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“My pleasure,” Andrе said, which was far from the truth.
He stalked back to the bar and prepared a simple rum daiquiri with the barest squeeze of lime. Thoughts of Kira making love with Bellamy sped through his mind and left a white froth of rage in its wake.
Instead of savoring the heavy, rich swirl of rum, Andrе tasted bitter revenge coating his tongue. Spending half a day with her had sharpened his senses to a razor’s edge.
Kira portrayed the ingеnue when she was anything but innocent. Oui, he knew her for what she truly was, for he’d tasted her passion. One sip demanded more.
Every nuance of her was branded on his mind. The occasional tremor that rocked her, leaving her shaken. The pensive look he glimpsed in her eyes when she thought nobody was watching. Those odd moments when she rested a hand on her stomach and the most beauteous expression came over her.
It was as if she was sharing a secret with someone.
Well, he had secrets of his own. Dark, disturbing ones that robbed him of sleep.
“Do you have reliable internet on the island?” she asked.
“Oui. I have a private satellite connection in my office.” She would have limited access, at his discretion, and monitored. He prowled the carpeted salon and sipped his drink, her question spiking his suspicion. “Thinking of begging Peter to rescue you from the situation you’ve both created? Or do you need his instructions on how best to spy on me?”
Color streaked across her high cheekbones and her amber eyes snapped, her anger and defiance charging the air. “I intend to run my hotel from my prison.”
“You mean my hotel.”
“You are the majority stockholder now, but the Chateau will always be mine.”
His fingers tightened on his glass. She couldn’t be more wrong, but he’d let her hold her confidence for now. He took no pleasure in beating someone who was so near the edge.
The dark smudges beneath her eyes attested that she was close to exhaustion. Yet her narrow shoulders remained squared and her chin high, as if she was refusing to accept that she stood on thin ice regarding the Chateau—regarding him.
Her quiet strength intrigued him. He’d expected her to use her delectable body to court his favor, to deceive him more. But though she’d responded instantly to his touch, his kiss, she hadn’t attempted to take the initiative with him. Yet.
He tossed back his daiquiri as his anger burned anew. What was her game?
It didn’t matter. He’d have his revenge in the end. He had proof Peter had sent her to Petit St. Marc to seduce him, and alerted the paparazzi, and he now held documents proving her part in the deadly plot she and Peter had instigated.
The latter was enough to make him despise her. He hated that she’d acquired the Chateau with her deceit. Hated that she was Bellamy’s mistress. Hated that her solemn amber eyes had the power to make him question his plans.
He set his glass on the bar with a thunk and strode to her, his annoyance sparking like lightning when she lifted her chin and stared up at him, wide-eyed but unflinching. She was driving him mad, for he’d never wanted to intimidate a woman until now.
In one fluid movement he rested a knee on the cushions before her curled legs, braced one hand on the sofa’s arm and the other on its back. “I own Chateau Mystique and I own you. Never doubt you are both in my control.”
Her full lips thinned. “That is barbarous.”
“Perhaps you were unaware the blood of pirates courses through my veins?” He yanked away the pillow shielding her and splayed his fingers on her stomach, his thumb resting on her mons and his fingers grazing the swell of her breasts.
She gasped, eyes huge and dark, with awakening desire. The pulse in the ivory column of her neck throbbed to a savage tempo that mirrored his own erratic heartbeat.
Oui. She didn’t fear him. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. In this they were equal. But not for long.
Andrе affected a rapacious grin. “What? You have nothing to say?”
A tremor vibrated through her into him as she shoved his hand from her, but her eyes were still smoky with passion. “Nothing that you’d believe.”
“Save your professions of innocence.” He lurched from her and stared at her expressive eyes that challenged him. “Relax, ma chеrie. I have no intention of ravishing you. At least not yet.”
She looked away, satisfying him that she understood his dismissal as well as his promise. The inevitability.
“Not ever,” she said, the words whispered, yet fierce.
The challenge hung between them—a cold, invisible wall that he longed to tear down.
Andrе stalked across the salon and bounded up the stairs to the sundeck, knowing he was a hair’s breadth from toppling Kira back on the sumptuous sofa and showing her just how much she hungered for his touch. How easily she’d capitulate.
