“I will never lie to you like that, Joy. If you need love in order to have sex, then I understand. I’ll leave you alone.” And he would throw himself off the balcony because the next year was going tohurt.
She searched his gaze until he began to feel it like too much sun on his face. “I don’t think I could sell that lie very well, either,” she said with a break in her voice and looked away.
The tug in his groin was visceral. Dear God, she was going to kill him, dancing around the pole between yes and no.
“That’s one of the reasons I thought I could go through with this marriage.” She trailed her fingertips along the edge of the desk. “I confused sex and love before, but I don’t love you. How could I?”
Ouch. He didn’t know why that stung, but it did.
“We’ve only known each other a few days,” she clarified, brow pulled in consternation. “I thought that meant I was safe from you yanking me around by my emotions. I didn’t expect we’d jump straight into a physical relationship. I didn’t know you would make me want one.”
He bit back a groan. His ears stung, he was straining so hard to catch every word spilling from her lips.
“You already hold all the financial cards. Now you want this from me, too?”
“Most of my relationships are transactional. I admit that,” he said grittily. “But you already gave me leverage with Otto that I wouldn’t otherwise have. As long as you stay married to me and play your part, you don’t owe me a damned thing. I’m not trying to extractmorefrom you.”
“No?” Her brows went up.
“No. If we have sex, it’s because we want each other.”
“Do you want me, though?”
“You doubt it?” No one had ever said anything so astounding to him.
“You’re very hot and cold.” Her mouth softened into a pout. “‘I can wait,’” she quoted mockingly. “You had no trouble walking away from me on the plane.”
“Do you think that was easy?” he asked with a rasp in his throat. “I only meant to kiss you, and you damn near turned me inside out. One of us has to keep a few brain cells working. Otherwise, we’re liable to burn this place to the ground.”
“Really?” Her mouth tilted with shy amusement, and her lashes flared. He suspected if he stood closer, he would have seen her pupils explode.
The air became fully charged with the electricity they’d both been trying to ignore. Sparks of heat began to catch in him like hungry flames on dry grass, threatening to surge forward in an uncontrolled sweep of licking fire.
“Really,” he said in a voice that had dropped into the pit of his chest. “If you want more orgasms like that one on the plane, get the hell into that bedroom and take off your clothes.” He pointed.
Oh, she hated being told what to do. It was very exciting, the way she stood taller and lifted her chin to that haughty angle.
Wordlessly, in the way of an old aristocrat dropping a glove, she pushed her jacket off her shoulders and let it fall to the floor. She set her boot on the edge of the chair and lowered the zip. The boot hit the floor, then the other. She held his gaze as she peeled her shirt up and off, revealing a pale purple bra with translucent arcs across the tops of the cups. Her jeans relaxed across her hips as she released the button and fly. With a wiggle, she dropped them, leaving her yellow thong in place.
When she reached to open the front closure on her bra, he let his beast off its leash.
CHAPTER NINE
“I’M NOT INthe bedroom!” Joy gasped as Axel pounced on her.
She pushed her hand against his shoulder, not sure what had possessed her to provoke him like this. A desire to see if she could get a reaction out of him? Gain the upper hand in some way? No chance of that!
“You chose the bed, Honigbiene. Lie on it.” He tipped her, pressing her to the lacquered top of the Louis Quinze replica, shoving the small lamp out of the way so it fell with a dull thud to the floor.
This was what she had wanted, she realized, as he filled his hands with her. The way he claimed her made her feel wanted.
Even so, the hard desktop had her arching in protest. “It’s cold!”
“You’ll warm it.” He used his weight and leverage and the cup of his hand on her breast to keep her in place while he buried his lips in her throat.
Her skin felt so sensitive, the desktop was almost painful, as was the friction of his trousers between her thighs.
“Axel,” she gasped, cradling his head in her hands.
