tenderly his mouth touched hers. His hair was dishevelled, his expression touchingly bewildered. Supporting himself on muscular arms, he studied her for a long time and then he closed his eyes tightly.

  ‘Santo cielo!’ he breathed. ‘What am I doing?’

  She flinched, instantly hurt. He was going to tell her he’d made a mistake. In which case, so had she.

  ‘You should know,’ she glared, feeling horribly cheap.

  ‘No, no, I didn’t mean…’

  Quickly he slid from the table and lifted her down with great tenderness. Her skirt fell into place and it only took a moment for him to slip her straps back over her shoulders. Though all of that was delayed because he kept dropping tiny kisses on her sulky mouth.

  ‘I meant, Anna,’ he explained, ‘that I’d stupidly put you at risk. Anyone could have come through that door. It would have been very embarrassing for you. I apologise. I didn’t think.’

  Her heart started beating again. She smiled ruefully. ‘You weren’t the only one without a thought for propriety.’

  ‘It…just happened. Before I knew it…’

  ‘I know. Me too.’ She took a deep breath. Tried to sound like a woman of the world as she concealed her soaring emotions. ‘No big deal.’

  He seemed taken aback. ‘Er…no.’ His hands were shaking when he reached down for his shirt and began doing up the buttons. ‘It shouldn’t have been here, though. That was clumsy—’

  She stepped forwards and helped, astounded at her boldness. But he’d released something in her, a new confidence in herself, and she wasn’t going to pretend otherwise. It had been great. And shocked though she was by her new-found assertiveness, she couldn’t deny that she had hopes of it happening again.

  ‘There was nothing remotely clumsy about what we did,’ she said throatily. ‘Apart from one thing.’ She let him stew for a moment, her expression mischievous. ‘I’m wondering. Will you,’ she enquired, ‘deduct the broken china from my wages?’

  Vido laughed and held her close, his amused eyes gazing down at her upturned face. ‘No. My fault,’ he husked. ‘I had no idea that we’d be so abandoned.’ His fingers filtered through her hair. ‘Regrets?’

  Her gaze was steady. ‘None.’

  Except that he hadn’t truly made love to her. Next time that would be rectified, she thought, and marvelled at her audacity. If she had a scrap of decency, she’d be appalled at herself. But she just felt elated—and oddly serene at the same time as if everything was going right for once.

  ‘You were fantastic,’ he breathed. ‘I never dreamed…Anna, I don’t know how long this will continue—’

  ‘It doesn’t matter.’

  She met his eyes without shame. The only way to handle this was to pretend it meant nothing special. She needed to convince herself of that because way back there was a little nagging voice telling her that it had been a life-changing moment.

  Whereas in truth it was just sex. A casual fling. Nothing more, nothing less. A guy like Vido didn’t do commitment—and she wouldn’t want that from him anyway.

  ‘It’ll burn itself out,’ she said, sure of that fact. ‘Until then—’

  His eyes became sardonic. ‘We light the touch-paper,’ he said, brushing a thumb lightly over her breast, ‘and self-ignite.’

  Shuddering, she wound her arms around his neck and sank into a long and passionate kiss.

  ‘We’d better wash up,’ she whispered.

  He nodded, his eyes brilliant. ‘And then we can go to bed.’

  Unsteadily, she pushed him away. The thought of falling asleep in his embrace was too sweet to contemplate, though it wasn’t practical, of course. So she kept reminding herself that Vido was easing her physical hunger. And that was all.

  In a quiet and companionable silence, they cleared up the broken china then stacked as much as they could into the capacious dishwasher and tackled the glass and silver together.

  Hell, he thought. She’d been good. Beyond his expectations. Frowning, he admitted to himself that he couldn’t resist her wholehearted abandon. Anna had been very innocent when he’d last known her. She’d clearly made up for lost time.

  Heat permeated his pelvis. It would take a while before he got her out of his system—but it would be highly enjoyable while it lasted.

  He was just wiping down the surfaces when a loud yell came from the garden outside, so loud that they even heard it over the noise of the throbbing dishwasher.

  Anna exchanged startled glances with him then they both hurried to the garden door. She stopped in surprise.

  Peter was rolling on the ground outside in a tight ball, swearing like a trooper. And watching him, a champagne glass in her hand and a cynical expression in her eyes, was Camilla.