Now wasn’t the time. They were spent from the journey. In thirty minutes they’d land at Petit St. Marc. That wasn’t nearly enough time to enjoy her charms, and he fully intended to savor every inch of Kira at his leisure, for bedding her would enrage Peter Bellamy. Never mind that it would satisfy the savage beast within him as well.
For a moment he paused at the starboard side and simply soaked in the breathtaking view of the silvery disk of the sun as it slipped into the rippling mocha waters.
The horizon gleamed like buttered rum. Golden glimmers tinged with red skipped over the waves as if they were ablaze, glimmers of light that matched the highlights in Kira’s long luxurious hair.
Kira. Why did she bring out such poetic yearnings in him?
Out here was nothing but the sea, mistress to many of his ancestors. Mistress to him in many ways.
He shook his head at his own fanciful musings and took the stairs to the fly bridge. A stocky old sailor, wearing cutoff jeans and a tattered T-shirt, manned the helm.
“How’s she sail, Captain?”
The old salt flashed him a cunning grin. “I’d ask the same of you if I thought you’d tell me who that tempting gal is that you stowed on board.”
Andrе scowled. “It’s a long story.”
The Captain chuckled. “Most interesting ones are.”
He shrugged. Though their friendship spanned a decade, he was loath to explain his association with Kira.
“Just keep it steady,” Andrе said. “The lady isn’t accustomed to the sea.”
“Aye, aye, boss.”
Andrе gave the horizon one last look, then hit the stairs. Annoyance bobbed within him like a storm-tossed buoy. Thanks to the scandal, every moment away from his desk cost him a fortune.
He hadn’t intended to make any changes at the Chateau as yet, for he wanted Kira to squirm, to wonder what he planned to do, to get comfortable in her role as his lover. Then he’d swoop in and exert his will over the hotel—and her.
Oui, he’d not soften toward Kira. He would not make the same mistakes his father had made. No woman would rule him.
Andrе slammed into the master stateroom and dropped onto a tufted leather chair at his desk, even though he ached to pace the confines like a caged tiger scenting fresh meat. He grabbed the phone and put in a call to his private detective. The man answered on the second ring.
“Is Bellamy still at the Chateau?” Andrе asked, dispensing with pleasantries.
“No. He left an hour after you did.”
“Back to Florida?”
“To California, to inaugurate a new hotel,” he said. “Do you want me to continue surveillance?”
“Oui. I want to know every damned thing he does. Who he talks to, who he does business with.”
“You got it,” the detective said.
Andrе ended the connection and rocked back in his chair, his mind sifting through this startling news. Why was Bellamy carrying on as if nothing had happened instead of rushing back to his compound in Florida? It didn’t make sense, for Bellamy had seen Andrе leave with Kira. The deception was over.
Had she simply been Bellamy’s pawn, used to publicly humiliate Andrе? Used as needed and then discarded? Paid off with shares in the Chateau? It was a possibility he’d considered.
His fight with Edouard had been personal, rife with emotions Andrе deemed crippling. Simple revenge. He was David going up against Goliath.
His feud with Peter was strictly business. One corporate raider battling another. But over the last six months Bellamy had turned vicious. Personal attacks on Andrе that the media fed on.
Where Edouard had regarded him as a pest, Peter Bellamy set out to destroy him. And Kira had sided with the enemy to bring about his ruin.
Yet he desired her.
Mon Dieu! Sleep deprivation was warping his mind. He rubbed his gritty eyes and winced. His body screamed for rest, yet he couldn’t afford it yet.
Andrе threw the pen on his desk and stormed from his stateroom. In moments he’d reached the main salon. His gaze sought and found the object of his scorn.
She lay curled on the sofa, napping, her hair spilling over a pillow in a waterfall of mahogany curls. He wasn’t sure how she managed to look innocent and provocative at the same time. Nor could he understand why he wanted her, knowing she was a calculating liar.
But his pulse quickened all the same. He longed to run his fingers through her hair as he covered her body with his. Would she welcome his caresses? Melt in his embrace? Sigh as he thrust inside her?
He undid the knot in his tie and gave it a savage jerk. The silver-gray silk whistled free in the quiet. He’d know soon.
CHAPTER THREE
KIRA stirred, awakened by the crushed-velvet voice of her dreams. She understood very little French, but her body recognized the sultry promise his tone evoked.
