If she was going to indulge herself by reliving the past, the least she could do was do it properly and remember how, just when she’d started to believe he might actually mean those words, he’d got up and left her, and not come back.
The next time he’d seen her he’d looked straight through her. As if it hadn’t been him who had cupped her face in his hands, his tongue tangling with hers while his thumbs caressed her aching nipples.
Trying to still the jittery feeling in her chest, she watched mutely as he raised his hands in mock surrender, his dark eyes gleaming. ‘Someone’s a little touchy. Or did I hit a nerve?’
He leaned forward, his dark hair falling across his face, his mouth curving in a way that made her spine shrink against her chair.
‘I sincerely hope it wasn’t my presence that dragged you away from the charms of Zone Six. I know we had that little “entanglement” at Lissy’s birthday party, but if you’re thinking we have some kind of unfinished business I’m going to have to disappoint you,’ he said softly.
The handle of her coffee cup felt clumsy between her fingers. Her throat was tight and dry, and she was finding it hard to breathe normally.
Of all the arrogant—
Grinding her teeth, she stared at him in silence, a pulse of anger hopscotching over her skin. Did he truly think that was why she had come here? To offer herself to him? After the way he’d behaved.
It was suddenly hard to catch her breath. All the hurt and loneliness and confusion of that night rose in her throat, and when she looked down at her hands she saw they were shaking. Did he have any idea how it had felt? To lie there naked in his bed, her body quivering with longing, filled with disbelief that this beautiful, unattainable man had chosen her, only to discover that he’d changed his mind and not even bothered to tell her.
‘I’m sorry to disappoint you, Basa,’ she said coldly, ‘but I didn’t actually know you were going to be here today. And even if I had known, any entangling with you really isn’t that much of an incentive for me to “drag” myself across the road, let alone into the West End.’
He stilled, not just his body but his face, even his eyes, and she felt her heart begin to beat out of time.
‘Funny... I don’t remember you being so reticent two years ago. In fact, as I recall, you were pretty insistent.’
‘You asked me to dance,’ she snapped.
She could still remember her shock, and the sharp tingling excitement as he’d held out his hand. For to her it had felt like the moment when Prince Charming had invited Cinderella to dance at the ball.
Her heartbeat stuttered now.
Maybe if she’d been more worldly she might have seen it for what it was. Thanks to his sister’s insistence that he make sure everyone had at least one turn on the dance floor, he had dutifully danced with practically all Alicia’s friends by that point. But as he’d pressed her closer she’d been so cocooned in an enveloping, intoxicating happiness that nothing had existed except the muscular hardness of his body and the restless, persistent pulse between her thighs.
His dark gaze rested on her face.
‘To dance, yes...’ he said slowly.
Her pulse froze, and before she could stop them the images fast-forwarded.
Their ‘duty’ dance over, she’d thought he would thank her and leave, but somehow they had been on the terrace, the music had faded, and as she’d shivered in the cool night air he’d shrugged out of his dinner jacket and settled it over her shoulders. The silk lining had been warm from the heat of his body, and it had still been warm a moment later, when she’d s
tood on tiptoe and kissed him...
Her cheeks were hot and her skin suddenly felt as though it was too small for her body. She might have been a virgin—she still was—but she hadn’t been completely clueless. There had been a couple of boys at parties, their clumsy lips pulling at hers like overgrown puppies with a chew toy, but nothing and no one had ever made her feel like that.
Her body had seemed to lose all its bones, to become one with his. It had felt as though she was melting into him, everything solid turning fluid, drowning all sense and reason—and, yes, she had been eager, frantic to finish what they’d started without any thought to the consequences.
But admitting that to Basa now wouldn’t change his part in what had happened.
He might be blessed with mouthwatering looks and limitless wealth, but that was where his resemblance to Prince Charming ended. Even before Charlie and Raymond had been caught embezzling he’d had no plans to marry a scullery maid—or, in her case, the stepdaughter of an employee. All he’d been interested in was a short, sweet sexual encounter, and that had rapidly lost its appeal when he’d realised he’d have to go hunting for condoms to make it happen.
Of course he’d made up some other excuse to leave, but she knew he hadn’t gone to get a bottle of champagne. The truth was that she just hadn’t been beautiful or desirable enough to make him want to stay.
‘It was a party. I’d been drinking,’ she said icily. ‘I just wanted to have a bit of fun,’ she lied. ‘That’s what girls want to do at parties, Basa—they want to have fun.’
Around them the air hummed with a kind of anticipatory stillness as his eyes rested steadily on her face. To anyone watching it probably looked as if they were having some kind of intimate tête-à-tête, she thought, her fingers tightening around her coffee cup. Only she could feel the waves of animosity seeping across the white tablecloth.
‘Mimi by name, and Me-Me by nature,’ he said slowly. ‘Look, I don’t give a toss what you wanted or didn’t want. Your life and how you live it doesn’t interest me. I just don’t want you dragging my sister down to the level of your family.’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t know how you have the gall to show your face—’
‘I’m not my family, and I would never do anything to upset Lissy.’ She felt angry tears spring into her eyes.