‘Umm... No, but we should be okay, my period is due very soon,’ she whispered.
Could this actually get any more awkward?
‘Maybe we don’t have to worry either way.’ He smiled. ‘After how good that just was, my offer of a union between us is still very much on the table.’ Bracketing her hips, he drew her towards him.
What?
Just as her panic started to spiral out of control again, he pressed his lips to the rioting pulse in her collarbone. She jolted, let out a broken sigh, the tantalising butterfly kisses making the heavy weight in her stomach sink into her sex.
He lifted his head, cradled her cheeks.
‘How about you stay here and we can negotiate the details over the holiday?’ he said, his mouth hovering over hers. ‘I thought we could take a trip to my father’s old hunting lodge. It’s secluded, and private, and it will give us a chance to get to know each other even better.’ He lifted his brows, the heat in his gaze making her want to cry.
That sounded so good, but it could never happen.
She flattened her palms against his chest as he lowered his head. The misery helping to smother the knot of shame as heat bloomed in her core.
‘Stop, Leo. We can’t.’ She pushed him away.
‘No?’ he said, the confident, mocking tone making the knot in her gut grow to impossible proportions.
‘I told you, we can’t get married,’ she blurted out. ‘Ever. I told you that before I agreed to tonight.’
‘Why not?’ His lips twisted and the devastating smile did crazy things to her equilibrium. ‘We’re terrific together, in every way that counts. We just proved that beyond a doubt.’
You have to tell him. Now.
But how?
She’d screwed up so badly, she didn’t know if there was a way to make this right.
‘I need to take a shower.’ A cold shower. A very long, very cold shower.
‘Do you want me to join you?’ he said, in that too sexy voice that made her want to say yes, when she knew she couldn’t.
‘Maybe next time,’ she said, as she shot off the bed and made a dash for the bathroom.
She slammed the door and pressed her back against it. His confused look at her erratic behaviour imprinted on her brain.
She was a coward, as well as a liar, but she had to figure out the right way to tell him the whole truth and nothing but the truth—to minimise the enormity of her betrayal. And she couldn’t do that while he was looking at her as if he wanted to devour her, and her sex was still humming from the feel of him deep inside her.
She jumped as the door bumped against her back. ‘Jade, what’s going on? Can I come in?’
‘Nothing, really, I just need a minute...’ Or fifty. ‘I’ll be out soon.’
As soon as I’ve figured out how to defend the indefensible.
CHAPTER EIGHT
LEO RESTED HIS forehead against the bathroom door. He heard the shower and realised he had been dismissed. He frowned.
The woman was more capricious than a wild stallion, but while Jade’s unpredictable moods had been a major turn-on for days now—hell, ever since he’d seen her marching towards him at the Winter Ball a week ago with that bold, reckless light shining in her eyes—the trickle of unease had started to become a flood.
Something about this whole thing didn’t add up. Had never added up. He’d dismissed that gut instinct a week ago, and every day since, because he’d wanted her, more than he’d ever wanted any woman. She had captivated him, bewitched him even, and the sex they’d just shared had been... Frankly, mind-blowing.
But that realisation only made his uneasiness increase.
He’d never had a sexual experience like it... One so intense he hadn’t even remembered to use protection. He’d had a couple of condoms burning a hole in the pocket of his jacket all evening, but when he’d watched her body brace with pleasure, the need to bury himself deep inside her had been so overwhelming he hadn’t stopped to think.