Page 37 of Bound By Her Shocking Secret

Mia swallowed her words, shocked at the stark tone in Daniel’s voice. Shocked that she’d been willing to go so far as to remind them both of that awful day in the hospital.

He said now, ‘I am sorry for how I reacted that day, but I can’t go back and change it.’

Mia felt chastened. ‘I know. I’m sorry too.’ Especially now she knew why he’d reacted the way he had.

He said, ‘Just because the relationship ended, it doesn’t mean that our desire did. And if you’re maintaining that it did then you’re fooling no one but yourself.’

Still feeling desperate, she said, ‘I don’t want you any more.’

Daniel’s eyes flashed.

Wrong thing to say.

She knew it as soon as his gaze narrowed on her mouth. ‘You really expect me to believe that?’

Mia thought of the incendiary kiss that night at the ballet in Paris. Her cheeks burned, but she forced a shrug. ‘Believe what you like, Daniel. I don’t really care.’

He moved closer. Mia forced herself to stand firm, even though she could see the darkness of Daniel’s chest under his shirt and smell his scent. Woodsy and musky and, oh, so masculine.

‘Want to put it to the test, Mia?’

Mia quivered inwardly at that challenge. But she knew the only way to persuade Daniel that she didn’t want him was to show him. He was a proud man. If he truly believed she didn’t want him then he wouldn’t push it.

She’d gone through a twenty-four-hour labour and given birth naturally—she could do this. Resist Daniel. Pretend that he didn’t affect her.

She shrugged nonchalantly. ‘Sure, knock yourself out.’

Mia fixed her gaze on a neutral spot just over Daniel’s shoulder. But then he said, ‘Close your eyes.’

Rolling her eyes a little first, Mia did as he asked, steeling herself not to react.

For a long moment Daniel did nothing. Mia cursed him. She desperately wanted to open her eyes, but didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. But then the air shifted around her and she felt her hair being pulled over one shoulder.

He was behind her.

Every nerve-ending pulsed with awareness. She felt his breath feather against her skin before his fingers pulled her kaftan away slightly, and then his mouth touched the spot between her neck and her shoulder.

He knew that was a sensitive spot for her. The fact that he’d even remembered—

The low-down, dirty...

Mia sucked in a breath when she felt Daniel’s tongue touch her skin. Hot. Her hands gripped the railing. She refused to let him see an ounce of the battle she was fighting.

His hands—where were his hands? So far it was only his mouth on her skin, the tip of his tongue. Then it was gone.

Mia opened her eyes. She’d done it. She’d managed to withstand him.

She turned to go—but came face to face with Daniel’s chest.

He tipped up her chin. Smiled. It was wicked. ‘You didn’t think you’d get away so easily, did you?’

Before Mia could formulate a response, and still just holding her chin with the lightest of touches, Daniel bent his head and covered her mouth with his, leaving her nowhere to hide.

It was an open-mouthed, explicit kiss. She opened her mouth to object, but somewhere in the moment of breathing in Daniel’s essence and feeling his tongue touch hers in a bold move, she forgot why she wanted to.

Being surrounded by Daniel’s heat and all that steely strength was an aphrodisiac that fatally scrambled every brain cell, until all she was aware of was that it wasn’t enough. She wanted more. Needed total immersion.

She twined her arms around Daniel’s neck, coming up on her tiptoes. Her breasts pressed against his hard chest. He shaped her waist, her upper back, hauling her closer. And then his hand was in her hair, fingers funneling deep, angling her head to take the kiss deeper, and his other hand found the curve of her bottom, caressing it through the thin material of the kaftan.

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