Love Islands: Passionate Nights. Louise FullerЧитать онлайн книгу.
mythical man who was kind and caring, waiting out there for her, had also got on his nerves.
His eyes slid lazily to her face and he watched her for a few seconds in silence until he could see the tide of pink creep into her cheeks. When she began to fidget, he allowed his eyes to drift a little lower, slowly taking in the jeans, the tee-shirt and the jut of her pert little breasts underneath.
‘So...’ he murmured, finding a slightly more comfortable position. ‘At least my woman hasn’t been screwing around behind my back...’
‘Since when am I your woman?’
‘I like you like this.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Unadorned. It’s sexy.’
Lucy went redder. She felt tell-tale moisture seep through her panties, felt an ache down there that throbbed and spread under the unhurried intensity of his gaze.
‘I told you, I’m not interested...’ But she could hear a wobble in her voice and the shadow of a smile that tugged his lips was telling. She straightened and gave herself a stern mental talking to. ‘I’m going to build a life for myself, Dio. A real life—no pretending, no having to talk to people I don’t want to talk to, no dressing up in clothes I don’t like wearing!’
‘Laudable.’ He cocked his head to one side. ‘So your plan is to continue your voluntary work here?’
‘Like I said, it isn’t all about money!’
‘But you never qualified as a teacher, did you?’
‘I will as soon as I can and the work I do here will be invaluable experience.’
‘The place is falling down,’ Dio pointed out. ‘You might want to devote your talent for teaching here but, frankly, I doubt this building will stay the course. You may not have noticed, but there’s a bad case of rising damp going on and I’d bet that the plumbing goes back to the Dark Ages.’
‘Mark is doing an excellent job of trying to raise funds.’
‘Really?’
Lucy didn’t say anything for a while and Dio nodded slowly, reading what she was reluctant to tell him.
In hard times, it was always difficult to get well-meaning individuals to part with their cash and certainly, if they were providing a service to the needy, then the parents of those needy children would just not have the cash to give anyway.
The building was collapsing around them and neither of them would be able to stall the inevitable.
‘I never knew you were so...engaged in wanting to do good for the community,’ he murmured truthfully. ‘And I’m willing to lend a hand here.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Lucy dragged her mind away from a brief picture of how her father would have reacted to what she was doing. With horror. He had always been an inveterate snob of the very worst kind. Women were not cut out for careers and certainly not careers that involved them dealing with people lower down the pecking order! A nice job working for a posh auction house might have met with his approval but teaching maths to school kids from a deprived background? Never in a month of Sundays.
To think of the kids not having this facility was heart breaking. She hadn’t been there long, but she knew that Mark had poured his life and soul into trying to make something of the place. And the kids, a trickle which was steadily growing, would be the ones who fared worst.
‘You want to walk away from our marriage with nothing rather than face getting into bed with me.’ Dio didn’t bother to gift wrap what he had to say and he didn’t bother to point out that that kiss they had shared was proof positive that she wasn’t immune to what he had to offer. ‘I can’t help that—but you want this building bought...? Repaired...? Turned into a functioning high-spec space...? No expense spared...? How does that sound to you, Lucy? You see...’ He relaxed, met her bemused gaze coolly and steadily. ‘I want you and I’m not above using any trick in the book to get what I want...’
LUCY WAS APPALLED.
‘What kind of thing is that for you to say?’ she demanded shakily. ‘You’d stoop so low?’
Dio inclined his beautiful head to one side and shrugged elegantly. ‘I don’t look at it that way.’
‘No? And what way do you look at it?’
‘I look at it as a form of persuasion.’
‘I can’t believe I’m hearing this.’
‘You’re my wife,’ he said in the sort of voice that implied he was stating the glaringly obvious and irrefutable. ‘When you started concocting your little plan to walk out of my life, you must surely have known that I wouldn’t lie down on the ground waving a white flag and wishing you every success. Since when did I turn into that kind of person?’
Lucy shifted uncomfortably and then began fiddling with a pile of exercise books on the desk at which she had sat. Teacher in the front with wayward pupil facing her. Except Dio was far too intimidating to be any old wayward pupil.
‘Well?’ he prodded coolly.
‘I just think it’s out of order for you to jeopardise the welfare of lots of deprived children who happen to be benefitting from what is on offer here!’
‘I’m not jeopardising anyone’s welfare. You are.’ He glanced at his watch. He had been optimistic about getting back to the office at some point during the day and had thus dressed in his suit but, the way things were going, the office felt out of reach at the moment and, strangely enough, that didn’t bother him.
He was far too invigorated by what was taking place.
‘Is this taking longer than you expected?’ Lucy asked with saccharin sweetness that wouldn’t have fooled an idiot and he grinned.
Her stomach seemed to swoop and swirl inside her, as though she had been suddenly dropped from a great height without the aid of a parachute. That grin; it transformed the harsh, forbidding contours of his lean face. It reminded her of her youthful folly in letting it get under her skin until she had been walking on clouds, hanging onto his every word, waiting for the next meeting with barely bated breath.
And just like that it dawned on her why the thought of making love to him was so terrifying.
Yes, she hated him for the way he had manipulated her into marrying him for all the wrong reasons. Yes, she hated the way he had showcased her, like a business asset to be produced at will and then dispatched when no longer needed.
But what really scared her was the fact that he could still do things to her, make her feel things that were only appropriate in the domain of a real, functioning marriage.
When she thought of having him touch her, make love to her, she knew that somehow she would end up being vulnerable. He still got to her and she was scared stiff that, the closer he approached, the more ensnared she would become.
Like it or not, she was not nearly as detached as she had presented herself over time.
And that lazy grin was enough to remind her of that unwelcome reality.
‘For my dear wife, I would be willing to put business on hold indefinitely.’
Lucy shot him a glance of scathing disbelief and Dio laughed, a rich, sexy, velvety sound that shot right past her defences.
‘Or at least for a couple of hours, while we try to work out our little differences. Show me around.’ He stood up and flexed his muscles. ‘I can’t carry on sitting in this chair for much longer. It’s far too small. My joints are beginning to seize up. I need to stretch my legs, so give me the guided tour. If I’m going to revive this dump, I might as well start