Page 22 of Marry Me…Maybe?
Never in a million years would she have anticipated that happening. After his constant cool rejection of her advances, she’d reconciled herself to the fact that she was going to have to put a lot more work into softening him up if she was going to get any kind of reaction out of him.
How wrong she’d been.
It proved to her that he was capable of letting himself go, that there was a deeply sexual man hiding under that reserved veneer, and that he’d been deliberately holding himself back for some reason.
But why? That was the million-dollar question.
He still hadn’t kissed her, which made her think he was unwilling to get emotionally involved with her. Using his masterful hands on her clearly didn’t count, though.
Luckily for her.
Her body gave a throb of pleasure as she remembered the mind-blowing excitement of the build-up to it, followed swiftly by the intense, out-of-this-world completion she hadn’t known was possible.
He’d done something to her – had unearthed something that no other man had even been able to touch.
And she wanted more.
Desperately.
But not today. Today she was going to go home and bask in the memory of it – and the relief of not completely losing her touch with men.
Although Theo’s determination not to let her touch him back still bit a little deeper than she liked.
But at least she could congratulate herself on the triumph of making some headway with his mother. She was pretty sure that by the end of dinner on Thursday she’d have the countess’s blessing for Lula’s wedding reception to be held here wrapped up tight.
The realisation that this little dance with Theo might be over as soon as that brought her up short. Apart from the regret of perhaps not having enough time to break through his shell, it also suddenly occurred to her that if she was going to utilise the advantage of a relationship with an earl – so the producers ofTreasure Trailcould be made aware of it in time – she needed to act fast.
A whisper in the ear of a friend who worked for one of the gossip magazines should do the trick. She could suggest that a photographer follow her to the house on Thursday, then make sure he had an opportunity to take a good photo of her and Theo acting like lovers.
She was going to have to pull out all the stops for that elusive kiss.
Thursday finally rolled around and Theo woke up feeling relieved that the distracting anticipation of seeing Emily again would be over soon.
He knew he shouldn’t have touched her the way he had. It had reminded him too keenly of how he’d used to lose himself in women just like her during those dark days after Hugo had died and he’d lost his way forward, but it had been impossible to stop himself. She seemed to have twisted herself into his control and pulled out the cork.
He’d spent the days between their last meeting and today determinedly trying not to think about her, but the memory of her giving herself so absolutely to him, coming apart so easily under his hands, kept a disturbing erotic tension humming deep inside him.
For those few minutes he’d owned her. He could probably have done anything he’d liked and she would have let him. The memory of having that power over her made him feel a rush of hunger to exercise it again, but oddly it also produced an aching sort of sadness deep in his belly.
It had been a long time since someone had affected him like that. It hadn’t worked out well before and he had a disturbing suspicion that it wouldn’t this time either. If he allowed it to go that far.
Which he wouldn’t.
He’d promised himself never to allow his feelings about a woman to control him again – even if it was only something as base as lust. He knew from experience that it could quickly morph into something much more dangerous.
And danger was something he could do with avoiding right now.
The doorbell rang at seven o’clock on the dot and he gave himself a moment of grace standing behind the door before opening it to her.
This time she’d chosen to wear a figure-hugging dress in a dark green colour that brought out the gold in her eyes. She had on another pair of high heels, and her hair was loose and tamed into a sleek style around her face.
His stomach sank to his knees as he breathed in the familiar sweetly fragrant smell of her, just as the memory of her losing it under his hands came back to hit him full force in the chest.
It was a double whammy he could have done without.
‘Hi,’ he managed to growl past the sudden tension in his throat.
She was staring at him too, her pupils dilated as if caught in her own saucy reverie.
