She really was beautiful when she was angry, Xander thought abstractedly, even as he wondered exactly which part of the contract she found insulting.
Her face was less strained than it had been a couple of weeks ago—those dark circles beneath her eyes having disappeared, and the hollows of her cheeks having filled out a little.
But as for what was wrong with the contract, he had no idea. He had given her what she’d asked for, hadn’t he? Financial security for herself and Josh. So what the hell was the problem?
Casey stood her ground when Xander stood up to move round and rest his hips against the front of the desk. But the movement brought him dangerously close to her in the process, making her totally aware of him—of his warmth, of the air of sensuality that he held in control but which was never far beneath the surface whenever the two of them met.
Not that she showed by the flickering of an eyelid that she was in the least disconcerted by his close proximity. Xander Fraser was a man used to having his own way. She had quickly learnt that this last few weeks. But, as a woman who had become used to running her own life, and Josh’s, this last year, she wasn’t about to cede any of her independence without a fight.
‘Tell me what’s wrong and I’ll have my lawyer change it,’ he promised.
If he had returned her anger, or even if he had spoken to her in that coldly distant tone he sometimes adopted, Casey knew she would have found it easier to maintain her own fury on reading the contract he’d had drawn up.
As it was, she felt a little like a deflated balloon at his reasonable response. ‘I—It’s just—That paragraph is complete nonsense!’ She moved to jab a finger at the offending paragraph in the contract.
She was now even closer to Xander, her arm brushing against his before she moved back abruptly to look at him from beneath lowered lashes.
There was a dark shadow to the squareness of his jaw where he was in need of a shave, and his overlong hair was slightly dishevelled where he’d been running his fingers through it as he’d worked at his desk. Dark hair, that shone with ebony lights… The sort of hair that made Casey long to reach out and touch it, to run her own fingers through its silky length as Xander’s mouth once again plundered hers—
Casey gave an inward groan. She’d had a lot of fantasies like this these last couple of weeks—moments when she had found herself thinking of Xander, of the way he had kissed her, caressed her…
Imagining what would have happened if Hilton hadn’t interrupted them that evening…
After all her talk of a marriage of convenience between them, her insistence that she wouldn’t object to him having other relationships as long as he was discreet, Casey now knew that she found the very idea of Xander being intimately involved with another woman completely abhorrent.
Which was pretty ridiculous when she had absolutely refused to even contemplate the two of them having an intimate relationship.
But there was a good reason for that.
A very good reason.
She didn’t want Xander to know—for him to discover, just how inept she was at lovemaking. ‘Frigid’ was one of the words that Sam had used, along with ‘unresponsive’ and ‘cold’.
Sam had not been amused by her inexperience on their wedding night—had been slightly put out that he’d had to be the one to initiate her into lovemaking—and the whole thing had been painful and awkward for Casey. The fact that she had found herself pregnant only three months later had been something of a relief because Sam had claimed to find the whole idea of making love to a pregnant woman repugnant.
Their lovemaking had resumed after Josh’s birth, of course, but it had never been something that Casey had enjoyed—more something to be endured.
But she had been attracted to Sam before their marriage—had thought herself in love with him—and look how disastrously that had turned out!
No—no matter how attractive she found Xander, she did not want to repeat the experience with him, to see the same impatience in his face when he found out what a disappointment she was in bed.
Luckily he wasn’t looking at her, but at the contract he had picked up, a slight frown between those deep blue eyes as he finally looked up to shake his head. ‘I can’t see what the problem is—’
‘There!’ Casey moved forward to point to the appropriate paragraph, drawing in a sharp breath as once again she found herself standing so close to him she could smell the musky tang of his cologne, could see the dark hair that grew lightly on his bared arms beneath the black tee shirt he wore, see the quiet strength of his hands, his fingers long, the nails kept short.
