The Groom's Revenge

But Aidan’s hands came out swiftly, fastening onto her arms, hard fingers digging painfully into soft flesh as he easily controlled her impulse to escape. Unable to move, she could only turn her head away—anything to avoid looking into his eyes.

‘And you’ll listen,’ he growled into her stubbornly averted face. ‘You’ll hear what I have to say if I have to shake every damned word into you.’

Suiting action to the words, he gave her a rough shake. Not violent, but controlled just enough to let her know what it would be like if his temper finally broke free from the constraint he was imposing on it.

‘Yes, I wanted you—’

‘For sex,’ India couldn’t stop herself from inserting, and out of the corner of her eye saw the hard nod of his head that confirmed her words.

‘I’ve never denied that. I’d be a fool to try. I’ve only got to look at you to want you—and even the knowledge that you’re nothing but a cheap, money-grabbing little bloodsucker isn’t enough to change the way I feel, unfortunately. I wish it was. But you got one thing wrong.’

‘No...’

The protest escaped involuntarily, India’s head going back in shock as her mind focused on and fully registered just what he had said. I’ve only got to look at you to want you. Present tense—not past.

‘No!’ She didn’t want him to say it, didn’t want to hear her fears confirmed.

‘Yes.’

His smile was hateful, curling his lips in acknowledgement of the way that the sudden darkening of her eyes told him she had guessed what was coming.

‘Oh, yes, my darling Princess. You got one thing totally and unequivocally wrong, and that one thing makes all the difference. You can say that I got what I wanted and, in a way, I did. But I didn’t get enough of it—nowhere near enough.’

Hopelessly, desperately, India shook her head, her hands coming up before her face as if she could actually ward off what he was saying. But Aidan ignored her and ploughed on ruthlessly.

‘I never grew tired of you—not in that way at least. I wanted you in my bed then, wanted you with a need so sharp it hurts just to think of it, and I want you now. In fact, I want you more than ever, and nothing that’s happened has done anything to change that.’

CHAPTER FOUR

‘I DIDN’T get enough—nowhere near enough.’

Aidan’s harsh-voiced declaration swung round and round in India’s head, gaining further devastating impact with each repetition. It almost seemed as if a grenade had just exploded right in her face, blasting her thought processes to bits.

The only thing she could see was Aidan’s eyes, ebony-dark, no light in them at all, holding her stunned gaze with a powerfully mesmeric force.

‘I never got enough of you,’ he conferred, dropping his voice even lower, so that it seemed to coil round her beleaguered senses like thick, warm smoke. ‘Not then, my lovely, and certainly not now.’

Inwardly, India shivered at the huskily sensual promise in his voice. Or did she mean threat? Right now, she neither knew nor cared. But then a new thought struck with stunning force, making her pull herself up sharply.

This was exactly what he wanted, she realised. He had set out deliberately to throw her off balance, and she had responded exactly as he had planned. If she showed fear or reacted nervously then he had won, or at least gained a very powerful advantage—and she was damned if she was going to let him get away with that!

Swallowing hard, she moistened dry lips with her tongue, and when she saw his dark-eyed gaze drop down to follow the tiny movement she deliberately made herself repeat it, more slowly this time. The change in pace turned the gesture into a lazily lascivious self-caress, like the sensuous reaction of a cat that had just cleared a saucer of cream, and she knew its impact wasn’t lost on the man before her.

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