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Whether he sensed her reluctance or was merely giving in to the relative quiet and darkness of a sheltered doorway some distance away, she found herself spun back against panelled wood as his mouth crashed down on hers.
His lips were warm, his mouth was hot, and what he did to her senses sent her temperature rocketing off the scale and forced any returning logic to flee. She’d never before been bombarded with sensations such as these, never before been subjected to the overwhelming drive of passion. And never before could have imagined herself giving in to it. But then, she’d had no idea…
His hands cupped her behind and she was pulled, full-length, up against his body, the clear evidence of his need pressing into her between them. She gasped into his mouth as she realised his evident size, felt his inherent power. Soon that power would be unleashed within her. She was melting down from the feel of his hands on her, from the touch of his lips, from the anticipation of what was to come.
He drew his head back the merest fraction, his breathing as ragged and choppy as hers. ‘What’s behind that door?’ he said, his voice husky with desire, his words laced with need.
‘The library,’ she whispered back. ‘But it should be locked.’
One hand left her for the moment it took to test the handle. It gave with the barest snick. Even in the gloom she could see the spark of his eyes gleaming down on her, as if he was closer to achieving some prize. Her heart fluttered as the realisation hit her. She was the prize. He wanted her and soon he would have her.
Instead of fear, her expectation cranked up another notch. This feeling was mutual. Because he wasn’t the only one who was going to get something out of tonight.
Tonight she would have him too.
His lips came down to meet hers again, this time in a softer caress, his lips massaging hers, his tongue a brief graze across her teeth, and she let herself slide into his delicious touch. The man was good enough to eat, and she planned to relish every taste.
Loukas turned her then, and silently they slipped into the void opening up behind them. Gently he pressed her back against the wall. Softly he pushed the door closed alongside her. Another tiny snick, but another huge moment. Because that door closing meant that there was no changing her mind.
It meant there was no going back.
CHAPTER THREE
JADE let herself drown in the power of his kiss, giving herself up to his lips and his tongue and his raw masculine heat. Together they worked in a rhythm set by the primitive drumbeat pounding in her ears. He tasted so good—so right—and she answered his kiss with her own, seeking more, wanting more, her lips meshing with his, her tongue greedily seeking out whatever else he could give her.
She felt one arm circle her neck, pulling her closer to him. The other she felt skim across the skin of her back, setting off a zipper-line of sensation that started with the involuntary thrust of her hips against his and ended with her gasping into his mouth at what she encountered yet again.
His low, rumbling response told her he approved of her reaction, while his hand shifted to trace the underswell of her breast and then brushed over its surface, calling a halt to her breathing as it glanced over the nub of her tight nipple contained beneath.
And, like a jolt of electricity, panic seized her, breaking through the magic fog he’d spun around her, forcing rational thought to surface at last and finally find its rightful place in her mind. She hadn’t thought this through! She hadn’t been thinking, period.
What if he saw?
Why had she put herself in a position where she could be so thoroughly humiliated once again?
He’d said she was beautiful. Wasn’t that enough for her? Couldn’t she just have left it at that? She’d thought only of sex; she’d been too blinded by her own lust to see what should have been foremost in her mind: that Loukas would never want her when he knew. That Loukas would never in a million years think her beautiful once he knew.
His mouth was on her throat, his lips dancing a wild tango against her neck, and her heart was still racing. But now there was fear and trepidation in her mix of emotions.
She half registered a noise like a grunt, oddly distant when Loukas was so close. When the sound came again she froze.
Someone else was in the room.
She snapped her eyes open and peered over Loukas’s shoulder. The pitch-blackness that had met them when they’d entered the large library had given way to a dim grey gloom in which nothing appeared to be moving or out of place between the walls of floor-to-ceiling books. She was imagining things. Against her throat Loukas’s mouth continued to weave magic, complicating the push-pull of her fears and her wants as the sound came again.
Sounds.
In tune now with more than just the rush of blood in her ears, this time she heard a softer gasping moan answer the straining sounds. And more sounds, now louder, and more grunting, punctuated by urgent panting and then the unmistakable slap of flesh against flesh, building in speed, steadily and inexorably.
