them back to where the helicopter had landed earlier.
When they reached it, after a tense silence in the back of the car, Zac strapped Rose into the seat, his hands brushing against her sensitive breasts.
She bit her lip—hard—and he saw it. He lifted his hand and with his thumb tugged her lip free, rubbing it.
A pulse throbbed between her legs as she watched Zac walk around and take his seat beside her. He didn’t look at her again, but she had the strangest feeling that some silent dialogue had just passed between them and she’d made some tacit agreement…to what?
She was afraid she knew, much as she’d like to deny it. It was in every pulsing erogenous zone in her body. Engorged with blood and heat.
Anticipation gripped her as the helicopter lowered itself down over the villa grounds, and Rose desperately tried to bring her body back under control. Because she knew that as soon as they got out Zac would look at her with that familiar cool, disdainful expression and she’d have been made a fool. Again. No matter what his body might have said.
Zac’s brooding silence, and the speed with which he drove the Jeep back to the villa, seemed only to confirm Rose’s suspicion that he wanted her out of his sight as soon as possible.
When they stopped, she almost fell out of the Jeep. She was eager to put some distance between them before he saw how jittery she was.
She was almost inside the villa when Zac said from behind her, ‘Where do you think you’re going?’
She turned around slowly in the main doorway to see Zac standing in front of the Jeep. He was pulling at his bow tie, undoing it and then flipping open the top button of his shirt.
Rose felt a bead of sweat roll down between her breasts. She could hardly breathe. ‘I’m going to bed…’
Zac’s face was half in the shadows, and when he stepped forward she gasped to see the sheer naked hunger in his gaze. She was rooted to the spot as he came closer, even though she knew she should turn and go.
There was too much between them—too much unsaid and tangled and dark. He hated her. But he wanted her. And she was weak…and she wanted him.
And then he was in front of her, touching her. He placed a hand on her waist and pulled her into him, and the same rogue part of her that had allowed him to seduce her whilst knowing it was unutterably selfish and wicked surged back into life.
And worst of all, as he bent his head and blotted out the world with his mouth on hers, she knew that she was giving in because she desperately wanted to pretend for a few weak moments that perhaps animosity and resentment wasn’t all that Zac felt for her…
Zac’s mouth was on Rose’s and he was drowning in soft sweetness. Her tongue was tangling hotly with his, arms twining around his neck. And he didn’t give a damn about anything else in that moment. Except this. Her. Now.
He knew that if he didn’t move while he still retained some control over his motor functions they might well end up on the ground right there, and he’d waited too long to take her like a rutting animal.
He lifted her into his arms for sheer expediency and walked through the villa, straight to his bedroom suite. The room was in darkness, and Zac lowered Rose to her feet and reached for a light. He wanted to see every inch of her. Laid bare to him. He was done with fighting his desire for her.
When he straightened he took off his jacket, letting it drop to the floor. Not taking his eyes off hers, he undid his shirt and took that off too. As much as he’d have enjoyed her doing it, he was too impatient now.
She was just standing in front of him, looking transfixed, as if she couldn’t really believe where she was. And something glowed in those huge eyes—something he didn’t want to see, because it blurred the present into the past. So he said, ‘Turn around,’ with a roughness to his voice that he didn’t relish. It betrayed too much.
But then she did turn around, and he forgot about anything else. Her zip had been driving him crazy since he’d walked out of the villa behind her at the start of the evening. He pulled it down to where it ended, just above her buttocks. And then he pushed the dress over her shoulders and off, so that it fell to her waist.
Rose’s hair was caught up into a chignon of sorts. He could see where the pins stuck out slightly, as if she’d struggled to tame it. Something about that hint of vulnerability struck him, and it was not welcome. To defuse it, he pulled the pins out and her hair fell around her shoulders. Soft, silky, fragrant. He wanted to run it through his fingers and bury his face in it… He stopped himself. That was the kind of thing crazy, besotted men did.
Instead, he focused on getting her naked. He undid her bra from behind and pushed that over her shoulders too, and then he came close behind her and pulled it down her arms so it fell to the floor.
He cupped her breasts. They were bigger, more beautiful, perfectly shaped. The puckered pink areolae surrounding the nipples were larger too. This evidence of her pregnancy was intensely erotic. He pinched them, softly, and felt Rose quiver against him, sucking in a breath. He kissed her where her neck met her shoulders and the taste of her skin clouded every sense.
When she turned to face him, dislodging his hands, Zac was feeling feral. He yanked off the rest of his clothes and saw Rose push down her dress and underwear until she was fully naked.
On a reflex Zac went to reach for the protection in a drawer by the bed, but then stopped as the realisation dawned on him that he didn’t need it.
He knew that this should actually be making him come to his senses, reminding him of who he was dealing with, but all he could think about was how badly he wanted to sink inside her with no barrier between them.
She was looking at him and he saw uncertainty in her expression. His gaze dropped down, taking in the luscious dips and curves, and one curve in particular: the swell of her belly.
Acting on an impulse he couldn’t ignore, he reached out and touched her there, spreading his hand over the swell. It was still soft…but he could feel the hardness just underneath.
An unknown emotion gripped him, making him feel powerful in a way he’d never experienced before—and also humble. For a crazy moment he wanted to drop to his knees and press his mouth to her there, to wrap his arms tight around her… The desire was so strong that it nearly felled him.
‘Zac…?’
He looked up and the feeling passed. Lust engulfed him. He gave in to it with a sense of relief. ‘Lie back on the bed, Rose.’
The uncertain expression left her face, to be replaced by something more like anticipation. She sat down and Zac put a hand on himself, feeling the drop of moisture at the head of his erection.
But then something dark rose up inside him. He wanted to obliterate what he’d just been feeling and he stepped forward, relishing Rose’s avid gaze on his body.
Just when she’d started to move back to lie on the bed, he said, ‘Wait—I want you to take me in your mouth. Taste me, Rose.’
She looked up at him and he saw the flare in her eyes, along with that uncertainty again. Every cell was crying out for her touch. The beast inside him roared for full release, but he needed this more right now—needed her mouth on him in a classic supplicant pose, as if that might dilute some of the intensity swirling in his gut.
She reached out a tentative hand and he took his own hand away so she could wrap her fingers around him. He sucked in a breath to see that small pale hand around his hard flesh. ‘Stroke me.’ For pity’s sake, he almost howled.
She moved her hand up and down, eyes widening as she saw how he thickened even more. Her thumb swiped over its head, spreading the fluid, and Zac had to bite down on his tongue.
And then, with a quick glance upwards, she leaned forward and took him