Читать книгу The Holiday Escapes Collection - Сандра Мартон - Страница 49

EMILY started to stir in Charlotte’s arms once they arrived at Damon’s hotel.

‘Where are we, Mummy?’ she asked, blinking at the bright lights of the hotel foyer as the cab drew to a halt outside.

‘We’re at a hotel, darling,’ Charlotte answered. ‘This is where your…er…daddy is staying.’

‘My daddy is here?’ Emily asked with wide eyes.

Charlotte caught the tail-end of Damon’s look and felt another wave of guilt crash through her. He was so very angry but in amongst the anger she could see he was deeply hurt. His dark eyes shone with it, the pain evident every time he looked at his little daughter.

‘Yes, he’s here, darling.’

‘Emily—’ Damon’s deep voice brought the little girl’s head around ‘—I am your daddy.’

‘Weally?’ Emily’s eyes grew even wider.

He smiled and gently stroked a long finger against her creamy cheek. ‘Yes I am—really.’

‘Are you going to live wif us now?’ Emily asked, her thumb sneaking up to her little mouth.

‘That hasn’t been de—’ Charlotte began.

‘That is certainly what I will be doing,’ Damon said, interrupting her. ‘In fact we are going to go on a holiday together, just like a real family.’

‘In an aeropwane?’ Emily asked around her thumb.

He nodded as he lifted her out of the cab. ‘Not just any old aeroplane, little one, but my very own private jet.’

‘I’ve never been on an aeropwane,’ Emily said, nestling against his shoulder, her eyelids beginning to droop once more. ‘Is Mummy coming too?’

Damon met Charlotte’s mutinous look. ‘Yes, she is, Emily.’

‘Are you going to get married?’ Emily asked.

Charlotte’s eyes moved away from the burning probe of Damon’s to address her daughter. ‘Not all mummies and daddies are married to each other,’ she explained.

Emily’s little forehead started to wrinkle. ‘But I want to be a flower girl like Janie was. I want to wear a pretty dress and have flowers and stuff in my hair.’

‘I will see what can be arranged,’ Damon said and led the way into the hotel.

Charlotte had to wait until Emily was settled and sound asleep in the second bedroom of the penthouse suite before she could confront Damon over his autocratic plans to take over their lives.

‘How dare you imply to Emily we’re getting married?’ she fumed as she came into the main room. ‘She’ll be so disappointed when she finds out the truth.’

He held her flashing blue gaze for a lengthy moment without speaking. Charlotte didn’t care for the intransigent set to his features and wondered what was going on behind the dark screen of his eyes. She could almost hear the cogs of his incisive mind ticking over.

‘Emily has raised an important issue,’ he said at last. ‘She is a child crying out for a normal family life. We can give that to her.’

Charlotte stared at him in alarm. ‘Don’t even think about it, Damon. You’re the last man I would ever consider marrying.’

‘I am not going to give you a choice,’ he said with an intractable set to his mouth. ‘If you do not agree to become my wife, you will find yourself not only without a job but without a daughter. There is not a judge in Australia who would allow a little child of three years of age to be exposed to a heroin-addicted prostitute, and you damn well know it.’

‘I am her mother! You can’t just waltz in and take her away.’

He moved past her to get himself a drink from the well-stocked bar on the other side of the room. ‘Well, I am her father and, since I have not had any say in her upbringing thus far, I am taking full control now.’

Charlotte drew in a breath that scraped at her raw throat. ‘How can you expect to know what’s in her best interests? You don’t even know how to be a father.’

His eyes hit hers. ‘And whose fault is that?’

She couldn’t hold the burning accusation in his gaze. ‘I told you I had no choice. I would have told you years ago, but you wouldn’t listen.’

He moved back to stand in front of her, his height so intimidating she felt herself shrink backwards. ‘Tell me something, Charlotte—’ his voice was like an ice floe passing over her skin ‘—were you ever going to get around to telling me of her existence? You have known I was coming to Sydney for months. You could have at any time contacted me and told me and yet you did not. Not only that, over the last few days you have spent hours and hours in my company and yet you have not said a word.’

Charlotte felt the probe of his gaze against hers and knew it would be pointless to lie to him now. ‘I was trying to work up the courage…’ she said, her throat moving up and down painfully.

‘I do not believe you.’

‘I was!’

