SHE WAS WARM. And comfortable. The steady sound drumming in her ears soothed her, made her feel safe from the erratic dreams that still played in her mind.
But she wanted to get warmer still. Wanted to burrow in the solid strength surrounding her.
The heart beating underneath her cheek—
Ruby jerked awake.
‘Easy now, tigress. You’ll do yourself an injury.’
‘What the hell...? What are you doing here?’
‘Sharing the bed. As you can see, once again I managed to restrain myself. And this time we’re both fully clothed. That means I win brownie points.’
‘You win nothing for letting yourself into my bed uninvited.’
‘Technically, this is my bed, Goldilocks. Besides, you were muttering in your sleep and tossing and turning when I looked in on you. I had to make sure you didn’t sleepwalk yourself out of an emergency exit in your agitation.’
Ruby tried to pry herself away from the inviting length of his warm body, but the arm clamped around her waist refused to move. ‘I wasn’t that agitated.’
Silver eyes pinned hers. ‘Yes, you were. Tell me what upset you.’ His voice was cajoling, hypnotic.
She wanted to tell him about the undeniable threat in the email that had made a shaft of ice pierce her nape and shimmer down her spine. The loan shark had stepped up his threat level, implicating her mother.
Ironic that Narciso, the world-famous playboy and media mogul, had no idea who her mother was but some two-bit loan shark who inhabited the dregs of society knew who Paloma Trevelli was enough to threaten to break her legs if Ruby didn’t reply with a timescale of payment.
Her reply had bought her a few more days but there was no way she intended to tell Narciso what was going on.
‘I told you. It’s my business to handle.’
‘Not if it will potentially impede your ability to perform your job.’
‘I can cook blindfolded.’
‘That I would pay good money to see.’ He pulled her closer, wedging his thigh more firmly between hers so she was trapped. Some time during sleep, she’d curled her hand over his chest. Now, firm muscles transmitted heat to her fingers, making them tingle.
Awareness jolted through her when his lips drifted up her cheek to her temple. ‘If we weren’t landing in less than thirty minutes, I’d take this a step further, use other means to find out what’s going on.’
‘You’re operating under the assumption that I would’ve permitted it.’
He laughed, then sobered. ‘It wasn’t your father, was it?’
‘No, it wasn’t.’
He stared down at her for a long time, then nodded. ‘I did some research while you were asleep. I know about your parents.’
‘Oh?’ She couldn’t help the wave of anxiety that washed over her.
His eyes narrowed. ‘Has it always been like that with them?’
That mingled thread of pain and humiliation when she thought of them tightened like a vice around her heart. ‘You mean the crazy circus?’
He nodded.
‘Until I went to college, yes. I didn’t return home afterward. And I have minimal contact these days. Any more and it gets...unpleasant.’
‘For whom?’
‘For everyone. My father is a serial adulterer who doesn’t understand why I won’t condone his behaviour. My mother doesn’t understand why I don’t forgive my father every time he strays. They both want me to join the family business. The same business for which they shamelessly exploit their fame, their family, their friends—’ She ground to a halt and tried to breathe around the pain in her chest.
His hand stroked down her cheek. ‘You hate yourself for the way you feel.’
Feeling exposed, she tried to pull away. He held her firmer. ‘Ruby mio, I think you’ll agree we went way past business when we spent the night together in my bed. Talk to me,’ he coaxed.
She drew in a shaky breath and reassured herself that they were talking. Just talking. ‘I hate that my family is broken and I can’t see a way to fix it without being forced to live my life in a media circus.’
‘And yet you chose that avenue to fund your business.’
‘Believe me, it wasn’t my first choice.’
‘Then why did you do it?’
‘We’d tried getting loans from the banks with no success. Simon heard about the show and convinced me to enter. Taking three weeks out of my life to be on the show felt like a worthy sacrifice.’
‘So you returned to the thing you hate the most in order to achieve your goal.’
‘Does that make me a fool?’
‘No, it makes you brave.’
The unexpected compliment made her heart stutter. Silver eyes rested on her, assessing her so thoroughly, she squirmed. Of course the movement made her body rub dangerously against his.
He emitted a leonine growl and the arm around her waist tightened. One hand caught her bent leg and hitched it higher between his legs. The bold imprint of his erection seared her thigh. Heat flared between them, raw and fervent.
‘So you don’t think it’s wrong to do whatever it takes to achieve one’s dreams?’
His eyes darkened. ‘No. In fact, it’s a trait I wholeheartedly admire.’
Her throat clogged at the sincerity in his voice. The barriers she’d tried so hard to shore up threatened to crumble again. A pithy, mocking Narciso was bad enough. A gentle, caring Narciso in whose eyes she saw nothing but admiration and praise was even more dangerous to her already fragile emotions.
Scrambling to regroup, she laughed. ‘Dear God, am I dreaming? That’s two compliments within—’
‘Enough,’ he snapped. Then he kissed her.
Ruby’s heart soared at the ferocity of his kiss. Desire swept over her, burying the volatile memories under even more turbulent currents of passion as he mercilessly explored her mouth with a skill that left her reeling.
Narciso could kiss. She already had proof of that. But this time the sharper edge of hunger added another dimension that made her heart pump frantically, as she saw no let-up in the erotic torrents buffeting her.
When he sank back against the pillows and pulled her on top of him, she went willingly. Strong, demanding hands slid up her bare thighs to cup her bottom, press her against that solid evidence of his need.
Unfamiliar hunger shot through her belly to arrow between her legs. Desperate to ease it, she rocked her hips deeper into him.
His thick groan echoed between their fused lips. He surged up to meet her, thrusting against her in an undeniable move that made her blood pound harder.
With her damp centre plastered so firmly and fully against him, she moaned as the beginnings of a tingle seized her spine. Hunger tore through her as rough fingers bit into her hips, keeping her firmly in place as they found a superb synchronicity that needed no words.
The first wave of sensation hit her from nowhere. She cried out, her fingers spiking into his hair as she grasped stability in a world gone haywire.
‘Dio! Let go, baby. Let go.’
The hot words, crooned in her ear from a voice she’d found mesmerising from the very first, were the final catalyst. With a jagged moan, Ruby gave