‘Bronte,’ she said now.
There was an intensity in those green eyes she’d never seen before.
She didn’t like it and she certainly didn’t like the possessive look in his eyes too, which had no business being there in the first place.
‘I care about you, damn it,’ he told her.
‘We’re not in a relationship. We have no romantic feelings for each other. So why don’t you butt the hell out?’
Those dark eyes flashed in a way that made her take a careful step back.
‘We most certainly are in a relationship. We’ve been in one for years, sister.’
The ‘sister’ remark lit the too dry touch paper of her temper.
‘I am not your sister,’ she yelled.
‘Trust me, I thank God for it every single day. And who says I don’t have romantic feelings for you?’ he yelled back.
Heat flashed into her cheeks then drained away.
No. No way.
Rosie took another step back.
Her speeding heart took a leap into her throat.
‘You most certainly do not.’
Alexander’s eyes, a darker jade now, scanned down and up her body in a way that caused a horrible lurch in her belly. No man had ever looked at her like that, as if she was a possession. And unbelievably she found she didn’t like it.
Her dreams of Alexander had been hazily romantic scenes of him promising her his undying love and devotion.
The Alexander who stood before her now was a man who took what he wanted and promised nothing.
The way he looked at her was too predatory, too domineering and too controlled.
His voice went deep and low.
‘Oh yeah, I most certainly do. In fact I have more than romantic feelings for you.’
He did? Since when?
Rosie’s overheated system flared into life.
Her breath came in little pants.
Her breasts tingled even as she took another step back.
He smiled.
The smile of a big stalking predator who knew exactly what he was doing and how it affected her. The notion dinged into her brain that by the way he was looking at her he was quite aware she was aroused.
Her gaze dropped to below his waist.
Omigod.
His hard shaft tented in his suit trousers and he appeared totally unconcerned.
She’d wanted this for so long and now the moment had come she was absolutely terrified of him and of herself.
How the hell could this be happening?
Those eyes went almost black with lust and arousal as Alexander took a step forward and she took two back.
Panic skittered up her spine.
She’d never seen him like this.
Never imagined he could be like this.
She didn’t even know how she felt as a bewildering rush of emotions – surprised alarm, dread, excitement, want, desire – sped through her and left her unable to speak, unable to breathe.
Who was this man?
Alexander watched many different emotions run across Rosie’s stunning features.
He knew he’d shocked her.
And he’d been more up-front than he’d planned.
She didn’t know what to do with her feelings or what to say.
Her defences were down and she was vulnerable.
To be honest, he wasn’t quite sure what he felt himself. Wishing for something and actually doing it were, Alexander realised, two completely different things.
When he’d seen her kissing Josh something deep within him he’d kept locked up tight cracked wide open. A lifetime of suppressed feelings that she was just like a sister to him, that it would be wrong to touch her, were swept away.
He’d been afraid of hurting her, that she’d be too young for him.
But a Rosie he’d never seen before had shown him last night just how insensitive her feelings were towards him.
And she’d been happy to have monkey sex with a secret lover?
And she wanted a real man did she?
He’d give her a real man alright.
He could tell just by looking at her she wanted him.
Her nipples were tight little bullets under her bra and her pupils were dilated. Add in the searing flush on her cheeks and the hectic pulse at her neck and he knew instinctively that things had just changed between them, big time. She was obviously up for a tumble by her brazen behaviour with Josh, by allowing a guy to creep in and out of her bed under the cover of darkness, so why should he miss out on all the fun?
Although by the disbelief on her face and how Rosie was looking at him now, as if she’d been hit by a ton of a bricks, Alexander knew it was not a simple matter to her.
Evidently, Rosie had her doubts about him.
She took another step back and he moved forward.
‘Don’t you dare play me, Alexander,’ she said.
And the way her voice wobbled, instead of making him think again, it only made him desire her more.
His cock ached so badly he nearly winced.
