Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 53764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 269(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 269(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
Her eyes twinkled and she smiled up at him. "It worked, didn't it?"
He puffed out a laugh and shook his head. "You be careful. Got your damn phone this time?"
"Yes."
"You sure?"
"Yes, babe," she teased.
He rolled his eyes heavenward and shut the door carefully.
Chapter Ten
Eight months later
Natalie took refuge in the upstairs powder room of the mansion in River Oaks and held her tube of lip gloss with hands that shook. She desperately tried to control the trembling in her fingers so she could reapply the color to her lips.
As she looked at herself in the mirror, she knew her inner turmoil was well hidden behind a façade of soft silky hair, a sleek designer dress, and perfect make-up that lacked only the gloss she sought to repair.
The door began to open with not even a tiny sound of warning and her eyes flew to the knob that she had sworn she'd locked. Her breath lodged in her throat as Marco slipped inside, secured the door that she had failed to lock only minutes before, and came to stand behind her in the tiny room.
He pressed his chest against her back, propelling her forward a few inches until she was crowded against the vanity. Her nerves shifted restlessly, and the impact of his body against hers made her lipstick fall from her fingers and land in the sink in front of her.
Her eyes tangled with his in the mirror. The look on his face jolted her heart and her pulse skittered and began pounding in her chest.
He towered over her, and the muscles beneath his designer suit were corded and strained. His eyes were furious, and he held his lips tightly closed over teeth she knew were gritted in anger.
She struggled to control her features, to keep all expression from her face. She would be damned if she let him see how badly she was hurting. She refused to take responsibility for the scene that had just taken place; she was innocent of all wrong-doing.
She began to open her mouth to tell him so.
Before she could get one word out, his hand snaked out and covered her mouth and suppressed her words in a grip so ruthless that it made her nostrils flare and her eyes widen in barely controlled panic.
He lowered his mouth to her ear and held her eyes with his while he hissed out his fury. "I told you not to wear this dress." He held her silent and immobilized with one steely arm while his other hand reached in front of her and encapsulated her breast. He captured her nipple between his finger and thumb and held it tightly, just short of pain, in a display of ownership and control.
Natalie sucked in oxygen through her nose and closed her eyes against him and the erotic picture they made in the mirror.
"I told you what Kennedy would do if you wore this fucking dress. The mother-fucker can't ever keep his goddamn eyes off you." He dropped his hand inside her neckline and delved inside her lace-edged bra until he was holding her breast in a possessive grip. "I can't believe I let you buy the damn thing. I'm burning it when we get home."
Natalie held her eyes closed and tried not to be controlled by his intimate touch on her naked flesh. It was almost impossible to fight against. It had been this way since the day she'd met him, and she very much feared it would be this way until the day she died.
"Open your eyes," he growled in her ear.
She didn't comply quickly enough to suit him and his hand dropped from her mouth to land on the pulse beating rapidly in her throat, in a sexually intimidating move. Her eyes flew open at the demanding touch and tangled with his in the mirror as his hands caressed her neck and breast with firm, possessive strokes. She licked her dry lips and tried to get her throat to work. "It's not the dress," she argued softly.
"No, it's damn well not the dress. It's you. The fucker wants you and thinks he can have you--"
"He only wants me because you have me. It's all about you, Marco. It has nothing to do with me."
His eyes narrowed on hers. "That's bullshit, Natalie. He's been after you for ten goddamn months and I'm sick of it."
"He's jealous of you. You've got the looks, you have more money than he does. It drives him crazy and that's the only reason he even notices me."
He turned her in his embrace with a smoothly executed maneuver and locked one arm around her middle, pulling her torso up and into his, and lifted her face to study her. "You seriously believe that?"
"Yes, I do. He's not a very nice man."
"He never wanted Tanya and he saw me with her on-and-off for a couple of years.