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A shock of sensation jolted her out of her fury. A shock of something almost like excitement.
She dropped the necklace to the table and discovered she was breathing hard, as if she’d run here instead of tottering on ridiculously high heels. She stepped out of the delicate slingback sandals and her feet sank into the luxurious pile of the carpet.
Still he said nothing, just watched her with eyes that glowed with an inner fire.
No time for second thoughts. She’d committed herself. Head up, back straight, she paced towards him. He didn’t move except to tilt his head, the better to watch her.
He enjoyed this power play. She sensed it even though his face remained granite-hard.
The realisation gave her the strength to sink onto her knees beside him on the sofa. She twisted a little, her leg aligning with his thigh, so solid and warm and unmoving. Without giving herself time to think she reached out and cupped his jaw in her hand. His skin was hot and smooth. So smooth she wondered if he’d just shaved. Had he been so sure she’d come to him?
Of course he had. He held all the cards.
Annie West spent her childhood with her nose between the covers of a book—a habit she retains. After years of preparing government reports and official correspondence she decided to write something she really enjoys. And there’s nothing she loves more than a great romance. Despite her office-bound past, she has managed a few interesting moments—including a marriage offer with the promise of a herd of camels to sweeten the contract. She is happily married to her ever-patient husband (who has never owned a dromedary). They live with their two children amongst the tall eucalypts at beautiful Lake Macquarie, on Australia’s east coast. You can e-mail Annie at www.annie-west.com, or write to her at PO Box 1041, Warners Bay, NSW 2282, Australia.
Recent titles by the same author:
BLACKMAILED BRIDE, INNOCENT WIFE
THE DESERT KING’S PREGNANT BRIDE THE GREEK TYCOON’S UNEXPECTED WIFE
THE SAVAKIS
MISTRESS
BY
ANNIE WEST
To two lovely ladies:
Marilyn and Lee Thank you for all your support!
CHAPTER ONE
CALLIE’S heart thundered in her ears, muting the sound of their hoarse breathing. Hers and his, mingled together.
Aftershocks shuddered through her. Light flickered behind her closed lids, remnants of the white-hot ecstasy that had exploded through her moments ago. An ecstasy she’d never before experienced.
Who could have known?
She dragged in a breath and inhaled his spicy scent. Clean masculine sweat, musky skin and something indefinable that made her want to burrow closer into his bare shoulder.
She nuzzled his damp skin and was rewarded with a rumble of approval deep in the wide chest that cushioned her. One large hand slid gently over her hip, long fingers caressing her bare flesh, pulling her closer to his hot, slick body so she lay half across him.
Callie’s breath puffed out in a sigh of astonished bliss. He was strong, tender and generous.
Everything she’d never had from a man.
Everything she’d learned not to expect.
He’d taken her to paradise. Teased and pleasured her until reality shattered in a conflagration of sheer bliss.
She’d never known such intense joy as when she’d soared to ecstasy in his arms. She’d always be grateful for the gift he’d given her today. The shared pleasure that connected her, however briefly, to him. That sense of linkage, even more than the physical delight, warmed her to the core.
She’d felt alone for so long.
From the moment she’d seen him row his dinghy from the gracious old yacht, his wide shoulders gleaming bare and golden in the sun, she’d sensed something different about him. Something special. He epitomised a masculinity so perfect it had sucked the breath from her chest.
She, Callie Manolis, who hadn’t looked at a man with desire in seven years! Who’d thought she never would again.
For days she’d tried to ignore the stranger who invaded the seclusion of this private beach. Invaded her refuge. Each morning as she lay under the pine trees, spent from swimming, she attempted to focus on her book. But inevitably her gaze strayed to where he pottered on deck, fished, or swam in the clear waters of the tiny bay.
Even with her eyes shut she’d been aware of him. As he’d been of her.
Had he really needed to ask the way to the track for the nearest village? The sizzling gleam in his eyes told her he hadn’t. But for once Callie had warmed to that wholly male glint of appreciation. It hadn’t repelled or annoyed her.
He looked the way she felt when she saw him.
Ensnared by his dark, dark eyes, Callie had been like a swimmer adrift on the Aegean, cut off from reality. From her future plans, the pain of the past, even her distrust of men. What did trust matter in the face of this potent attraction? It was extraordinary yet stunningly simple.
Her lips curved against his skin. She couldn’t resist the temptation to press a kiss there, tasting his salt tang. A sound between a growl and a purr vibrated from his throat, exactly matching her own sense of lazy triumph.
Perhaps sexual abstinence made this sudden passion so exhilarating. She was twenty-five and he was her second lover. Perhaps that was why…
Thought clogged as his hand moved splay-fingered down her leg. It circled, light as a wind-blown leaf, slipping between their bodies to caress her sensitive inner thigh.
Callie sucked in an astonished breath as the tingling started again deep inside. A jolt of desire pierced her, shocking her to full awareness in an instant.
Heat radiated from his touch as his hand strayed to the place where need had pulsed a short time ago. She gasped as he stroked her, tenderly yet deliberately. Stunned, she felt a shimmer of excitement ripple through her sated body like a rising tide.
‘You like that?’ There was lazy satisfaction in his deep voice. And a knowledge that told her he knew exactly how much she craved his touch.
He understood her reactions better than she. Callie was a novice at this but even a woman so inexperienced recognised a master of the sensual arts.
She flattened her hands on his chest and pushed herself up so she could look down into his face.
A smile lingered on his sensuous lips and his glittering eyes flashed an invitation. His unruly black hair flopped over his brow, in gorgeous disarray after she’d clutched it. Her gaze strayed past his solid jaw to the strong column of his throat. To the reddened patch on his neck.
Was that a love bite? She’d marked him with her teeth? Surely she hadn’t been so wild.
‘We can’t,’ she blurted out. ‘Not again.’
One sleek black brow rose and he bestowed a slow confident smile that sent a buzz of pleasure through her.
‘I wouldn’t be too sure of that, little one.’
His questing fingers moved and her body trembled.
Automatically she clamped her fingers around his wrist,