Bittersweet Love - Cathy Williams [19]
Natalie blushed and stood up, a little shakily. ‘I really must be going now.’ She wanted to inform him, quietly and calmly, that she wasn’t so stupid to be taken in by words like that, but she could barely muster a coherent sentence together.
‘Already?’ His eyebrows shot up in surprise. ‘What about a nightcap? I was enjoying chatting to you. You relax me, believe it or not.’
‘No. No nightcap, thank you,’ she said too quickly. ‘Perhaps you could get O’Leary to call me a cab?’
He did, and while they waited he pouted himself a glass of brandy, swallowing it back in one gulp. ‘Sure you won’t join me?’ he repeated his offer and she shook her head with a smile.
‘I want to make sure that I have a clear head for tomorrow.’
‘You’re putting on your secretarial clothes again,’ Kane remarked drily, moving over to where she was standing, looming over her until she felt as if she was going to suffocate under the weight of his masculinity. Natalie laughed awkwardly and their eyes met. Her breath caught in her throat. He was so tall, so over-powering, so devastatingly good-looking.
Before she could look away, his head swooped down to hers and his mouth brushed over hers, finding it warm and soft and pliant. It was the first time he had ever kissed her. True, at Christmas-time, he would give her an impersonal, light-hearted embrace, as he did with other female members of his staff. But nothing like this. Even though he barely touched her mouth with his own there was nothing at all impersonal about his action. In fact, there was something strangely, deeply intimate about it.
He drew back, looking down at her, and Natalie realised with a mixture of disgust and dismay that she was trembling. Like a gauche teenager being kissed for the first time. Which wasn’t that far off the truth. Her experience with men was limited, and for the past five years, ever since Kane had stepped into her life and taken over her emotions, not at all.
She knew now with a sense of shock how deeply she had been holding herself for just this one kiss. A kiss that meant nothing to him at all.
She couldn’t say a word. He bent over her again and this time his mouth met hers in a kiss that was more demanding, fiercer. He was gripping her by her shoulders, pulling her against him so that she could feel his hard arousal pressed against her. With a sigh of pleasure she felt his hand move to curl into her hair. There were no words she could find to describe the sensations coursing through her body. It was as if she had been starved for years, for a lifetime, and now she had been given a taste of food.
Of course it was madness. The ring of the doorbell announcing her taxi brought her back to her senses and reality hit her like a bucket of cold water. She pulled herself out of his arms and took a few deep breaths, trying to stabilise herself. She could feel tears of anger and humiliation pricking the back of her eyes and she had to blink very quickly to make sure that they did not fall. She had made enough of a fool of herself for one night already, without that.
‘My taxi’s here,’ she said huskily, not looking at him.
‘You could always send him away,’ Kane murmured softly, and this time she did look at him, stunned.
‘Are you mad?’
She turned away and began hunting around the room for her handbag.
‘Are you looking for this?’ Kane asked from behind her, and she turned around to see him dangling the bag from his finger, a lazy smile on his lips.
Very funny, she thought. What a jolly laugh you must be having at my expense. She snatched the bag from him and he laughed softly, his eyes alight with dry amusement
‘I’m glad you find this whole situation so entertaining,’ she said through gritted teeth.
I’m sorry,’ he apologised, without a hint of sorrow in his voice. The smile died from his lips and he said more seriously, ‘Actually, entertaining isn’t quite the word I would use.’
No, I’m sure it isn’t, she wanted to retort. Perhaps interesting would be a better word, an interesting little experiment