Falling For His Proper Mistress by Tessa Radley Read Free Book Online Page B

be that.
    Avery sank lower into the water, and shut her eyes.
    Except it wasn’t quite that easy.
    Images of his naked form warmed by soft candle flame danced across her eyelids. The smooth golden skin. The sculpted muscles. His burgeoning erection…
    This was how she was getting over the man?
    She bit back a gasp, and concentrated on mentally ranking the merlot wines she’d tasted today. She lost interest after rating the third wine. Ears straining, she tried to figure out what he was doing.
    Was he looking at her?
    The silence throbbed like a writhing beast. Unwanted memories of the nights she’d spent in Guy’s bed, making love, entwined her. Now he was naked, a foot away from her, probably eating her alive with his eyes.
    Avery couldn’t breathe.
    She knew she had to exorcise him. Forever.
    â€œDid you get a chance to make some notes for our presentation today?” When Guy finally broke the silence, she jumped, and wavelets lapped at her throat.
    He wanted to talk business?
    Avery cracked one eye open and sneaked a peek through the billowing steam. She didn’t know whether to laugh or scream. Guy was lying back, his eyes closed, looking utterlyrelaxed. She’d steeled herself to resist him—tell him to go to hell—and the damn man was practically asleep.
    And here she was back to being all knotted up, fully expecting him to leap on her! Cheated.
    It wasn’t—couldn’t possibly be—disappointment that crawled through her, could it? She was relieved that she didn’t have to fight him off. Wasn’t she?
    Hmm. If she were absolutely, confidentially truthful she was a teensy-weensy bit miffed. It made no sense.
    â€œSo did you?”
    â€œUh, yes. I made some notes.”
    Collecting her scattered wits, she tried to remember what the thrust of them had been. And gave up. While she’d been scrambling for her sanity, Guy had opened his eyes. His gaze locked with hers. Lord only knew what he’d seen in her eyes, because his mouth curved up into a slow, knowing smile. “Miss me?”
    â€œToday?” She tried to laugh it off as a joke. “I didn’t get a chance. Especially since I used the few spare minutes I had to work out what we were going to say.”
    â€œPity.” Under the water his hand landed on her bare thigh.
    A rush of emotion filled her. Desire. Confusion. Anger. All tangled up in a mass of contrary, conflicting feelings. Avery reminded herself of all the reasons why it was a bad idea to let this happen. For sure, she would get hurt again.
    But her desperate caveats didn’t help. His fingers trailed up…along her belly. Her breath caught as they skirted precariously close to the underside of her breast.
    Guy Jarrod was a drug and her body craved its fix.
    She knew she should be telling him “No”.
    Yet insanely when his fingers snagged hers, and tugged,she allowed him to draw her through the bubbling water toward him.
    â€œI thought about you.”
    Her insides melted. “I doubt it,” she said snippily. “You had too much to do.”
    â€œOh, I’m not talking about today—I’m talking about the past seven weeks.”
    At the admission, blood roared in her ears. Guy had kept count of time? Her resistance crumbled a little more.
    â€œI keep remembering this….”
    His fingers surrounded her nipple, and the little traitor hardened.
    Guy groaned. His other arm came round her and he drew her close until her body slid over him breast-against-chest, her nipples brushing the water-sleek muscle under his skin.
    â€œSo responsive,” he murmured into her ear, and shivers feathered down her spine. “How could I ever forget this?”
    The hope plummeted.
    It was the sex he’d thought about—not her.
    A cold, dampening wave of disappointment swamped her. What had she expected? An avowal of love? For him it had always been all about sex, nothing else. Guy had