Mediterranean Tycoons: Dark & Demanding

How did she do that? Confuse him… One look from her baby blues, and she made him feel guilty for being economical with the truth, and at the same time turned him on so hard his loins ached.

‘You worry too much,’ he insisted, strain making his tone curt. He leaned back in his seat and circled his shoulders to ease the tension. It had been a horrendously long day; the anger that had sustained him this morning had calmed somewhat after meeting Liza again, and getting the information he required. But he felt as if he had been walking on eggshells for the past few hours. Never forgetting his primary concern was to help Carl catch the criminals, but at the same time endeavouring to protect Liza from the result of her own actions; whether with criminal intent or not, she was involved up to her swan-like neck. But what to do about Liza he still was not sure…

He knew what he wanted to do… She made him feel like a randy teenager again.

He cast a sidelong glance at Liza and he saw the uneven rise and fall of her breasts, the subtle scent of her perfume—or was it simply her—fogged his brain and his body tightened another notch.

Nick dragged an unsteady hand through his hair. They were airborne now; she could not change her mind and getting her out of Lanzarote was for her own good, he told himself. He owed it to the delightful child she had been to protect her. He could not let her go to jail. It should have made him feel better, but it didn’t. Instead beneath his cool exterior he was struggling to contain emotions that were as unwelcome as they were unfamiliar.

Had he taken leave of his senses? How the hell was he going to explain to Carl that he had taken off with one of the prime suspects? His friend would think he was crazy. Maybe he was. But he knew he would do anything, pay anything to keep Liza out of trouble with the law, and if that made him a fool, so be it.

Leaping to his feet, he crossed to a cream leather sofa. Slipping off his jacket and tugging his tie loose in the process, he dropped them and his long length down on it, his angry eyes raking over her. Frustration wasn’t the word!

Liza was a walking, talking sex goddess. Either in trousers and a cheap top with her glorious hair scraped back in a childish pony-tail, as he had seen her this morning, or with her hair a tumbled mass around her shoulders and elegant in black wrap-around dress that was just begging to be unwrapped. Crook or not, she turned him on without even trying.

‘To hell with it!’ he swore under his breath. Keeping her out of jail did not mean he had to keep her out of his bed. She had matured into an incredibly sexy, sophisticated lady, and he was acting like an idiot. He was a man who prided himself on his control and anger bubbled beneath the surface of his smooth smile as he gestured with one hand to the adjoining sofa.

‘Take a softer seat. You’ll be more comfortable,’ he offered, and watched as she rose from the aircraft seat, her hands nervously sweeping the smooth fabric of her dress over her hips, and he almost groaned out loud.

She looked so shy, almost innocent, and that was part of her charm, or her act, he reminded himself cynically, and, unfolding his long length from the sofa, he stepped towards her. ‘But perhaps a guided tour first,’ he suggested, curving his hand over her shoulder. ‘The plane is divided into three compartments—this seating area, a bedroom and restroom.’

Liza had never seen anything like it. How the other half lives, she thought drily, but it was luxury with a capital L. Soft leather sofas and chairs, an occasional table and thick cream carpet, a bar in one corner, near a door that led to the galley and to the flight deck. Nick had introduced her to the captain and crew when they boarded. At the opposite end towards the rear of the aircraft was a corridor with a couple more doors leading off. She knew people who lived in smaller apartments than this plane; the thought made her smile.

‘It all looks very luxurious and very expensive.’ She lifted sparkling blue eyes to his. ‘It must be great to be so rich you can have your own aircraft.’

The smile in her eyes took his breath away. But her comment also made him wonder if she was greedy for money. Thief, gold-digger, he didn’t give a damn.

‘It has its compensations.’ Nick’s voice roughened as he turned her into his arms, and did what he had been aching to do since they left the villa. He ran his hands down the shapely length of her supple body, felt her tremble and then crushed her ruthlessly against the hard heat of his own. Using his innate masculine ability to arouse her, he quite deliberately lowered his head and brushed her pouting lips with his.

She was sweet, so sweet… He tasted her with lips and tongue, savouring her like a connoisseur of fine wine, and then he deepened the kiss until he felt her slender arms wrap around his neck. He lifted his head, the briefest of triumphant smiles curling his hard mouth, and, drawing a deep, rasping breath, he took a chance. ‘Let me show you.’ He didn’t add ‘the bedroom’ he didn’t need to.

