Eternally Yours - Brenda Jackson [87]
When the door closed behind her, Clayton walked forward, stopping in front of Syneda. He looked down at her intensely. “What do you want to talk to me about?”
Taking a deep, unsteady breath, Syneda stepped back. His towering height seemed intimidating. “Let’s step outside.”
“No.”
“No?”
“That’s what I said. Why can’t you say what you have to say right here? Are you afraid we’ll make a scene and the family will find out about us?”
She frowned. “That’s not it at all. I thought—”
“And what did you think, Syneda?”
“I thought that maybe we could go someplace where we could be alone.”
Clayton stared at her. She had a lot of nerve trying to offer him a chance to put things back the way they used to be between them. She was still only interested in an affair with no commitment or complications. Didn’t she understand that he could have what she was offering with a number of other women? Didn’t she know that with her he wanted more? Had she not gotten it through her head that he loved her with such a passion that even now his hands were trembling from just being near her, wanting to touch her, to love her and to keep her with him always? Just looking at her brought back memories he could very well do without.
“You’re the last woman I want to be alone with, Syneda.” He turned to leave.
His words hurt Syneda, but she was determined that he would hear her out. Moving quickly she blocked his exit. “You’re going to listen to what I have to say, Madaris.”
“Don’t count on it. Now move your butt out of my way.”
“No.”
The stark coldness in his eyes made her shiver from the chill cast in the room, but Syneda didn’t care. As far as she was concerned she was just as mad as he was. He could be so stubborn at times.
“You make me so mad, Madaris, I could just smack you.”
“I wouldn’t advise you to act crazy and do it,” he said threateningly, glaring down at her.
“Act crazy? You mean like this?” she asked angrily before smacking him.
The swiftness of Syneda’s action caught Clayton completely off guard. Enraged, he grabbed her hand and yanked her to him and glared down at her. Then all of a sudden he was kissing her, his mouth hard on hers, his tongue thrusting into her warm moistness, probing and caressing.
He had wanted to be brutal in his kiss, to punish her for hurting him. But he found he couldn’t. Especially when he felt her response. So he continued to kiss her, letting all his needs and frustrations take over.
Soon an inner part of him told him this was not the way. He loved her too much to take less than a full commitment, less than her total love. Feeling disgusted with himself for his lack of control where she was concerned, he shoved her away from him and spun around and walked in the opposite direction.
“Clayton, please wait and listen to me.”
He stopped walking and turned back around. The look in his eyes told her he had been pushed beyond his limit. “No, Syneda, you listen to me. You’re here but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Just do me a favor and stay the hell away from me. You wanted my family so bad, well, you can have them, but that doesn’t include me. All I want is for you to leave me alone.” He turned and walked out of the kitchen.
Shaken by his angry words, Syneda sat down in the nearest chair. Clayton no longer wanted her. She had been so sure that once she saw him again and they had a chance to talk, and she told him how much she loved him, things would be all right between them. She hadn’t expected his anger, and she never expected him to not want anything to do with her. He actually acted as if he hated her. She must have hurt him deeply for him to feel the way he now felt toward her.
Her shoulders drooped. There was no way she could stay here with his family knowing how he felt. Making a decision to find an excuse to leave first thing in the morning, she walked through the same door Clayton had walked through just moments earlier, almost colliding with Mrs. Madaris.
“We didn’t mean to desert you, dear.”