She squeezed her eyes shut again, wishing she could close down her hearing, afraid to breathe, afraid to move. Someone was making love—right here in the library—and they’d inadvertently stumbled right into their secret tryst.
But there was no shutting out what was happening, and the sounds fed into her consciousness, reminding her why she’d come there, and setting her flesh to prickling awareness of the man holding her even in her shock.
Because they’d come here to engage in that same act—to make those same noises, to seek that same inexorable release.
Loukas’s mouth stilled and he pulled back as he too realised what was happening. He touched one finger to her lips and pulled her closer against him, as if sheltering her from what was happening while he edged a look over his shoulder. They had to get out of here. He would surely know that as well as she did. But before they could make a move a sound and a sudden movement in the low light drew her eyes directly to the source—and she found them.
Mostly hidden from view, sheltered from the door behind a long sofa, it was no wonder that whoever it was had been too absorbed to realise they had company. She was just about to turn her face away when the man rocked back on his knees and she recognised him.
Mayor Goldfinch!
No wonder the library door had been unlocked—Grace must have brought him here.
Now Jade had to get out, and take Loukas, before either of them saw her. She would never in a million years subject Grace to that kind of embarrassment. She couldn’t let her find out that they had inadvertently stumbled upon them during such a private act.
She prodded Loukas to leave, but he stilled her movements. ‘Wait,’ he whispered, so quietly she half wondered if she’d inhaled his words instead. ‘Wait just a moment.’
But she didn’t want to stay. She didn’t want to hear any more, to be witness to anyone’s lovemaking—least of all to Grace’s. More than anything she wanted to get out, now, and it took supreme strength of will to remain cradled in Loukas’s arms while she waited seemingly for ever for the pair to resume their frantic activities.
The sounds of motion and mounting excitement finally resumed, telling her Mayor Goldfinch had Grace exactly where he wanted her once more. She wanted to close her ears as every sound, every whimper, fed into her own needs, making her overwhelmingly aware of what she herself might be doing right now, of what she’d given her tacit agreement to. Her flesh shimmied into action where Loukas held her, where she brushed up alongside him, as the aura of coupling wrapped itself around them.
But at last they were moving out of here. Loukas was just manoeuvring her closer to the door, ready to bundle her out, when she heard gruff words.
‘Oh, Rach. Oh, sweet baby, I’ve missed you.’
For a second she thought she’d misheard the name—it had to have been Grace that he’d said—but then she spied the lush sheen of red satin slung over the settee, had recognised the young, drawling tones responding enthusiastically to the Mayor’s encouragement and cold revulsion worked its clammy way up her spine.
Because it wasn’t Grace that Mayor Goldfinch was entertaining. It was Rachael Delaney!
She almost cried out with the shock, but a large firm hand clamped down over her mouth, rendering her mute. Under cover of the noise of the couple’s latest activities, Loukas had the door pulled open and whisked her back outside before she could react—and before the couple could know what was happening.
She burst free from his grip and threw herself along the passageway, gulping in great mouthfuls of air, trying to clear her lungs of the filth of that room.
‘Jade!’ she heard him call. ‘Jade!’
She couldn’t answer—wouldn’t stop as she fled. She wanted to go upstairs to her suite but, knowing Loukas might follow her, she made for the safety of the crowded ballroom. Did Grace have any idea the man she was hoping would propose was busy slaking his lust on one of her guests? Did she have any idea the man she was hoping to marry was such a low-class act?
She had to get away. Away from the betrayal going on behind her. Away from the cheap act that she herself had been about to take part in.
Loukas had said he wanted to make love to her, and she’d let herself be swept away—yet it wasn’t love that people made in secret trysts like the one they’d just happened upon. There was no love involved. It was just sex—pure, unadulterated animal lust—and she’d just about let herself cave into the same base desires.
She felt sick to the stomach.
A steel band took hold of her arm, wheeling her around. ‘Stop.’
She looked up into his eyes, wanting but unable to contain her desperate need for oxygen.
‘Let me go,’ she insisted.
‘You were happy for me to touch you before.’
‘That was before. I’m sorry. I made a mistake. I should never have gone with you. I should never have led you on like that.’
‘You didn’t lead me on. We both wanted to make love. Still want to make love. You can’t deny that.’
