stubborn pride refused to let her back down. She was too worried about Leah, and about what might happen to her if she did try and pull out of this hateful deception. She was trapped and, worse than that, trapped by a man who did the most terrible things to her. Who right now, despite everything, was firing her senses, making her body throb with need.
But if she was trapped she would fight, no matter how useless it might be, like a fox caught in one of her father’s snares. Because the alternative was to give in, surrender to this man, and she would never do that.
‘You heard,’ she obstinately fired back.
‘Indeed I did.’ His voice was terrifyingly soft.
Grimly Harper hung onto her defiance. ‘You don’t intimidate me, Vieri.’
‘No?’ His gaze deliberately burned into hers, the small space between them humming with threat. ‘You call me a bully and a thug and yet you are not intimidated by me. Doesn’t that make you rather stupid?’
‘Oh, you would love that, wouldn’t you?’ Still she pushed. ‘For me to be scared of you.’
‘On the contrary.’ Reaching forward, he brushed his fingers along her jawline, before curling his hand possessively under her chin. ‘What I would love would be for you to honour the clearly laid-out terms of our agreement and start behaving like my fiancée.’
‘But...’ His finger pressed against her lip to silence her.
‘What I would really love would be for you to start showing me some respect.’
Harper swallowed against her closing throat. The heat of his fingers was setting her face alight, hammering her heart wildly in her chest. In theory she only had to turn her head to release his grip but somehow she couldn’t do it. His punishing gaze was holding her captive and it was as much as she could do to drag in a ragged breath.
‘I will start showing you some respect when I think you have earned it.’ Somehow she managed to choke out some words.
‘Is that right?’ With a cold laugh Vieri moved his body fractionally closer. ‘So tell me, just for argument’s sake, what exactly do I have to do to earn your respect? Obviously letting you step in for your thief of a sister hasn’t done the trick, despite the fact that I could so easily have gone to the police and got her into serious trouble. And then there’s the time and effort I have put into finding her, not to mention giving her money and putting her on a plane back to Scotland. Clearly that is not enough.’
‘I’m sorry?’ Harper croaked. ‘What did you just say?’
‘I said that Leah is on her way back to Scotland. For your information that is what my “bully-boy thugs” have been doing. On my instructions and at my expense they have been putting your precious sister on a plane back to her homeland.’ He twisted the hand that still held her chin to look at the watch on his wrist. ‘She should be landing in Glasgow in a couple of hours.’
‘Oh.’
‘Yes, oh.’
There was a heavy pause, the air between them thickening as suddenly the swirling hostility began to morph into something much more slick and dark and dangerous. Harper could only watch, her breath caught in her throat, as Vieri let go of her chin and slid his hand around the nape of her neck, drawing her closer to him until their lips were only fractionally apart. And then they were touching.
Harper closed her eyes against the white-hot bolt of sensation that stormed through her, flooding her core. Immediately the kiss took on a life of its own, hot and damp and deeply sensual, leaving Harper no power to resist. Her lips willingly parted to allow Vieri’s sweet assault, her own body responding with blind need as she pressed herself against him to feel more of his silken mouth and the raw, sexual promise beneath.
Slowly Vieri’s fingers stroked upwards from the base of her neck and Harper shuddered with pleasure. Threading his fingers through her hair now, he dislodged the hairpins until her hair cascaded over her shoulders in a tumble of soft curls. Then, pulling away from her mouth, he stared at her. Harper blinked back, her heart thundering like fury. She would defy anyone to be immune to those eyes. She had no defences against their drugging power.
Gathering up a thick swathe of her hair, he twisted it so that he could hold it in his grip, tugging so that it pulled lightly against her scalp, in a blatant display of seduction and control. And then his mouth was on hers again, gloriously hot and wonderfully soft, yet firm too, like a wicked promise covered in satin.
Harper moved her arms around his neck, her fingers threading through his hair, pushing up through the thick dark waves, her nails digging into his scalp, almost to the point of pain. And Vieri responded in kind, possessively tightening his hold on her hair so that the kiss deepened, their bodies closing together. Pinpricks of pain tingled across her scalp, heightening the wild sensation of pleasure as Vieri’s free arm snaked round her waist, then up over her bare back, the flat of his palm pressing firmly between her shoulder blades.
Their mouths parted for a second, just long enough for Harper to take a gasp of breath and then he was claiming her again, pushing her back against the sofa and leaning forward to cover her body with his own.
‘You drive me crazy, d’you know that?’ Vieri’s low voice growled hot in her ear. ‘You and this damned dress have been taunting me all evening.’
‘We have?’
‘Yes, you have.’ His growl deepened. ‘Don’t pretend you didn’t know. Ever since I walked into your room and saw you standing there admiring yourself I have been thinking of ways to get you out of it.’
Propping himself up on one arm, he stared down at her face before lowering his head so that his hair brushed tantalisingly across the bare skin of her chest. Harper closed her eyes as the damp heat of his mouth started to trace the swell of her breasts, his lips dragging against the skin and leaving a rash of goosebumps in their wake.
‘Well...’ she sighed over his head ‘...that was never my intention.’
‘No?’ Vieri murmured against her. ‘Well, you could have fooled me.’ Raising his head, he moved his hand to the strap of her dress, sliding it slowly, seductively over her shoulder. Harper arched against his touch, her heart hammering wildly against her ribcage. ‘You had every man at that ball lusting after you, Ms McDonald, as I’m sure you well know. I suspect you knew exactly what you were doing when you chose this dress.’
‘Ah, but that’s just it.’ Her words stuttered in her throat as Vieri continued his assault, lathing his tongue into the valley between her breasts. ‘I didn’t choose it.’
‘No?’ Moving his hand to cup one swollen breast, Vieri squeezed it gently in his palm. ‘Then who did? I feel I should thank them.’ He altered his position so that he settled his groin against hers, the shockingly hard evidence of his arousal shooting arrows of lust through Harper.
‘It was someone I met by chance in the boutique.’ She croaked the words.
‘Oh, yes?’
‘Yes. She knows you, as a matter of fact. She said you wouldn’t like the dress I had originally chosen.’
‘Interesting. Who is this mystery woman with impeccable taste?’
‘Umm, I can’t tell you. I’ve just remembered I’m not supposed to say.’
‘Then I can see I am going to have to think of a way to prise the information out of you. Now, let me see...’ He paused, his eyes flitting darkly over her heated face, over the swell of her breasts that rose and fell with each ragged breath. ‘Where shall I start?’
His fingers slid under the bodice of her dress, releasing her breasts. For a moment he just stared at her, his eyes full of hunger, and Harper’s nipples, already almost unbearably hard, tightened still further. Then his hands reached to cup her breasts and he held their swollen weight with such care, such obvious appreciation, it was all she could do to stop herself from whimpering with pleasure.