‘No!’ she denied, even though every fibre of her was screaming that she was lying. ‘Of course that isn’t what I was saying.’
And then she swallowed. Hard. It was a fatal mistake.
Tak’s eyes snapped to her throat, then locked onto her gaze, and it was as though she was laid bare and he could read every inch of her soul. Could appreciate every last one of her darkest desires.
All of which seemed to centre around him.
‘You do want me to do that,’ he declared, and she might have believed that he had not truly thought so before. That a part of him even welcomed the revelation.
But then his expression turned hard, cold. ‘I was given to understand that you don’t want a relationship with anyone. It was one of the reasons I agreed to take you to the ball as my plus one.’
She felt as if he had stamped his foot into her chest and crushed it down. Later, when she actually thought about it, she still wouldn’t understand how she didn’t crumple with shame right there in front of him.
‘You invited me as your date to the ball because it was mutually convenient. We were each other’s buffers and we played our roles to perfection.’
‘Yet now here you are...wanting more.’
She could feel the heat spreading across her neck, her cheeks, but she lifted her head and refused to be intimidated. ‘I have never suggested I want more. You are the one who insisted Nell and I couldn’t stay in our flat. You are the one who was so quick to open your door to us. And you are the one who has been interrogating me about my past and my family all evening. Almost as though you’re interested. Perhaps I might suggest that this unexpected talk of kissing is more a reflection of your state of mind than mine.’
It had been a ruse. An attempt to bat the proverbial ball back into his court. Effie certainly hadn’t expected her words to elicit any reaction—and certainly not one that suggested her words might not be as fantastical as she had thought them to be.
She watched, fascinated, as he scowled, and his eyes glittered almost black as he sat unnaturally still—rigid, even—in his seat. Her words had hit a target she hadn’t even known existed.
‘I’m right...’ she breathed, almost in awe. ‘You want me.’
His mouth flattened, and his glower was enough to intimidate even the boldest of women, but Effie stood her ground even as the blood roared in her ears.
And then, unexpectedly, the frown cleared and he eyed her in a way which was far more threatening—for it was pure desire and unrestrained hunger.
‘You’re right. I do want you,’ he murmured at length. ‘Just as you want me.’
She opened her mouth to deny it again, then snapped it shut. What was the point in lying? She didn’t even know who she’d be lying to most. Tak or herself.
‘Therefore why not embrace it? Use it to our advantage?’
‘Use it?’ she echoed, not following.
‘Use this sexual attraction, this chemistry...’
His mouth curled into something so spectacularly sinful that she could feel the heat blooming through her very core.
‘And fool everyone into thinking there is something really serious between us.’
‘You mean, pretend...more?’ she asked.
‘I mean, pretend less,’ he growled.
It took her a moment before the full implication of what Tak meant hit home.
Effie gasped. ‘You mean, give in to this...this physical thing between us?’ Her voice sounded too raw, too naked. ‘Indulge? Have...have sex, or whatever, and let the rest of the world draw their own conclusions?’
‘I’m curious,’ he said almost idly. ‘What’s the whatever?’
She shook her head, confused. ‘Pardon?’
‘You said, “have...sex, or whatever”. I want to know what the whatever is? It sounds deliciously naughty.’
His lips curved licentiously and he made no attempt to hide his amusement. Effie’s entire body trembled—and not, she feared, with disgust.