She stared up into his harsh face, and wondered at the bitterness edging his tone. None... she wanted to tell him, but bit back the word. Then his hand touched her intimately again, sending shock waves crashing through her. 'Please...' She closed her eyes; she didn't care what he thought of her. She could stand it no longer, and her hands stroked down his chest, around his waist, and lower over his taut buttocks. Her questing fingers slid down his inner thighs and closed around the male core of him. 'Please,' she begged again.
'I love to hear you beg, Katy; I need to.' His voice was a deep growl of masculine triumph.
She did not hear her own whimpering cry. She pressed hot kisses on his chest, her white teeth finding the small male nipple and biting in a frenzy of need.
Jake caught her hands and pulled them away from him, and drove into her with a fierce savage thrust.
She felt a brief moment of discomfort, but this was no forced possession—she had begged him to take her.
For a moment he was still, and then slowly he withdrew from her.
'No,' she moaned, and suddenly she was clinging to him as he thrust once again, his massive body taking her in a hard fast rhythm that sent her to a shattering climax in seconds. She felt his shuddering release as he collapsed on top of her, his huge frame moving spasmodically, the tortured sound of their breathing the only sound in the sudden stillness of the room.
Later, although how much later she was incapable of knowing, Jake rolled over on to his back, and with his familiar weight gone the cold reality of her situation hit her.
'You're a devious, cold-blooded, callous swine, and I loathe you.' Her voice echoed in the silence. Was it possible to hate and love someone at the same time? her brain pondered as her eyelids closed.
CHAPTER SEVEN
A long way off a bell was ringing. Katy stirred, half opened her eyes, and closed them again. She was warm and comfortable and content. The ringing had stopped. It can't have been important, she thought, sleepily snuggling closer to the source of heat.
She came alert with an unnatural abruptness, disorientated until her heart slammed against her ribs in shock as she recognised she wasn't alone in the bed. Jake was beside her, his muscular thigh pressed lightly against her side as he sat up. It had been his movement in answering the phone that had fully awakened her.
His deep voice, speaking in rapid-fire Italian, grated on her over-sensitive nerves. Carefully she eased herself away from him in the wide bed. Her face flamed as the events of the night returned to haunt her.
'Sorry about that, Katy.' The sheets rustled as Jake pushed them aside and flung his long legs to the floor. 'But it was an important call. We are going to have to go to Venice this afternoon.'
It was a repeat of the previous morning, with one significant difference. Katy's huge green eyes followed Jake around the room, mesmerised by the glowing perfection of his naked form, only today she didn't have the consolation of knowing nothing had happened; instead the memory of their passionate lovemaking, her abandoned response, made her whole body burn with shame.
Jake, completely unconcerned, was once again rattling off his orders. 'Mrs Charles knows what to pack for me, so you can take care of your own luggage. You won't need much. I can probably get the business sorted out in a day or so.' He withdrew a pair of briefs from a drawer and straightened up, his glance brushing over where she lay. 'Katy, are you listening?' he demanded, his voice terse with impatience.
'How could I avoid it? You're barking out your orders like a general to his troops!' she retorted, stung by his actions. The lover had disappeared and he was all super-efficient businessman. She had no experience of morning-after scenarios with one's lover, but even she could see Jake's attitude would not warrant a one out of ten. She supposed she should be relieved; her own emotions were in such a turmoil that she was in no state to examine them too closely, and Jake's prancing around naked wasn't helping.
Jake paused at the door of the bathroom. Brown eyes caught green and he sent her a rueful smile. 'A general, hmm? I take your point, we'll talk after I've showered. Stay in bed and I'll bring you a coffee.'
Katy pulled herself up into a sitting position. She spied her rumpled nightdress on the floor and it took a matter of moments to leap out of bed, pick it up and put it back on. Her instinct was to run and hide from Jake, and from herself, but something held her back.
She climbed back into bed and lay on her back, her eyes fixed sightlessly on the stark white ceiling. She had been running for years and it had done her no good. She was back where she had started, sharing a bed with Jake, and if she was honest it was where she had always longed to be.
Last night... she moved restlessly beneath the duvet... she had let Jake make love to her, and afterwards she had accused him of being a cold-blooded, callous swine. Had she really said that to him? Yes. But she knew it wasn't true.
There had been nothing cold-blooded about Jake's loving. True, he was a skilful lover, but there had been desire, passion, in his touch as well, and he had been as hopelessly out of control as she had in the final shattering climax. Reliving the previous evening in her mind, she was forced to admit Jake had not been callous, but in a way quite caring.
They had dined under the disapproving eye of Mrs Charles, and Katy had barely spoken two words to Jake, her thoughts full of the night ahead. She'd had no illusions; she had made a deal, and very shortly Jake would expect the first payment. Fear and a tingling excitement had held her equally in their thrall.
They had retired to the lounge for coffee, and watched a documentary on television. Katy couldn't have said what it was about, the tension in the air blocking her ability to concentrate.
Jake had sat in a brooding silence for about half an hour before telling her he had work to do in his study and abruptly leaving the room. She had breathed a sigh of relief, and when the clock had reached midnight she'd been falling asleep where she sat. Finally she had gathered enough courage to walk to the bedroom...
Katy was just beginning to relax under the soothing spray of the shower when she heard the bathroom door open. She jumped out of the shower and grabbed a towel, holding it protectively in front of her.
'Jake, what are you doing?' she squeaked. She knew the answer before she had finished speaking. He had undressed down to his briefs and seemed to fill the bathroom.
'Sharing your shower appeals,' he declared throatily. His brown eyes darkened to black as his gaze swept her virtually naked body.
She stared at him, her legs almost failing her at the fierce predatory look she saw in his eyes. 'No,' she whispered.
'Yes.' One tanned hand stretched out and flicked the towel from her trembling fingers. His eyes followed a trickle of water sliding down between her full breasts. 'You're even more beautiful than I remember,' Jake said under his breath, and his voice hardened as he went on, 'I've waited a long time for this. Last night I played the gentleman for you, but not any more!'