Liza didn’t know what hit her—one minute she was talking to him, and the next she was enfolded in Nick’s arms. The mere touch of him had turned her legs to water, and when he kissed her a surge of heat enveloped her whole body. She clung to him, and when he smiled at her she began to tremble as she gazed at him in mesmerised fascination.

He was incredibly handsome with the most gorgeous, slumberous, come-to-bed eyes, dark as night and yet with a sensual gleam as gold as the rising sun. He had to be over six feet four, he was the only man she had ever met she really had to look up to. Her mouth ran dry and she felt a sudden heaviness in her breasts as her nipples tightened in helpless response.

Show her what? The thought crossed her mind but was lost as one long finger traced the outline of her full lips, then moved along her jawline to curve around her ear. She involuntarily swayed into him as his large hand moved swiftly on to the nape of her neck, his long fingers burrowing under the heavy fall of her hair. His hand was smooth but she was intensely aware of the strength in his grip, and for a second she stiffened in apprehension.

But then he lowered his head once more, and his mouth traced the curve of her cheek, tantalisingly close to her. Heat kindled in the pit of her stomach, and she couldn’t think straight, didn’t try… This was what she wanted, what she yearned for, and she turned her head slightly to find his teasing lips with her own.

A wild recklessness swept through her as his mouth took hers with a ruthless, demanding passion that in seconds had her on fire. Her slender fingers tangled through his silky black hair as his tongue delved deep, and she welcomed the hard, savage mouth, gloried in the meeting. They kissed with a ferocious hunger that emptied her head of everything but a growing deep physical ache that curled and tightened in the centre of her body.

Suddenly she was swept up in his arms, and her head fell back as his tongue licked down every inch of her throat to the shadow between her breasts. Liza closed her eyes and felt her whole body melting bonelessly in his arms, and then slowly he raised his head.

‘Look at me,’ Nick demanded. ‘Is this what you want, Liza?’ he asked in a deep slightly accented drawl.

Her dazed blue eyes clashed with jet black, and for a second she saw a look of such predatory hunger in his expression some tiny corner of her mind tried to warn her to be wary. She dragged in a ragged breath, trying to fight the pull of his attraction. ‘The steward,’ she murmured inanely. He had asked earlier if they wanted a drink and Nick had dismissed him, but…

‘It is more than his job’s worth.’ Nick declared with arrogant certainty, but the slight colour tracing his high cheekbones and the clenching of his fingers in her hair told her he was no less affected by the desire flooding through them than she was. Her pupils dilated to almost obscure the blue, she opened her mouth to reply, but, reading the answer in her eyes, he did not wait.

He shouldered the door open and in two strides he lowered her down onto the large bed. Discarding his shirt, his great body looming over her, he reached down and untied the knot at her waist and peeled her dress open.

Liza should have been shy, exposed in only black lace briefs, but her eyes widened on his lean, strong face, her pulse racing as she checked down to the broad shoulders. All her attention was captured by the perfection of his tanned, muscular chest, the intriguing pattern of black curling body hair that arrowed down to where his trousers hung low on his hips. He was her dream come true, she had waited what felt like a lifetime for this man, and at last she was trembling on the brink of knowing the full wonder of Nick, her heart’s secret desire.

‘You are exquisite,’ Nick growled, his gaze roaming over her near-naked length, before he sank down beside her, and ran his long fingers through the silken mass of her hair. He then trailed one long strand with teasing expertise over a firm breast, a rosy tip, and watched her nipple tighten, saw her body arch in an involuntary motion she could not hide. He surveyed her hungrily. ‘Ravishing…’ and that was exactly what he intended doing to her…

Hypnotised by his slow, sensual exploration, Liza caught her breath as he reached for her. Stripping her dress from her shoulders, his hands were everywhere. One skimming over her breasts, the other tracing the length of her leg from knee to thigh, while with lips and tongue he tormented her with kisses and tantalising caresses over her face and throat.

