‘None at all,’ Sara replied crisply, resenting both the lazy amusement in his eyes and her own colourful blush.
‘Give me ten minutes and I’ll be down,’ was Jonas’s parting comment as he headed for the hall, throwing over his shoulder as he opened the door, ‘oh, and I wouldn’t mind a cup of coffee if there’s any going?’
Telling herself that it was only because she had nothing else to do that she was complying with his request, Sara set about making some fresh coffee.
True to his word, Jonas was back downstairs within ten minutes almost to the second. He came into the kitchen, bringing with him a clean smell of soap. His hair clung damply to his scalp, his bare forearms and exposed throat gleaming like polished satin.
Deliberately keeping the width of the table between them, Sara poured his coffee and gave him his message.
‘I’ll get back now,’ she concluded curtly, trying not to notice the clean neatness of his hands and nails, only the odd rough callous and his strong tan betraying the fact that he worked outdoors.
‘Why the rush?’ His tone was laconic. ‘Sam will be perfectly safe with Vanessa, or is that why you’re so keen to get back? Or don’t you approve?’
She didn’t pretend not to understand, her skin flushing with angry colour as she vehemently denied his suggestion.
‘So it doesn’t worry you that a…relationship could well develop between my sister and your brother?’
‘Not at all; why should
it?’
‘No reason, but I must admit to being rather surprised. You’re so determined to keep on living in the past yourself that I thought you could well resent Sam’s decision to go on living.’
It was a cruel thing to say, but there was no regret or apology in the grey eyes as they locked on hers. In fact, he seemed to be regarding her with a fierce banked-down anger that made her pulses jolt and her defence system spring to the alert.
‘Why is it you’re so eager to put me in the wrong?’
It was a silly question to have asked, and when she saw the derisory glint in his eyes, Sara wished it unsaid.
‘Perhaps because it stops me from being equally eager to do this…’ He put down his coffee mug and moved so quickly that there wasn’t time to avoid him.
The hard pressure of his body against hers forced her back against the table until she could feel the edge of it against her back.
She raised her hands to his chest to push him away, but it was like trying to move solid rock, as he slowly made her arch backwards. The hands she had raised to fend him off locked round his neck to stop her from overbalancing completely. As though he sensed how much her mind was fighting against him, despite the fact that he had subdued her body, the pressure of his mouth on hers betrayed anger as well as desire.
She didn’t want to respond to him, but the fierce heat of his kiss aroused a treacherous response inside her. His teeth tugged urgently at her bottom lip, his tongue taking full advantage of her sharp cry of protest, the smothered sound of satisfaction he made against her mouth dangerously erotic.
She disliked him; she hated him almost and loathed the physical effect he had on her, but none of those things could obliterate the fact that he aroused her. In his arms she experienced a need and responsiveness she had not even felt with Rick.
Her fingernails curled into his back as she fought the treacherous thought, wanting to deny it, but knowing it was too late. Irrationally, the knowledge that he could arouse her made her resent him even more. Her feelings towards him seemed to mirror those of Eve towards the serpent who tempted her and was thus instrumental in destroying her innocent paradise.
Jonas groaned as her nails raked against his shirt-clad back, and it gave her a savage sense of satisfaction to think that she had hurt him, until she saw the hectic flush of colour staining his skin and felt his body’s immediate arousal. His hands held her hips, imprisoning her against the swollen pressure of his thighs.
Rick had never touched her like this, had never blatantly imposed his sexuality upon her in the way that Jonas was doing. His behaviour towards her had always been gentle and restrained, his kisses tender rather than demanding.
Sara drank in air greedily as Jonas released her mouth, her breasts rising and falling hurriedly. The darkness in Jonas’s eyes as his hands moved up over her back, pressing the rounded warmth of her breasts into his chest, almost strangled her breath in her lungs. The harsh, almost tormented sound he made in his throat was shockingly painful. She found herself caught in wholly unexpected and very dangerous cross-currents, her body telling her one thing while her mind screamed another, and then miraculously Jonas was releasing her, freeing her from the dark spell of his physical dominance.
‘Have dinner with me tonight?’
His voice was slurred, dark coins of colour still staining the high cheekbones, his eyes almost black with arousal.
Automatically she eased herself away from him, gasping at the pain stabbing through her back.
‘No…’
She saw his mouth tighten and could almost sense his frustration.
‘If you won’t come for my sake, then how about making the sacrifice for your brother’s?’ he suggested tightly.