Miranda Lee – Seduction: The Billionaire's Bride of Vengeance (страница 12)
Nicole still couldn’t find her tongue, but she did manage to shake her head in the negative.
The satisfaction in his eyes was both flattering and frightening. ‘Then I’m free to tell you that seeing you again tonight has done nothing to lessen my interest. In fact I want you more than I’ve wanted any woman before in my life.’
The passion in his voice, and in his eyes, both dazzled and dazed her.
‘You take my breath away,’ he ground out, cupping her chin firmly with his right hand and lifting her mouth up towards his rapidly descending lips.
His kiss was not gentle. But she loved it, wallowing in the bruising force of his lips and the savage invasion of his tongue.
If he’d stopped within a decent span of time, she might have had some common sense left. But he went on and on, draining her of the rest of her will, pushing her beyond any thought of where this would end, beyond everything but the need to keep on being kissed by him.
His wrenching his lips from hers brought a soft cry of dismay.
Russell stared down at her parted lips and dilated eyes and wondered if this was all for real—for
Her surrender seemed amazingly quick, as though she was possessed by the same mad passion which had governed both his lust-filled words earlier and his kisses just now. But it didn’t seem logical that the coolly composed creature he’d met the other day would suddenly turn into a wanton.
Of course, party girls like her did live a pretty fast life. For all he knew, she could be on something tonight, some recreational drug which had lessened her inhibitions and heightened her appetite. Or maybe she’d imbibed too much of the top champagne James had had flown in from France for his wedding; a few glasses of that could make a girl very amenable to a man’s advances.
On the other hand, maybe she’d had some time to think about her changed circumstances since arriving back in Sydney. Maybe she’d decided that Daddy’s lessened wealth might not last forever and she would need a new gravy train if she wanted to continue the good life.
Which meant this show might not be for him, Russell McClain, the man … but for Russell McClain, the potential billionaire.
Perversely, Russell no longer cared what her motivation was for looking up at him as if she couldn’t wait to go to bed with him. All he cared about right at that moment was where she would be before this night was out. He’d never felt anything like the arousal he was feeling right now. His flesh had moved beyond pleasure and into the realms of sheer and utter pain.
‘So there you are!’
Russell suppressed a groan at the arrival of the plump brunette Nicole had been sitting next to inside.
‘I was wondering where you’d got to,’ the girl added, her eyes avid as they flitted from one to the other. ‘Have I interrupted something, sweetie?’ she directed at Nicole. ‘If so, please just say so and I’ll go. I’m nothing if not discreet.’
Nicole blushed furiously, surprising Russell. It was hard to fake a blush. There again, it could be a blush of guilt.
‘Nicole and I are just leaving,’ he stated firmly.
The brunette seemed startled but not displeased.
‘Would you mind, Kara?’ Nicole said, still looking faintly embarrassed.
‘Of course not. Off you go and have some fun. I’ll leave a key to the back door in the usual spot. But I won’t fret if you don’t use it. If your bed’s still empty in the morning, I’ll tell Mother you’ve gone out on a breakfast date with a handsome hunk you met at the wedding. Nice to finally meet you, Mr McClain.’
She flashed him a saucy little smile, making him wonder what Nicole had said about him to her.
Obviously something.
By this time, Russell and Nicole weren’t alone on the deck, several more people having made their way outside.
‘Come on,’ Russell said, sliding a captive arm around her waist and guiding her along the deck towards a set of steps which would take them down to the car park.
‘Where … where are we going?’ she asked breathlessly as he hurried her towards his car.
‘Not to a club, that’s for sure.’ Or to his apartment, despite it being the closer of his two current residences. He’d moved a few things into the Belleview Hill mansion yesterday and slept in Alistair Power’s king-sized bed for the first time last night. Once again, however, the experience had lacked the feeling of satisfaction he’d been anticipating.
Russell could see, however, that sleeping there tonight with his enemy’s daughter by his side would be a whole different ball game. Now,
He zapped the car unlocked, reefed open the passenger door and had her inside in record time.
‘This is crazy,’ she said after he’d climbed in behind the wheel. ‘We hardly know each other.’ And she shot him an oddly fearful look which didn’t compute with her being drunk, or drugged, or directed by materialistic ambition.
She seemed genuinely alarmed at her own behaviour, which was as puzzling as it was a possible problem. Russell didn’t want her having second thoughts at this stage.
He shoved the key in the ignition, then leant over the gear stick to take her face in his hands once more.
‘What is there to know but this?’ he murmured, and kissed her again. Softly this time and seductively, savouring the low moan of surrender she made when her lips flowered open under his.
Now that he had her where he wanted her, Russell wasn’t about to let her get away. He pressed her hard against the leather seat and kept on kissing her, at the same time letting his right hand slide slowly down her neck till it reached the valley between her breasts.
Once there, he quite deliberately lifted his mouth away so that he could watch her eyes when his hand moved underneath her dress and over her naked breast. He wanted to see her reaction, wanted to watch for signs of anything fake.
Not that it really mattered. If she was pretending desire for the sake of greed, then the outcome would not change: he would still bed her tonight.
But having Nicole Power mindless with desire for him would be an added bonus. How ironic would that be? How brilliantly satisfying!
His hand moved and her eyes flung wide open, her back stiffening when his fingers found their goal.
Her nipple was hard, like a river pebble.
‘No, don’t,’ she whimpered when he rolled it round and round with his fingertips.
He ignored her feeble protest and kept doing it till her mouth gasped open and her eyes glazed over. At that point he pushed the silky green material aside to totally expose her breast, then bent his head to put his mouth where his fingertips had been.
Her practically jackknifing from the seat told Russell all he needed to know. There was absolutely no pretence in her responses. She was his, to do with as he pleased. His to explore and exploit. His to win and maybe even to wed.
Did he want to go that far? Did he want to see her walk down the aisle in white the way Megan had that day? Did he want to see blind adoration in her eyes as well as the mindless desire he’d just glimpsed in her beautiful green eyes?
There was only one answer to those questions.
An unequivocal yes.
CHAPTER NINE
NICOLE squeezed her eyes tightly shut against the sensations bombarding her body.
Oh, yes, she thought wildly when he sucked harder on her nipple.
Her hands closed into tightly balled fists by the sides of the seat, her bag having long slipped out of her grasp. She pressed her back against the leather and lifted her chest higher for him, inviting his mouth to take in more of her breast.
His sudden desertion dragged a groan from deep in her throat, her eyelashes fluttering open to stare up into the darkly silhouetted face looming over her.
‘As much as I’d like to ravage you right here and now,’ he said thickly, ‘ I think it best that we wait till I get you home.’
A stunned Nicole just sat there as he returned to the driver’s seat and started up the engine, several seconds passing before she realised her left breast was totally exposed, its peaked nipple still glistening with his saliva.
‘Leave it like that,’ he growled when her hand moved to cover herself up.
‘I … I can’t,’ she said, shocked by the suggestion. ‘Someone might see me.’ And she quickly pulled her dress back into place.
‘As you wish, beautiful,’ he said as he sped off.
Nicole’s eyes darted across to the man behind the wheel, her gaze landing on his hands first. Big they were, and strong.
What she wished was that they were on her body again. His mouth, too, on her breasts and between her legs.
Nicole shuddered at how thrilling she found that thought. How thrilling she found him, wickedly thrilling.
Oh, yes, he was wicked all right.
But oh, so passionate. The things he’d said to her back at the yacht club, the things he’d done to her just now in this car …
She was still thinking about those things when his car zoomed down into the harbour tunnel and she realised where he was taking her: to her old home in Belleview Hill. But now it had become his, for twenty million dollars …