‘Hate is better than indifference.’ He shrugged his broad shoulders. ‘You agreed to be my mistress, and the only choice you have left is the one I just gave you, Sally.’ His voice dropped to a low, menacing drawl. ‘And if you don’t make up your mind quickly I will do it for you.’
Swept along on a white-hot tide of burning rage, Sally unzipped her top and shrugged it off her shoulders, then slipped the pants down her hips and stepped out of them.
His dark eyes swept over her, and the hint of a smile tilted the corners of his mouth as he noted the white cotton knickers and sports bra. ‘Very virginal—and we both know you are not. Just as well, because I prefer my women experienced, and wearing silk and lace or nothing at all.’
In a second of blinding clarity Sally saw her salvation. She was not mistress material, as he would quickly discover, and given his declared tastes Zac would not hang around long. Instead of trying to resist him in bed she should encourage him. The quicker she got it over with, the quicker he would be gone.
‘As you wish.’ She unfastened her bra and let it fall, then hesitated. Reminding herself he had seen it all, she gathered her courage and stripped off her briefs, and in a show of bravado straightened to her full height and flung her arms wide. ‘What you see is what you get,’ she said, and pirouetted on her toes.
But she did not complete the circle.
Zac gathered her up in full spin and strode over to the bed. Sweeping back the embroidered cotton cover, he dropped her so hard she bounced.
Chapter Eight
HE STOOD menacingly over her, blocking out most of the daylight that was left, and suddenly the anger that had got her this far deserted her. What was she thinking of? Had she taken leave of her senses? She couldn’t do this…
‘Don’t even think about it,’ he commanded.
He had read her mind. How did he do that? she wondered, and saw him take something from his pants pocket and drop it on the bedside table before whipping his tee shirt over his head and dropping it on the floor.
Helplessly, she stared up at him, her fascinated gaze taking in the masculine perfection of his great body, and the thin line of black hair arrowing down over the strong packed band of muscles over his ribcage and then lower, as he shrugged out of the rest of his clothes.
‘There is no changing your mind this time, Sally,’ he drawled with implacable determination in his tone.
She swallowed hard. Totally nude and aroused he was magnificent. He was also vastly experienced, and she felt hopelessly inadequate. With that thought came another. She suddenly realised she had no guarantee he would save her father.
‘But what if you change yours?’ she asked. ‘How do I know you will honour your side of the deal?’
He tensed, his dark eyes seeking hers. ‘Because we made a deal and I gave you my word. My word is my bond.’
She didn’t question why, but she believed him—not
that it stopped her nerves from leaping all over the place at the thought of what was about to happen, nor her adding, ‘Even if you think I am really bad?’
‘I certainly hope so. I rather like bad women.’ Zac gave a low, husky chuckle and slid in beside her. Leaning up on one elbow, he let his gaze sweep leisurely over her long-legged curvaceous figure. She had a body made for sex, and he wondered why he had wasted so much time with tall, stick-thin women.
‘Perfection,’ he husked, and began to caress her with long light strokes, from her shoulders to her breasts, her narrow waist, the curve of her hips. He felt her tense, but he did not linger in any one spot, long fingers trailing over her flat stomach and down the length of her leg, then back up her other leg to circle her belly button, and higher to graze the tips of her breasts. He watched the hardening nipples with a hunger he refused to give in to…yet…He didn’t want a passive lover; he wanted a passionate lover.
He saw her blue eyes widen, and the pupils expand and darken involuntarily. He heard her breathing quicken, heard the small whimpers of delight she could not control from her lushly parted lips, felt her small hand slip around his back and tentatively stroke up his spine. He had her, she was his, but he resisted the incredible urge to kiss her.
Instead he continued to caress her throat, and down the valley between her breasts. The tight nipples were pouting for his attention while his hand slid lower to the hidden valley between her thighs. Her legs parted for him, and it took every ounce of control he possessed not to take her there and then.
He pressed the heel of his hand on her soft mound and raised his head to look down at her beautiful face, flushed with arousal, and he made a husky-voiced promise. ‘I am going to pleasure you more than any man has ever done before, Salmacis.’
Sally stared wildly up at Zac. He was torturing her, but it was an exquisite torture. The brushing, teasing softness of his fingers was driving her insane. She was hot and aching, and with a bravado she hadn’t thought she was capable of she let her free hand sweep down over his chest and then lower, to touch his erection. She heard him groan, ‘No…’ and an impish smile curved her kiss-starved lips.
‘Do you mean that?’ she asked breathlessly, and with one finger traced the smooth, silken tip. Fascinated, she let her hand curl around the hard, pulsing length of him. Her fingers would not meet around the girth, but that did not stop her stroking down to the base and slowly retracing the path back up again.
‘No…yes…’ he groaned again, and, grasping her wrist, he pulled her hand up his body. ‘Always the tease,’ he breathed against her lips, and then, rearing up, he grasped her hands and pushed them above her head, to anchor them there with one of his as his mouth came crashing down on hers in a kiss of awesome passion.
She was pinned beneath him, and he took full advantage of her helpless state. With lips and tongue he teased and tantalised, sucking on the pulse beating madly in her throat and then moving lower to draw a rigid nipple into his mouth and suckle some more. Her back arched and she tried to free her wrists. But his clasp tightened as he kissed, nipped, stroked and licked every throbbing inch of her. His long fingers finally slipped between her thighs to dip into her moist core, finding and toying with the sensitive nub hiding there to devastating effect.
Crazy with excitement, she writhed beneath him as an incredible tension built and built inside her. Just when she thought she could take no more he let her hands free, and she moaned out loud as for a moment she quivered on the brink of some wondrous place she could barely imagine.
He reached across to the table, then grasped her hips and lifted her off the bed. She felt the tip of his shaft slide between her thighs. Involuntarily she wrapped her legs around his waist and her slender arms around his neck, to pull him to her, and her mouth opened beneath his with a white-hot hungry need her body recognised as he plunged into her.
She cried out with a pain she had not expected, and his great body stilled.