LITMIR.BIZ

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before. Lyall was kindergarten playtime compared to this man.

      His blue eyes narrowed as he watched her blindly obey him.

      His tortured groan shocked her, as did the way he reefed his finger out, as if she were a cobra, not a woman on the verge of becoming his sex slave.

      ‘Enough,’ he growled. ‘You are one contrary woman, Jessie Denton,’ he added. ‘You run hot and cold all the time. So what is it to be tonight? You decide. The restaurant, or my place?’

      Jessie was way beyond hypocrisy. She was as turned on as she knew he was. Any further delay would brand her a tease and she’d never been that.

      ‘Your place,’ she said, dropping her arms back to her sides as she took a step back from him.

      He didn’t reply, just grabbed her free hand and dragged her out to his car as if the hounds of hell were after them.

      ‘Belt up,’ he ordered as he fired the engine. ‘And no chit-chat. It’s not that far to my place at Balmoral but the traffic’s heavy going into the city. I need to concentrate.’

      Balmoral, she thought, her earlier dazed state slowly receding. An exclusive inner north-shore suburb with an equally exclusive beach. She’d been there once to a restaurant on its foreshores. Very up-market. Very pricy. After the recent housing boom, even the simplest apartment there would cost the earth.

      She couldn’t see Kane having a simple apartment. It would be a sleek bachelor pad with a view and jacuzzi. Or a penthouse, with a pool, leather furniture and a king-size animal-print-covered bed.

      She was wrong on both counts. First it was a house, not an apartment. Secondly, it wasn’t modern or overtly masculine. It was old—probably built in the thirties—with lots of art deco features and loads of antique furniture. The only thing she was right about was the water-view, which was magnificent from its site up on the side of a hill.

      ‘Did you live here with your wife?’ were Jessie’s first words after he had led her into the cosy front sitting room. Through the windows she could see the sea down below. And the lights of the restaurant she’d once visited.

      ‘No,’ he replied. ‘We had an apartment in town. I bought this when we separated. My parents live a couple of streets away. And my brother lives in the next suburb.’

      Jessie thought it was nice that he’d chosen to live so close to his family.

      ‘This is not what I expected,’ she said.

      He smiled. ‘I know. That’s one reason why I wanted to bring you here. Seeing for yourself is worth a thousand words. I keep telling you I’m not what you think, Jessie. Now, put that infernal bag down and come here…’

      Jessie sucked in sharply. She should have known he’d get right down to it, once they were alone. It was what she wanted too. Inside.

      But her earlier decision to come here and jump straight into bed with him had been easy when she was still in his arms, with his kisses still hot in her memory and his finger in her mouth. Not quite so easy standing here in his living room with the lights on and nothing but the sound of the sea in the background.

      He frowned at her when she didn’t move. ‘Don’t tell me you’re nervous. Or that you’ve changed your mind,’ he added darkly.

      ‘No. No, I haven’t changed my mind. But yes, I am nervous,’ she confessed shakily. ‘It’s been so long and I…’

      ‘How long?’ he broke in.

      Jessie was shocked when tears pricked at her eyes. Goodness, what was there to be crying about? ‘I…I haven’t been with a man since Lyall.’

      She was thankful that he didn’t act all surprised, or suspicious, over this statement of fact.

      ‘I see,’ he said simply, then smiled. A soft, almost loving smile. ‘That’s wonderful.’

      She was the one who was shocked. ‘Wonderful? What’s wonderful about it? I’ve probably forgotten how to do it!’

      He laughed. ‘You haven’t forgotten, sweetheart. You’re a natural. But if you have,’ he said as he walked forward and put her bag down for her, ‘you have me to show you how all over again. But my way. Not Lyall’s way, or any other man’s way.’

      ‘And what’s your way?’ she choked out as he took her hand and started leading her from the room.

      The look he threw over his shoulder sent shivers rippling down her spine. ‘The way which gives you the most pleasure, of course. I have a plan, as usual. But if at first I don’t succeed, then I’ll try, try again. You might be amazed at how many times I can make love in five hours.’

      ‘It…it’s already half past seven,’ Jessie blurted out, trying to stop herself from totally losing it. But dear heaven, he meant to make love to her for the whole five hours?

      ‘So I’ll be a little late getting you home,’ he said as he drew her through a doorway, switching on a light as he went. ‘I’m sure Dora will forgive me.’

      The room was, naturally, a bedroom. A huge bedroom with polished wooden floorboards, high ceilings, antique furniture and a wide brass bed covered in a silvery grey satin quilt with matching pillows. The lamps each side of the bed had brass bases with white shades and long fringes. The chandelier overhead was crystal and brass. Lace curtains covered the long windows on the wall adjacent to the bed. In the opposite wall was another door, which was open and led into an en suite bathroom. The light shone in just far enough for Jessie to see it was more modern than the rest of the house, being all white. Possibly a recent renovation.

      It was a beautiful bedroom, only the colour of the bedding betraying that a man slept here, and not a woman.

      Although, of course, women could have slept here. With Kane. His ex-wife perhaps. And others Kane had forgotten to mention.

      Jessie didn’t like that thought.

      ‘What’s wrong?’ Kane said immediately.

      ‘Nothing,’ she lied.

      ‘Come, now, Jessie, don’t lie to me. You looked at that bed and something not very nice came into your mind. What was it?’

      ‘I guess I didn’t like to think of you having been in there with other women.’

      ‘But I told you. There have been no other women since Natalie.’

      ‘What about Natalie?’

      ‘What about her?’

      ‘You slept with her recently. I know you did. I overheard both of you in the office the other day. I went to thank you for the book at lunch-time that day and you were discussing her pregnancy and she said you weren’t to worry, because it wasn’t yours.’

      Kane stared at her. ‘Why didn’t you say anything before this?’

      ‘I…I didn’t want to.’

      ‘You just kept it to yourself and held it against me. Hell, Jessie, I wish you’d said something.’

      ‘Would it have changed anything? You did sleep with her, didn’t you?’

      His grimace showed true anguish. ‘Look, it was three months ago and only the once. We’d met up in her flat the night our divorce papers came through. She’d offered to cook me dinner as a kind of celebration, to show there were no hard feelings. We had too many glasses of wine over dinner and she said how about it, for old times’ sake? If I hadn’t been drunk and lonely it would never have happened. I can’t tell you how much I regretted it afterwards. So did she, I think. It wasn’t even good sex. We were both plastered. I didn’t mention it because I didn’t want you to think I was one of those guys who get rid of their wives and then keep sleeping with them when they feel like a bit, as a lot do. I’m sorry, Jessie. I wasn’t trying to deceive you. I just wanted you to believe me when I said on that first Friday night that I wasn’t in the habit

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