‘No,’ she said, shaking her head wildly, as if to shake out the soiled images and damning sounds that replayed endlessly through her mind. ‘Not like that. That wasn’t love that was being made in there. I was wrong. I’m sorry.’
‘Come with me, then. We’ll get out of this rats’ nest and talk.’
‘No.’ She held one hand up as she backed away. Her skin burned with both humiliation and embarrassment. It was bad enough having lived through the experience without having to analyse it. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Demakis. There’s nothing to talk about.’ Then she turned and fled into the ballroom.
‘This isn’t over!’
There was no point arguing with him; she just kept right on surging away from him. He’d picked the wrong woman, that was all. No more explanations necessary.
If it was just quick sex he was after she had no doubt he’d find someone else for the night—a woman who would be more accommodating and who had less hang-ups, who wouldn’t be fazed about sharing a room with another couple hard at it, a woman who would happily look elsewhere if she was in that situation. And there was every chance he’d find that woman here.
With his looks he’d have his pick. And she’d almost fallen for him—hook, line and sinker. To think he’d swayed her so much with that line of his—‘I came here to meet you.’ She’d played right into his hands. Thank God she’d had enough sense not to take him upstairs to her suite—there would have been no escape then.
No, he’d find someone else in short order, and there was no chance she’d ever see Mr Loukas Demakis again.
The rush of relief she felt at that prospect evaporated the instant she noticed the last person she wanted to talk to right now heading straight for her.
‘Oh, Jade,’ Grace said, casting her eyes all about the room. ‘You haven’t seen Mayor Goldfinch anywhere?’
Jade stood blankly, her stomach lurching as she fought to raise her eyes above shoe level.
‘Only I wanted to show him the clinic’s latest plans for expansion, and he seems to have disappeared.’
‘I can’t help you,’ Jade insisted, her heart breaking for the older woman even as she lied. Grace would have to find out the truth at some time, but not now. Jade couldn’t bear to spoil her otherwise perfect night. ‘Have you tried the garden?’ she added, taking her by the arm and steering her towards the French doors to ensure she couldn’t stumble into the library and discover the Mayor’s sleazy betrayal herself. Because while half of her wanted Grace to find out what kind of man he really was, the other half wanted to protect her friend from the pain of knowing the whole sordid truth. ‘I’ll help you look.’
The young girl looked up, her kohl-rimmed eyes hopeful and expectant as Jade entered the consulting room. While outwardly Jade acknowledged both Grace and the client, inwardly she sighed. Despite the heavy make-up, Jade knew the young waif-like blonde was barely eighteen years old—and yet already Pia Kovac was a regular customer at the clinic—too regular for her liking.
‘Thanks for stepping in, Dr Ferraro,’ said Grace. ‘Pia has asked us to consider doing a few extra little things for her. Seeing as a couple of them will require your deft touch with the laser, I thought you should sit in on this consultation.’
‘No problem,’ Jade responded, taking a seat in one of the velvet sofas surrounding the plush coffee table set-up when what she really wanted was to go back to her apartment at the mansion and let herself slip into a long soaking bath.
How did Grace do it? She looked at her now, as she outlined the procedures Pia had in mind, and could only marvel at how fresh and bright-eyed she looked even while she still managed to retain an air of serenity and calm about her. No doubt about it—the woman was amazing. Jade would be up to her neck in bubbles right now if she hadn’t been called in to this consultation.
Today had been too long—a full day of laser surgery punctuated only by an hour-long luncheon meeting with Grace to discuss the financial results from the Gala.
As expected, the evening had been a runaway success in raising both funds and the profile of the foundation. Months of planning had paid off, and Jade was now feeling the anticlimax of masterminding and carrying off a successful event seeping through her bones.
But that wasn’t the only anticlimax she was feeling. Ever since that night she’d felt strangely let down, and it all had to do with the larger-than-life memories of one tall, dark stranger. And yet nothing had happened between them, really. Nothing compared to what might have happened. Right now she could be filled with regrets about crazy actions and impetuous desires. She could be cursing herself for giving in to nothing more than base lust.
Instead she should feel proud of herself for having had the strength to get out of the situation. She should be feeling relieved she’d come to her senses before it was too late—even if it had taken a philandering mayor to wake her up to what she was doing.