  Vido’s girlfriend.

  Anna gasped, her hand going to her mouth as it dawned on her what she’d just done. She could feel the blood draining from her face and wanted to stamp with rage at her stupidity. She’d been so overwhelmed by Vido’s horribly skilful seduction that she’d totally forgotten that he and Camilla were in some kind of a relationship.

  But he couldn’t have forgotten, she thought furiously. He’d used her like a sex toy to amuse himself—without a thought for Camilla’s feelings.

  Ready to explode with rage, she couldn’t even look at Camilla. Guilt and shame and fury swept over her in sickening succession. Almost weeping with the horror of it all, she let her hair swing forward as she bent down to Peter and put a hand on his shoulder.

  ‘What is it?’ she asked in a harsh croak.

  She was rewarded with a glare and a string of oaths. Shocked, she straightened and flung a wary glance at Camilla, who was now smiling at Vido wryly. Anna noticed that he wasn’t in the least bit bothered by the embarrassing situation.

  ‘Looks an interesting scenario. Are you all right, Camilla?’ he asked in amusement and Anna felt her contempt for him soar sky-high.

  He’s just made love to me! she wanted to yell. He’s a cheat and a liar and doesn’t deserve either of us! She trembled, appalled at how easy it had been for him. One sultry look from him and she’d virtually torn his clothes off. Humiliation burned inside her, turning her stomach to acid.

  ‘…couldn’t be better, darling,’ Camilla was saying airily. ‘I’ve been wanting to do that all evening.’

  ‘Do what, exactly?’ Vido asked with a laugh.

  Camilla hesitated. ‘Thump Peter.’

  Anna’s eyes widened. ‘You…hit him?’

  ‘We-ell…To be accurate, his genitals came into contact with my knee. He’ll be all right though, in an hour or two,’ she conceded.

  Vido grinned. ‘How did the…er…accident happen exactly?’ he said with a chuckle.

  Camilla looked over to Anna doubtfully and Anna heaved in a long rasp of air. This was turning out to be a terrible evening.

  ‘He made a pass?’ she suggested flatly.

  ‘Afraid so.’ Camilla rubbed her breast ruefully.

  It was too much. Both of the men Anna had become deeply involved with had been hell-bent on treating her like a moneybox. Grim-faced, she gave Peter a push with her toe.

  ‘You arr
ogant, thick-skinned rat!’ she cried, half-hysterical with fury and the sickening misery that coiled and untwisted in her stomach. ‘You only went out with me because you thought I was to inherit a fortune! And when my grandfather lost everything, you faded out of the picture—till I rang you about the interview and you thought I might be useful after all—’

  ‘Anna—’

  ‘Leave me alone!’ she yelled at Vido, flinging off his restraining hand.

  This was history repeating itself. What was the matter with her, that men should treat her with such contempt?

  ‘Be glad you’ve found out what he’s like,’ Vido said soothingly.

  ‘Oh, I’m glad!’ she spat, whirling on him. ‘Glad that I know where I stand. I was only a means to an end. No one important. Not when there are other fish to fry. Other women to enjoy.’

  Vido frowned, clearly sensing that she wasn’t just talking about Peter. He opened his mouth to comment but she spun away, too upset to speak, too choked with emotion to look at his lying, cheating face. He’d turned her into a cheap one-night stand while the woman he adored had been only yards away. No wonder he’d been appalled when he’d realised Camilla might have walked in on them.

  This was what happened when you gave in to desire, she thought miserably. Heaven help her. How was she going to survive six months in the company of a lecherous, cheating bastard like Vido?

  ‘It’s been a tough day for you,’ remarked Vido with infuriating sympathy.

  ‘You can say that again! I’ve discovered how low a man can sink!’ Spitting tacks, she glared at him and then at Peter, who was struggling to his feet.

  ‘I’m ashamed to say that I have an overwhelming urge to kick a man while he’s down,’ Vido observed. ‘I suppose, however, I’ll have to help him to his car. Won’t be long.’ Without ceremony, he grabbed Peter’s arm and led him off, protesting.

  ‘I’m terribly sorry.’ Stiff and pale with dismay, Anna felt she had to apologise to Camilla.

  ‘Not your fault!’ Camilla stared curiously at Anna’s quivering lip. ‘Hey! No harm done to anything important! Just Peter’s pride and his dangly bits.’