‘I wasn’t going to tell you, either. I met you tonight because Dad made me see it would eventually be very wrong to keep hiding your identity from Zack. He recalled that your mother did that to you, Nick, keeping you in the dark as to who your real father was, and how much it had hurt you. He said Zack had the right to know. But for this very strongly stated advice, I might have denied you any knowledge of your son.’
‘No. I would have come after you, Tess.’ He moved back towards her, his powerful body emanating a ruthless air of confidence, his eyes burning with purpose. ‘I was already in the process of coming after you.’
Her breath caught in her throat, rendering her speechless as his hands slid around her waist, drawing her lower body into contact with his. Her own hands, having been lifted in appeal for his understanding, landed automatically on his chest and were instantly tempted into sliding higher to his shoulders as her face tilted up to read the expression on his.
‘And nothing would have stopped me,’ he asserted with a wry twist of his mouth. One arm clamped her very securely to him as he raised the other and grazed soft fingertips down her cheek, his eyes engaging hers very intently in apologetic appeal. ‘I’m sorry we arrived at this place in this way, Tess, but we’re here, and you are the woman I want to be here with.’
Was she?
He had proposed marriage before he knew about Zack, so she was definitely the wife of his choice against all other comers. And since there’d been such a formidable list of stunningly beautiful and remarkably talented women in his life, she should probably feel flattered, even elated that he had chosen her, not torn by fears of being fooled and used.
As though he could see the emotional chaos consuming her, he thickly murmured, ‘Right now I’m hauling you in from the months that have separated us…’ His head was bending, his mouth coming closer and closer to hers, breathing words onto her lips. ‘…from the misunderstanding that drove you away from me. I didn’t stop wanting you, Tess…’
He kissed her. He kissed her in a way that stole her heart all over again—a kiss that started with tender reassurance, slid into seductive persuasion, incited erotic excitement, then burst into a passionate claim on all she was. There was no resistance in Tess to the marauding power of his desire. She wanted to feel it, wanted to lose herself in it, wanted to wallow in the sense that Nick Ramirez was hers—hers to have and to hold until…
No, she wouldn’t think beyond this moment.
Everything within her was pulsing with pleasure in the wild passion he emitted and evoked, so why not just let herself indulge in the dream of his loving her for as long he brought her to this brilliant pitch of vibrant life?
Yes was dancing through her mind.
Yes was humming through her bloodstream.
She didn’t want to listen to anything else.
His mouth broke from hers to gulp in air. He was holding her so tightly now, her breasts lifted with his chest as he refilled his lungs. It was like riding the crest of a wave, exhilarating, an intimate connection with natural forces that swept her along without any decision-making being required.
His lips trailed hot little kisses across her cheek to her ear. The words he whispered were like heady wine, sweetly intoxicating. ‘One taste of you and I’m drowning again, Tess. If I were an old-time sailor on a journey, I’d never get past your siren song to go anywhere.’
But he had gone elsewhere.
To another woman.
And if he did that again…
A sudden savage surge of primitive possessiveness had her reaching up, grabbing his head, pulling it back, her eyes targeting his with a blazing warning. ‘You take the step of marrying me, you stay with me, Nick. If you stray…don’t even try to come back. The door will be closed to you and it will stay closed.’
‘The owning,’ he drawled, his mouth twitching with mocking amusement, his eyes dancing with devilment. ‘Understood, Tess, but in all fairness I get to own you, too.’ His fingers raked through her hair. ‘I fancy seeing this crowning glory of yours spread in fiery abandonment across black satin pillows. My pillows. Whenever I want it there.’
He meant very visibly naked, which instantly stirred up all Tess’s physical insecurities. He’d been naked with a whole tribe of gym-toned, perfectly body-sculpted women. Her mind marched to defensive stations, commanding a dampening down of ardour.
‘Bad luck! I’ve only got chocolate-brown cotton on my bed if you’re thinking of using it tonight.’
He laughed. ‘That’s my Tess! But no way is the image in my mind deflated,’ he said with relish, then swooped and swept her right off her feet, cradling her across his chest as easily as he’d cradled Zack. ‘Must try it out. Black might be a bit stark. Chocolate-brown could be a warmer contrast, especially for the pearly gleam of your skin.’
Pearly gleam…
Nick had sampled so many carefully tanned women, she’d thought he’d see her as washed-out white, but pearly gleam sounded attractive. Even enticing. And there really was nothing wrong with her body. He’d simply made her feel it wasn’t up to his mark when he’d dumped her after only one night.
She needed him to erase the long miserable hangover from that rejection.
She needed him to make her feel so intensely desirable, no other woman could ever lure him into being unfaithful.
This was probably stretching the dream too far but hope was taking wing and Tess had no heart for tethering it. Indeed, her heart was pumping so hard and fast, it felt like a highly fateful drum-roll, heralding in what had to be a brave new world with Nick.
He set her on her feet beside the bed, viewing it approvingly over her shoulder. The quilt was actually made of dark brown and taupe silk squares in a checked pattern. These colours were repeated in a pile of decorator cushions with some gold brocade and tassels thrown in for added richness.
‘Very sensual, seductive and sumptuous,’ Nick observed. ‘Just like you, Tess.’
‘It’s cotton underneath,’ she whipped back, then wished she could tear her tongue out. Why couldn’t she just accept the compliment, take it as a fortunate reflection of how he saw her? What was she fighting against?
The answer flashed like a neon light across the churning mess in her mind.
The surface stuff!
She hated the surface stuff…all the glittering gorgeous women Nick had preferred to her, women like his Miss Universe mother, strutting through his life, the silk and satin women with all their gold accessories, gathering their status symbols, including Nick Ramirez amongst them, the Latin lover to surpass all others.