“How dare you be so crass!” she snapped, rising from the table and storming across the room, getting as far from him as she could.
Adrenaline flooded her, because he was right — her body was betraying her. Yes, in these moments, she despised him, thinking he was about as classless as a sewer rat, but she also remembered that week with him, remembered how he’d brought her to the peak of pleasure over and over again.
She could hate him all she wanted, but that didn’t take away her body’s craving for more of what only he could give her. Still, even if she did desire him, it didn’t mean she would do something so foolish as to cave in to her hormonal demands.
It wasn’t worth the disgust she would feel for herself afterward.
“I tell it as it is, and I am really losing patience with your game of hot and cold. Fire burns in your eyes, yet you continue to fight me. Don’t forget that you are on my island now, Rachel. Here, I am king and I can take what I want,” he said as he also stood and took determined steps in her direction. There were rules he had to follow, even if he was the king, but he wouldn’t think about that right now — not in his anger.
Her fury intensified as she watched the small flex of his jaw. How dare he be angry with her! He was the one throwing out nonsensical statements and then expecting her to drop to her knees before him.
Wasn’t going to happen.
“You’re not my king, Adriane. You seem to keep forgetting that. I am an American and an Italian. I don’t follow you, or owe you my respect. Only a man who treats his woman with love and kindness deserves my loyalty. The only thing you will earn from me is pity for the emptiness your life is bound to be filled with, considering you have to force your subjects to honor you,” she told him, wanting to anger him to the point he would storm from the room.
As his face tensed and his dark eyes narrowed to dangerous slits, Rachel wondered whether she had pushed him too far. How well did she really know this man? She couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t send her to the dungeon to be tortured. Was that still done nowadays? If it was, she didn’t want to be the one to find out.
“If you simply succumbed into the obvious lust between us, I would have a pleasant night, but then there would be nothing to look forward to. However, Rachel, be very careful when you push me. I have my limits, and you seem to have a way of reaching them in record time.”
“If you don’t like what I have to say, you know where the door is. Please, be my guest, and feel free to use it. Maybe you can find another room in this giant castle where you are far more welcome,” she replied, not afraid of him or his little speech.
“Maybe I should do that. Would it bother you, Rachel? Would the thought of me in the arms of another woman make you jealous?”
His taunt hit its mark. Rage flew through her. She shouldn’t care — she should be relieved if he chose someone else, but the vision of him lying entwined with another woman as her own belly grew larger with his baby made her want to puke.
That angered her even more.
She closed the gap between them and lifted her hand, intent on striking him, so mad that she wasn’t even thinking of the consequences.
He effortlessly grasped her wrist in his large hand, his hold strong but not punishing.
“We are going to go up in flames when we come together,” he promised as he held her gaze captive and then looked pointedly toward the bed. He was breathing heavily.
“We are not ha**ng s*x again, Adriane!”
A smile softened the tenseness in his jaw, and his eyes captured hers again and refused to release them. “That’s where you’re wrong, my future queen. We will be ha**ng s*x — plenty of it. And I’m not a patient man, so be warned.”
A shudder traveled down Rachel’s spine at the pure hunger his statement caused, a hunger that had nothing to do with the rapidly cooling meal she’d abandoned.
Then, as if he hadn’t just been stalking her with his words and eyes, he smiled, his anger seeming to evaporate as quickly as it had appeared. He released her and took a step back. She took in several deep breaths.
This was just another reason to curse the man.
Yes, he tempted her, made her think of the nights she’d spent with him, but she also knew that to do that again would be a mistake — a mistake she wouldn’t be able to take back.
If Rachel slept with him now, he’d assume he’d won, and he’d never let her get away from him. No. It would be much better for her to resist him, to irritate him, even. Then, if she did it right, he wouldn’t be able to get rid of her fast enough.
There was a good plan. Tick the man off so badly that he purged her from his life.
As Rachel looked up into his eyes, a wide grin split her face, making Adriane look back with suspicion.
“What’s going on in that mind of yours now?” he asked.
“I was just thinking it was truly time for the games to begin,” she said, enjoying the worry in his eyes. “Batter up!” Laughter spilled from her. And with that, she took her seat.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“IT’S TIME FOR bed, Rachel.”
Oh, my, can he speak, Rachel thought.
He’d uttered just a few simple words, and she was ready to melt into a puddle at his feet. She wouldn’t do it, though. She had her pride and she was determined to keep it. Heck, what else did she have at the moment, now that her basic freedoms had been taken away?
But still, his voice was a killer.
“Yes, Adriane, I agree,” she said, sending him a seductive glance, enjoying the leaping flames in his coal-black eyes. “So you should probably leave now,” she finished.
Her little pause — her game — was worth it: she watched his face turn to stone.
Slowly, he rose from the chair, not taking his eyes off hers. Even if she were capable of moving, which at that moment she wasn’t, she was trembling too intensely to try to escape his prowling.
“Why fight the inevitable? We both know what’s going to happen. You may be telling me no with your words, but your body is certainly saying yes,” he whispered as he reached her side and circled his arms around her, pulling her up against him.
A shudder passed through her as she tilted her head to look into his eyes. “Obviously, you’ve never taken a self-defense class, Adriane. No means no,” she told him, proud of herself for not yielding to his embrace.
“Mmm, maybe we’ll have to go to one of those together.” He bent down and ran his lips across hers in a seductive caress. “There’s more than one way to seduce a woman, Rachel,” he said, his tone filled with promise.