The Ultimate Persuasion. Cathy Williams

model those clothes for me,’ he murmured. ‘Although my guess is that you would have been outraged at any such suggestion. Frankly, it was a bit of a shame that there was any audience at all. Aside from myself, naturally. If it had been just the two of us, I would have insisted you remove your bra when you tried that dress on, for starters.’

      Aggie’s mouth fell open and she stared at him in disbelieving shock.

      ‘You don’t mean that,’ she said faintly.

      ‘Of course I do.’ He looked surprised that she should disbelieve him.

      ‘Why are you saying these things?’

      ‘I’m saying what I mean. I don’t know how it’s happened, but I find myself violently attracted to you, and the reason I feel I can tell you this is because I know you feel the same towards me.’

      ‘I do not!’

      ‘Allow me to put that to the test, Aggie.’

      This time there was nothing fleeting or gentle about his kiss. It wasn’t designed to distract her. It was designed to prove a point, and she was as defenceless against its urgent power as she would have been against a meteor hurtling towards her at full tilt.

      There was no rhyme or reason behind her reaction, which was driven purely on blind craving.

      With a soft moan of surrender, she reached further towards him and allowed herself to drown in sensations she had never felt before.

      ‘Point proved.’ Luiz finally drew back but his hand remained on the side of her face, caressing her hot cheek. ‘So the only remaining question is what we intend to do about this…’

       CHAPTER SIX

      AGGIE couldn’t get to sleep. Luiz’s softly spoken words kept rolling around in her mind. He had completely dropped the subject over dinner but the electricity had crackled between them and the atmosphere had been thick with unspoken thoughts of them in bed together.

      Had she been that transparent all along? When had he realised that she was attracted to him? She had been at pains to keep that shameful truth to herself and she cringed to think how casually he had dropped it into the conversation as a given.

      He was a highly sexual man and he would have no trouble in seeing sex between them as just the natural outcome of mutual attraction. He wouldn’t be riddled with anxiety and he wouldn’t feel as though he was abandoning his self-respect. For him, whatever the reasons for their trip, a sexual relationship between them would always be a separate issue which he would be able to compartmentalise. He was accustomed to relationships that didn’t overlap into other areas of his life.

      At a little after one, she realised that it was pointless trying to force herself to go to sleep.

      She pulled on the dressing gown that had been supplied and was hanging on a hook on the bathroom door, shoved her feet in her bedroom slippers and headed for the door. One big disadvantage of somewhere as small as this was that there was no room-service for those times when sleep was elusive and a glass of milk was urgently needed. Mrs Bixby had kindly pointed out where drinks could be made after hours and had told them both that they were free to use the kitchen as their own.

      Aggie took her time pottering in the kitchen. A cup of hot chocolate seemed a better idea than a glass of milk and it was a diversion to turn her mind to something other than turbulent thoughts of Luiz.

      She tried without success to stifle her flush of pleasure at his admission that he had been looking at her.

      Caught up between the stern lectures she was giving herself about the craziness of his proposal, like uninvited guests at a birthday party were all sorts of troublesome questions, such as when exactly had he been looking at her and how often…?

      None of that mattered, she told herself as she headed back up the stairs with the cup of hot chocolate. What mattered, what was really important, was that they get this trip over with as soon as possible and, whatever the outcome, she would then be able to get back to her normal life with its safe, normal routine. One thing that had been gained in the process was that he no longer suspected her of profiteering and she thought that he had probably dropped his suspicions of her brother as well. He still saw it as his duty to intervene in a relationship he thought was unacceptable, but at least there would be no accusations of opportunism.

      However, when Aggie tried to remember her safe, normal routine before all these complications had arisen, she found herself thinking about Luiz. His dark, sexy face superimposed itself and squashed her attempts to find comfort in thinking about the kids at the school and what they would be getting up to in the run up to Christmas.

      She didn’t expect to see the object of her fevered thoughts at the top of the stairs. She was staring down into the mug of hot chocolate, willing it not to spill, when she looked up and there he was. Not exactly at the top of the stairs, but in the shadowy half-light on the landing, just outside one of the bedrooms, with just a towel round his waist and another hand towel slung over his neck.

      Aggie blinked furiously to clear her vision and when the vision remained intact she made a strangled, inarticulate noise and froze as he strolled towards her.

      ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked in an accusing gasp as he reached to relieve her of the mug, which threatened to fall because her hands were trembling so much.

      ‘I could ask you the same question.’

      ‘I…I was thirsty.’

      Luiz didn’t answer. There were only five rooms on the floor and, if he hadn’t known already, it wouldn’t have been hard to guess which was hers because it was the only one with a light on. It shone through the gap under the door like a beacon and he beelined towards it so that she found herself with no choice but to follow him on unsteady legs.

      The sight of his broad, bronzed back, those wide, powerful shoulders, made her feel faint. Her breasts ached. Her whole body was in the process of reminding her of the futility of denying the sexual attraction he had coolly pointed out hours earlier, the one she had spent the last few restless hours shooting down in flames.

      He was in no rush. While her nerves continued to shred and unravel, he seemed as cool as a cucumber, standing back with a little bow to allow her to brush past him into the bedroom, where she abruptly came to a halt and stopped before he could infiltrate himself any further.

      ‘Good night.’

      Her cheeks were burning and she couldn’t look him in the eye but she could imagine the little mocking smile on his mouth at her hoarse dismissal.

      ‘So you couldn’t sleep. I’m not sure if a hot drink helps with that. I have a feeling that’s an old wives’ tale…’ Luiz ignored her good-night, although he didn’t proceed into the bedroom. It was sheer coincidence that he had bumped into her on the landing, pure bloody coincidence, but didn’t fate work in mysterious ways? The laws of attraction…wasn’t that what they called it? He remembered some girlfriend waffling on about that years ago while he had listened politely and wondered whether she had taken leave of her senses. Yet here it was at work, because he had been thinking about the woman standing wide-eyed in front of him and had decided to cool his thoughts down with a shower, only to find her practically outside his bedroom door. Never did he imagine that he would thank providence for the basic provisions of a bed and breakfast with only two en suites.

      ‘I was thirsty, I told you.’

      ‘I was having trouble sleeping too,’ Luiz said frankly, his dark eyes roving over her slight frame. Even at this ungodly hour, she still managed to look good. No make-up, hair all over the place but still bloody good. Good enough to ravish. Good enough to lift and carry straight off to that king-sized bed behind her.

      He felt his erection push up, hard as steel, and his breath quickened.

      Aggie cleared her throat