‘So are you,’ she breathed, so caught up in the excitement, the pleasure he aroused, she was scarcely aware of what she was saying. Long fingers traced her inner thigh, and brushed against the scrap of black lace. Liza groaned out loud, as at the same time his teeth found a dusky nipple and teased with tiny bites.

Unbelievable sensations arrowed through her body as he began to suckle before he turned his attentions to the other rigid peak. He didn’t hurry, he suckled and licked, and at the same time his seeking fingers slipped beneath the black lace and stroked the hot wet centre of her femininity. Her eyes widened in shocked pleasure before he took her lips in a brief, hard kiss, and continued his tantalising exploration of every inch of her until she was writhing on the bed like a woman possessed.

Liza grasped his broad shoulders with both hands, shaped them, loving the feel of sleek, satin skin. Then, with an innate sensuality she did not know she possessed, ran her hands down over his chest, discovering the massive breadth, the hard male nipples in the silken whorls of chest hair, her fingers tracing the ridges of perfectly defined muscles. Daringly she dipped lower until she fumbled with the button of his trousers. Nick helped her and obligingly slid off his trousers and boxers.

Incredibly for a girl who had thought she did not like sex, thought she was frigid, Liza couldn’t stop her fingers from trailing the long, hard length of his erection, curving her slender fingers around him. She had never realised how much she had been missing; his body was beautiful, a tactile feast of epic proportions.

‘No.’ His hoarsely groaned command and his hand capturing hers stopped her frenzied exploration. ‘Slowly, Liza, slowly.’ She heard the sharp intake of his breath as their mouths met.

She wasn’t really conscious of him removing her briefs as desire mounted frantically inside her, driving everything else from her mind, except for the burning need to have Nick there…where the heat was most intense…

He moved over her and she felt the roughness of his chest against her sensitised nipples. Then his mouth invaded hers yet again, the kiss replicating what she ached for him to do with his body. She wrapped her arms around his broad back and traced the length of his spine, her small hand curving around his hard buttock, her fingers digging into his flesh.

Liza felt his heart pounding into her almost painfully but she exalted in the feeling, his passion consuming her, and she abandoned herself to the driving hunger that had her in its grip. Her tongue duelled with his, her teeth were creating their own havoc on his lips. But suddenly he reared back, and her arms fell to her sides. ‘Nick,’ she moaned his name, ‘I want you.’

Nick felt the tremble in her body, the hot, wet heat of her, and heard the husky words emerging from her mouth. Unbearably aroused, he feasted his eyes on her, her hair spread out like a pale cloud across the cover, her dazzling blue eyes dazed with desire, the full, firm, rigid-tipped breasts, her skin as smooth as silk, the exquisite body spread beneath him. He had never seen anything so beautiful, and she wanted him.

Nick swallowed a pained groan… Now she told him, when he needed no encouragement! Quite the reverse. He reached over to a drawer by the bed and withdrew a condom. Swiftly in one fluid movement he knelt between her legs, not trying to hide his fierce arousal, and nudged her thighs apart, his thumbs rubbing over the velvet lips, and Liza stretched out her arms to him. He gloried in watching her mindless, breathless and needy, oh, so needy, exactly how he wanted her, but his moment of triumph was short-lived.

Nick could feel his control slipping away as her slender fingers raked down his chest; she was wild and wanton and he was closer to losing it than he had ever been in his life. ‘This time I’d better do the honours, or I won’t make it,’ he rasped.

‘Please,’ Liza groaned.

Please her he would, Nick vowed, and dipped his dark head and brushed his lips against the soft velvet flesh of her inner thigh, even as his hands touched her, stroked her, squeezed her breasts, driving her ever higher. He was wet with sweat, his muscles trembling, and the scent of her, the feel of her was driving him wild, but still he held back. He had the skill to drive a woman mindless and he utilised every atom he possessed to do just that.

She tensed as his mouth found her, and then she instinctively arched against him, her whole body pulsating with need, every nerve taut, craving for release, spiralling out of control. ‘Nick…Nick. Now,’ she cried out.

