‘That was a mistake. You forced—’
‘No! Don’t hide behind more lies, Tessa.’ He paused and she watched, mesmerised, as his chest rose and fell with a mammoth breath. ‘I didn’t force you. You responded to me. Willingly. Eagerly.’ He took a step towards her and her heart thudded painfully.
‘Wantonly.’
‘No!’ Her gaze crashed into his, and she felt herself sinking again. As if he only had to stare at her with that glint in his eyes for her to lose all sense of right and wrong. For her to abandon herself to the most dangerous of follies.
‘No.’ This time it was a whisper, almost a plea, as she strove for control over a body that still craved the magic of his touch.
‘Yes.’ His eyes narrowed as he swept a comprehensive glance over her. From her trembling legs to her heaving chest. From clenched fists to her peaked nipples, still pouting against her bra, as if eager for his caress.
Tessa shuddered, wondering just how wanton she looked. Was her arousal so obvious? She felt torn in two, needing the safety of solitude, yet still battling the shreds of desire.
‘I don’t want you,’ she lied through her teeth.
‘That’s not what your body tells me.’ There was grim amusement in the slight curve of his mouth and his self-satisfied tone. Damn him!
‘I don’t care what you think. I don’t want you near me.’
The engagement might be at an end—for now, but surely emotions couldn’t be turned off so easily. If Stavros and Angela had been close enough to consider marriage they must care deeply for each other. The fact that Stavros could use Tessa for sheer physical pleasure while he was still linked, emotionally at least, to another woman was a deliberate insult.
She watched his mouth thin to a straight, disapproving line and aimed for the jugular. ‘What about your ex-fiancée? I’m sure she wouldn’t like to know what you’ve been up to so soon after jilting her.’
He closed the gap between them, till his massive chest, his formidable shoulders, blanked out the rest of the room. Tessa felt the anger roll off his skin in waves to encompass her. It was all she could do to stand her ground, not give in to the impulse to scurry away from his intimidating presence.
For she knew there’d be no escape. Not unless he permitted her to go.
Reluctantly she tilted her chin and looked right up into his set face. The force of his glare almost knocked her off her feet.
‘Are you trying to blackmail me…again?’ His voice was a silky whisper that sent fear scudding down her spine.
‘I…’ She swallowed, trying to moisten her mouth. ‘I’ve never tried to blackmail you. But you seemed to have forgotten—’
‘Oh, no.’ His look burned her, bright and keen as a blade slicing right through her defences to leave her utterly vulnerable. ‘I forget nothing. Especially the way you’ve plotted to use me for your own ends.’
She opened her mouth but his voice stopped her, its icy cadence freezing her blood.
‘Believe me, it will be best for you if you never mention Angela in front of me again.’
Tessa wrapped her arms tightly round herself, hunching in against the chill fury of his lashing tongue. He blamed her for everything.
And why not? It had been her naïve stupidity in coming here that had sparked this disaster. Now Stavros’ enmity seemed fathomless.
Because she had injured the woman he loved.
The realisation cramped Tessa’s stomach in a jolt of pain, as if she’d received a body blow.
‘But since you’re so concerned as to mention my ex-fiancée,’ he said ponderously, his voice deepening to a low rumble, ‘I should tell you, our connection has been completely severed.
‘So you see,’ his voice continued, silkily taunting, ‘in the circumstances, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t have a taste of what you’re so freely offering.’
The heavy silence between them was shattered by her gasp of indrawn breath.
‘They say variety is the spice of life and I have to admit to being…intrigued to see just how far you’ll go in your attempts to carve out a slice of my money.’ He paused and the silence between them grew thick and fraught with barely curbed emotions.
Stavros looked down at the woman before him and tried to seize control of his wayward imagination.
‘Are you just a tease? Or are you honest enough in this at least? Will you follow through with what you just offered and give me your body?’
Deliberately he lashed her with words that stripped this extraordinary attraction between them down to its most basic, brutal level. For, to his dismay, he discovered he was fighting himself as much as her.