The Playboy's Baby. Mary LyonsЧитать онлайн книгу.
its renovation in the hands of my ex-girlfriend—supposedly a top-notch professional decorator. The rest of the apartment is fine. So why she went so completely over the top in this room is completely beyond me.
‘Unfortunately,’ he added quickly as a mobile phone on the bar beside him gave an imperious buzz, ‘I simply haven’t been able to find the time to clear everything out and start again.’
While he was speaking rapidly into the phone, dealing with some urgent business matter which clearly required an immediate decision, Samantha became aware that the fog in her brain was slowly beginning to dissolve.
Sobering up fast, she realised that in accompanying Matt back here, to this luridly decorated apartment of his, she could have made a really bad, foolish mistake.
For one thing, it was never a good idea to try and recapture the past. Everyone knew that. So, why on earth had she allowed herself to be swept along on this tide of sudden, overwhelming lust and desire—which could so easily turn into nothing more than a highly embarrassing encounter?
Besides... this room was so awful, it seemed highly unlikely that a ‘top-notch’ interior designer would ever produce such a ghastly decorative scheme. Not unless the lady concerned had deliberately planned a not so subtle, bitter revenge against her ex-boyfriend.
Matt, as well as being a successful businessman, was clearly a bit of a playboy. He’d also admitted, in the restaurant, that he was definitely not into ‘commitment’. Which meant that it would be extremely unwise, Samantha told herself nervously, to get involved with someone who’d managed to provoke such a very ruthless, savage reaction from his discarded girlfriend.
So much water had flowed under the bridge since she’d first fallen head over heels in love with this man. Which had to mean that they were now two quite different people. Therefore, any idea that somehow time might have stood still—or that they could simply take up their relationship at the point where it had been broken off—was nothing more than total moonshine!
‘I’m sorry about that,’ Matt said as he finished his call, and tossed his mobile phone down on to a nearby chair. ‘I’ve turned the damned thing off—so we shouldn’t have any more interruptions,’ he added, walking across the room towards her.
‘This room has very good proportions,’ she observed nervously as he handed her a tall glass of champagne. ‘I mean... there must be many other good... er... good interior designers in New York. So, it shouldn’t be too hard to turn it into a... um... a comfortable home.’
Appalled to hear herself gabbling like an idiot, she took a quick sip of the deliciously cold, fizzy golden liquid—desperately trying to ignore the way her body was now responding with nervous, tingling excitement to the close proximity of his tall, lean figure.
If it were anyone else, she wouldn’t have a problem. It was just Matt and their past history together... which . must be the reason why she was suddenly feeling as jumpy as hell. So, the smart move must be to try to extricate herself from this tricky situation—as swiftly as possible.
‘Good heavens—just look at the time!’ she exclaimed shrilly, pointedly turning to glance at an ornate French clock, on a spindly side table. ‘I hadn’t realised it was quite so late. I... er... I really think that I should...’
‘I really think that you should calm down,’ he drawled smoothly, placing his glass down on the mantelpiece.
‘Nonsense! I’m perfectly calm,’ she snapped, utterly exhausted by the frantic pounding of her heart and yet, at the same time, feeling so desperately tense and on edge that it seemed as though she’d never again be able to relax.
But his only reply was a toe-curling, low rumble of laughter as he slipped an arm about her slender waist, deftly removing the tall champagne flute from her shaky fingers and placing it beside his own glass, before putting his other arm about her trembling body.
‘Relax, sweetheart!’ he murmured huskily, raising a hand to brush a stray lock of hair from her brow softly.
Shivering at the velvety touch of his fingers on her skin, which were now trailing slowly down over the long line of her neck, a rush of heat seemed to scorch through her veins, her stomach muscles clenching into a hard knot of feverish desire as he began pulling her closer to his tall figure.
Gazing helplessly up at him, she could see a muscle beating in his jaw, a slight flush on the high cheekbones beneath his tanned skin, with the glittering green eyes beneath their heavy lids now growing cloudy and opaque as he stared down at the trembling lips and the confused, troubled expression on her face.
‘I’m sorry, Matt. I...I know you must think that I’m an utter fool,’ she confessed in a husky, breathless voice. ‘But...’
‘On the contrary,’ he murmured thickly. ‘I think you’re sensationally attractive, and a very, very sexy lady.’
‘But, I shouldn’t have come back here, to your apartment It’s impossible to try and recapture the past,’ she protested. ‘Quite honestly, we...we could both be making a bad mistake.’
‘I’ve certainly made some wrong decisions in my life—but this definitely isn’t one of them,’ he told her flatly, the hard certainty in his voice sending shivers down her backbone.
‘No, you’re not thinking it through!’ she gasped.
He gave a low snort of derisory laughter. ‘I’m not interested in “thinking” about anything, at the moment. I just need to hold you...to feel you...’
‘Matt! This really isn’t a good idea,’ she muttered helplessly, aware that her body was denying her words of caution; that her swelling breasts and the visible hardening of her nipples were clearly signalling the rising tide of sensual need and passion, now sweeping through her trembling figure. But, quite unable to do anything about it, she could only gaze weakly up at the tanned face, now only inches away from her own.
‘Believe me, this is just about the only idea I’ve had since first setting eyes on you this afternoon.’
His deep, husky voice seemed to echo around the large room, time standing still as his arms slowly tightened about her.
And then, with sudden impatience, he pulled her hard up against his firmly muscled body, before lowering his dark head and possessing her lips in a long-drawn-out kiss of overwhelming sensuality.
At the first touch of his warm lips on hers, there could be no denying that this was what she had been both hungering for and yet, at the same time, fearing since first setting eyes on him this afternoon. She was powerless, totally unable to do anything other than eagerly respond to the mouth moving over her lips with insidious persuasion, gently forcing and probing them apart with a deeply erotic, seductive arousal that totally inflamed her senses.
Desperately attempting to cling on to some kind of sanity, Samantha felt as though she was helplessly caught up in the forceful tide which was pounding and rampaging through her body; betrayed by a deep compulsion to respond to her overwhelming need of him.
However, as his kiss deepened, it seemed as if some outside agency had suddenly pulled a switch—abruptly releasing a massive torrent of dangerous electricity, violently zigzagging like fork lightning through her body.
And, incredibly, it seemed as if the same explosive force of unstable, super-charged voltage was also sweeping like a flash-flood through his tall frame.
Totally gripped by an ancient, primitive force that was quite beyond either of them to control, all normal and civilised behaviour simply vanished into thin air. With their lips still firmly clasped together, he tore the clothes first from her body, and then his—all their garments being feverishly hurled aside as they wildly sought to satisfy their mutual, overwhelming need.
It was only when she became dimly aware of her naked form being roughly clasped to his bare chest, as he lowered her down on to the thick white rug in front of the fire, that she made a last, despairing attempt to cling on to sanity.
‘This is crazy...we