He wanted her and by heaven he would have her. And Joshua Erichsen might kiss her, and bloody Simon might sleep with her, but they could go straight to hell.
‘Oh, I never play games.’ He hauled her against his chest. Quick fingers plucked her panties from her pocket and tucked them safely in his own. ‘However, the same can’t be said about you, can it?’
Sheer temper flared in his mind.
It appeared she was happy to kiss Josh, even let him keep her underwear after doing God knew what in
his
house after one date!
Well, he wasn’t going to fucking stand for it. Not now, not ever.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
She tried to jerk free.
‘You’ve had an affair with a guy called Simon. And you’re playing Josh, aren’t you? You’re letting him kiss you, touch you and you want me too.’
Rosie wasn’t about to tell him that Simon was a figment of her imagination or that if anyone was playing games it was Josh, who’d made a bad situation worse.
She lifted her chin.
‘You need your big head examined.’
And that comeback, she berated herself, was pathetic.
His hand cupped the back of her head, pulling her inexorably towards him.
His fabulous green eyes impaled hers before lingering too long on her mouth in a way that had her speeding heart thunder in her throat.
‘You think you can sleep around, take pot shots at me, about me, and get away with it?’
For the second time in less than an hour a man pulled her hair to jerk her head back.
He held her so tight she couldn’t move an inch and he was very angry. Any idea of apologising for the things she’d said about him flew right out of her head. And why, oh why, had she lied about a man who didn’t even exist?
She attempted to take a steady breath.
God she felt sick.
‘You’re acting like a jealous lover,‘ she panted. ‘I’ve done nothing to encourage you, now let me go.’
No matter how hard she tried she couldn’t stop him from bringing her head closer to his.
Fierce green eyes burned into hers.
‘Do you really think I want to want you? You’ve been nothing but a bur clinging to my skin for years. You’re everything I don’t need in my life. You’re a bad tempered, unpredictable, moody little witch who’ll make every day a battle. What sane man would want that?’
Furious, Rosie couldn’t deny the words stung, even though she’d done everything within her power to make them the truth. And the wound those words inflicted went bone deep.
‘I’ve done nothing to deserve you manhandling me like this. Why don’t you go and find Lucinda or Tabitha or Janine. I want no part of you,’ she spat.
The rage that had consumed Alexander since he’d seen her, heard her, last night tugged at the tight leash he was holding onto his temper by sheer willpower alone.
He’d never felt anger like it against another human being in his entire life.
‘Maybe...’ He jerked her closer and his hands tightened in a way that made her gasp aloud. ‘Maybe, but you look me in the eye and tell me you don’t want me.’
As far as Rosie was concerned there was a time and a place for telling a bare faced lie and this was one of them.
‘I don’t want you.’ And she cursed herself for the tremble in her voice.
‘Little liar,’ he growled and the look in his eyes made her breath come in too fast panicked little pants in her throat.
She wasn’t aware that her tongue, in a quick, skittish gesture, shot out to moisten her lips.
‘Don’t you d...’
But the challenge finished in a groan of shuddering delight as his mouth seized hers. It was hard, utterly ruthless, his lips dominated in a way no man had ever done before. This wasn’t the patient, perpetual seduction she’d dreamt of.
Then the room was spinning and she clung to him barely aware that her nails were digging into his shoulders in an attempt to anchor her to a world gone mad.
She could taste his utter fury and met it with a compulsion that built into a scorching passion that she simply could not control. And for blissful moments there was no guilt for lying, no regret for playing games and she was where she wanted to be. The fingers digging into his shoulders pleaded with him to take more and as he commanded, she took.
Compared to this stunning reality her dreams were feeble, flimsy, restricted by her imagination. But in the middle of the maelstrom was a spear of deep remorse for the things she’d said about him mixed with a dark terror that he must never, ever find out how much she loved him. Her feelings for him were already tipping into a dark obsession that had the potential to destroy her. She didn’t want this. Not like this. Not now. It was too late.
