Heiress's Defiance by Lynn Raye Harris Read Free Book Online

believed him—and she wanted it so much even though she wasn’t supposed to. “I don’t like you.” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I shouldn’t want this. I shouldn’t want
you
.”
    “But you do.”
    “It doesn’t matter,” she forced out. “It’s not happening.”
    “Why not? We are adults, are we not?”
    “You know why.”
    “I’m afraid I don’t.”
    She flung her arms wide. “Because it would feel like giving up!”
    “Giving up what, Lucilla? Loneliness? An empty bed?”
    “Who says my bed is empty? I have plenty of sex, I’ll have you know. All the time. Just like you and that … that skinny twig of a woman.”
    He looked puzzled. And then understanding hit him. “Ah, you mean Victoria. Jealous, sweet Lucilla?”
    She huffed. “Of course not. What’s there to be jealous of? Just because one
can
wear a rubber dress doesn’t mean one
should.
”
    He laughed. “I like that you are jealous. It means you care.”
    She wanted to thwack him upside the head. And she wanted to wrap her arms around him and kiss him again. “I
don’t
care! I despise you! You’re a vile, rotten, evil man with a sexy smile and a hot body and it matters not one whit that I want to have sex with you repeatedly—”
    She broke off when she realized what she was saying. The look in his eyes was intense.
    “Repeatedly. I like the sound of that.”
    “I misspoke.”
    He reached for her then, tugged her into his arms, and she wrapped her fists in his lapels—whether to tug him closer or push him away, she wasn’t sure.
    “Lucilla,” he murmured, his lips against her ear. “You drive me crazy.”
    “Oh,” she said as his mouth moved along her throat. “Oh, don’t do that.”
    “Why not?” His voice was a sexy rumble against her skin.
    Because it felt too good. Because liquid heat was flooding into her sex and she was afraid of what she might do if this bone-deep need didn’t ease soon.
    “Christos …” she sighed as his lips moved over her collarbone. “We can’t …”
    “We can.”
    He picked her up and sat her on his desk—and her heart began to gallop. She felt dizzy and drunk and she knew she was on the edge of a decision that would change everything.
    He stepped between her legs, cupping her face in both his hands. She wanted his kiss more than she wanted her next breath. Butshe couldn’t allow it, couldn’t surrender to him like this.
    Christos tilted her head back and her eyes closed as she anticipated his lips touching hers. She called up a picture of Jessie walking in on them and ice water dripped into her veins, giving her strength.
    She pushed him away, scrambling off the desk to face him. Disappointment ate at her like acid. But she’d done the right thing, dammit. “I won’t be an object of office gossip. I won’t have them know—”
    He seemed to stiffen, as if she’d insulted him. “Of course not. That would not be seemly. The Chatsfield princess and the Greek.”
    He made it sound dirty, as if she thought she was too good for him. “That’s not what I mean and you know it.”
    “Do I?”
    “You don’t stay, Christos. You come in, fix whatever needs to be fixed and move on to the next high-powered job. But this is my birthright and I will remain. I won’t have anyone thinking I slept my way into the CEO job when it’s finally mine.”
    His eyes flashed with irritation. “Confident it’ll be yours, aren’t you?”
    She thrust her chin out. “Yes.” She wouldbe even more so when Sara came up with the goods on him.
    “This is what I like about you, Lucilla. You don’t back down from a challenge.”
    “No, I don’t.” She picked up her tablet and clutched it like a shield again.
    “And yet you do run away from them sometimes. When they are too personal.”
    She trembled. She hated that he knew that about her, that he could see it. Was she that predictable? That obvious? She’d given up so many things for so long—she’d even given up a personal life