Mills & Boon Stars Collection: Passionate Bargains. Michelle Smart

whatever he’d set out to do. In this case he’d set out to master her, to punish her for her refusal to have the child he thought was his due.

      Unable to be in the same room as him for a moment longer lest she throw something at him, she stormed out and ran up the stairs to the sanctuary of the room she’d made her own.

      The room was empty.

      She checked the wardrobe, the dresser and the bathroom. Every single one of her possessions had gone. The bed had been stripped, the white mattress and plump pillows lying there uncovered as if in forlorn sympathy for her.

      ‘Your belongings have been moved into my bedroom.’

      She spun around to find Raul pressed against the doorway.

      ‘Nice to know you didn’t waste any time,’ she said, not bothering to hide her contempt.

      He smiled lazily and stepped over to her, placing his hands on the tops of her arms and leaning down to breathe into her hair. ‘Your anger is a waste of your energy.’ His voice dropped as he slid his hands down her sleeved arms and covered her balled fists. ‘Come, let me show you where you’ll be sleeping for the next four months.’

      ‘I’d rather sleep in a box,’ she hissed, somehow managing to hold back the burn of angry tears that had welled in her eyes.

      ‘Cariño, are you deliberately trying to rouse my anger?’ he asked in a caressing tone that contained an edge of warning.

      ‘Why should I be the only one to be angry?’ she demanded. ‘You’ve hoodwinked me.’

      ‘I’m investing a great deal of money in your scheme and I want to protect it.’

      She forced her voice to remain calm. ‘Will you sign the deeds over to me when the renovations are complete?’

      He contemplated her silently and his blue eyes narrowed. ‘If you can prove yourself to be focused, and by that I mean that you keep your focus until the renovations are complete, then I might consider signing it over to you.’

      ‘Might?’

      ‘I will not make a false promise, cariño.’ His voice dropped to a purr and he dipped his face into the curve of her neck and traced his lips gently over her skin. ‘Enough talk about deeds and renovations. I can think of a much better way to pass the time.’

      She dug her still-too-short nails into her palms, far too aware of his warm fingers holding her, his hot breath sensitising her skin... How could she still want him?

      Something hot flickered in her belly, a resolve that pushed through her fury, taming it enough so she loosened her fists and laced her fingers through his.

      So he wanted her, did he? Well, let him have her.

       CHAPTER SIX

      WITH CHARLEY’S FINGERS linked through his, Raul led her out of the empty room, down the wide landing and up a set of narrow wooden stairs to the top floor.

      As soon as they stepped over the threshold into his bedroom she dropped his hand, kicked her sandals off then marched over to stand in the centre of the room.

      Her eyes fixed on his, she tugged her top up and off.

      No sooner had her top hit the floor than she was undoing the buttons of her shorts and letting them drop to her feet, where she stepped out of them and kicked them away.

      He stood, transfixed at the scenario playing out before him, his eyes drinking in the unexpected striptease his wife was performing for him.

      Her green eyes flashing, she unclasped her white bra, which went the same way as the rest of her clothes, then pinched the sides of her matching knickers, skimming them down her hips from where gravity took care of the rest.

      When all her clothes were lying in a pool beside her, she put her hands on her hips and jutted out her chin.

      He made to step towards her but something held him back.

      Her eyes burned, but it wasn’t with desire. It was with defiance. Her whole body vibrated with it.

      ‘Well?’ she said, the challenge in her voice clear. ‘I’m here. I’m ready. I’m willing. If you want me, then take me.’

      Her figure was exquisite, with her full breasts and succulent nipples, the feminine swell of her abdomen and the rounded hips that topped long, shapely legs. At the juncture of her thighs lay the soft dark brown curls he’d once loved running his fingers over.

      He remembered the first time he’d seen her naked. At the time she’d been platinum blonde. He’d laughed when he’d pulled her knickers off and seen the dark hair there, the only evidence of her natural colouring. He’d especially liked kissing her there, that first time and all the others, feeling her excitement mount as she’d press upwards and into him, her gasps of pleasure seeping through his skin.

      Memories flooded him, vivid and colourful. His wife had always been putty in his hands. It would be so easy to kiss all that defiance away. The sweetest, easiest thing in the world.

      The heat running through his loins had turned the ache inside him into a form of pain.

      He ignored it.

      Folding his arms, he shook his head and clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth.

      She trembled as he walked to her but her chin didn’t drop, not even when he reached an arm round to cup her bottom.

      ‘You want me to take you now, do you?’ he whispered, pulling her flush against him, tracing his fingers up her bare back, then gathering her thick mop of hair together and spearing his fingers through it.

      ‘You can do whatever you like,’ she whispered back, her breaths coming in shallow hitches.

      But when his lips met hers, he found her mouth unyielding.

      ‘You said I could do whatever I like.’

      ‘And you can. But that doesn’t mean I have to participate or enjoy it.’

      He tugged her hair back and stared into her insolent eyes. Anger flooded through him at the confirmation of the game she was playing. But he tempered it.

      She wanted to play?

      Nothing would give him greater pleasure.

      And she would learn that whatever game she played with him, she would never win.

      He released his hold on her and swept his fingers over her shoulders, down over her breasts, lightly pinching those gorgeous nipples, already hard with the arousal she wished to deny, in the way that had always made her moan.

      There were no moans this time, but her lips parted a fraction, her cheeks heightening with colour. The defiance remained.

      ‘Sit on the chair,’ he commanded, indicating the armchair in the corner of the room.

      ‘What?’

      ‘Sit on the chair. You said I could do whatever I like, and what I would like is for you to sit on that chair.’

      She swallowed, looking at the chair as if it might be a trap.

      ‘I can carry you if you’d prefer?’

      Her eyes dilated at his words but her chin rose. She turned and walked to it, her back straight and her head high, goddess-like.

      When she sat down, her eyes met his. You can make me do anything you like but you won’t make me enjoy it, they said.

      Smiling, he stalked towards her and dropped to his knees. Without a word, he gripped her thighs and pulled her towards him so that his face was level with the place he so desperately wanted to taste. Just the thought of it made him want to plunge deep inside her.

      Instead, he mustered