LITMIR.BIZ

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      ‘So that’s why your housekeeper had to twist your arm to do your bit for charity?’ she said. ‘To convince you to help someone a little less fortunate than yourself? Yeah, I can totally see how grateful you are.’

      He had the grace to look a little uncomfortable. ‘Okay, so you weren’t my first choice as a charity, but I give to other causes. Generously, too.’

      ‘Anyone can sign a cheque,’ Holly said. ‘It takes guts to get your hands dirty. To actually physically help someone out of the gutter.’

      ‘Is that where you were?’

      She challenged him with her gaze. ‘What do you think?’

      He held her look for another pulsing moment. ‘Look, I’m sorry we got off to a bad start. Maybe we could start over.’

      ‘I don’t think so,’ Holly said. ‘You’ve already made your mind up about me. It’s what people like you do. You make snap judgements. You judge people on appearances without taking the time to get to know them.’

      ‘I’m taking the time now,’ Julius said. ‘Tell me about you.’

      ‘Why should I?’

      ‘Because I’m interested.’

      ‘You’re not interested in me as a person,’ Holly said as she checked the oven where she had put the galantine of chicken earlier. ‘You just want me out of here because I make you feel uncomfortable.’

      ‘That was your intention, wasn’t it?’

      Holly closed the oven door and faced him. ‘You want to know about me? I’m twenty-five years old. I had my first kiss at thirteen and my first sex partner at sixteen. I left school at seventeen without finishing my education. I have no qualifications. I speak two languages, English and Spanish—three, if you count sarcasm. I don’t drink. I don’t do drugs. I hate controlling men and I have issues with authority. That’s about it.’

      He glanced at the vegetable dish she had prepared. ‘You told me you couldn’t cook.’

      ‘So I lied.’

      ‘Why?’

      Holly gave a lip-shrug. ‘Felt like it.’

      He came over to where she was standing. He stopped within touching distance but kept his hands by his sides. Even so, she could feel the magnetic pull of his body against hers. It was like a force field of energy. Strong. Powerful. Irresistible.

      She glanced at his mouth, wondering if he was going to lean in to kiss her. She suddenly realised how much she wanted him to. Not to prove her point; somehow that agenda had taken a back seat, so far back it was now in the boot. No, she wanted him to kiss her because she really wanted to know what his mouth felt like. How it would feel as it moved over hers. How it would taste. How his tongue would feel as it stroked along hers. Mated with hers.

      Then he did touch her. It was a fleeting stroke of two of his fingers down the slope of her cheek in a movement as soft as an artist’s sable brush. It sent a shockwave through her senses. Every nerve in her face began tingling, spiralling in dizzy delight. She moistened her lips, barely aware she was doing it until she saw the way his sexily hooded gaze followed the pathway of her tongue.

      Holly slowly brought her gaze back up to the midnight-sky-dark intensity of his. His expression was unfathomable. She didn’t know what he was thinking. What he was feeling. She was scarcely able to think clearly herself. And as to her feelings... She didn’t allow her feelings to get involved when she got physical with a man. Never.

      ‘Who are you, Holly Perez, and what do you want?’

      ‘I really should’ve made you lay down some money,’ she said.

      ‘You think I’m going to kiss you?’

      ‘You’re thinking about it—that much I do know.’ Why am I speaking in such a husky whisper? Holly thought. Anyone would think she was falling under some sort of crazy spell. Sure, he was handsome and he smelled good. Way too good, compared to some of the men she’d been up close and personal with. But he was a man who wanted to tame her and that she could never allow. Not in a million years.

      His mouth tilted in a half smile. ‘You think you can read my mind?’

      ‘I don’t know about your mind but your body’s giving off one heck of a signal,’ she said.

      ‘So is yours.’

      Tell me something I don’t already know, Holly thought, sneaking in a hitching breath. Somehow the power base between them had shifted. She was no longer in charge of her body. It was reacting according to its own schedule, a schedule she had no control over. Her senses were scrambled. Caught up in a maelstrom of feelings she had never encountered before. Desire was running like a hot fever in her blood. She could feel her own wetness between her legs. She wondered if he could smell the musk of her arousal. She could feel the tingling of her breasts in anticipation of him reaching for them. As it was, his chest was barely half an inch away from hers.

      In the past her breasts had felt nothing when a man stood close to her. They were just there—part of her anatomy. Now they were deeply sensitive erogenous zones that craved contact. They pushed against the fabric of her bra, swelling in need, her nipples peaking in response to his presence.

      She could even sense the swell of his erection close to where her pelvis pulsed with need. The hot, hard, swollen heat of him was sending out a signal like sonar to her body, making her ache and throb with want.

      ‘I would only sleep with you to prove a point,’ Holly said in a way she hoped sounded offhand. ‘Sorry if that offends your ego.’

      He picked up one of her curls and wound it around his index finger. The gentle tug on her scalp sent a shot of lust between her legs, turning her core to molten fire. His eyes were so dark they reminded her of deep outer space. Limitless. Fathomless. ‘It doesn’t, because we’re not going to sleep together.’ His voice was only slightly less husky than hers.

      ‘Could’ve fooled me.’

      He pressed the pad of his thumb against her lower lip, holding it there for a moment before lifting it away. But still he didn’t move away from her. His body was toe to toe with hers. If she leaned forward a fraction, their thighs would touch. The temptation to do so was like an invisible hand pushing her from behind. She brushed against the unmistakable hardness of him. Felt the shock through her flesh like a powerful current. It shot through her body in an arc of erotic energy that left no part of her unaffected. She saw the way his pupils flared, his eyes darkening, pulsing and glinting with want.

      ‘You want me so bad I bet all it would take is one little kitten-lick of my tongue to send you over the edge,’ Holly said, shocking herself at her wanton goading of him. Why was she being so utterly brazen? He had the edge on her here. He had already told her he would evict her from the programme. That had been his intention when he’d come down to speak to her. She would be sent to prison. She had no second chances. If she pushed him too far, he would get rid of her. Wasn’t that what everyone did to her? She knew what was at risk but even so she couldn’t stop herself. She was driven by the urges of her body—her traitorous body—which seemed to have developed an agenda of its own.

      Julius sent a fingertip from the top of her cleavage, down the length of her sternum, over her quivering belly and then down to the zip of her jeans. He outlined the seam of her body through the denim and metal teeth of her zip, all the while holding her gaze with the smouldering blaze of his own. ‘I bet I could make you come first,’ he said in a two-parts gravel, one-part honey tone.

      Holly almost came on the spot. She felt the flickering of her nerve endings, the swelling of her body as it ached and throbbed for more stimulation. She had to get away from him before he won this. He had far more self-control than she had bargained for and certainly far more than she had. What was he...made of steel?

      ‘I could be faking it and how would you know?’ she

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