‘You are lying. You have had numerous opportunities to tell me. No wonder you found it hard to look at me. All that talk of you finding things difficult between us was a pack of lies. What you were finding difficult was facing up to your guilt.’

‘I was going to tell you! I wanted to, but I was worried you’d do exactly what you’re doing now!’

‘You bitch.’ His embittered words slashed the air like a machete. ‘You thieving little lying bitch.’

Charlotte raised her hand without thinking but he caught it in mid-air, his rapid block sending every bit of air out of her lungs.

‘You want to play it rough, do you, Charlotte?’ he asked, his fingers tightening around her wrist until she was sure it would bruise. ‘Go on, then. Hit me.’

Her eyes blazed with hatred. ‘Let go of me or you’ll regret it.’

He gave a mocking laugh as she pulled ineffectually against his hold. ‘How are you going to make me regret it, agape mou?’

She kicked out with her foot but he spun her around so her back was towards him, every hard ridge and plane of his body now pressing against hers. She could feel his warmth seeping into her, the fragrance of his aftershave filling her senses and the unmistakable swelling of his erection probing her erotically from behind.

‘I do not think violence becomes you, Charlotte,’ he said against her neck, his lips a temptation she knew she would not be able to bear for much longer. ‘I prefer you purring like a kitten in my arms.’

‘L-let me go…’ Her plea was halfway between a gasp and a groan as he pressed even harder against her.

His mouth found the sensitive skin behind her ear. ‘That was my mistake four years ago,’ he said. ‘This time I will not let you go.’

She shivered as his tongue slid from behind her ear to her neck, tasting her in tiny teasing kisses that made her stomach quiver and her legs go weak and watery.

He turned her in his arms and looked down at her, his eyes alight with desire as his hand cupped her breast, his other reaching between her legs, rubbing her intimately until she was leaning into him unashamedly. ‘See how you respond to me, Charlotte?’

‘I don’t want to respond to you…’ she breathed into the hot moist cavern of his mouth as it hovered just above hers. ‘It doesn’t seem right…’

His lips brushed against hers, the tickling, teasing touch stirring her into a mindless frenzy of need. ‘What would indeed be wrong would be to ignore this passion that sizzles between us, Charlotte,’ he said, stroking her bottom lip with the rasping, sensuous glide of his tongue.

She opened her mouth as his tongue pushed tantalisingly against her lips, her stomach hollowing in need as he thrust in once, stroked her tongue with his and then retreated. She brought her mouth back to his and met his tongue with her own, tentatively at first and then, when he responded with a deep groan, with even more fervour.

It was a kiss of combat and the angst fuelling it somehow made it all the more thrilling. Her teeth nipped at him, inciting him to do the same, her bottom lip his tender target. He suckled on its fullness before capturing it with his teeth again in a series of playful little bites that had her senses instantly screaming for release.

He pushed her backwards until she was up against the nearest wall, his mouth feeding hungrily off hers, his chest heaving in and out with the effort of staying in control.

Charlotte didn’t want him in control. She wanted him in full-throttle mode, no holds barred. She tore at his shirt with her fingers, searching for the springy hair on his chest, her nails raking along his skin with an almost animal passion as her tongue fought with his for supremacy.

His hands went to her breasts, shaping her through the fabric of her dress possessively before he reached behind her for her zip and lowered it. The feel of his hands on the naked skin of her back was intoxicating, every pore of her skin tensing in delight as he brought his hands around to where her breasts were aching for his touch.

Her dress fell in a pool at her feet, leaving her with nothing but her knickers and thigh-high stockings and heels, her whole body quivering in anticipation as he reached beneath the damp lace of her underwear to stroke her intimately.

‘You want me,’ he said in a husky tone, his dark eyes glittering with victory. ‘You can deny it all you like, but your body speaks for you.’

Charlotte couldn’t see any point in denying it now. Her whole body arched to bring his fingers deeper but it still wasn’t enough. She threw her head back and gave a whimpering groan as his fingers began to massage the wet swollen bud of her femininity with devastating expertise. She could feel the tension building all through her body until her mind switched off and she became conscious of nothing but the spiralling sensations his masterful touch was evoking. She felt the first flicker and then the full-on rush of feeling as the spasms took hold, rocking her body against his hand, her hips undulating with the sheer force of trying to hold on to that exquisite feeling for as long as she could.

Her whole body sagged against the wall when it was over, her legs feeling as if they were going to fold beneath her.