So why did she feel as if she’d missed out? Why was she disappointed that she’d heard not a thing from Loukas Demakis when it was clearly to her advantage never to run into the man again?
With a struggle she forced her could-have-been lover out of her mind and brought her focus back to the shopping basket of cosmetic goodies Grace was outlining. It was an impressive list; Pia had obviously been doing her homework.
‘Jade,’ Grace said at last, ‘would you agree that’s the best way to proceed? For you to do the minor laser surgery components before I’ve done the breast augmentation?’
Jade drew in a weary breath and looked at the young woman sitting opposite—a teenager, certainly, but hardly flat-chested. She suppressed a sigh. This was one of the things that really grated about this business. It was one thing for the clinic to be helping people retain or reclaim their youthful looks, but it seemed another thing entirely to start with major remodelling of the looks of someone barely out of puberty.
‘Pia,’ she said gently, ‘are you sure you’ve thought this all through? A breast augmentation isn’t something to take lightly. Are you sure you really need it?’
Pia’s expression dropped like a stone. ‘But I have to do something. Kurt says the only thing wrong with me is I don’t have enough up top.’
Jade glanced over her notes. ‘Then why the liposuction?’
‘Kurt hates fat.’
It was hardly a surprising answer. Kurt hadn’t liked her nose or her lips either, when Pia had first appeared on the clinic’s doorstep six months ago, a newlywed with a massive inferiority complex and a demanding would-be celebrity husband. Without a doubt the failed reality TV contender had had more than a little to do with her recent cheek implants as well.
‘And what do you like? What do you really want, Pia?’
‘I want to keep Kurt.’ Her words came out like a sulky child threatened with the loss of her favourite bedtime toy. Which was probably how she felt, given the rumours that Kurt was already tiring of his hastily arranged Las Vegas marriage.
‘And of course you will,’ crooned Grace, sending daggers to Jade as she shifted next to Pia on the couch, taking her hand and stroking it gently. ‘And we’ll do everything to help you. Won’t we, Jade?’
‘What was that all about?’
Jade was just collecting her purse and jacket when Grace paced purposefully into her office. ‘It sounded very much like you were trying to talk Pia out of surgery back there.’
Jade rubbed her brow and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. ‘I’m sorry, Grace. I just think she’s too young to be doing all this. Especially when she doesn’t need it. If it wasn’t for Kurt—’
‘Kurt’s her husband. Of course she wants to please him! Our job is to give the clients what they want. Not to talk them out of it.’
‘But she’s so young—’
‘She won’t be young for ever. Satisfy her now and we’ll have a client for life.’ She arched one eyebrow high, accentuating her bright eyes. ‘Think about that. Your future is with people just like Pia. Sow the seeds now, and reap the harvest for life.’
Jade recoiled at her words. When had Grace become so cynical?
‘I didn’t think the clinic was so desperate for money that we had to go recruiting teenagers.’
‘She came to us. We didn’t “recruit” her. And don’t sniff at the money. It pays you well enough, doesn’t it? I’ve tried to make you feel welcome here, and I’ve tried to support you while you become established. Haven’t I opened my home up to you, giving you your own space? I thought you enjoyed working here,’ she continued. ‘I thought we were part of a team. But then, if you’re not happy…’
The older woman’s eyes clouded over suddenly, and her unfinished sentence was enough to sting Jade with remorse.
Grace was right, of course. Grace was more like a fairy godmother than a colleague—making her dreams come true not just once in her life, but twice.
Because it had been Grace’s removal of her ugly facial birthmark that had given Jade the inspiration and the courage to enter the same field and pursue the quest for excellence. She wanted the chance to make such amazing differences to other people’s lives too. She wanted the chance to put something back. And Grace had given her that opportunity too, when she’d approved her application and given her a place at the clinic.
She owed everything to Grace—her job, her success, and most of all the chance to be accepted as a normal human being. Nobody had ever done so much for her. Nobody else had made her life so worthwhile.
So Jade wouldn’t let her down—especially not now, when it was clear that Grace was already in for a rough ride when she discovered the truth about Mayor Goldfinch.
