“You would have been dead a long time ago.” She set her phone and mug on the table and gave in to the desire—no, the need—to massage her temples as the headache grew. “What game are you playing, Alejandro?”
“No game.”
“I sincerely doubt that.”
The teasing smile disappeared as his lips straightened once more. “Perhaps, instead of assuming I’m playing a game or devising a devious plot, you might instead question how your actions forced me to do this.”
Her mouth dropped. “What?”
“This week wasn’t supposed to be about work. It was to get to know each other. How is that possible when you’re running around Marseille and staying as far away as possible from me?”
The headache unleashed its fury, little pickaxes hacking away inside her head as she tried to find her footing in the conversation that had seriously spiraled out of control.
“You still had no right to interfere with my work without talking to me first.”
“So you could make an excuse?” Brittle laughter tumbled from his lips. “I have no doubt that, had I approached you, you would have tried to find a way around me just like you did when you tried to flee Paris.”
“Fleeing is an over exaggeration,” she replied coolly.Calm.She had to stay calm to maintain the upper hand.
He started to retort, then stopped and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Regardless, the venue has been moved to my yacht. Be ready outside the villa at six.”
“Somewhere in that order I heard an invitation.”
“Hear what you want.” Alejandro stood, his body tense, frustration rolling off him in palpable waves. “So long as you’re outside by six.”
Perhaps she could accidentally knock him overboard.
“Who will be there?” she asked as he started to turn away.
“You, me, Suzie and whoever she brings. Plus my crew.”
The headache faded as warning whispered across the back of her neck. “But...just us? For dinner?”
It was like watching a predator realize it had its prey within its grasp. He leaned forward, hands tightening on the back of the chair as a sensual smile spread across his too-handsome face. “Is that a problem?”
Judging by the electricity that had slowly begun to sizzle in her veins, yes, it was a major problem.
“No. Just curious.”
The deepening smile told her he knew better. Knew that right now that heat was pooling between her thighs no matter how sternly she lectured herself to keep it together.
There would be other people on the yacht. But for all intents and purposes, they would be alone.
“Don’t think you can seduce me to get what you want.”
Alejandro circled the table, muscles rippling as he moved like a panther, swift and confident. Sun gleamed on his bare skin, and she had a frantic recollection of the golden lights from a nearby building creating the same glow on his chest as he’d slid inside her for the first time, big and hard and yet so gentle as the initial discomfort had faded, replaced with a wondrous pleasure that rippled through her with each tender thrust.
“I will get what I want, Calandra,” he said as he placed one hand on the table and one on the back of her chair, caging her between his powerful arms. “But not by seduction. When we make love again, it will be because you want me as badly as I want you.”
Even she was impressed by her own willpower and ability to keep her face blank. Because if he saw the effect he was having on her, the swirl of heat and need combined with that emotional pull that was so tempting and yet so frightening, she had no doubt he would use it in a heartbeat to make her surrender herself to him. Body and soul.
“Hold on to that fantasy, Alejandro. Because that’s the only place you’re going to see me naked ever again.”
A wolfish smile crossed his face. “We’ll see.”
Before she could pull back, he leaned down...and placed a kiss on her forehead. She should have pushed him away, far away, instead of closing her eyes and, for one brief, reckless moment, allowing herself to justfeel.
And then he straightened.