Panic made Rosie go rigid in his arms.
Alexander hauled her even closer.
God her mouth was frantic under his, hungry for possession. And now it wasn’t enough and he twisted her against his brutal arousal forgetting to be gentle, to be tender.
She tasted wonderful, the sounds of her drove him crazy with need, with greed. He forgot she was tiny, small boned with delicate skin. He forgot to take care with her. He was so far gone he didn’t even realise she was no longer participating in the kiss.
His hand slipped under her vest to touch her silky skin and he groaned with a shuddering need.
Christ she was so soft and her heart was thundering under the seeking palm of his hand. She moaned something but he didn’t hear it. The taste of her was so sweet and his tongue plundered and ravaged her mouth as her scent ignited his shaft until it was so hard he could barely breathe with the painful pleasure of it. He could take her right here and right now. On the floor, on the couch or on the table.
But then her words came back to haunt him. If he took her now he risked losing her for ever and making those cutting remarks of hers, that he was a toxic bachelor with irritable male syndrome - whatever the fuck that was - nothing but the truth.
And it hit him she wasn’t kissing him back and she’d gone utterly still.
He lifted his head and took a deep, shaky breath.
His eyes when they met hers were still as angry, still as domineering.
For endless seconds nothing could be heard in the vast space except their unsteady breathing.
Those eyes, too dark and filled with a furious lust, lanced into hers.
Terror gripped her as his hard shaft ground into her soft belly.
How on earth was she going to get out of this?
The solution became action.
His eyes flared to a flash point even as she saw pain register the swift jolt of her knee into his groin.
‘Jesus!’ he wheezed before his breath whooshed out his lungs.
Rosie whirled around, heading for the door.
Alexander moved so fast she didn’t even have time to shriek as he grabbed her.
She found herself face down over his lap as he sat on the staircase, her hands trapped between her body and his knees.
One heavy hand pressed between her shoulder blades.
He wouldn’t dare do it, would he?
She couldn’t move.
Couldn’t breath, caught between complete outrage and a secret thrill, a dark pleasure that appalled her in its intensity.
When his fingers swept up the leg of her shorts and slid over her bare bottom, she jolted in complete shock.
‘How
dare
you!’
‘No panties. You little wildcat,’ he gasped as she went stiff, jerked and screamed her head off.
Her expletives turned the air blue.
‘You...
bully
!’
The word came out in a howl as his strong fingers gently caressed her bottom.
‘Language, Rosie.’
A twitch in his rock hard shaft, which was pressing against her waist, made her moan long and loud.
Waiting for the blow, her buttocks clenched even as her breath hitched in her throat.
The scorch of his big hand squeezing the cheeks of her bottom mingled with a heat that spread through her secret places, warming them in such an erotic way she couldn’t believe it.
What on earth was happening to her?
‘Let me up right now.’ Rosie’s voice was desperate as she braced herself for a smack.
But Alexander took a deep breath and simply gave her bottom a gentle pat before lifting her to her feet.
Then he held her steady as she staggered.
Their eyes collided even as her limbs trembled with an arousal so intense it shook her to the core.
‘Fuck it,’ he snarled.
He grabbed her and this time Rosie knew there would be no escape.
His mouth plundered as he backed her up against the door, his hard body pressing, grinding, into hers.
Perhaps it was the unexpected show of sexual dominance, or perhaps it was common sense that screamed in her brain asking her what she was doing, but she tore her lips from his.
‘Don’t!’
It was a plea for mercy and she could tell by the way he stopped, pushed back to simply stare into her eyes that he’d heard the plea.
But now reality hit Rosie too hard.
She forgot she’d participated in the kiss. She forgot how close she’d come to simply letting him have her and she forgot that she’d provoked him.
Bitter dissatisfaction that he hadn’t spanked her warred with a dark desire.