Mediterranean Mavericks. Jane Porter

not.’ Squeezing a hand up between them, she went to brush a stray tear from the corner of her eye.

      Or she would have done if one of his fingers had not got there before hers took the tear away; she could not hold back another small sniff.

      ‘I would not have done it,’ she mumbled.

      ‘Si, I know that.’ He sighed. ‘We were fighting. You used your weapon well. I retaliated by cutting you to pieces. I apologise for doing it.’

      ‘You’re so ruthless it’s scary.’

      ‘Si.’ On another sigh he sent one of his legs looping over her legs to draw her in a bit closer to him, then he caught her hand and pressed it to his chest.

      She felt his warmth and his muscled firmness and the prickle of hair against her palm. It was all very intimate and very dangerous—especially so when she didn’t try to pull away. The shirt formed a sort of barrier to stop the more frightening skin to skin contact, but—

      She eased out a sigh of her own and tried to ignore what was happening to her. ‘I’m really sorry I got us both embroiled in this mess,’ she whispered in genuine regret.

      ‘But you did do it,’ he pointed out with devastating simplicity. ‘Now we have to deal with what we have.’ He came to lean over her, suddenly deadly serious. ‘And what we have is one story, one betrothal, one bed,’ he listed. ‘You will not, during the time we are together, give cause for anyone to question our honesty.’

      ‘Our lies, you mean.’

      He shook his dark head. ‘Start believing in this, cara,’ he advised. ‘The fate of your sister’s marriage rests on your ability to live, breathe and sleep the role you have chosen to play in my life.’

      His life. Those two words said it all to Rachel. This was his life he was protecting. His reputation. His pride.

      And why not—? she thought painfully. Her mouth quivered. The tip of his tongue arrived to taste her soft upper lip.

      Rachel saw that grimness had been replaced with slumberous desire and knew what was going to happen next.

      ‘No,’ she jerked out.

      But his tongue dipped deeper. ‘Yes,’ he contradicted in soft silken English.

      ‘But I don’t—’

      ‘You do, cara,’ and he showed her how much she did by trailing his fingers inside the shirt.

      Her breast received his touch with livewire tingles. Don’t respond! she told herself, but she did. Her mouth opened wider to turn the gentle contact into a proper kiss and the globe of her breast peaked pleasurably against his palm. It was terrible; she could not seem to control herself.

      On a husky murmur he took the kiss back from her and from there it all began to build again.

      It should have been a huge let-down after what they’d just been fighting about—but it wasn’t. What it was, was a slow, slow attack on every sensual front he could discover by using his lips and his tongue and the light-light tantalising brush of fingers. There was not a single millimetre of her flesh that was not gently coaxed into yielding its secrets—its every weakness exposed and explored until she felt like a slave to her own sensuality and an even bigger slave to his.

      By the time he prepared to come into her, she was so lost in a hazy world made up entirely of him that she just lay there, watching while he produced the protection they’d both forgotten about the last time and expertly rolled it down his powerful length.

      His eyes burned hers as he came over her. When he pushed inside, her groan brought his lips down to capture the sound. They moved together in a slow, deep, serious, dark journey, which left both of them totally wiped out by its end.

      And, as sleep finally swept her into boneless oblivion, Rachel knew she had been totally taken over, ravished, possessed.

      I wish, was the last conscious thought she remembered having and fell asleep wondering what it was she had been about to wish for.

      She awoke cocooned in a nest of warm duvet and to the sound of a telephone ringing again. Only it did not sound loud, as if it was being muffled by the thickness of walls and doors. But the persistent sound pierced through her sleep like a sluggish pulse taking place inside her head.

      She didn’t open her eyes—didn’t want to. Too many bad memories were already rushing back, the worst of them being the knowledge that she’d fallen into bed with a man she’d only met the night before, had hot, unprotected sex with him and now his physical imprint was so deeply stamped on her that she could still see him, hear him, feel him and smell him with every sensory cell she had.

      The ringing stopped. Rachel let her eyes open. Daylight was shrouded by the drawn curtains but she could see just enough to know that the place beside her in the bed was empty and she breathed a sigh of relief.

      At least she would have some time to get herself back together before she had to face him again.

      Easing out of the bed, she rose to stand up with just about every muscle feeling the extra stretch as she looked around her for something to put on.

      Her clothes had gone. So had the shirt she had been coveting last night like a last line of defence. What now? she asked herself. Were her missing clothes supposed to be sending her a message about where she fitted into his life?

      Suddenly spying the cashmere throw he had used to cover her with the night before draped over a chair, she leapt on it and wrapped herself in it. The throw covered her from throat to ankle but she still felt like the wretched man’s concubine, imprisoned for his exclusive use.

      And he knew how to use her, she was forced to admit when her senses gave a tight little flutter in response to the thought.

      Someone knocked on the door. She almost tripped over as she spun round to stare at it.

      ‘Y-Yes?’ she called out, puzzled as to why the heck he was bothering to knock when privacy had been something he had taken no heed of last night.

      ‘Your things have arrived, Miss Carmichael,’ a totally strange female voice announced. ‘Shall I leave the suitcase here outside the door?’

      ‘Oh—y-yes—thank you,’ she answered, frowning because she didn’t know what the woman was talking about.

      She waited a few seconds before going to pull the door open a small crack to make sure the woman had gone before she looked down to discover the suitcase she’d hastily packed before leaving Devon was now standing on the floor. Clinging to the black throw with one hand and still frowning, she used her other hand to lift the case inside the bedroom and shut the door again.

      Last time she’d seen this, it had been lying open and spilling its contents on to the spare bed in Mark’s flat. So how had it ended up here instead?

      Had Mark delivered it? Had he come here, then left again without bothering to see or speak to her to find out if she was okay?

      Hurt thickened her throat as she heaved the case on to the rumpled bed and unzipped it. Inside it was everything she had brought up to London with her, plus all the extras that Elise had provided to help turn her into her look-alike.

      There was also a piece of paper lying on the top of everything. Picking it up, she unfolded it to find it was a hastily scribbled note from Mark.

      Did you have to send the chauffeur round to knock me up for your stuff at 6 o’ clock in the morning? I’d only just crawled into bed!

      Elise called you last night after I told her the good news, but your phone was dead. She and Leo wanted to congratulate you on your coming nuptials, if you get my drift. Call her later today so she can play the ecstatic sister for Leo’s benefit.

      I’m off to LA this afternoon for a few weeks. See you when I get back. Love M.

      Mission accomplished, in other words, so it was back to normal life—for Mark anyway. No words of concern