Modern Romance Books September Books 5-8. Annie West

never felt so mortified in my entire life!’ she all but wailed, then froze as he levered himself up and moved to sit on the bed right next to her.

      ‘I didn’t lay a finger on you,’ Rafael said roughly. He shifted and she drew back.

      ‘That’s not the point. I wouldn’t have expected you to. It’s not as though you’re attracted to me. But I just hate the thought of...of...’

      ‘Not attracted to you?’ Rafael laughed shortly. ‘What ever gave you that idea? And you don’t get to clam up on me this time and go into hiding because you’re finding the conversation you started a little uncomfortable. Have you looked in a mirror recently, Sofia? Do you have any idea how sexy you are? Especially in a dress that was made to be torn off.’

      ‘Made to be torn off?’

      ‘I saw you walking towards me and I discovered what it felt like to forget how to breathe.’

      ‘You don’t mean that!’

      ‘I was attracted to you the first time I ever set eyes on you.’

      ‘You weren’t, Rafael.’ Her nerves were racing and she knew, she knew, that she shouldn’t be having this conversation, because it was as dangerous as throwing a match onto tinder, but she couldn’t help herself.

      And she liked it. Liked hearing what he was saying.

      ‘You went out to Argentina to check me out, to see whether I would pass muster for the rich father I’d never met. You pretended...’

      ‘Pretended that I was attracted to you? Hate to burst the bubble of self-righteous hostility, Sofia, but I’m not that good an actor.’

      Sofia could barely breathe. She was spellbound by the intense glitter in his dark eyes, mesmerised by his softly spoken words. She didn’t know whether he was saying stuff he wanted her to hear, but why would he do that? What would be the point?

      ‘You made sure to tell me that this wasn’t a real relationship,’ she pointed out accusingly. ‘You made sure to let me know that you intended to be off doing your own thing while I pottered and did whatever I fancied doing for a year, buried in a cottage in the countryside.’

      ‘Think that was because I didn’t want you in my bed?’ He leapt to his feet, leaving a cold, empty space next to her on the bed. She watched as he restlessly paced the room when the only thing she wanted was for him to return to the bed. Her head was as clear as a bell but the darkness gave her courage to say what was on her mind. She felt a surge of reckless, heady daring. When she thought about what he’d said, everything inside her melted.

      Eyes wide, she followed his jerky progress through the room. When he finally came to stand in front of her, she didn’t huddle into a defensive ball. Instead, she stared right back up at him with a degree of boldness she hadn’t known she possessed.

      So he fancied her. So she hadn’t been the only one to feel that fierce, uncontrollable attraction.

      ‘What else was I supposed to think?’

      ‘This conversation is...’ He shook his head and looked away for a few seconds, but his eyes swerved back to her upturned face.

      ‘Is what?’

      ‘Dangerous,’ Rafael said softly.

      ‘Okay.’

      ‘Okay? Is that all you have to say on the matter?’

      ‘I feel better about you taking the dress off.’

      ‘Because you wanted it off or because you now know that you turn me on?’ He didn’t take his eyes off her when he said that.

      Heat crawled through her. She felt the pinch of her nipples and a spreading dampness between her thighs. She’d never wanted anyone as much as she wanted him, right here and right now. But she just didn’t have it in her to take that final step and brazenly invite him into bed with her.

      ‘I don’t know,’ she whispered.

      ‘Sofia, I made a conscious decision not to do anything about the attraction I felt for you because I didn’t want to complicate an already complicated situation.’

      ‘What do you mean?’

      ‘What do you think I mean? I wanted this to be about business. Emotions have a way of stealing the show and never in a good way.’

      ‘My emotions or yours?’

      ‘I don’t have emotions.’

      Sofia opened her mouth to tell him that he surely didn’t mean that but then realised that he really did. Or that was what he told himself, because when she thought about how devoted he was to his godfather she knew that he was far from being the unemotional hard case he purported to be.

      So what did they have here? Stripped down to the bare bones, what they had was a physical attraction that was as strong as a riptide, as darkly powerful as the swirl of a dangerous whirlpool in the middle of still waters.

      ‘Nor do I,’ she said boldly. ‘Not for you, at any rate.’

      ‘What are you trying to tell me, cara?’ Rafael asked thickly.

      ‘I’m trying to tell you that I wish you’d come sit on the bed again.’

      Rafael looked at her for a long moment and she wondered whether, having reached a crossroads, he would now turn his back and walk away, stick to following his head.

      She’d come so close to opening herself up to him physically when they had been out in Argentina before the truth had spilled out. She was at that point again, all cards on the table.

      He slowly moved towards her and she felt her breathing slow as she watched him. So beautiful, so graceful, so mesmerisingly alpha male.

      Her eyes tracked a leisurely route from face to torso and then down to where his jeans pulled tightly across his thighs.

      ‘You’re playing with fire,’ he said shakily, but his hand was resting lightly on the zipper of his trousers and she stared, fascinated, as he undid it.

      She didn’t want to give herself time to think or even to remember that this was not the sort of thing she’d ever done before. She didn’t want her head to start following his lead and take control of the situation.

      She didn’t want her own negative experiences in the past to determine what happened at this precise moment in time.

      ‘Maybe I am,’ she agreed in a low voice. ‘I’ve never played with fire before.’

      ‘Never?’ He smiled, lowered himself next to her on the bed and stretched out, arms folded behind his head. Sofia remained upright but shifted so that she was looking down at him. His gaze slid across to her and stayed there.

      ‘No. Have you?’

      ‘Once. Doesn’t everyone need a learning curve? Let me see you.’

      ‘See me?’

      ‘You know what I mean.’ He trailed a finger along her collar bone, beneath which the duvet was still pulled up tightly, shielding her naked breasts.

      She slowly let the duvet drop and watched with increasingly heated excitement as Rafael sat up, barely breathing, eyes trained on her nakedness.

      Her nipples were pink and swollen and she released a long sigh, relaxing her whole body into his caress as he manoeuvred himself into a position from which he could take one bud into his mouth and gently suck on it.

      He propelled her back so that she was lying flat, then pinned her hands above her head and straddled her.

      ‘You have no idea how much you turn me on,’ Rafael offered huskily. ‘Everything about the way you look is a turn-on. The second I laid eyes on you, every other woman on the face of the earth faded into insignificance.’

      Sweet