Nick reared up and looked at her with hot black eyes, then slid his hands around her bottom and joined them savagely together with one mighty thrust. Liza gasped, a slight cry escaping her. Nick hesitated, but with barely a pause she wrapped her legs around his waist, urging him on. Her slender body responded to the thrusting hardness of his possession as he moved again and again, deeper and deeper. She was so tight and as the pulsating start of her climax gripped him with a fierce, almost excruciating pleasure he lost it, he had to let go. Together they climaxed in a cataclysmic explosion of raw, primeval passion.

Liza lay still, her slender body hot, damp and totally replete, her arms around Nick, holding him close. His great body pinned her to the bed, but she didn’t feel his weight, only an incredible possessive thrill that he was hers at last.

Nothing had prepared her for the wild, primitive passion he aroused in her. She had never realised, never even guessed at the depths of emotion possible between two people. Moisture hazed her eyes, but they were tears of happiness. At last she knew what it was like to be totally possessed by the man who had filled her every erotic thought from puberty, and the beauty, the magic of it was beyond words. How had she ever imagined she hated him?

She took a deep, contented breath and ran slender fingers gently through the damp strands of his curling black hair. He was hers now, and she listened to the ragged sound of his breathing with a fierce joy. She, Liza Summers, the frigid one, had done this to him and her swollen lips curved in a smile so feline she almost purred…

Nick turned his head, saw her smile and pressed a swift kiss to her cheek. ‘I’m too heavy for you.’ Leaning up on one elbow, he looked down at her.

‘No, you’re perfect for me,’ she murmured. She could see the gleam of masculine satisfaction in his eyes and the hint of a smug grin. ‘Perfect,’ she reiterated, brimming over with happiness. Her teenage dreams had not begun to touch on the awesome reality of Nick as a lover.

‘Glad you approved.’ Nick chuckled. ‘But I don’t want to crush you.’ And one elegant hand reached across her slender body to cup her breast, his thumb lazily stroking the tip. ‘There are much more interesting things to do with this exquisite body.’ He trailed his hand down over her stomach. ‘And I intend to explore them all.’

To her amazement her body stirred in response, her breast swelling. She opened her mouth to remark on the astonishing fact and stopped. Nick looked gorgeous, his black hair tousled and his incredible eyes…

‘I think I always knew the skinny, coltish teenager would eventually develop the body to tempt a saint.’

Liza blinked and looked again…reality clicking in.

His words had been addressed to her body, not her face, and her brief moment of euphoria was deflated like a burst balloon. He was studying her naked figure like an artist might study a statue. But then why wouldn’t he? she reminded herself. He was an expert and his women were legendary, and he was certainly no saint…

She felt the colour surge in her cheeks, and her lashes fluttered down to conceal the pain in her eyes.

‘Liza.’ She opened her eyes; his face was close and shadowed with stubble, and she had an overwhelming urge to reach up and touch him. ‘You OK?’ His hand moved from her stomach to twine his fingers in a few long strands of hair. ‘You’re sure?’ He tugged on the lock of hair, his dark eyes narrowing intently on her face.

Amazingly Nick saw she was blushing. Yet she had been everything he imagined and more, wild and willing, he’d never known a woman so responsive. Thinking back, he recalled her shock when he first touched her intimately, her brief flinch, and her slight tensing at times. Perhaps she was not such a promiscuous lady as he had thought. Unless he was very much mistaken it was some time since she’d had a lover and even then not a very expert one if her surprise was anything to go by.

Embarrassed by his analytical scrutiny Liza sat up. ‘Never better,’ she said brightly, and she gave in to the temptation and lifted her hand and stroked the roughened skin of his jaw. Realising what she was doing, she jerked her hand away and, pulling on the mantle of a sophisticated lady, she added, ‘But isn’t it time we got dressed?’

She was suddenly very conscious of her nudity, and his, and she was terribly afraid if she didn’t put some space between them quickly she might reveal that what for Nick was simply sex between two consenting adults had meant a whole lot more to her. She had never dreamt that she could feel such an intensity of emotion, such passion. In fact after her only other sexual encounter with a man, her ex-fiancé, she had convinced herself great passion was a myth for a woman. Liza felt the prick of tears at the backs of her eyes. How wrong could one get? she thought sadly.

