Claiming His Convenient Fiancée. Natalie AndersonЧитать онлайн книгу.
desired for his guests to get the idea it was time for them to leave. Admittedly his parties usually went on far later, but he needed to be alone with the vexatious redhead who’d tipped his night upside down. So he smiled, firmly shooting down the teasing pleas for the DJ to play on.
Finally he closed the door on the last couple of guests, who were still shocked and avidly curious. Yeah, that ‘friend’ of Catriona’s hadn’t kept her mouth shut. But he’d known she wouldn’t. They’d all known that.
Rolling his shoulders to ease the tension mounting in them, he lightly jogged up the stairs. His smile was tight. She was going to be furious with him for taking so long. But when he unlocked the door he wasn’t greeted with the instant volley of verbal abuse he’d expected. His breath froze in his lungs at the total silence in the room. Had she escaped somehow? He strode into the library then drew up short—the sight before him rendered him speechless. He simply stared.
She was fast asleep on the sofa, her body a sleek, long shadow of woman. Her skin shone pale in the soft light, but her hair was a riot of flames cascading about her face and shoulders. God, she was beautiful. Different. Sexy as hell.
Desire ripped through him—igniting a fierce animal urge to wake her, kiss her, claim her body with his, here and now. The longing to feel her beneath him was sudden and acute. He clenched his fists at the ferocity of the ache and forced himself to take a calming breath.
No. No.
He never wanted any woman as intensely as all that. He never felt anything as intensely as all that. He refused. He had reason to.
He breathed deeply again and reminded himself of his rational decisions. He hadn’t been going to make her stay the night—despite the teasing and the incredibly erotic pleasure of her kiss. He’d been planning to get to the bottom of the necklace situation and then say goodbye to her, hadn’t he?
But now here she was with her shoes off, fast asleep on the old sofa. He guessed it wasn’t the first time she’d slept on it.
He frowned as he quietly stepped closer to study her. He hadn’t seen just how pale she was earlier, or noticed those smudges under her eyes. She looked exhausted.
‘Catriona?’ he softly called to her. ‘Kitty?’
She didn’t stir. He’d known she wouldn’t. She was in too deep a sleep. Something twisted inside Alejandro as he understood how vulnerable she was in this moment and the degree to which he was entrusted with her care. An icy droplet snaked down his spine. This was a complication he hadn’t foreseen and didn’t particularly want. Maintaining the care and wellbeing of another was not his forte. But he fetched a blanket from his room and covered her to make her more comfortable until she woke of her own accord. He hoped she would soon.
He sat in the large armchair opposite the sofa and pulled the necklace from his pocket to inspect it properly in the lamplight. It was definitely worth serious money and she’d risked a lot to get it back. But it wasn’t hers.
Over the years, so many of those wealthy people he’d studied alongside had annoyed him when they’d shown a lack of appreciation of how damn lucky they were. He’d never taken his success or his security for granted. How could he when he’d come from worse than nothing? So he’d worked harder than any of them. Ensured his grades were the best. Swinging from one scholarship to the next, climbing higher and higher out of a life of poverty, misery, desperation. And his ‘party lifestyle’ that claimed all the headlines was but a tiny fraction of his time. The rest was spent working. Still working. Still achieving. Still ensuring success. And now a spoilt young woman had waltzed in to reclaim—what—her inheritance? The wealth she’d never had to earn for herself.
She’d been brazen and bold in her initial dismissal of him, outrageous in the reckless way she’d back-chatted him, and he’d fully planned to teach her a thing or two. Except he’d then heard the tone in which that other woman had spoken to her and there’d been no mistaking it. He hated bullies—whether they were the kind who used vicious words or the violent fists he’d experienced. So he hadn’t shamed her publicly. He’d backed her and there’d been no missing the bright relief in her eyes. But then her nerve in the private courtyard when she’d insisted it was all his fault? When he’d given in to that urge to kiss her?
He glanced at his Sleeping Beauty again—remembering the softness of her lips, the stirring in her muscles...the spark. He couldn’t regret that—no matter the complication that now arose.
But now he was stuck with the story that she and he were engaged. He’d smiled his way through the shocked shouts of congratulations from every one of his guests as he’d ushered them out. He’d explained that Catriona had been overwhelmed by the attention and that they’d have another party soon. It was ridiculous but he hadn’t been able to find it within himself to reveal the truth. He’d seen that vulnerability when she’d looked at him. He’d seen that hurt. It echoed within him. Didn’t he know what it was like to be that isolated? And afraid.
She was a contrary mix of assertiveness and insecurity, a bit broken but bluffing anyway. He liked that spirit. And he wanted her.
Well, if he was going to have her, he was going to have to play it carefully. She obviously wasn’t someone who went from affair to affair.
He felt the vibration again and quietly extracted her phone from his pocket. He didn’t want to wake her yet, not when she was so obviously wiped out, but it seemed someone was concerned for her welfare. The name ‘Teddy’ was written across the screen and the photo beneath the lettering was of the two of them. The resemblance was impossible to miss. The man was blond rather than red-haired, but he shared the same smile, the same shaped eyes. He had to be her brother.
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