Page 38 of Bound By Her Shocking Secret

He pulled up her kaftan, baring her leg to the warm breeze. She felt his arousal press against her and moved instinctively against him. Like a needy little kitten. But still he didn’t take his mouth off hers. His hand was on her bare bottom now, caressing. Fingers were sliding under the silk and lace of her underwear, coming close to where heat radiated out from the centre of her body.

Mia broke the kiss, pulled back. Vision blurry. She was breathing heavily. A few things sank in simultaneously—chief of which was that she’d withstood nothing. Proved nothing. Except that he was right.

Hot recrimination and something far more disturbing—sexual frustration—rose up inside her, giving her the strength to push back. Her kaftan fell down around her legs again.

Daniel was watching her with a neutral expression. She couldn’t have borne it if he’d been smug.

At that moment a sound came from the baby monitor.Lexi.It jolted Mia back to reality.

She said to Daniel, even though she was aware that her dignity was in tatters, ‘I didn’t come here to be seduced by you.’

She walked back to the table on unsteady legs and picked up the baby monitor.

Daniel said from behind her, ‘You can’t deny this just happened and hide behind Lexi for ever.’

Mia fled.

Mia didn’t sleep that night, and it had nothing to do with the heat and everything to do with that kiss, and Daniel’s revelations, and the fact that he still wanted her. All together it was a powerful combination, and it left her feeling raw and gritty-eyed.

To her relief, the following morning Odile was more than happy to entertain Lexi, packing her up in the buggy and taking her for a stroll into the small town.

But then, instead of capitalising on her time off, Mia was restless. She walked down to the beach, but the surf looked too big to swim in, so she walked along the beach for a bit, and then back, trying not to consider what might happen between her and Daniel now.

If he properly set out to seduce her, as he had before, she didn’t have a hope.

She saw a movement in her peripheral vision and looked to the tree line, where a path led back up to Daniel’s house. Someone was waving at her.Daniel.Mia’s heart skipped a beat. She was wearing a bikini top and shorts and felt too bare.

Daniel didn’t come onto the beach. He waited till she was almost at the trees. He was wearing faded jeans and a white T-shirt, and he looked so ridiculously sexy that when he said to her, ‘I need you,’ she stumbled.

He reached out and caught her. And Mia thought to herself that if he kissed her right there, right now, she wouldn’t be able to say no. She was almost trembling with the need rising in her body, and she knew she didn’t have the strength to hide how he made her feel.

‘Look, Daniel,’ she said. ‘What happened last night doesn’t mean anything. I’m not interested in another affair—’

Daniel was shaking his head. ‘I’m not talking about that.’

Now she felt foolish and exposed. But then she thought of something and went cold, her hands tightening on his arms. ‘What is it? Is it Lexi?’

Daniel shook his head and tugged her further into the trees, away from the beach. ‘Lexi is fine. Odile is giving her lunch right now.’

‘Oh, okay...’ Mia became aware of Daniel’s very hard biceps under her hands. She took them down. ‘What’s up?’

Had she imagined him saying he needed her? She was losing it...

‘We have a problem with the shoot. With the model, specifically.’

‘Oh?’

‘She developed pains in her abdomen last night and she’s been taken to hospital. It looks like it could be appendicitis. She’s being flown to San José today to get checked out. And that,’ he continued, ‘means we’re now minus a model for the shoot.’

‘I need you.’

Mia’s eyes widened. ‘You can’t mean me. I don’t have a high enough profile for one of your campaigns.’

‘You’d be perfect. Trust me.’

Mia shook her head and started walking back up the path towards the house. ‘We both know I’m not a Devilliers model. I don’t even know why I was cast for that first photoshoot.’

‘Because I requested you.’

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