Shame coursed through her like a hot red tide when Damon stepped back from her. Whatever desire he had felt was now gone. She could see the disdain in his eyes as they raked her slumped form and she inwardly cringed at her appalling lack of control.

She rustled up a tattered remnant of pride and, affecting a sultry expression, met his gaze. ‘What’s wrong, Damon? Not feeling up to it again tonight? I thought you had more stamina.’

His mouth tightened. ‘I do not intend to sleep with you again until we are married.’

Her eyes flashed back at him defiantly. ‘I don’t intend to sleep with you at all, married or not!’

His lip curled as his gaze ran over her half-naked form. ‘I can have you whenever I like. I just proved it.’

‘You proved nothing but what an unscrupulous man you are,’ she spat back.

He stepped towards her again, his arms locking hers above her head. ‘You like to brandish those insults of yours around, don’t you? But I should warn you that once we are married you will have to tame that tongue of yours or you will regret it.’

‘How are you going to make me regret it, Damon?’ She threw his own words back at him, her taunting tone setting off a blazing inferno in his eyes as they clashed with hers.

She sucked in a little breath as his hands pulled her from where she was pressed up against the wall, her body slamming into the tempting heat of his.

‘I will teach you to bend to my will if it’s the last thing I do,’ he growled.

‘Then you’re going to have one hell of a fight on your hands,’ she warned him with a lift of her chin.

His eyes warred with hers, his jaw so tight she could hear his teeth grinding together.

The tension was like an electric current zinging in the air. The scent of his arousal was there too, teasing her nostrils until she felt as if she was breathing him into the secret depths of her body.

His eyes burned into hers as he pulled her towards the huge bed, his free hand undoing his belt, his shoes thudding to the floor as he pressed her down on the mattress, his weight pinning her beneath him.

‘Is this what you want?’ he asked, releasing himself, the hard probe of his erect body already sinking into her wet warmth.

Charlotte gasped as he drove forward with a deep thick thrust, her inner muscles grabbing at him greedily, wanting all of him, again and again. Her hands clawed at him, holding him, caressing him, stroking him until he let out a deep primal groan as he sank even further into her warmth, his movements quickening as the pressure built.

His pace was almost too hard and too fast but somehow she kept up, her body responding without restraint, her soft but frantic cries making her pant as she felt herself climbing to the summit again.

Damon lifted his mouth off hers and forced her chin up so that she met his eyes. ‘Look at me,’ he demanded hoarsely.

Her eyes skirted away from his but he wouldn’t allow it. ‘Look at me, damn you! I want you to see what you do to me, what you have always done to me.’

‘You hate yourself for it, though, don’t you, Damon?’ she asked a little breathlessly as his hard body thrust deeply and determinedly into hers. ‘You want me even though you hate me.’

‘The less said about my feelings towards you right now the better,’ he said, and with one last powerful thrust he triggered her release with the mind-blowing explosion of his own.

Charlotte lay in the tight circle of his arms, her heart still racing as the aftershocks of pleasure filtered through her body. She could feel the deep thud of his heart against her breast and his uneven breathing against the soft skin of her neck. She wanted to say something but for the life of her couldn’t think of how to break the awkward silence. She felt so ashamed of her weakness; she had practically begged him to make love to her again.

She felt him roll away and turned her head to see him put his hand up over his eyes as if warding off a nasty headache. She watched as his chest rose and fell in a sigh before he removed his hand and turned his head to look at her.

‘I am sorry, Charlotte,’ he said in a gruff tone. ‘That was not meant to happen, or at least not like that.’

She gave him an ironic look. ‘I thought that was why you paid me in the first place. Wasn’t that the deal? I was to become your paid mistress for the period of time you’re here?’

A dull flush appeared along his sharp cheekbones. ‘I did not know then that you were the mother of my child,’ he said.

She raised her brows expressively. ‘So that makes it somehow different, does it?’

‘You know it does.’

She got off the bed and scooped her clothing off the floor, dressing again with angry, agitated movements. She pulled the hair out of the back of her dress once she had zipped it back up and glared at him.

‘You’re a hypocrite, Damon. You were content to employ me as your mistress when it suited you but now you want me to be a faithful, obedient wife.’

He got off the bed and reached for a robe. ‘You will be my wife, Charlotte,’ he said, tying the ends together almost viciously. ‘But, as to whether you will be faithful and obedient, that remains to be seen.’

