Mills & Boon Stars Collection: Seductive Nights. Maya Blake

apart every time my father is five minutes late coming home? You know how many times she dragged me from my bed and into the car so she could go in search of him to make sure he wasn’t in another woman’s bed? Gael’s mother did that to my family.’ He turned from the window, prowling across the floor until he stood before her. ‘Do you think, coming from that, that there can be any peace between us?’

      ‘I’m sure Gael didn’t exactly escape unscathed, either.’

      ‘I know,’ he breathed, shaking his head. ‘But when you’re caught in this...powder keg, rationality goes out of the window.’

      Let it go, Elise. Your own family situation is far from a bundle of laughs. Let it—

      ‘That was then, Alejandro. What about now?’

      He shook his head. ‘It’s too late.’

      ‘I don’t think so.’

      His expression underwent a subtle transformation. Elise was willing to bet he didn’t know how vulnerable he’d looked for just a second before his features hardened. ‘Don’t presume to know how to fix me, Elise.’

      ‘I wouldn’t dare. I’m only stating the obvious. I can shut up if you want me to?’

      He stared at her, narrow-eyed, for a second. ‘I don’t want you to shut up. But this subject bores me. So change it, if you please.’

      She grimaced. ‘Well, we’ve done the tourist thing, the business thing. We’ve made a mockery of family. What shall we do next?’

      His gaze dropped to her mouth, but he didn’t speak. He didn’t need to. The look on his face told its own unfolding story, morphing from chillingly forbidding to stark raving hunger.

      One hand snagged her waist. The heat in his eyes was back, full force. ‘Sex, Elise. Let’s do sex. And don’t give me the excuse about our working relationship or you not wanting me. We can make this work. The day after we first kissed, you walked back into my office and carried on working even though my behaviour was less than exemplary. You didn’t throw a tantrum or give me the cold shoulder like most women I know would’ve done. I have no doubt that whatever happens between us in the bedroom, it will not get in the way of your job.’

      She tried to speak past the sudden clamouring of her senses. Tried to think. ‘Wow. I sound like a robot.’

      His mouth quirked, but his gaze didn’t lose one ounce of intensity. ‘If you were, you’d be the sexiest one ever created.’

      Laughter barked from her, which he joined in with for a few seconds, before the sexual gravity of the moment rendered them both silent.

      ‘I want you, Elise. You might not wish to reciprocate the statement right now, but let’s agree to table it for discussion after Kenzo Ishikawa’s birthday party tomorrow, sí?’

      The past few days had been leading to this. Somewhere along the line, she’d decided to take the chance. But now he was laying out terms so starkly, her senses shrieked a primal warning. ‘Alejandro, I don’t know...’

      ‘Come on now, we’ve tried to pretend this isn’t happening, but it is. You can’t keep running from it and I don’t intend to fail the challenge and pleasure of getting you into my bed. You have twenty-four hours to yield to me. And, Elise?’

      ‘Yes?’ she murmured despite her spinning thoughts.

      ‘I don’t intend to lose this one.’

      A hard kiss preceded his exit.

      Elise dropped into the chair, her stunned senses trying to grapple with what had just happened.

      Alejandro had dropped a giant morsel of his past in her lap. Then segued into a demand for sex. She stared at the door through which he’d disappeared. Was the instigation of the subject of sex a way to distract her from his emotional revelations?

      If so, it’d worked a treat.

      Skirting past the momentous subject of sex with Alejandro, she replayed his childhood story instead.

      She’d thought her childhood had been horrendous with the early realisation that her parents had what amounted to an open marriage, their vows shoved into the background in the interest of accumulating financial gain. For the greater part, Elise had been handed over to the care of nannies and housekeepers while her parents pursued their single-minded interests. It hadn’t been until she hit puberty that things had changed for the worse.

      Alejandro’s experiences had been worse, because the infidelity had come from one side, with pain heaped on his mother while he’d been caught in the middle.

      She might not have heard Gael’s side, or know the full story, but what little she knew explained the brief glimpses of bleakness and loneliness she sometimes saw in Alejandro’s eyes.

      Her heart squeezed in sympathy and despite telling herself that softening her feelings for him might be a dangerous path to take, she still found herself mourning long into the evening and into the night for the harrowing childhood he must have suffered.

      As for the subject of sex, she continued to push it to the back of her mind whenever it sparked its heady temptation. She knew not confronting it wouldn’t make it go away—she’d seen a determined Alejandro in action, after all—but all the same, she held it at bay, in the hope that morning would bring the clarity she needed.