"I am not making the scene—you are! Now—let—me—go!" With an angry tug she managed to yank her wrist free. As he went to grab hold of her again, she pushed at his body with her two clenched fists and enough angry strength to make him stagger back a small step, giving her just enough space to slither around him and get away.Shaking inside with anger and reaction, she hurried out onto the pool terrace. Scared that he might be following her but determined not to look back and check, she made for the first group of people she saw standing by the swimming pool, and with a deep breath to calm her unsteady breathing, she ventured close enough for them to notice her, and smiled gratefully when they widened the circle to invite her to join in.What the hell just happened? She had no idea who the man was? And all that talk about his sister and Scott, what was all that about? Her eyes glazed and her wrist was hurting, she noticed, carefully rubbing the place where he had dug into her bones. Some
What he could not see was who had been standing close enough to her to propel her into the damn pool because his full attention had been fixed exclusively on her."So the cuckoo almost drowned and I missed it," a disappointed voice drawled beside him. "What a shame." In no mood for Elizabeth Smith's twisted kind of humor Scott intoned flatly, "You lead a sad life, Elizabeth," then walked away, over to the almost deserted pool bar and ordered a drink while he awaited Vivian's return.By the time the two women walked out of the house again he was the only person left on the terrace. As a foil for each other Vivian's darkness next to Michele's flame was pretty much as good as it could get, Scott observed. Then his full attention had welded on Vivian's transformation from wet and bedraggled to long and curvaceous, a seriously slinky siren which almost blew his edgy control to bits.She was wearing a figure-hugging strapless black tube of a dress that was nothing short of mind-stopping. F
A set of long fingers supported the golden jut of his jaw while one finger lay across the thin stretch of his mouth. And his dark eyes glittered."I don’t know what happened," she answered, keeping to her decision to play the whole incident down."If you’re lying to me I will find out," he warned her quietly. "Augustus staff is checking film footage as we speak. I saw you fall, and I believe you were pushed. I want to know who you think did that to you and why you believe that they did." "It could just have been an accident," Vivian sighed out. "I don’t understand why you are obsessing on it." For an answer he dipped his hand into his pocket and drew out his phone. She knew without having to ask that he was going to call Augustus and get the information he wanted from him."You are such a bully—put your phone away," she snapped, adding another sigh of weary surrender this time when he continued to hold the phone at the ready, eyes fixed like stubborn black lasers on her pale face."I
Her reward was a lusty masculine growl that excited her dreadfully.Tightening his arms around her he lifted her up against him and fed her legs around his waist, then just stood there with her clamped against him, their parted mouths fused together and the intimacy taking place with their tongues a shattering mimic of something else he was doing to her.His hands were splayed across her silk-covered buttocks, the fiercely bold evidence of how he was feeling shocked and excited her in equal amounts. When she moved voluptuously against him she felt his shudder that blew the last of his common sense to bits.Turning to walk with her over to the bed, as they landed on the mattress in a tangle of clinging limbs, he pulled his head back. "What did you come here for?" he rasped out.Having to fight to try and understand the question, Vivian opened her eyes and just stared blankly up at him. His mouth was barely an inch away, his warm breath scoring her face. She could feel the pounding pump
"Scott," From the depths of some heavenly dream, Scott made a little moan of protest. From some dreams you never wanted to waken."Scott!"He felt himself stir inside her sweet, wet warmth. He was still asleep! He moved his body luxuriously against the soft, giving flesh which enfolded his. "Will you wake up?" Okay, he was awake, but the reality was even better than the dream. He smiled against her neck, realising that he was still inside her, and he began to grow hard once more, instinctively beginning to move. She fought desire. Fought her greedy wish to have him do it to her one more time, but, oh, it wasn’t easy. "Scott!" she said, as sternly as an irate school mistress. His eyes opened, taking in his surroundings with a sense of disbelief. Here. In bed with Vivian. In Vivian. He groaned as he withdrew, and looked down at her face, all rosy and glowing, dark eyes slitted by lids which were heavy and drowsy. She met his impassive gaze and in that moment she felt a million mil
She touched his eyelids with her fingertip. Then his nose and his lips, as if discovering his beautiful face, even while their bodies were joined so intimately, and she was filled with warmth and an unbearable longing."It’s yes," she choked. "You know it’s yes!" For how could it ever be anything else?—------------A sound awoke Vivian as the quiet light of dawn was drifting in through the window. She continued to lie there for a few seconds, grappling to make sense of her unfamiliar surroundings, then she remembered and her heart gave a thump.Twisting her head on the pillow she saw that the place beside her in the bed was empty, and she sat up with a jerk, a hand going up to push her tumbled hair from her face. The sound came again and she focused on Scott, who was standing with his back to her on the other side of the room.He was already dressed in one of the dark business suits he favored, and was snapping his paper-thin watch to his wrist. He looked so breathtakingly handsome
"I do not care what you did not mean! I do not care that you feel guilty now that you’ve had me in this bed! I gave myself to you willingly and freely. It is you who finds this a shameful thing, not me!" Standing rigid with shock, he looked as if he’d been turned into rock, and Vivian decided she’d had taken enough of this. With an infuriatingly uncontrollable sob, she coiled her fingers around the sheet and snaked off the bed, dragging the sheet with her as she went."Vivian…""No," she husked out. "Don’t speak another word to me. I hate you. I will hate you forever." Those black feelings vented, she ran into his bathroom and slammed the door shut, then just sank in a puddle of white linen to the floor.She had wanted this job so badly. Well, she had gotten a chance and blown it away, for where had her sense of honor been when she had lusted after Scott McCall? Where was it in recognising that she had just turned into a person she had never thought she would ever turn into. And she
“I…” She hesitated, shrugged a shoulder and started again. “I can cook if you have something in the kitchen.” She said. Scott burst into laughter. “You can cook?” Dubious, he scanned her beautiful hair, gown and shoes. “In that? Impossible!”Jennifer snorted. “You’re not starting off this truce thing well. And yes, I can cook.”If he hadn’t been watching her so closely, he might’ve missed the flash of insecurity that was there and gone in an instant.“Show me to the kitchen? That is, if you don’t mind me…?”“No, this I have to see for myself,” he assured her, and strode past her toward the room he rarely used. His housekeeper often prepared dinners for him that she left warming in the stove. So the pantry and refrigerator should both be stocked. “I’ll even supply you with clothes so you don’t get anything on your dress. See how accommodating I am?”“Until tomorrow,” Jennifer added from behind him.“Until tomorrow,” he agreed.—---------“I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t tast