Hands that last night she had actually dreamt of—touching her, caressing her—
‘I still don’t see it,’ Xander protested. ‘All it says is “the amount of one million pounds is to be paid into the bank account of Casey Bridges, then to be Casey Fraser, on the day of the marriage”—’
‘All it says?’ Casey repeated incredulously, stepping back slightly. ‘A million pounds, Xander?’
Xander found himself very aware of the woman standing so close to him. In fact, he acknowledged with self-derision, he had often found himself thinking of Casey lately, when he should have been concentrating on other things.
Apart from Lauren, who was something else entirely, work had always come first with him these last seven years—had been the constant that kept his life with Chloe bearable.
But this past few weeks he had found himself musing about Casey even in the middle of business deals. Found himself wondering about the soft curves of her body, of how it would feel to have her nakedness against him, under him, on top of him. Imagining parting the litheness of her thighs, touching her there, feeling her flower and blossom…
He wanted to touch her, to kiss her, taste her, to watch her face as he slowly, oh, so slowly entered her, and the heat of her engulfed him—
He was doing it again!
Except that this time Casey was standing right here beside him, looking up at him with those huge green eyes, her cheeks flushed, her lips slightly parted, as if waiting for his kiss.
He couldn’t fight this any longer, Xander decided achingly, and he reached out to grasp the tops of her arms and pull her hard against him, shutting off her angry words as his mouth captured hers.
He slowly lay back on the desk behind him and took Casey with him, her thighs lying between his parted ones, the softness of her breasts crushed against his chest, as his mouth claimed hers with the fierceness of three weeks’ longing.
CHAPTER NINE
CASEY had no idea how she came to be lying on top of Xander on his desktop as his mouth plundered hers—none of the fantasies she’d had about him had ever been this immediate—she only knew that she felt empowered, above him like this, as she raised her head slightly to nibble and suck his bottom lip, to taste him as he was tasting her.
Xander groaned low in his throat, his hands moving restlessly along the length of her spine as he encouraged her to deepen the kiss. A move Casey denied him as she took her time running the warmth of her tongue against his parted lips.
But it was her turn to groan with pleasure as she felt Xander push her tee shirt up over her back, his hands, those big warm hands, against the bareness of her flesh, spreading fire wherever they touched.
Casey’s hands tangled in the dark thickness of his hair as she kissed him hungrily, her lips apart as he returned that hunger, his tongue plunging into her hotly as she squirmed her hips against his hardened thighs.
Xander broke the kiss to push her tee shirt completely out of his way before his hands moved about her slender waist and he easily lifted her slightly above him, so that his tongue circled and licked the hardened nub of her bared breast.
Casey arched her back as her breasts tingled and swelled to the caress, gasping breathlessly as Xander drew the tightened nipple into the heat of his mouth, sucking and licking, that tingle spreading to her thighs as she moved rhythmically against him.
He was so hard against her, his hardness rubbing against the heated centre of her even as his mouth continued its attention on her breast.
She was on fire, her eyes closed, her breathing ragged, the heat between her thighs becoming unbearable as Xander’s hand cupped and captured her other breast, his thumb moving caressingly against the hard tip in the same rhythm as he sucked its twin.
‘Xander, I can’t—!’
‘Yes, you can,’ he assured her gruffly as he released her to roll over, so that she was the one now lying on the desktop, his gaze held hers as his hand moved to unsnap the button on her denims, before reaching beneath to unerringly seek the centre of her need.
As soon as he touched her there Casey arched against him, wanting more, wanting something—
Xander’s mouth claimed hers even as he found her centre, his thumb moving softly against the swollen nub even as his fingers touched her moisture, circling but not yet entering.
Casey breathed shallowly, her eyes closed as she gave herself up to the pleasure she could feel deep inside her—a pleasure that spread and warmed, burned as Xander increased the rhythm of his caress, as his fingers finally entered her to move in the same rhythm.
She couldn’t take any more—felt as if she were about to explode with pleasure—needed, needed—