She frowned, annoyed. It was always this way—Andrе’s voice rousing her from sleep as if to taunt her about the passion they’d shared once. Passion she’d never had with another man. Passion she missed with a soul-deep ache that never left her.
As always, she was helpless to stop the desire radiating in her belly, spreading low and leaving her hot and throbbing and so restless she couldn’t lie still. She thrashed and arched in mute supplication for his touch, his kiss.
His hand glided under her skirt and up her inner thigh, his fingers splaying over her skin, so close to where she wept for his touch. Sensations exploded in her in dizzying colors and she moaned as she was drawn into the kaleidoscope of desire.
A soft laugh shattered the dream. She froze, knowing before her eyes popped open that the intimate touch was as real as the man. Andrе loomed over her, his eyes dark and his features unreadable, his fingers inches from the juncture of her thighs.
Her heart careened crazily, for in that second she wanted him to touch her there like he had before. Wanted him to see her as a woman with dreams and hopes, not just as a sexual partner. The knowledge that wouldn’t likely happen snapped her from her sensual haze.
She slammed her hands against his shoulders. Mistake. Electricity arced into her as his muscles bunched and quivered. Her hands shifted over his chest, and she marveled at the power pulsing beneath her palms that she ached to explore.
“Stop it,” she said, as much to herself as to him, shoving against him to scoot away, only to have the sofa’s marble-topped divider table stop her. “What do you think you are doing?”
His lips pulled into a predatory smile that made her shiver with sexual awareness. “That should be obvious.”
She shook her head, shocked he’d taken advantage of her while she was sleeping, stunned that she’d nearly begged him to take her. Hard. Fast. Deep.
“I’m not making that mistake again.”
Something akin to pain flashed in his eyes, a lightning strike of emotion she couldn’t read. “Yet you desire me, oui?”
“No.”
“I know when a woman is faking and when she is gripped by passion.”
One bold hot finger slipped beneath the lace trim of her silky panties and traced the sensitive crease of her leg. She couldn’t stop the tremor that bolted through her, leaving her quivering with need.
She drew on every ounce of courage she possessed to defy his potent masculinity and preserve what remained of her dignity. “You’re wrong. I don’t want you.”
Andrе slid his finger from her, depriving her of his touch, giving her false security. He flashed a beautifully masculine smile and skimmed that same finger over the desire-dampened crotch of her panties.
Her body jerked of its own volition. She bit her lip to stifle a moan of raw pleasure, and her face flamed with embarrassment and anger for he’d proven his point.
She was putty in his hands. Helpless to resist him.
“I knew you were ready before I touched you,” he said.
“Andrе, don’t,” she said, curling her fingers into fists so she couldn’t clutch him and draw him to her.
“Why? We have nothing to lose.”
“You’re wrong.” She was already in danger of losing her heart to him—which made no sense, considering how he’d taken over her hotel and was dragging her to his island lair.
“Is that a challenge?” His hand slid down her calf and lower, sending hot quivers of sensation spiraling up her leg.
“No.” She’d be a fool to square off against Andrе when her defenses were so low, when she was so weary she could barely think straight.
He didn’t play fair, and she did. Even now, with her emotions stretched thin, she became lost in his touch. Her breath hitched and her heart raced, and she willed his hand to glide back up her leg, to—
His palm cupped her foot, the fingers curling beneath the arch to skim the ball of her foot. A burning pain shot up her leg and her pleasure popped like a child’s balloon.
“Don’t! That hurts.” An exaggeration. The skin burned hot all over.
He examined her foot, his frown darkening. His finger lightly traced the strap indentations cutting across her skin and she set her teeth against the fiery pinpricks that danced across her skin.
He spat out a torrent of French that she was sure were curses, yet his touch remained gentle. “You are a fool to sacrifice comfort for fashion. How long have your feet been like this?”
“They began hurting as we walked from the car to the dock.”
“You should have told me.”
She glared at him and tried pulling her foot free of his hold. “You were not exactly in a friendly mood.”
He moved faster than lightning, pressing her deeper into the sumptuous cushions, blanketing her with his powerful body. His arms bracketed beside her head kept some of his weight off her, but not his groin. She felt the steely length of his sex against her belly and bit back a moan, afraid he’d ravish her, and equally afraid she’d not find the will to stop him.
