Her gaze dropped from his, latching instead onto his mouth. So determined, so hard, so close to hers. The whirl of tension in her belly quickened as his lips parted a fraction. She dug her fingers into the suede upholstery.
He couldn’t mean to…
Thought was suspended as, unbidden, the memory surfaced of this man’s lips moving against hers. Of the giddy excitement and sudden desire his caress had evoked. Of the yearning for more.
Tessa’s eyelids flickered as he dipped his head and a charge of pure energy pulsed between them. Only disbelief prevented her succumbing to the mad impulse to give herself up to the seductive, beckoning darkness. To invite the warm weight of his lips caressing hers.
Anticipation was a palpable force, thudding through her bloodstream. It heightened her senses so she trembled as she inhaled the hot male scent of him, already shockingly familiar to her. She was attuned to the steady rhythm of his breathing, aware when it notched up a fraction. She sensed the surge of power through his body as he leaned closer.
And, to her shame, she awaited that moment with trembling expectancy. All she saw, heard, breathed was him, the man she told herself she hated.
Her quivering body proclaimed her a liar.
Hard hands grasped her cheeks, tilted her face up, aligning it with his. There was nothing gentle about his hold or the look on his harsh granite face.
Nothing except the way one thumb caressed her cheek.
She couldn’t prevent the shuddering sigh that escaped her lips as she felt the heat of his skin against hers, the tiny, rhythmic movement that awoke a tide of flooding awareness, tingling through her body.
Her eyelids drooped.
‘Oh, you’re good.’ Stavros’ voice was a whispered skein of rich sound, brushing across her nerve ends. ‘Surprisingly good.’
For an instant his hold tightened, then his hands dropped away and he straightened.
Shocked, she felt her eyes pop open, taking in the twist of his mouth, the narrowed stare that flashed a message of anger and disgust.
What had happened?
‘Do you think I’m naïve enough to be gulled by a woman such as you? Even if you have improved your acting skills over the last couple of years?’
She flinched as the words bit into her flesh and deeper, into the tender, unprotected part of her where her last hopes and secret dreams lay hidden.
He slashed them as ruthlessly as he’d lacerated her self-respect. In one moment of temptation he’d revealed her weakness—one she thought she’d buried forever.
And she loathed him for it.
Shame seared her as sanity returned in a rush. What sort of woman had she become? She’d conveniently forgotten that he was engaged, committed to another woman.
Unbelievable!
Embarrassment heated her cheeks as she remembered the way she’d succumbed to the promise, the expectation of his lips on hers. Desires and fantasies she’d thought long-banished had swirled to the surface and reduced her to a wanting, waiting victim.
But she refused to be anyone’s victim, ever again.
‘You need have nothing to do with a woman such as me if you’d let me be on my way.’ Tessa’s heartbeat thudded unevenly, belying her bravado.
‘You think I should relent and trust you?’ His expression of haughty disbelief sat far too easily on that arrogant nose, that judgemental jaw. Tessa found herself grinding her teeth.
‘No, no.’ He shook his head as he smiled in spurious amity, his voice a deep, caressing purr. ‘I’ll trust you just as far as I could toss that delectable body of yours. Definitely not out of my sight. You’ll stay where my security staff can keep you monitored at all times.
‘You made your intentions abundantly clear when you chose the night of my betrothal party to announce your presence. Maximum disruption, maximum impact, maximum financial benefit to you.’ He counted the points off on his fingers as he paced before her.
‘It’s a simple equation. And an ugly one.’ That cold smile turned cruel as he stopped to pinion her with his laser-bright glare. ‘Don’t take me for a fool. You did your homework and decided to arrive, unannounced, in the hope of squeezing me for a substantial settlement. But you chose the wrong man. I can’t be blackmailed.’
No trace of a smile now. His face was grim, harsh, absolutely forbidding. Despite her indignation, a trickle of fear slid down Tessa’s spine.
‘But it wasn’t intentional. I didn’t plan it that way.’ In response to his aggression her voice was breathless and uneven. She leaned forward, hands gripping the arms of her chair as if she could absorb some of its stolid strength to help face him down.
‘Of course you planned it.’ His abrupt slashing gesture was violent. ‘You were the one who staged the dramatic entrance. You could have contacted me any time in the last few years and I’d have arranged to end the marriage.’