‘I could see that,’ her voice softened. ‘But I didn’t see that it was necessary for me to receive the same treatment as he did.’
‘No,’ Alex agreed huskily, his eyes piercing as they never wavered from her face. ‘You’re right,’ he sighed. ‘And I’m sorry.’
Only the second time he had ever apologised to her, it once again rendered her speechless. She frowned. He was making all the right moves, saying all the right things, and yet underneath all that there was a contemptuous look in his eyes, a bitter twist to his mouth. She didn’t trust him and she daren’t let herself trust anything he was saying.
‘That’s perfectly all right,’ her voice was stilted. ‘Now, if that’s all, I intend spending a quiet evening at home.’
‘Suits me,’ he shrugged, the contempt in his eyes now replaced by a much warmer emotion. ‘I could do with a—quiet evening at home too.’
Lauri deliberately ignored the sensuous curve to his mouth, the explosion of passion in suddenly brilliant blue eyes. ‘Then I hope you enjoy it. I believe your home is in Mayfair,’ she added sweetly.
Alex gave a husky laugh, settling more comfortably into the armchair he occupied. ‘Sorry, Lauren, I can’t oblige,’ he taunted. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’
Her mouth set in a stubborn line. ‘But I don’t want you here!’
‘Tell me that again once we’re alone, completely alone,’ he said in a bored voice. ‘But give me five minutes or so before you do.’
Lauri blushed, well aware of what he intended to take place in that five minutes. She was also aware that five minutes in his arms could reduce her to his sexual slave. ‘I’d rather you left now,’ she told him tautly.
‘I’ll bet you would,’ he grinned. ‘Would you like me to come over there now and change your mind for you? Jane and her boy-friend might find it embarrassing when they come in, but then so could you.’
‘But not you!’ she scorned. ‘I’m sure my aunt is quite used to entering a room and finding you in a passionate embrace with some female or other.’
Alex’s eyes narrowed. ‘Meaning?’
‘Meaning, that although my aunt is too loyal ever to say so, I’m sure you often entertain your women friends in your office.’
To her chagrin he smiled. ‘I don’t think there would be much there to entertain them—unless you count me, of course,’ he added tauntingly.
‘I don’t,’ she snapped.
‘You don’t find me—entertaining?’ He quirked one eyebrow mockingly.
How could she have ever thought this man attractive and charming? He was absolutely hateful! ‘I’d give you five out of ten,’ she drawled insultingly.
‘Really?’ He stood up with some force, a dangerous glitter in his eyes, his mouth a taut angry line. ‘Against who?’ he ground out.
Lauri shrugged nonchalantly. ‘Against any of the other men I’ve known,’ she knew she was deliberately baiting him, and yet she couldn’t help herself.
‘Against Daryl?’
She knew she was inviting his anger down upon her, but she was so angry herself that she didn’t care any more. ‘Of course,’ she derided.
‘My God, you asked for this!’ He pulled her effortlessly into his arms, moulding her savagely against the hard contours of his body, knowing he was hurting her and yet not giving a damn. His mouth ground down on hers with a brutality that took her breath away, forcing her lips apart so that he could deepen the kiss.
He didn’t even need the allotted five minutes to reduce her to a pliant eager body in his arms. Lauri quivered as he took possession of her breasts beneath her jumper, caressing her nipples to hard nubs of pulsating desire. She had never felt like this before, never wanted, with a desperation that bordered on madness, the feel of a man’s lips on her body. And not just any man, it had to be Alex Blair.
His breathing was ragged when he at last lifted his head, his face white with the hard tension she could feel in his body. ‘Well?’ he challenged, not relinquishing his hold on her breasts.
‘Perhaps I miscalculated.’ He was just as unmoved as usual! She played with the buttons of his shirt, releasing two of them to slip her hand inside, instantly feeling the erratic beat of his heart, the shallowness of his breathing. ‘I think you merit at least—oh, five and a half,’ she finished disdainfully, throwing her head back to meet the fierce anger in his face head-on.
That last defiant gesture was her undoing, giving Alex easy access to her parted lips, allowing him to grind her lips against her teeth so forcefully she tasted blood. She began to struggle in earnest as his fingers bit painfully into the tenderness of her breasts, not intending to induce pleasure now but to inflict only hurt and humiliation.
Her own hand clenched into a claw inside his shirt as he refused to let her go, and she raked her nails down his bare chest. He instantly moved back with a cry of pain, and as he did so Lauri could see blood beginning to stain the whiteness of his shirt, four red streaks that quickly soaked a trail down his ches
t.
‘You little vixen!’ he swore angrily, his face contorted with rage and pain. ‘You vicious little bitch!’