‘How will you explain this to your mother?’ she asked. ‘I can imagine she’s going to be rather shocked that you lowered yourself to marry the hired help.’

‘She will understand my motivation to protect my daughter at whatever cost.’

‘But what about the cost to me?’ she asked. ‘You’re asking me to walk away from my life here.’

‘As far as I can see it, your life here consists of juggling a career and a child and the consequences of the criminal behaviour of your sister. You will be much better out of it. As my wife you will have everything money can buy. Emily will not only have the benefit of two parents, but she will also have the devotion of her grandmother.’

‘You think by waving your wallet around you can have anything you like, don’t you?’

His eyes glittered as they clashed with hers. ‘I bought you, did I not?’

She drew in a sharp little breath, her blue eyes flashing with spite. ‘Then I hope you enjoyed this evening, for it’s not going to happen again.’

‘It will happen again, Charlotte, for you cannot help yourself. We are alike in that, if nothing else. We still share the fierce attraction we felt from the first moment we met.’

‘But we hate each other,’ she said. ‘What sort of home environment are we going to provide for Emily? We’ll be bickering and sniping at each other all the time.’

‘We will act like the responsible, mature adults we are meant to be,’ he countered. ‘We will treat each other with respect, most especially when in the company of our daughter.’

‘That’s going to be quite a challenge for you then, isn’t it?’ She gave him a pointed look. ‘I can see nothing but hatred in your eyes.’

‘You should consider yourself fortunate that I am actually prepared to marry you. On the basis of what I witnessed this evening, I could take Emily off you permanently.’

‘So I’m supposed to be grateful that you’re forcing me into marriage, am I?’

‘You could do a lot worse.’

‘Yes, I suppose I could,’ she shot back sarcastically. ‘I could have married someone who loved me.’

‘You had the chance to do that four years ago but you threw it away.’

‘There is no way of convincing you, is there?’ she asked, ashamed that tears were prickling at the backs of her eyes. ‘You still see me as a thief. You will always see me as that.’

‘I am prepared to put aside the past to deal with our future,’ he said. ‘We have a child to consider now. It would not be good for Emily to hear about that incident. I will make sure no one speaks of it ever again. Besides, as far as I know, only my mother, Eleni and I knew about it.’

Charlotte frowned. ‘You didn’t tell anyone else?’

‘No.’

‘But…but why not?’

‘I thought it best at the time.’

‘But how did you explain our sudden parting?’ she asked. ‘Surely people wanted to know what had happened between us.’

‘I told them you had study commitments back home, which was partly true. You would have had to return at some point to finish your degree, even if I had asked you to marry me. I would not have expected you to sacrifice your education.’

‘And yet you are demanding I sacrifice the whole point of my education now—my career.’

‘You have a child, Charlotte. You have clearly struggled to provide for her alone. Once we are married and settled into a routine you can think about returning to your career. There are numerous opportunities on Santorini for a person with your qualifications.’

‘You really expect me to do this, don’t you? To just walk away from my life and take up with you.’

‘You do not have any choice. It is either marry me or lose your daughter.’

‘Even though by doing so I will be losing myself?’

‘You will not lose yourself, Charlotte,’ he said. ‘I will try to be a good husband to you.’

‘Does that mean you’ll be faithful?’

He held her challenging look for a long time before answering. ‘That remains entirely up to you.’

She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘What do you mean by that?’

‘If you do not want to conduct a normal physical relationship with me, then I will have no choice but to have my needs met elsewhere.’

She gave him a disgusted glance. ‘You mean pay someone?’

His eyes swept over her in a raking manner. ‘Up until now I have never had to pay.’

She tightened her mouth. ‘I only took that money to help my sister. I was never going to sleep with you.’

‘So what changed your mind?’

Charlotte turned away in case he saw her vulnerability. She could hardly tell him she was still in love with him, even though it was painfully true.

‘I asked what changed your mind,’ he said again.

She turned back around once she was sure her expression was bland with indifference. ‘Sex with an ex holds some sort of appeal, don’t you think? I wanted to see if you still had what it took.’

‘And your verdict is?’

She had to look away. ‘Revisiting relationships is always fraught with the danger of disappointment.’

‘If you were disappointed you showed no sign of it,’ he commented wryly.

‘A hungry person would think contaminated food is a feast,’ she returned with an arch look.

