‘No!’
‘Why not?’ The doors slid open and he stood to one side, which compelled her to slip past him although she immediately turned around, her hands on her hips.
‘Because...because...’
‘Are you scared?’
‘Scared?’ Her voice was pitched a few decibels higher. ‘Scared of what?’
‘Scared of this,’ Nico muttered, sotto voce.
And just like that, before she could do anything, before she could pull back or turn away or even get her thoughts in order, he was leaning into her. He held her, a gentle enough hold but powerful enough to stay her and his mouth covered hers.
His kiss was hungry, his tongue probing as it moved against hers, caressing and greedy andwantingall at the same time.
Time stood still. Wetness pooled between her legs and muscle memory made her lean towards him, devouring him just as he was devouring her.
She wanted this to stop immediately and she wanted it to go on and on and on for ever.
Disobedient hands strayed upwards to wind around his neck and the heat of his hard body against hers filled her with giddy, guilty pleasure. His fingers lightly threaded a blistering path along her collarbone and her breath hitched in her throat and her eyelids fluttered. Oh, how she could remember the way he had made her body feel!
She heard the clacking of footsteps echoing in the cavernous underground car park and yanked back, half stumbling in the process and automatically tugging her clothes into some kind of order.
Sanity was like a bucket of cold water, drowning her with shame and mocking her for her weakness. She jerked back and stared at him with wide, horrified eyes.
‘Howdareyou?’
‘How dare Iwhat?’
Nico raked his fingers through his hair and looked away. He was furious with himself. Furious with himself for not being able to get her out of his system...for wanting to touch when he’d been knocked back...for not being able to resist temptation when it had been put in front of him. Everything about what had just happened exemplified the sort of weakness he had trained himself to despise.
God, even now, as his dark eyes rested on her swollen lips, he had to fight against moving towards her even if only to breathe her in.
Being on that island had perhaps put the misdeeds of his uncle into some kind of perspective but there was no way he had any time for emotions ruling his head, whatever change of perspective he might have had. Never had, never would.
The frustration right now was intense.
‘You have my apologies,’ Nico muttered in a driven undertone.
Tension was tearing through her body as she stared at him, her mouth still bruised from his, her body still wanting more, still burning for him.
He’d apologised but there had been no need because there was nothing for him to apologise about. She’d kissed him back as hungrily as he’d kissed her. She’d wanted him with every fibre of her being.
The only difference was he’d kissed her, she knew, to prove a point. To prove that she was still turned on by him. She, however, had kissedhimbecause she’d had no choice. Her body had not been able to obey what her head had been saying.
He was moving on where she was standing still, and she would carry on standing still just so long as she was in his presence.
Grace took a deep, steadying breath.
‘This isn’t going to work,’ she said quietly.
‘You have my word that nothing of the kind will ever happen again,’ Nico said heavily. ‘God knows what I was thinking.’
‘You wanted to prove to me that you could still...have an effect on me.’ She supplied the answer before he could fill in the blanks himself. ‘I expect...you must find it all very amusing, that someone of my age could be as—’
‘Don’t say it, Grace,’ he interrupted thickly. ‘I could never be that person.’
‘I might still find you attractive, Nico,’ Grace said, gathering all her pride, ‘but that doesn’t mean that it’s any more annoying than that.’