Julia James - Purchased for Passion - Shackled by Diamonds / A Mistress for the Taking / His Bought Mistress

Leisurely, Leo slid his hand over her hip. Though slender, it was not in the least bony—for which he was glad. There was a rounded softness there beneath the silk of her dress that was really very enticing.

He deepened the kiss, pulling her body closer against his. He could feel his own body reacting very pleasurably to the contact. Rich anticipation filled him. A month’s celibacy might have been unwelcome, but it had its compensations.

Tonight would be good, he knew.

She would be good.

Letting his tongue powerfully stroke hers, he felt her yield to him, and he liked that. Too many women these days started a competition when he was kissing them, presumably thinking he found it exciting. They did not appreciate—as this one did—just how very erotic it was for a man to feel a woman being pleasured by him…

He felt his arousal strengthen. A month’s starvation had made him hungry.

Hungry for much more than a mere appetiser. Time to take their table for the main course.

He drew his mouth back a little, just enough to allow him to softly bite her swollen lower lip.

‘Shall we?’ he said, his mouth curving sensually, his lashes sweeping down over his eyes. He exerted the slightest pressure at her hip, loosening his hand from her neck to guide her towards the bed.

As he released her she swayed slightly, eyes dazed. A small frown started to form between his eyes.

Was she drunk? She’d nursed a single glass of champagne all evening, and it had still been almost as full at the end as at the beginning. And just now, over supper, she had stuck entirely to water. So why was she swaying? Looking dazed and dizzy?

Or was it merely sexual arousal? Her pupils were wide and dilated, lips swollen, parted. His eyes flickered downward, and then his mouth curved into a relaxing smile. Her breasts were straining against the confines of her dress, and even without the help of the laced corset, the soft mounds were swelling deliciously above her bodice.

He felt his own arousal surge through his body. Of its own volition his hand reached, curved around one lovely, tempting orb, thumb brushing the dark silk where the nipple strained against it.

He wanted her, badly. Now.

‘You really are…’ his voice was husky ‘…so very tempting.’ His thumb brushed again, and he felt himself thicken at the contact. Unable to resist, he started to close in on her. He wanted that mouth once more, that silken lushness…

The crack of her palm against his cheek took him totally and completely by surprise.

Anna hauled herself back. Her heart was hammering in her chest, pounding as if she’d done a workout. Panic, horror and a whole storm of emotions she couldn’t even identify poured through her like a deluge.

‘What the hell —?’

Leo Makarios was staring at her, shock naked on his face. Where her hand had impacted was a red mark.

Anna jerked further back.

‘Get out of here. Just get out!’

He was standing stock still. Every line of his body taut.

‘You will tell me,’ he bit out, ‘ exactly what that was for!’

Her eyes flashed. Her breathing was ragged, tumultuous, her heart still pounding. Adrenaline was surging through her—and a whole lot more.

‘How dare you? How dare you think you can help yourself to me? Get out !’

His face darkened, his eyes suddenly as hard as steel.

‘It’s a little late,’ he spelt out, his voice harsh, contemptuous, ‘to tell me that.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘I don’t like teases. Don’t say yes to me and then change your mind and blame me for it.’

Anna’s eyes distended.

‘Say yes? I never said yes!’

‘You’ve been saying yes all evening,’ he bit back. ‘From the moment I first set eyes on you. You made it crystal-clear you wanted me. Right up to ten seconds ago. Don’t pretend to be naïve.’ The voice was still harsh, still contemptuous. Two lines of white were etched around his mouth, colour flaring along his cheekbones.

She took a thin, hissing breath, eyes aflame with fury.

‘My God, you have a nerve. I don’t have to take this from you. Go and find some other willing floozy for the night! How dare you think you can use me for a night’s entertainment?’

‘Forgive me, but you gave every impression that you were willing.’ The sneer in his voice was open.

Anna’s eyes spat fire. Oh, how she wanted to feel anger! She was feeling it now all right. Coruscating, burning, biting, furious, incandescent anger. She was shaking with it.

‘Get out ! I don’t have to take this! I don’t have to put up with men who think because I model clothes I’ll take them off for them whenever they feel like it. Now get out of my room before I charge you for harassment!’

Leo’s face was as if carved from marble.

‘Be very careful,’ he told her, his eyes like chips of rock, ‘what you say to me.’

Her face contorted.

‘Don’t threaten me. I don’t have to be treated like this by you or anyone else—however stinking rich they are!’

‘Don’t tell me—’ the contemptuous note was back in his voice ‘—it’s in your contract.’

‘Well, it’s just as bloody well it is, isn’t it?’ she spat back at him. ‘Because with you around I need it!’

The eyes were like granite again.

‘Enough. You have made your point of view very clear. But next time you want to play the outraged virtue card, Ms Delane, I suggest you do it before you entertain a man in your bedroom at midnight.’

He threw a last stony, contemptuously angry look at her, and walked out.

The door shut behind him with a violent reverberating thud.

Leo strode down the corridor in a cold rage such as he had seldom experienced.

Christos, where the hell had that come from?

From temptress to virago in ten seconds flat!

Deliberate?

His eyes narrowed. If there’d been the slightest indication that the whole thing was a put-on he’d—

He felt his hands clench as he walked rapidly away, and he had to force himself to release them.

No, she wasn’t worth it. Whether or not she was putting it on—one of those women who enjoyed blowing hot then cold just to twist men up—he didn’t care. Let her enjoy her virtue. Theos, it was all she was going to enjoy tonight.

Anna Delane could enjoy her precious celibacy, and he…he could have a cold shower.

How the hell was I supposed to know she didn’t want it?

Indignation filled him—and a sense of unjustified ill usage.

Good God, he wasn’t some callow teenager, unable to tell whether a woman was responding to him. Anna Delane had responded all right—clear and loud.

So why the outrage?

Roughly, he pushed the question aside. What the hell did he care what the answer was?

His interest in Anna Delane was over.

Permanently.

ANNA lay in bed. Her heart was still pumping, adrenaline surging through her. She couldn’t stop it. Her whole body was as tense as a board, every muscle rigid.

How had it come to this? How?

Disbelief kept flooding through her, cold and icy through her guts.

The cold emptied through her again, clutching at her with its icy fingers.

How, how had it happened?

The question went round and round, pounding ceaselessly, tormentingly.

How had she let Leo Makarios do that to her? Just walk up to her and start to touch her. And she’d done nothing— nothing ! Pathetic. Pathetic.

A shudder went through her.

She had just let him stand there and kiss her, fondle her, as if she was some kind of…some kind of…