Nick glanced at his wrist-watch, the only thing he was wearing, and groaned. ‘You’re right, Liza,’ he agreed, slanting her a grin. The flush had gone from her face, and her eyes were a little too bright, her smile a little too brittle—not the usual response he got from his women in the afterglow of sex. But he was sure she had enjoyed it as much as he had.

But it was the middle of the night, he rationalised, and, swiftly bending his head, he captured her mouth in a brief, gentle kiss. ‘You look tired. I’ll take the shower first. I would suggest you join me, but that delight we will have to save for later, or we will never get off the damn plane, and by my reckoning we’ll land in twenty minutes.’

Liza watched wide-eyed, she couldn’t help herself, as he flung his long legs over the side of the bed and, gloriously unconscious of his nudity, in a few lithe strides he crossed to the far side of the room and disappeared through another door. Moments later she heard the sound of running water, and in her mind’s eye she saw his magnificent tanned body, the washboard belly, the hard, lean buttocks, and with a shake of her head she jumped off the bed, and began gathering up her clothes.

So she had had sex with Nick; she must remember sex was all it was…she muttered over and over in her head. A short holiday to attend the party of her mother’s friend. Any involvement with Nick had to be light-hearted fun… She could handle it…

CHAPTER FIVE

THE headlights of the car swept over the stable block, and Liza suppressed a tiny shiver of revulsion. Old memories she could do without… Instead she recalled the wonder of feeling the length of Nick’s naked body against the heated eagerness of her own, and longed to repeat the experience with a hunger that made her stomach clench. If she closed her eyes she could see the image of their bodies entwined, see the burning desire in his eyes as he captured her mouth in a deeply passionate kiss.

Stifling a groan, she shook her head to chase away the erotic thoughts. The car was moving through a large stone arch and into the rear courtyard of the Menendez Hacienda and Nick brought it to a silent stop outside a large oak door.

Liza scrambled out of the car and, standing up straight, she stretched her shoulders back; she was stiff, tired and suddenly incredibly nervous. Her last visit to this house had been a disaster. What on earth had possessed her to come back? A glance at Nick walking around the front of the car towards her, and she had her answer…

‘Are you sure we are expected so late?’ she asked with her gaze raking along the long building before them. There appeared to be only a chink of light from beneath what she knew was the rear lobby leading into the large kitchen in the west wing of the hacienda.

‘And why the kitchen entrance? Trying to smuggle me in like a thief in the night?’ she teased, turning to look at Nick as with one long, easy stride he stood in front of her. She paused, feeling the tension coming from him in a slight hardening of his jawline, a flicker of something she didn’t recognise in the depths of his enigmatic eyes. As she saw him outlined in the moon’s silver light, the power of his superbly masculine frame and the inescapable pressure of the fingertip he lifted to her chin made her shiver in instinctive response.

Damn her! She wasn’t far wrong, Nick thought grimly. He did have an ulterior motive, and even with the unexpected help of his mother he knew it would not take much to arouse Liza’s suspicions. But it also reminded him he had been so caught up in the witch’s spell he had forgotten to pass on the information to Carl about Brown’s return, and, appalled at his own lapse in concentration on the crime he was investigating, he lashed out at her.

‘And are you a thief?’ he demanded curtly, and immediately wished the words unsaid as he saw the humour flicker and fade from her expressive eyes to be replaced with a wary puzzlement. ‘No, of course not.’ He answered his own question, his mouth curved, as if her comment had amused him. He did not want her getting suspicious of his motive, not now… ‘Except perhaps of hearts,’ he quipped in a damage-limitation exercise, and, tipping her chin a little higher, he pressed a swift kiss to her softly parted lips, before reaching for her hand and leading her towards the door.

‘Mamma arranged for Manuel to wait up for us, hence the back door; you remember him and how he loves to sit and watch the television in the kitchen.’

Liza did remember, and she accepted his explanation, but she couldn’t dismiss the unsettling notion from her mind that he had not been joking when he asked her if she was a thief. She was being ridiculous…it was the middle of the night…she was having spooky thoughts…

A stream of light suddenly bathed the yard as Manuel appeared, and when he smiled and said her name with obvious pleasure Liza was touched that he had remembered her. But in the next minute she was horribly embarrassed as she heard Nick quite casually tell Manuel to take her luggage to his room.