The Ultimate Persuasion. Cathy Williams

not really interested.’

      ‘Aren’t you?’ Whatever she might say, Luiz had his answer in that fractional pause before she predictably shook her head.

      He hadn’t been off the mark with her. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. He could always tell these things. His mouth curved in lazy satisfaction as he played with the idea of eliminating the talking and just…kissing her. Just plunging his hands into that tangled blonde hair, pulling her towards him so that she could have proof of just how much he was turned on, kissing her until she begged him not to stop. He could feel her alertness and it hit him that he hadn’t been turned on by any woman to this extent before in his life.

      He had spent the past couple of hours with his computer discarded next to him on the bed while he had stared up at the ceiling, hands folded behind his head, thinking of her. He had made his intentions clear and then dropped the matter in the expectation that, once the seed was planted, it would take root and grow.

      ‘I want you,’ he murmured huskily. ‘I can’t make myself any clearer, and if you want to touch you can feel the proof for yourself.’

      Aggie’s heart was thudding so hard that she could barely think straight.

      ‘And I suppose you always get what you want?’ She stuck her disobedient hands behind her back.

      ‘You tell me. Will I?’

      Aggie took a deep breath and risked looking at him even though those dark, fabulous eyes brought on a drowning sensation.

      ‘No.’

      For a few seconds, Luiz thought that he had heard incorrectly. Had she just turned him down? Women never said no to him. Why would they? Without a trace of vanity, he knew exactly what he brought to the table when it came to the opposite sex.

      ‘No,’ he tried out that monosyllable and watched as she glanced down with a little nod.

      ‘What do you mean, no?’ he asked in genuine bafflement.

      Aggie’s whole body strained to be touched by him and the power of that yearning shocked and frightened her.

      ‘I mean you’ve got it wrong,’ she mumbled.

      ‘I can feel what you’re feeling,’ he said roughly. ‘There’s something between us. A chemistry. Neither of us was asking for this but it’s there.’

      ‘Yes, well, that doesn’t matter.’ Aggie looked at him with clear-eyed resolve.

      ‘What do you mean, that doesn’t matter?’

      ‘We’re on opposite sides of the fence, Luiz.’

      ‘How many times do I have to reassure you that I have conceded that you were innocent of the accusations I originally made?’

      ‘That’s an important fence but there are others. You belong to a dynasty. You might think it’s fun to step outside the line for a while, but I’m not a toy that you can pick up and then discard when you’re through with it.’

      ‘I never implied that you were.’ Luiz thought that, as toys went, she was one he would dearly love to play with.

      ‘I may not be rich and I may have come from a foster home, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t have principles.’

      ‘And if I implied that you didn’t, then I apologise.’

      ‘And it doesn’t mean that I’m weak either!’ Aggie barrelled through his apology because, now that she had gathered momentum, she knew that it was in her interests to capitalise on it.

      ‘Where are you going with that?’ Luiz had the strangest feeling of having lost control.

      ‘I’m not going to just give in to the fact that, yes, you’re an attractive enough man and we happen to be sharing the same space…’

      ‘I honestly can’t believe I’m hearing this.’

      ‘Yes, well, it’s not my fault that you’ve lived such a charmed life that you’ve always got everything you wanted at the snap of a finger.’

      Luiz looked down into those aquamarine eyes that could make a grown man go weak at the knees and shook his head in genuine incomprehension. Yes, okay, so maybe he had had a charmed life and maybe he had always got what he wanted, but this was crazy! The atmosphere between them was tangible and electric…What was wrong with two consenting adults giving in to what they both clearly wanted, whether she was brave enough to admit that or not?

      ‘So…’ Aggie took a couple of steps towards the door and placed her hand firmly on the door knob. As a support, it was wonderful because her legs felt like jelly. ‘If you don’t mind, I’m very tired and I really would like to get to bed now.’

      She didn’t dare meet his eyes, not quite, but lowering them was equally hazardous because she was then forced to stare at his chest with its dark hair that looked so aggressively, dangerously un-English; at his flat, brown nipples and at the clearly defined ripple of muscle and sinew.

      Luiz realised that he was being dismissed and he straightened, all the time telling himself that the woman, as far as he was concerned, was now history. He had never been rejected before, at least not that he could remember, and he would naturally accept the reality that he was being rejected now, very politely but very firmly rejected. He had never chased any woman and he should have stuck with that format.

      ‘Of course,’ he said coldly, reaching to hold both ends of the towel over his shoulders with either hand.

      Immediately, Aggie felt his cool withdrawal and hated it.

      ‘I’ll…er…see you tomorrow morning. What time do you want to leave?’ This time she did look him squarely in the face. ‘And will you still be taking that detour to…you know? I’d understand if you just want to get to our destination as quickly as possible…’ But she would miss seeing Gordon and Betsy and all the kids; would miss seeing how everything was. Opportunities to visit like this were so rare. Frankly non-existent.

      ‘And you question my motives?’

      ‘What are you talking about?’ It was Aggie’s turn to be puzzled and taken aback at the harsh, scathing contempt in his voice.

      ‘You have just made me out to be a guy who can’t control his baser instincts—yet I have to question your choice of men because you seem to lump me into the category as the sort of man who gives his word on something only to retract it if it’s no longer convenient!’

      Hot colour flared in her cheeks and her mouth fell open.

      ‘I never said…’

      ‘Of course you did! Well, I told you that I would make that detour so that you could visit your friends at your foster home and I intend to keep my promise. I may be many things, but I am honourable.’

      With that he left, and Aggie fell against the closed door, like a puppet whose strings had been suddenly severed. Every bone in her body was limp and she remained there for a few minutes, breathing heavily and trying not to think about what had just taken place. Which, of course, was impossible. She could still breathe in his scent and feel his disturbing presence around her.

      So he had made a pass at her, she thought, trying desperately to reduce it to terms she could grasp. Men had made passes at her before. She was choosy, accustomed to brushing them aside without a second thought.

      But this man…

      He got to her. He roused her. He made her aware of her sexuality and made her curious to have it explored. Even with all those drawbacks, all those huge, gaping differences between them…

      But it was good that she had turned him down, she told herself. He had been open and upfront with her, which naturally she appreciated. Fall into bed because they were attracted to one another? Lots of other women would have grabbed the opportunity; Aggie knew that. Not only was he drop-dead gorgeous, but there