Harlequin Desire July 2015 - Box Set 1 of 2: Seduced by the Spare Heir\Claiming His Secret Son\Pregnant by the Cowboy CEO by Andrea Laurence

Author:Andrea Laurence
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Harlequin Desire
Publisher: Harlequin

Seven

Richard let Isabella leave his side, a jagged rock in his throat. This felt real. And final.

Anything he did now to stop her would have to be true coercion. And no matter that he was losing his mind needing her, and she’d proved again she needed him as much, overpowering considerations had made her decide to quell that need. He could force her. But he couldn’t. He had to have her not only willing, but unable to live without having him.

He watched her careful progress to the bathroom in only her sandals, what had remained on all through. She soon exited and, without looking at him, bent to pick up her panties, dropping them again when she realized they were ruined before walking out. Pulling on his pants, he followed her as she retraced and reversed her stripping journey.

Once beside the pool, she sat on the couch where they’d almost made love the first night and looked at him.

And the way she did...as if he was everything she wanted but could never have.

Before he charged her and overrode her every misgiving, her subdued voice stopped him in his tracks.

“I’ll start.” She stopped to swallow, her averseness to coming clean clearly almost overwhelming. “I’ll tell you everything. My side of the story. But only if you promise you’ll reciprocate and tell me the whole truth, too.”

“What if I promise, and you tell me everything I want to know, but I don’t deliver on my end of the bargain?”

Her shoulders jerked dejectedly. “I’d do nothing. I can do nothing anyway. The first truth I have to admit is that I am at your mercy. The imbalance of power between us is incalculable. I have so many vulnerabilities while you have none. You can force me to do anything you want.”

He made her feel this way? Defeated? Desperate? He’d thought she needed his chase before she gave in to what she’d wanted all along. But if she truly hated it, this was as insupportable, as abhorrent, to him as when she’d thought he could harm her.

Feeling his guts twisting over dull blades, he came down to sit beside her. “You previously said you considered my word worth having. If you really think so, you have it. A caveat, though. You’ll probably end up wishing you hadn’t asked for the whole truth. It will horrify you.”

“After what I’ve been through in my life, nothing ever would again.” Her gaze wavered. “Can I have a drink first?”

Her unfamiliar faltering intensified his distress. He’d never seen her...defenseless before. Besides the shame that choked him for being what made her feel this way, a piercingly poignant feeling, akin to the tenderness only Rose had previously provoked, swamped him. For the first time he wasn’t looking at Isabella as the woman who made him incoherent with desire, a woman he wanted to possess, in every meaning of the word, but a woman he wanted to...protect. Even from himself.

Especially from himself.

Stunned by the new perception, he headed to the bar and mixed her one of the cocktails she liked.

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