Eve strode forcefully across the room to his side, looking up at him angrily. ‘The fact that I have—temporarily—called off my wedding to Paul does not mean that I intend becoming involved with you.’
‘You may not intend it,’ he grasped her arms, his gaze warm, ‘but it is going to happen. Remember, I said the only thing holding me back was your commitment to Paul. Now that no longer exists——’
‘Temporarily,’ she reminded forcefully.
‘Whatever.’ He smiled dismissively, framing her face with his big hands before lowering his head to take her mouth in a slow, lingering kiss.
By the time he raised his head to look down at her, Eve had no will of her own, speech was her only defence. ‘But I don’t love you,’ she told him desperately, achingly. ‘I love Paul.’
‘You’re attracted enough to me to realise you can’t marry him because of it.’ Adam’s eyes had darkened with grim determination. ‘And now the barrier of your impending wedding has gone, I intend to show you how good it’s going to be between us. No holds barred!’
She swallowed hard at the purposeful expression on his face. ‘But——’
‘No holds barred, Eve,’ he warned softly, before leaving as quietly as he had arrived.
No holds barred, he had said. Eve couldn’t help the feelings of panic those words evoked. What had his behaviour been before, if not ‘no holds barred’?
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘SO WHEN I left college I——’ Adam tilted his head back to quirk one eyebrow at her. ‘Am I boring you?’
This would teach her to claim she knew nothing about him!
She had been trying to get back into her work all afternoon, having decided while she picked at the food on her plate during lunch that the best way to block out the shambles of her life for a few hours was to try and work: when she painted, she didn’t think of anything other than what she was working on.
Unfortunately, Adam had decided that the two of them should spend the afternoon together. And, much as she tried, Eve couldn’t get him to leave the studio. Short of carrying him out of course, which, considering their difference in sizes, was an impossibility!
And so she was stuck with him, lying all over her couch as he told her his life story from the moment he had his untimely entrance into the world in the middle of a department store while his mother was out shopping, through his very happy childhood as the only child of very doting parents, to his school years, and then on to his time spent at college. And it had all been told with such an air of self-mockery that Eve couldn’t help being amused—and intrigued.
She had also spent the last half-hour not working on her most recent canvas, but on a charcoal sketch of the man himself. He was an artist’s dream; his bone structure and skin tone just cried out to be put on canvas. In fact—he was gorgeous!
‘No, you aren’t boring me,’ she assured him, her voice husky.
‘Good.’ He grinned, settling himself down comfortably on the sofa again. ‘I’m just getting to the good bit.’
She had already guessed that, realising that his life had really only just begun when he had acquired the qualifications he h
ad wanted and left college to branch out into business for himself.
He made light of those early achievements, and yet Eve could guess at the real truth behind them, and the sprinkling of silver among the dark blond hair told its own story.
‘Women,’ he announced starkly.
Eve looked at him sharply, startled briefly. ‘What about them?’
He shrugged. ‘There haven’t been any for some time,’ he instantly dismissed. ‘I had the usual wild youth, but maturity brings with it a certain morality. I have lots of friends in the States, of both sexes, and there was once someone I cared for, but somehow it just never worked out. Now I know the reason why.’
‘Oh?’ she said lightly, although she had a feeling she knew what was coming next.
‘Hm—you were still playing with your dolls when I started wondering about a wife!’
Not exactly the answer she had expected—but it was close enough!
‘You don’t really believe that for every person there is only one other person in the world who can be completely compatible to them?’ She carried on sketching as she waited for his answer.
Adam gave her question more consideration than she thought it merited; she had meant the remark mockingly. But the longer he took to make a reply, the more her curiosity burned to hear his answer!
‘One perfect person, yes.’ He finally nodded. ‘But dozens of other people that you could find happiness with, lasting happiness.’