At No Man's Command by MELANIE MILBURNE

Author:MELANIE MILBURNE
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-10-15T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

IN THE EARLY hours of the morning, James rolled over sleepily to reach for Aiesha beside him in his bed but instead his hand found a cool, empty space. He looked for a long moment at the indentation on her pillow where her head had lain beside his. The faint trace of her perfume lingered in the air, the same delicate but deliciously intoxicating fragrance he could smell on his skin.

He sat upright, listening for sounds of her moving about in the en-suite bathroom, but there was nothing but silence.

Empty silence.

He frowned as he pushed back the covers. He hadn’t heard her leave. He hadn’t expected her to leave. It made him feel like a gigolo who had served his purpose—a cheap hook-up that meant nothing to her. He didn’t like the sense of being used. He had brought her upstairs because—all jokes aside—carpet burn wasn’t his style, and he had a feeling it wasn’t hers, either.

But then he remembered she’d told him she never spent the whole night with anyone. But surely he was different? He wasn’t some nameless one-night stand she would never see again. He had taken the time to listen to her, to try and get to know her, to understand what put those shadows in her eyes.

He had made love to her.

He had taken the time to get to know her body as intimately as he could. She had responded to him with captivating fervour. Surely what they had shared meant more to her than a quick satiation of physical need?

He glanced at the bedside-table clock. It was 4:00 a.m. He shrugged on his bathrobe, telling himself he was only checking on her to see if she was all right.

Her bedroom was empty.

The bed had been slept in, or at least she had been in there because the sheets were all tangled and thrown back, the feather pillows crushed and misshapen. But whether she had slept or not was open to question.

How long had this restless bed-hopping been going on? When had it started? Why wouldn’t she talk to him about it? If only he had realised at the outset how complex and traumatised she was he might have been able to get her to confide in him without all the game playing she went on with all the time. He still cringed at the way he had confronted her in the kitchen, accusing her of stealing. He had pushed her into a meltdown and in doing so he had lost his chance to earn her trust. How long would it take to win it back? Or was he fighting an unwinnable battle?

When he turned on the light in the kitchen Bonnie raised her head and blinked at him but didn’t move from her cushioned bed near the cooker. She put her head back down on her paws and closed her eyes as she gave a deep doggy sigh.

James scanned the kitchen with his gaze. The kettle was stone-cold and there were no crumbs or used plates or discarded apple cores or milk cartons.

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