LITMIR.BIZ

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heard her harsh intake of breath.

      “But for now,” he murmured, “I will start with a kiss.”

      Then he lowered his head to hers.

      He felt her soft, warm lips tremble against his own. For a single instant, her body stiffened in his arms. He felt her hands against his chest as she tried to push him away. He just wrapped his arms around her waist more firmly and held her tight, refusing to let go.

      Kissing her was even better than Gabriel had imagined.

      It was heaven.

      It was hell.

      With a shudder and a sigh she suddenly melted against him. He ruthlessly pushed her lips apart, teasing her with his tongue, plundering the warm heat of her mouth.

      His kiss became harder, more demanding, their embrace tighter beneath the white heat of the sun. Slowly, she responded. Her hands stopped pushing against his chest, and moved up to his neck, pulling him down to her. When she finally kissed him back, with a hunger that matched his own, a low growl rose in the back of his throat.

      He forgot their affair wasn’t real. He forgot the deal entirely. He felt only his masculine, animal need to have her, the need he’d denied himself for too long. Lust swarmed in his blood, pounding through his brain, demanding he take total possession of Laura in his bed.

      CHAPTER SIX

      THIS couldn’t be happening.

      Gabriel couldn’t be kissing her.

      But the part of Laura’s brain that was telling her to push away, push away now, was lost in the scorching fire of his embrace. As his lips moved against hers, mastering and guiding her, heat seared down her body like a hot jungle wind.

      Pleasure whipped through her, pleasure she’d felt only once in her life before. But this was even better than her memory. As they stood on the penthouse terrace, she grasped his open shirt, clinging for dear life. She felt the warmth of his body, the hardness of his muscled chest beneath his cotton tank top. His strong thighs in khaki shorts brushed like tree trunks against her legs. He towered over her, making her feel womanly and petite as he folded himself around her.

      The hot, hard feel of his lips seared hers, causing sparks to shoot down the length of her body. Her breasts felt suddenly heavy, her nipples taut. A fire of ache raced to her deepest core as tension coiled inside her. She felt the rough sandpaper of his chin against hers and breathed in his intoxicating scent of musk and spice. Her knees shook beneath her. Her world was spinning. Everything she’d wanted, everything she’d dreamed about for the past lonely year, and five years before that, was suddenly in her grasp.

      His hands stroked her back through her black dress.

      “Come to bed with me,” he whispered against her skin. Bed.

      She sucked in her breath as reason returned. He was seducing her. And so easily. She’d made the mistake of giving in to her desire for him once, and it had changed the course of her life. She couldn’t let it happen again. Never again.

      With a ragged gasp, she pulled away from his grasp. Breathing hard, she glared up at him. “You don’t seriously expect me to fall into bed with you after one practice kiss?”

      His half-lidded eyes were sultry with confidence—arrogance—and his sensual lips curved into a smile. “Yes. I had rather hoped you would.”

      “Forget it.”

      “It would make our pretend affair more believable.”

      “By turning it into a real one?” she whispered.

      He shrugged, even as the intensity of his gaze belied that casual gesture. “Why not?”

      The early afternoon was growing hot, the sun and humidity alleviated only by the cooling trade winds off the Atlantic and the Janeiro River, for which the city had been named. Laura took a deep breath of the fragrant, fresh air redolent of spices and tropical fruits. How many times had she prayed that by some miracle, Gabriel would come for her?

       I want you, Laura, more than any woman. I’ve always wanted you.

      She pushed aside her own longing. She couldn’t let herself want him. She couldn’t. She lifted her chin. “Thanks, but I’m not interested in a one-night stand.”

      His black eyes glowed like embers. “I don’t want a one-night stand.”

      She licked her suddenly dry lips. “You—you don’t?”

      He shook his head. “I want you to stay.”

      “You do?”

      “I’ve missed having you as my secretary. And,” he added, as she folded her arms furiously, “as my lover.” “Oh.” Her arms fell back to her sides. She whispered, “And Robby?”

      His jaw hardened as he looked away. “The two of you can live in the apartment below mine,” he said. “Your child need not inconvenience me at all.”

      Your child. Hot pride and anger rushed back to her, stiffening her spine. “You mean you will kindly overlook my baby in order to have me in Rio as your 24/7 employee and late-night booty call.”

      He stared at her, wide-eyed. Then he gave a sudden laugh. “I’ve missed you, Laura,” he said softly. “No one stands up to me like you do. You’re not afraid of me at all. You see right through me. I like that.”

      She jerked away from him, near tears and furious with herself. She couldn’t believe she’d let herself get seduced by his sweet kisses, not even for an instant. Absolutely nothing had changed. Gabriel didn’t want a wife or child. And for her, only a real family would do.

      “Sorry,” she said coldly. “But my days of being your work slave and casual late-night lover are over. Don’t you dare kiss me again.”

      But his hands only tightened on her. “I can and I will.”

      She exhaled in fury. “You have some arrogance to think—”

      Seizing her in his arms, he kissed her at once, roughly, hard enough to bruise. Showing mastery. Showing possession. And to her eternal shame, when his hot lips were against hers, she could not resist. She sagged in his arms—and kissed him back.

      “I want you, Laura,” he murmured against her skin when he finally pulled away. “And I will have you. If not this instant, then soon. Tonight.”

      She shoved her hands against his hard chest, his deliciously muscular, taut body beneath the tight cotton tank top…Maybe it hadn’t been so much a shove as a caress. Angry at herself, she stepped back from him, her cheeks hot. With more confidence than she felt, she said, “Not going to happen.”

      “We’ll see.” His voice held a smug masculine tone.

      “Our deal had nothing to do with sex.”

      “Correct.”

      “I don’t have to sleep with you.”

      He had the temerity to give her a sensual, heavy-lidded glance. “And yet you will.”

      “Ooh!” Clenching her hands into fists, she gave a little stomp of her heel and went back into the penthouse. She found her son still playing on the spotless floor in the kitchen as Maria washed the dishes.

      Gathering her baby in her arms, Laura took Robby into the living room and sat down in a new rocking chair by the wide windows overlooking the city. When Gabriel followed her, she glared at him, daring him to interrupt her time with her child. With a sardonic uplift of his brow, he just turned away, disappearing down the hall.

      For long moments, Laura held her baby. She fed him, rocking him to sleep, and suddenly felt like crying.

      She couldn’t let Gabriel seduce her. She could not. No matter how much her body craved his touch. No matter how her heart yearned.

      Because

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