Her shoulders stiffened as she looked steadily into his eyes. If she couldn’t get anything else through his thick skull, she wanted him to understand that she wouldn’t be a kept woman again.
“I don’t want you to be my mistress. I want you for my wife,” he said almost casually as he lifted his glass and took a sip.
Ari choked on the bite of food she’d just taken. The waiter rushed over, looking at her with concern while she gained back her breath and then picked up her water glass. Sending the waiter away, she glared at Rafe.
“You’re not amusing, Rafe,” she sputtered.
“I’m not trying to be humorous, Ari. I intend on marrying you. When the time is right, I will ask — and you will say yes.”
He spoke as if they were talking of nothing bigger than next week’s dinner menu. Confidence radiated from him and his eyes sparkled. He was so full of himself that he actually believed the words coming from his mouth.
“We’ll just see about that, Rafe,” she said as she angrily picked up her fork and speared a chunk of asparagus, clenching her teeth on the vegetable.
“You are so good for me, Ari. If ever I think I’m in control, you remind me that I am powerless in your presence. Why would I ever have let you go? I was a fool once — it won’t happen again.”
“You haven’t changed, Rafe. You are still the ‘control freak’ I met three years ago. You have just gotten much better at masking the commander beneath seductive smiles and come-on lines. I am not fooled,” she told him.
“You are right, Ari. In some ways I will never change. You are also wrong. I said I won’t force you, and I won’t. But I have never said I won’t seduce you. I know just what it takes to heat your very core. I know how to make you come alive, with your body straining against mine for my touch only. I will use every weapon in my arsenal to win you over, and I will feel tremendous pleasure while doing it. You wanted to play a game with me with your text messages. Well, you started it, and I’m not conceding defeat. I do hope you’re still wearing the teal panties. I’ll enjoy removing them with my teeth.”
Ari felt heat pool inside her as he gazed into her eyes. She couldn’t get the image from her mind of his teeth scraping along the delicate lace of her panties. Would it really be so bad for her to give in for one night? Perhaps the lovemaking would be terrible — perhaps time had loosened his hold.
As he lifted a hand, reaching across the intimate table, to caress her hand as she reached for a piece of warm French bread, her stomach quivered. When he softly caressed the top of her hand, running his fingers over her flesh, she melted, though she knew it was quite foolish of her to do so. Being with him would be even better than she remembered — she had no doubt about it. He’d make her body sing in ways no other man ever could.
“You want to play games, Rafe? Fine. I’ll play some games,” she said, and she stood up.
His eyes never left her as she moved over to him and leaned down, her mouth an inch from his. Oh, he smelled so unbelievably good.
“When I go home tonight and lie na**d in my bed…” Mmm, she enjoyed the quick intake of his breath and the narrowing of his eyes.
“It will be all alone.”
With that, she turned and walked from the table, a huge smile on her face. It wasn’t easy to best Rafe, but she’d just done it. And to top it off, he’d have to pay for that two-hundred-dollar bottle of wine.
Chapter Nineteen
Lia
Heart racing, rage and excitement boiling inside her, Lia knew she had about two seconds to make a decision. Was she going to go down this road again with Shane? Because she knew if she did, all bets were off.
Shane wouldn’t force her, but then he wouldn’t need to, would he? One touch and she’d go up in flames. The way she craved him was what scared her the most. What if this was nothing but a game for him, with her as the prize?
Trust was the hardest thing to gain back once it was stripped from you. He’d broken her trust, and she was afraid to give it to him again.
The hunger for him would never diminish, but was it worth surrendering to her own desires when she knew she’d have to deal with his betrayal? And she was sure he would betray her again. It seemed impossible for him not to.
She did believe he cared about her. Just not enough.
Survival kicked in and she turned to make a quick retreat, slipping from the cave and dashing back out into the raging storm. If he touched her, she would lose all willpower, and then she’d never get him out of her heart.
Though she really believed she could protect herself by not ha**ng s*x with him, inside she knew that she was lying to herself, because he was already lodged so deeply inside her soul that she’d never be free of him. But her pride and stubbornness were the only things holding her together, and she was afraid to let them go.
Not making it very far, Lia gasped as Shane’s arms wrapped around her, swinging her to face him, his eyes boring into hers.
“The time for running is over, Lia,” he said above the roaring of the storm.
There was a pause as his face illuminated over hers with the flash from lightning overhead. The heat in his eyes was enough to melt her from the inside out.
As her body betrayed her and fused against his, his lips latched on to hers, and the fight was over, just as she’d known it would be. It was inevitable.
With a deep moan, she submitted to his hard body, giving back as much as she was receiving. The warm rain emptied over them as he hungrily captured her mouth, his hands molding her wet skin, touching her back, gripping her sweet backside as he pulled her tightly against his stiff arousal.
“You have been mine for a long time. I was just a fool for fighting against it. Now, you are the fool for running away,” he said, pausing for only a moment in his kiss.
“Yes, we’re both fools, Shane, and this can’t lead anywhere,” she gasped.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Lia. I don’t intend to let you get away this time,” he said, and he ended their conversation by sealing their mouths together.
His tongue pressed against her lips, demanding entrance, and she opened to him, no longer desiring anything other than their bodies joining together. She had to have him fill her, needed him to take away the constant agony she’d been in since walking from his room more than two years earlier.
Shane lifted her in his arms, moving to the wet grass next to the lake, the warm rain coating their heated bodies.