Ruthless Lover. Sarah Holland
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it did,’ he said with soft mockery, and let his blue eyes slide with insolent sexual appraisal over her slender body. ‘But I haven’t seen you since Christmas, and I fancied a quick visit. Anything wrong with that?’
‘You’re not interested in seeing me,’ she said angrily. ‘You just came here to cause trouble! I don’t know why, and I don’t really care. But I won’t be used to fill a boring night in your life, Nick, so you may as well just get dressed and call the Plaza!’
Turning, she walked out of the bedroom and into the living-room. She was shaking. Appalled, she stared down at her hands, normally so cool and competent, and saw the powerful tremor that was so uncontrollable.
How dared he do that? Imagine getting into bed with her and kissing her like that! He’d never done it before; never…
The door opened and she whirled, heart in her mouth.
‘Don’t give me orders, Serena,’ Nick drawled, a threat of steel in his voice as he watched her, hands thrust in the pockets of his robe. ‘I’ve always been the one in charge of this marriage, and that’s not going to change now.’
Her mouth shook. ‘You just broke the rules!’ she accused hotly. ‘You shouldn’t have done that!’
‘They’re unwritten rules,’ he said flatly. ‘I can break them any time I like.’
Serena caught her breath at his arrogance. ‘Oh, I see! Just because you’ve been prevented from meeting up with one of your mistresses for the night, you think you can come here and make your demands on me!’ Her body trembled with inexplicable rage. ‘Well, I won’t have it!’
‘It was only a kiss,’ he drawled, steel-blue eyes mocking her.
‘That’s not the point!’
‘A kiss you responded to very excitingly, Serena,’ he said softly, and the hot colour flooded up her neck to her face, leaving her breathless and unable to reply.
There was a brief, tense silence. Her pulses were racing disturbingly, and she felt for the first time that Nick had set their marriage on a different course—a course that terrified her.
After three years, he had suddenly taken the gloves off. She had always known, instinctively, that he might one day do it. But she had never expected it, not really, not in her deepest moments of contemplation.
This situation had all the hallmarks of disaster. She knew Nick was not going to defuse it. Therefore, she would have to be the one to take the necessary steps.
‘Very well.’ Serena lifted her red-gold head. ‘If you refuse to do the decent thing by checking into the Plaza—I’ll go instead.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he said flatly. ‘It’s only for one night.’
‘And where do you propose to sleep?’ She arched red-gold brows.
‘In one of the other bedrooms.’ He shrugged broad shoulders, his manner indolent. ‘We have four, after all.’
‘Then why did you come to my room?’ she asked under her breath, hating him. ‘Why did you deliberately get into bed with me?’
He regarded her through heavy eyelids. ‘I told you,’ he said softly, ‘I just fancied a kiss.’
Serena struggled to remain calm in the face of the potent sexual weapons he was turning on her. This situation was getting more dangerous by the second. She couldn’t cope with it, and the look on his ruthless face told her that he knew it, and that he was doing it deliberately.
‘Why are you doing this, Nick?’ she asked under her breath, suddenly sensing the very real threat he had decided to unleash. ‘It’s deliberate, isn’t it?’
He watched her, his face hard. ‘Why should I deliberately jeopardise an arrangement that’s worked so well for so long?’
Her gold lashes flickered. She felt suddenly uncertain. Yet Nick had kept his distance for three years. He had married her for her title, and then just walked away to his work, his mistresses and his busy life without a backward glance.
There had never been any pretence of mutual attraction between them. There had never been any tenderness, or love or hint of affection. For him to come here now and get into bed with her…
‘You’ll be leaving in the morning, then?’ she asked unsteadily.
He inclined his dark head. ‘First thing.’
Serena breathed a little more easily. ‘Right…’ She felt overwhelmingly conscious of her body in the revealing black silk nightdress, especially when Nick was looking at her like that, running his blue gaze with stark sexual appraisal over her. ‘Then, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll move into the spare bedroom and—’
‘There’s no need for that,’ he said coolly. ‘I’ll move.’
She expelled her breath on a sigh of silent relief. ‘Thank you.’
Nick’s hard mouth curved in a mocking little smile. ‘No need to look as though you’re going to faint with relief, darling!’ he murmured, and strolled towards her.
Involuntarily she took a step backwards, staring at him in alarm.
Nick stopped, eyes narrowing. ‘Are you afraid of me, Serena?’
Angrily, she lifted her red-gold head, meeting his cool blue gaze with a challenge. ‘Why on earth should I be afraid of you?’
‘Well, quite,’ he said softly. ‘We’ve been married for three years, and you’ve always treated me with cool indifference. So why the sudden look of alarm in your face?’
‘Anger,’ she corrected, arching her haughty brows. ‘I’m angry with you for doing this.’
His gaze slid to the rise and fall of her breasts beneath the black silk low-cut neckline. Serena felt colour flood her face and her heart start thumping madly. It was so completely out of character for her to react to him like this that she started to shake again, staring at him, acutely aware of his powerful brand of masculinity for the first time.
‘You show anger very excitingly, Serena,’ he said under his breath, and raised his blue eyes to meet hers. ‘I wonder what would happen if I—’
‘Just go to bed, Nick!’ she said hoarsely, stepping back from him, a quiver of powerful excitement in her full mouth.
He looked at her intently, his mouth a firm line, then nodded. ‘Sure. It’s three a.m. and we’re both tired.’
Relief flooded her again. She gave a stiff nod. ‘I won’t see you for breakfast, I take it? You’ll be leaving on the first flight?’
‘Of course,’ he said coolly, and strode across the room towards the master bedroom, going in and closing the door behind him with a quiet click.
Serena stared at the closed door, her heart thumping. It was almost unbelievable that he had done this. To come here in the middle of the night and get into bed with her, start making love to her…
She felt so shaken that she knew going to sleep was impossible. In an effort to come to terms with what had just happened, she went to the kitchen, got a glass and poured herself a very small measure of brandy.
It stung the back of her throat. She enjoyed that sting, and the flood of warmth that came with it. It would help her relax a little, too, so she took it into her bedroom and got into bed, nursing it as she thought about what Nick had just done.
Three years ago, Serena had left a sheltered existence at an English country finishing school to find the shock of her life awaiting her. Her parents were so heavily in debt that Flaxton Manor and the entire estate would have to be sold.
Her parents, the Earl and Countess of Archallagen, were understandably in despair. The manor was a beautiful sixty-seven-room Tudor masterpiece, built in 1532 for a favourite of Anne Boleyn: