Carol Marinelli - The Chatsfield Short Romances 6-10

Chloe stifled a surprised laugh. She was so not going to find him amusing. ‘I’m sure she’s done this before,’ she said, ‘and she has great taste in chocolates. You should think about giving her a raise.’ She had wanted her voice to sound light and mysterious – as if this whole seduction scene was exactly what she wanted from him – but somehow the words sounded choked and unsure as her nerves once again set in.

‘I’ve never asked her to do anything like this.’ His smile was a little self-mocking. ‘I’ve never thought that I might need champagne or chocolates as props before.’

Of course he wouldn’t need them and they both knew it.

Chloe pressed her feet more firmly into her stilettos and felt them sink further into the plush carpet and tried to imagine it was a certain part of his anatomy. She could hear the faint sounds of partying beyond the closed bedroom door and prayed that no-one would come in and find them together. Being humiliated by Liam Hunter for the second time was not on tonight’s agenda.

Which brought her mind back to what was on tonight’s agenda which had nothing to do with the hot sex that kept replaying inside her head. And maybe now would be the perfect time to reveal who she was and reject him. But somehow the words wouldn’t come and before she could take another breath Liam was directly in front of her.

She was nearly at eye level with him thanks to her heels but he was just so big and broad he still made her feel small. Feminine. She met his gaze at the same time as he took her face between his warm hands and brought his mouth to hers.

Shocked, her heart beating ten to the dozen, Chloe didn’t move, her whole body alive to nothing but Liam Hunter’s sweet, soft kiss.

Before she could lose herself in it he pulled back, his tongue gliding over his lower lip as if savouring the taste of her. Dazed, she let him take her hand and tug her forwards until he was sitting on the great bed with her stood between his spread thighs. They weren’t touching but the chemistry was like a buzzing force field between them and when she looked behind him she saw the line of his broad back in the full length mirror with her hovering before him. Her eyes fell to the back of his head and the broadness of his shoulders until the stroke of his fingers over her knuckles brought her attention back to his face.

‘I wasn’t going to bring any other woman back here. I wasn’t even sure I would bring you back here but I’ve wanted to kiss you since I saw you in the interview room and I couldn’t wait any longer.’

Chloe felt dizzy and wished she had the courage to plunge her fingers into his thick hair and test its weight, its springiness. This close she could smell him and when he inhaled deeply she realised he could scent her as well. The sexual attraction that had betrayed her when she was eighteen seemed to have doubled and her heart fluttered as she tried to block out the emotions urging her to once again throw caution to the wind. And she might have even succeeded if Liam hadn’t placed his large hands either side of her hips. ‘I know we should talk first, Specs, but I feel like I might die if I don’t touch you. If I don’t see you.’

Shockingly, Chloe felt the same way and her sense of self-preservation seemed to get further out of reach the closer she got to him. All she wanted to do was touch him and kiss him and have him do the same to her. Have him… suddenly his words – the name he had called her – permeated her fogged brain. ‘You called me Specs.’

‘Yeah.’ He smoothed his hands down her thighs as if he adored her shape. ‘Whatever happened to those cute glasses you used to wear? If I remember rightly you were legally blind without them.’

Not really hearing him above the roaring of blood in her ears Chloe stared at him completely dumbfounded. ‘You know who I am.’

His eyes narrowed as if he was trying to work out the answer to a complex puzzle. ‘Ah, yeah. Was I not supposed to?’

‘When? When did you figure it out?’ she demanded.

He cocked his head and his brow furrowed in that cute way that made him look like he wouldn’t hurt a fly. ‘The minute I saw you outside the hotel. What’s going on?’ His frown deepened. ‘Were you actually trying to pretend to be someone else?’

‘No,’ she snapped, smacking the palm of her hand against her forehead. How was it that she kept making such a colossal fool of herself in front of this man? ‘Your PA got it wrong not me.’

‘So why didn’t you correct her?’

‘I didn’t see the point. I wasn’t expecting to see you for more than five minutes.’

‘Ah,’ he looked at her with a combination of guilt and wariness. ‘And you weren’t going to tell me.’

‘Why bother?’

Liam’s mouth flattened into a straight line. ‘I have to say I’m struggling to get my head around this.’

His firm gaze swept over her, reminding her that she was still standing between the legs of a guy she was supposed to be rejecting. She was truly pathetic. ‘I have to go. Excuse me.’

Before she could move Liam snagged her wrist. ‘Chloe?’

She shook him off. ‘How could you know it was me? I look completely different now.’

‘No you don’t.’

Chloe stared at him. Was he suggesting she still looked as bad as she used to?

‘Fiery red hair, incredible blue eyes with tiny gold flecks, long legs. Breasts.’

Chloe tried not to feel warmed by his words and scoffed. ‘All girls have breasts.’

‘True, but since moving to Hollywood I’ve learned that not all girls have real breasts.’ Chloe felt her cheeks heat as his eyes dropped to her cleavage. ‘I always thought you had magnificent breasts.'

Appalled by how affected she was by his words, how aroused, she just wanted to run away and hide. Forever this time. She stepped back from him again. ‘Please Liam. I know what you want but I don’t want it.’

‘Not now that I know who you are, you mean.’ His eyes grew as stony as chipped emeralds. ‘Tell me, what were you going to do, Chloe? Have sex with me as Candy and then bolt.’

‘No.’

‘What then?’

Chloe squared her shoulders. ‘I wasn’t going to have sex with you at all.’

‘Ah.’ Somehow he’d moved so that he was standing in front of her again, his chest inches from her own. ‘Payback then.’

‘It’s no less than you deserve,’ she felt stung into retorting.

‘I know.’ The anger she had felt in him moments ago ebbed away. ‘I was an utter jerk to you back in high school, but I didn’t invite you up here to have sex with you. I invited you here so that I could apologise.’

Chloe scrunched her brow in confusion. ‘So what was all this?’ She waved her hands in the direction of the champagne. The chocolates. The condoms . ‘If you don’t want me then it really was for someone else.’ She knew she sounded accusing but she was so confused by her own rioting emotions that she was struggling to think clearly. ‘This was never for me, it was–’

‘Chloe, I do want you. Hell.’ He grabbed hold of her elbows. ‘Dammit, would you stop trying to get away from me and listen.’

‘No.’ She shook her head violently, determined not to embarrass herself any more with him. ‘I want to go. I don’t want this.’ She forced herself to hold his stare. ‘ You . I don’t want you .’

‘I’m sorry, but it was you who stroked my chest before.’

‘It was an accident.’

His look told her he knew that had been no accident. ‘You did it twice.’

‘I have to go.’

Liam tightened his hold on her. ‘Stay.’

Chloe looked at him and knew that years of hurt and humiliation were reflected in her blurry eyes. ‘You had a bet with your friends that you could make me fall in love with you,’ she cried.