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‘I’m sorry, okay? It’s just that nothing in this world comes for free. And I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.’
Slowly, he rose to his feet. ‘Very well, then. What are you offering in return for my generosity?’
Her eyes goggled. ‘What?’
He laughed. Low, deep, and so sexy she wanted to slap her own face to restore her fast-fleeing sanity. And wouldn’t that be hilarious in the extreme?
‘You’re such a sexy little contradiction…aren’t you,tesoro? You insist nothing in life comes for free, and therefore expect to pay a toll, and yet when I suggest you do so you look shocked. Even before I’ve made—for all you know—the most benign of requests.’
Sexy.The word ricocheted in her head, setting off little fireworks throughout her body until she was once more—dammit—a mass of seething need.
‘You’re suggesting I’m wrong?’ she asked.
‘I’m suggesting you don’t jump the gun so enthusiastically.’
‘Fine. What do you want, then?’ she asked, unable to contain the breathless hitch in her voice.
He pinned her with his gaze as he slowly walked towards her. ‘Three things. You ride with me every morning. When I have to tour the country by train before autumn sets in you and Max will come too. And for the next year when duty requires that I travel you’ll both come with me.’
Her eyes widened. ‘That’s it?’
One corner of his mouth lifted in amusement. ‘What did you think? That I would demand payment in flesh?’
A flush engulfed her face, and her body reacted predictably to the rising heat in his eyes. ‘It isn’t out of the realm of possibility…’
‘Because I’m a red-blooded male and you’re a beautiful woman?’
She couldn’t stop the punch of pleasure and heat at his compliment, but she pressed her lips together to stop herself from blurting out theyesthat rushed to the tip of her tongue.
He was continuing anyway. ‘That may be true—and, yes, I’m aware our chemistry still blazes hard and true—but I’ve never bartered for sex,querida, and I’m not about to start. Especially with my wife. When you come to my bed it’ll be of your own free will.’
‘When?You’re that sure of yourself?’
‘When you can’t get through a conversation with me without staring at my mouth and my body…wondering or trying to recollect what came between us and squirming with consuming need which you stoically attempt to throttle? Yes,mi linda. I do believe it’s just a matter of time before you succumb.’
Her laugh emerged husky, and not at all as carefree as she’d hoped for. ‘I’m almost tempted to bet everything I own on that never happening.’
His nostrils flared in a blatantly masculine scenting that made her pulse race faster.
‘A wise choice not to—since I’m certain you will lose.’
‘If this is some reverse psychology thing—’
‘It’s a stating facts thing. And in the short term, when it happens it entirely up to you. But take this with you when you flounce away, as I’m sure you’re about to. It’s only a matter of time before you’re naked on all fours, with all that exquisite hair coiled in rope around my wrist to hold you still as I drive into you.’
She’d half expected him to argue with her when she came out here. Instead she was drowning in a storm of licentiousness when he leaned down and brushed a shockingly platonic kiss on her cheek.
‘Now, are you joining us for breakfast?’
‘I… I don’t think I have an appetite.’
‘Have a good day, then,cara. I look forward to our first ride together in the morning. And the many rides to come after that.’
CHAPTER NINE
SHE REALLY SHOULDN’Thave been so thrilled at the turn of events.
For starters, she suspected her mother’s next call, a mere twenty-four hours later—‘just to see how you are’—had been part of the grand scheme that came with Azar’s gift.