‘So you thought it was worth the risk?’

She gave a little shrug.

‘But we do it rather well, don’t we, Charlotte?’

She gritted her teeth and crossed her arms over her chest, scowling furiously. ‘I hate myself for responding to you.’

He moved across to stand in front of her, his hand tipping up her face so she had to look at him. ‘You are always going to respond to me, agape mou,’ he said. ‘It is something that is inescapable.’

Charlotte could feel the magnetic pull of his gaze as it held hers, all her senses going into overload as his eyes dipped to her mouth. Her lips buzzed in anticipation of the erotic pressure of his mouth on hers, her skin prickling all over at the thought of his body invading hers so commandingly, her eyelids slowly closing as she prepared herself for his devastating kiss…

‘Mummy?’

Charlotte’s eyes sprang open as Emily padded into the room.

‘Darling…’ She rushed across the room to crouch down before her daughter. ‘Is your arm hurting?’

‘Yes…’ Emily gave a little sob. ‘And I had another bad dweam.’

‘I’m here now, sweetie,’ she soothed.

‘And so am I,’ Damon said.

Emily rubbed at her eyes and padded over to him. ‘I was dweaming about you,’ she said, looking up at him with huge black eyes.

‘W-were you?’ Damon felt his throat tighten as he looked down at the little pixie face in front of him.

‘I fought you were going to go away…’

He bent down to her level, his eyes warm as they met hers. ‘I am not going away, little one. You can count on that.’

‘I can’t count past ten,’ Emily said with a sheepish look. ‘Mummy’s been teaching me but I’m not berry good.’

Damon felt as if someone had clamped his heart in a vice. He had never felt such emotion before. ‘You are only three years old,’ he reminded her. ‘You have plenty of time to learn.’

‘Can you count to a hundred?’ Emily asked, slipping her thumb into her mouth and sucking so hard he could hear it.

He smiled as another emotional gear shifted in his chest. ‘Yes, I can.’

The tiny thumb came out long enough to ask, ‘Will you teach me?’

He gathered her into his arms and breathed in the small child scent of her, his heart contracting at the thought of all he had missed out on so far.

‘I will teach you whatever you need to learn, little one.’

‘Mummy?’ Emily peered past her father’s broad shoulder. ‘Did you hear dat? Daddy’s going to teach me to count to a hundred.’

Charlotte smiled even though her face hurt with the effort. ‘That’s wonderful, darling. I’m sure he’ll be a wonderful teacher.’

Emily snuggled up close to her father as he carried her back to the spare bedroom. ‘I like having a daddy,’ she said, hugging him tight around the neck with her little arms.

‘And I like having a daughter,’ Damon said, trying to control his voice.

Emily eased herself away to look at him with big serious black-brown eyes. ‘You won’t go away again, will you?’ she asked.’ Cause I haven’t shown you my special fings.’

‘What special things do you want to show me?’ he asked as he tucked her back into the spare bed.

She gave him an assessing look, as if deciding whether he was to be trusted or not. ‘I have a teddy bear and a doll and a wabbit with one ear.’

‘What happened to the other ear?’ he asked, trying his best to disguise the choked emotion in his voice.

‘I cut it off when I was berry little,’ she confessed. ‘I found Mummy’s scissors and cut it off. I got into big twouble, didn’t I, Mummy?’

Charlotte’s throat felt too tight to get the words out. ‘Yes…I was very worried you could have hurt yourself.’

‘Will you read me a story?’ Emily asked her father. ‘Mummy always reads me a story and sometimes if I’m berry good she makes one up in her head. Can you do dat?’

‘I’ll give it a try,’ Damon said. ‘What sort of stories do you like?’

Emily wriggled underneath the covers. ‘I like the ones with a happy ending. Do you have any of those in your head?’

‘I guess I could try to find one,’ he said, scratching his temple.

‘The best ones start with once upon a time,’ she told him with solemn authority. ‘I can start you off if you like.’

He smiled down at her, his heart feeling so big it felt as if it was taking over his body. ‘That would be great.’

She took a little preparatory breath that reminded him so much of Charlotte he could scarcely inflate his own lungs.

‘Once upon a time…’ She gave him an impish grin. ‘Now it’s your turn.’

‘O-K,’ he said and settled himself on the bed beside her. ‘Once upon a time there was a beautiful little girl who was called Emily…’