Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
I shoved aside the bad memory and was startled to find the man striding toward me. He must have seen me watching him. I straightened at once, fear coiling in my stomach, though I looked cool on the outside. I always did.
He held his hand out to me. “Dance?”
“Oh, I don’t know how,” I said automatically.
He laughed. “You don’t need to know how. I will lead. You will follow.”
He was so damn sure of himself that, without thinking about it, I put my hand in his.
“What are you doing?” English hissed behind me.
But I was gone before I could answer.
And he was right. He did lead. I had enough rhythm to follow wherever he led me. It was fun. Really fun. A laugh erupted out of me. Real and genuine. I didn’t know when I’d last laughed like that.
“You lied,” he breathed into my ear. “You do know how.”
“I haven’t danced like this in a decade,” I said.
“Your body doesn’t forget.”
He wasn’t wrong. He pulled me through another series of movements. My hair flew out behind me. I turned in place, and then he pulled me back into his arms. He was strong and sturdy. It had seemed so sexual when I watched others, but there was nothing sexual here with this man. Just the joy of dancing.
He meandered us back over to my friends and spun me one more time when a shadow descended over us. Camden. I stopped in place. The man I’d been dancing with glanced over at Camden as if realizing he’d intruded.
“Feel free to cut in,” he said, offering my hand to Camden, who took it.
Then the man was gone. I’d never even gotten his name.
I was breathing heavily as Camden tugged me against him. Sweat dampened the back of my neck, but my eyes and heart and soul were alight as I looked up at him. The dance had knocked out all my nerves and fears. Reminded me what it was to be alive. So, I just stood on my tiptoes and pressed my lips to my husband’s mouth.
After the rejection earlier this afternoon, he seemed surprised that I’d offered him that… anything. But then his hands slid around my body, pulling me tight to him. He deepened the kiss, his tongue stroking down into my mouth. He tasted me. Really tasted me. As if he were a man possessed. As if he had been waiting all this time for a yes from me. And I offered it now greedily.
When he pulled back, his hand moved down the length of my spine to cup my ass. “You were dancing with another man.”
“Yes,” I said breathlessly.
I couldn’t tell if my heart pounded in my chest from the dance or that one heart-stopping kiss.
“I don’t like to see you with anyone else.”
“Is that so?” I asked coyly.
His hand tightened on my ass. He didn’t have to say the words. I could see them in his eyes. Possession. I was not an object to be controlled, but in that look, he owned me.
“You invite me here, and then I find you with someone else. Is this a game to you?”
“What if it is?” I countered. My hand trailed up his suit coat. I grasped the lapels in my hands.
“I do not play games, Katherine.”
My body trembled at the way he’d said my name. “You play them better than almost anyone.”
“Not with you. Not like this,” he growled.
I leaned up, brushing my nose along his jaw. My lips lingered at his ear. I let one free hand roam to the front of his suit pants. I dragged my nail down the length of his cock. “What if I want you to play a game with me?”
He jerked me against him—hard. Desire blasted out his pupils. We’d crossed a line, and I wasn’t sure if it was smart. No, I was sure it wasn’t. Giving Camden my body was one thing, but offering him me was asking for him to hurt me. Not physically… just emotionally and mentally, down to the hardened shards of my soul.
And yet, I offered myself up on a silver platter anyway. We had one week in our bargain. It might be worthwhile to see where the week took us.
“Then I believe we should leave,” Camden said hoarsely.
I nodded. “After you.”
He took my hand in his. Without a backward glance for our friends, I followed him out of the nightclub.
13
Katherine
When we returned to our villa, even the air was charged between us. I felt reckless, and I was not known for being reckless. How much rum had I had? It didn’t feel like enough to be walking into a dimly lit room with my husband, knowing what I’d proposed.
The heady relief of the dance had evaporated by the time we were back inside. A fresh bottle of champagne was chilling in a sweating bucket. As if Paulo had known we would need refreshments for the night. I moved toward it to give my hands something to do.