The Bedroom Barter by Sara Craven Read Free Book Online Page B

endure. That there'd been more than a moment when she'd actually wanted her lips to part under his, inviting—imploring his deeper and more intimate invasion. When she'd longed to feel his hands on her body—the sting of his thighs against hers.
    A soft, aching instant when she'd been ready to go wherever he might lead.
    A small sound escaped her, halfway between a laugh and a sob.
    He noticed instantly. 'What is it?'
    'Nothing,' Chellie disclaimed instantly. 'At least—I— don't think I'm handling this situation very well.'
    He was silent for a moment, and when he spoke his voice was abrupt. 'You're doing all right.'
    It wasn't what she'd wanted to hear. She'd hardly expected praise of the highest order, but she'd hoped, at least, for a little warmth and reassurance.
    She thought, I wanted him to smile at me as if he meant it…
    But I mustn't think like that, she told herself in sudden anguish. It isn't right. And it certainly isn't safe.
    Although his arm round her felt safe. Safe—but oddly impersonal. Just as his kiss had been.
    Well, now she knew the reason for that totally sexless performance.
I made sure you were well hidden
.
    Someone to watch over me, she thought wearily. That's what I wanted, so I can hardly complain about the way he does it. And it was only a minute ago, anyway, that he told me I wasn't his type.
    She felt her face warm at the memory. She could only be thankful that she hadn't yielded to that swift, burning temptation and responded to the taste of his mouth. Oh, it would have been so frighteningly easy—and such a disaster.
    Because he wasn't her type either, she reminded herself forcefully. He was more than merely attractive, and he might have an educated voice, but that was only a veneer. Underneath there was a darkness—a danger.
    And certainly no Galahad either, she thought. He was just a buccaneer, like all the others who'd once pursued their predatory trade up and down the Caribbean sea.
    If she'd met him in London, or down at Aynsbridge, she wouldn't have given him a second glance.
    Unless he'd looked at you first, said a sly voice in her brain. And you'd suddenly found you couldn't tear yourself away…
    Her problem was that she wasn't accustomed to instant sexual attraction. Had always written off that kind of emotion as cheap. Told herself that passing attractions could have no place in her life.
    Liking should come first, she'd always believed. A mental attunement that could blossom into real love—Shakespeare's 'marriage of true minds' that 'looks on tempests and is never shaken'.
    So how, then, did she explain Ramon? A chapter of accidents, she supposed wearily. She'd been searching desperately for a way to break her father's yoke and release herself from the stultifying boredom of her life. Something that would take her further than non-stop partying.
    She had also been rebelling over his persistence in pushing Jeffrey Chilham at her as a future husband. It was to have been a purely dynastic marriage—Jeffrey, a widower at least twenty years her senior, was poised to take over the running of the corporation when Sir Clive retired—and there was nothing the matter with him that a complete personality transplant could not have cured.
    He was correct, worthy, and so ponderously indulgent in his attitude to her that she'd often longed to fling herself at him, screaming, and sink her teeth into his jugular vein.
    As a result, she'd been driven to parading a succession of totally unsuitable young men in front of her father. She'd had no intention of marrying any of them. She had just wanted to convince Sir Clive that she was a person in her own right, and not for sale. That she was capable of finding her own husband.
    Nevertheless, it had been painful to see them fade away, one after the other, after being exposed by him to the social equivalent of an Arctic winter.
    The gossip columns had enjoyed a field-day with her, their comments becoming increasingly snide as one relationship