rs, and, unlike their previous kiss, his tongue was gently outlining her lips and then probing into the warm interior of her mouth with a persuasive eroticism that totally enthralled her.
Desire and disgust fought for supremacy in her shattered mind. Desire won as a surging tide of excitement swept though her still shaken body. She must not let him know how easily he could affect her, she told herself, but involuntarily she leant against his hard frame, her pulse beginning to beat like a drum in her throat as she surrendered to his expert seduction of her senses.
‘Has that helped you to decide, cara mia?’ His husky chuckle sounded against her ear long, passion-filled moments later.
He knew he had won, Sally thought helplessly as she forced herself to struggle out of his arms. Her legs no longer capable of supporting her, she finally collapsed onto the sofa behind her.
Zac looked down at her, and she saw the knowing smile of masculine triumph curving his mobile mouth. He knew he could elicit a sensual response from her with humiliating ease, and his eyes challenged her to deny it…
She wanted to say no. She opened her mouth to do so—and closed it. Damn him to hell, she swore under her breath, and clasped her hands in her lap to stop them shaking. She stared down at them, unconsciously gnawing on her bottom lip, while her mind spun frantically as she sought for inspiration to escape what was virtually a hopeless position. Finally she took a long resigned breath, her decision made…
She would do anything for her mother, and if that meant saving the neck of her father by sleeping with Zac, she would do it. She glanced around the room, and the irony of the situation hit her.
How appropriate…Her dad’s love-nest…and now hers…
A fatalistic calm swept over her, soothing her nerves and clearing her head. She was twenty-six next month, and with her father as an example she had no intention of ever marrying. As for falling in love, she only had to look at what it had done to her mother to dismiss the idea completely. Maybe it was time she took a lover, and, being brutally honest, she had no doubt Zac Delucca would be a magnificent one. She only had to remember the time she was naked in bed with him to know that. But pride and pride alone insisted that while accepting his offer she would do her utmost to remain unresponsive in his arms. A man of his ego would soon grow tired of a reluctant mistress…
‘Your argument is very persuasive,’ she conceded, and raising her head she caught the flicker of surprise in his dark eyes. ‘I would have to be a fool to refuse what you are offering. So, yes, I agree to be your mistress—but with a few guidelines in place.’
‘Guidelines?’ he queried. ‘Maybe your past lovers catered to your every whim, but I am not that type of man. I expect my woman to be available whenever and wherever I want her. No rules but mine apply. After all, in your case that is what I have already paid for.’
‘Sorry, not possible,’ she said with a shake of her head. She could be as businesslike as he was when she had to be. ‘I have a degree in Ancient History and I work as a researcher at the British museum. My hours are nine to five-thirty, sometimes later, Monday to Friday. I spend every weekend visiting my mother at her nursing home in Devon, returning late on Sunday evening. The guidelines I was referring to are that on no account must my father discover the arrangement between us, and obviously not my mother either. It will be solely between us, and that you can come here any evening except Saturday and Sunday.’
Zac looked down at her pale, determined face and was stunned. He’d had no idea she was a graduate and held down a job at a prestigious museum. When she’d said ‘museum’ he had thought she was probably a receptionist at some commercial tourist attraction, like a house of horrors or a toy museum—there were plenty of them scattered around most major cities.
Blinded by lust the moment he set eyes on her, he had leapt to assumptions about her lifestyle with very little evidence and had misjudged her badly. She wasn’t the spoiled, attention-seeking Daddy’s darling he had thought her, and her dislike of the man was obviously one hundred percent genuine.
The knowledge made Zac uneasy—more so when he realised she had actually taken his word against her father’s regarding the theft with barely a quibble, and accepted his offer much more quickly than he had expected.
Then, cynically, he wondered if she was spinning him a line as he recalled the first time he’d met her, in the middle of a working day, elegant and immaculately dressed. Zac could recognise a designer gown when he saw one; he had paid for enough over the years.
‘If what you say is true, Sally, then explain to me how you were free last Friday and looking as if you had just stepped out of Vogue,’ he demanded.
‘I have three designer garments for special occasions that I bought in a secondhand shop here in Kensington. All at least a couple of years out of date, and deposited there by the sort of woman you usually escort, who discard them after a season or sell them,’ she said scathingly.
Zac flinched, reminded of his years in the orphanage, when the clothes he’d worn had all been secondhand, donated by the good citizens of the city.
‘For months I have been researching the history of a collection of Egyptian artefacts that had been stored in the basement for years prior to the new extension of a current exhibition. It happened to preview to the press and dignitaries last Friday morning. My boss asked me to attend the opening to answer any historical queries that might arise, hence the dress. Then he gave me the afternoon off as he knew I wanted to visit my mother.’
Zac flinched again as he recognised the sadness she could not hide shimmering in her blue eyes. Then he wondered if he had imagined it as she raised her head.
Control tightened her exquisite features, and her blue gaze was cold as she continued, ‘Unlike you, apparently a boss that terrifies his employees, my boss Charles is a kind, thoughtful man. The reason I was at Westwold was because I had hoped to persuade my father to come with me and visit mum that night or the next day. Unfortunately for me you arrived! Satisfied…?’
After feeling uneasy about the way he had treated her, by the time she’d finished speaking all he felt was anger. How did the little witch do it? Yet again she had managed to insult him twice, without even blinking an eye.
‘Satisfied? My curiosity, yes, the rest of me, no. But I will be,’ he drawled, and, reaching down, he caught her hand and drew her to her feet. ‘I accept your guidelines, Sally Paxton, and now, as my mistress, you have to accept me.’
Surely he could not possibly mean that they should go to bed here and now?
A trickle of fear snaked down Sally’s spine, and she went hot and cold by turns. But she refused to give in to the emotion. Instead she pulled her hand from his, straightened her shoulders, looked him squarely in the eyes, her own eyes bleak, and simply said, ‘Fine.’
The fine got to Zac; he knew she used the word when she didn’t care one way or the other. Well, he was going to make her care, he vowed.
‘Good. You can start by stripping off that outfit that covers you from head to toe,’ he suggested. ‘Or I will—the choice is yours.’
He meant it. He actually expected her to cold-bloodedly strip naked in front of him. Not content with virtually blackmailing her into being his mistress, he wanted to humiliate her as well.
Sally’s cool control finally shattered. ‘If I had a choice I’d never set eyes on you again,’ she told him, eyes blazing. ‘I hate you.’