LITMIR.BIZ

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It was disconcerting to feel for the first time as if she was on the back foot.

      ‘It’s lovely.’

      Wide open French doors led out to the beach. Lia explored a little and her feet sank into deliciously warm and soft sand. The waves of the Atlantic lapped gently and rhythmically against the shore. In spite of herself, something inside her loosened. It had been so long since she’d just...relaxed. Her father’s weak health was such a worry, and he depended on her so much...

      ‘Careful,’ drawled Benjamin Carter, from too close, ‘or I might think you like it here.’

      Immediately any sense of relaxation went out of the window and Lia glared at his back as he led her inside again, through a central open courtyard with a pool that was shaded by palm trees.

      He showed her a large kitchen, gleamingly pristine with sparkling utensils and a marble worktop. Placing his hands on the counter, where they looked very large and tanned, he said, ‘This is Esmé’s domain. She’s my local housekeeper and chef. She takes care of the place when I’m not here and opens it up for me. She’ll be in later to cook dinner.’

      Lia dragged her gaze up from those hands and ignored the illicit flutter in her abdomen at the sudden image of a romantic candlelit dinner on the beach. She was silent as she followed him through the villa again and upstairs. Several bedrooms lay off a wide corridor there, with a luxurious runner carpet, and then he walked across a balconied atrium. He opened a door and said, ‘This is your room.’

      She looked at him suspiciously, and he said with a wide-eyed innocence that she didn’t trust for a second, ‘What? Did you not think I would be civilised enough to give you your own room? I’ve told you already—whatever happens will be mutual.’

      Lia slipped into the room before he could see her discomfiture. She wasn’t used to men being so...up-front. And on some level she wasn’t sure what she’d expected. One thing she had to admit was that she felt in no danger at all. Her prevailing feeling was that any danger would come from her own reactions.

      She dropped her shoes to the floor and walked over to where huge open doors led out to a balcony that looked out on the beach and the sea, just yards away. It was stunning. Just then a small bird flew past, with an iridescent flash of exotic colours. She realised with a sense of irony that the man wouldn’t have to resort to any kind of force—this place could seduce a woman all on its own.

      When she turned around he gestured. ‘There’s an en suite bathroom through there, and a dressing room.’

      Curious, Lia looked into the massive bathroom. It was gorgeous—with a wet room shower and a huge claw-footed bath. A very feminine part of her sighed in appreciation.

      And then through an adjoining door she saw what must be the dressing room. She walked in and gasped when she saw that it was full of clothes, all brand-new, with designer tags still dangling from the expensive fabrics.

      Other doors that led back to the main bedroom were pulled open and Benjamin Carter leant nonchalantly against the doorframe, with a faint smile on his face that smacked irritatingly of a man watching a woman having the desired reaction when she saw a closet full of beautiful clothes.

      She folded her arms and narrowed her eyes on him, bristling at that look. ‘So this is your seduction routine for the women you bring here? Frankly, it takes more than a closet full of expensive clothes to get my interest. I’m not that shallow or spoilt—no matter what you might believe.’

      Something flashed in his eyes and for a second Lia thought he’d taken offence. He didn’t move, but she could sense his tension.

      ‘Actually, I’ve never brought a woman here before. But I do loan the villa to friends and business acquaintances. I keep the two master suites stocked with clothes because the nearest boutique is in Salvador. A stylist I employ checks the stock after each visit and removes the clothes that have been worn, which are then given to a local charity.’

      Lia felt ashamed of her quick judgement. This wasn’t like her... But he pushed her buttons like no one else. And had he really never brought a woman here? She tried to read his now expressionless face and had to admit that a man like him wouldn’t lie about that. Why would he need to?

      The realisation that it must be some sort of sanctuary for him made her feel even more vulnerable. She weakly chose deflection to avoid acknowledging the revelation that she was the first woman he’d brought here.

      ‘Well,’ she said stiffly, ‘that’s very generous of you, but I’ve brought my own clothes.’ She belatedly realised that her autumn/winter clothes would obviously be totally unsuitable in this climate.

      Ben straightened from the door now, and for the first time since she’d met him Lia sensed a slight chill in the air. Contrary to the way she would have expected to feel, she didn’t like it.

      He glanced at his watch. ‘It’s my first time here this year, so I have a few maintenance things to catch up on. Make yourself at home. There’s plenty of food in the kitchen if you’d like a snack. And you’ve seen where the beach is—it’s entirely private, so you won’t be disturbed.’

      And then he turned to walk out. A veritable cauldron of emotions rendered Lia immobile and speechless for a moment as she watched him leave. There was anger that he’d all but kidnapped her, but that was fading in light of these all too seductive surroundings and the fact that he was giving her space.

      And then she castigated herself for being so easily duped—because he had to have an agenda. And she needed to remember that. Because something was shifting, and if she wasn’t careful she’d be falling under a spell she might not be able to resist.

      She hurried to the door of the bedroom in her bare feet and saw his broad back descending the stairs. ‘If this is all just to get to my father then you might as well send me back to New York right now,’ she blurted out. ‘Because I would never let someone seduce me to get to him.’

      * * *

      Ben stopped in his tracks. Frustration still coursed through his blood. Never had a woman so comprehensively stonewalled him. And certainly not one who wanted him. And never had a woman had such an obviously low opinion of him. To his utter chagrin, when usually he couldn’t care less what people thought of him, he found himself caring about her opinion.

      She looked at him as if he was something stuck on the bottom of her shoe, even as that pulse beat hectically under her skin at her neck, every time he came close.

      Slowly he turned around, jaw tight, teetering on the edge of telling her that he’d arrange for her to be taken back to Salvador, but then he saw her hovering by the doorway, and that compulsion died a death when he saw the expression on her face. There was still defiance, but there was also something he hadn’t seen before—a kind of wary uncertainty. A hint of vulnerability. It made him think of the fleeting look of hurt he thought he’d seen when he’d called her a princess. And the moment of sheer terror on her face when her friend had asked her to step in for the model at the charity auction.

      In bare feet, and still wearing that decadent dress which was badly creased by now, with her hair loose and mussed around her shoulders after the long journey, she looked more beautiful than anything he’d ever seen in his life.

      And he wanted her.

      Ben slowly came back up the stairs, seeing how her eyes widened. She was tense, too, and it wasn’t just from anger at his commandeering of this situation. She was tense because of him, because she wanted him, and suddenly Ben knew that there was no way he was letting her go.

      He stopped a few feet away from her. ‘I won’t stand here and insult your intelligence by denying that I have an interest in your father’s business...but right now I’m not concerned with that.’

      Ben was surprised to find that he really wasn’t. Right now all his interest was focused on one thing. Lia. And making her acquiesce to him.

      She swallowed and his eyes tracked the movement down the slim column of her throat.

      Finally

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