‘Don’t say that!’ she snapped. ‘You don’t mean it. I know you don’t.’
His smile, when it came, was extremely sardonic. ‘I’m saying it to make all that we’re going to do this afternoon seem right.’
Suddenly, she was afraid. Of this cold, cruel Nicolas, but mostly of herself. Because she was still turned on by him. Even now. ‘What…what are we going to do?’
Sexy blue eyes glittered down into her.
‘Whatever I want you to do,’ he said. ‘That was the deal, wasn’t it…?’
CHAPTER TWELVE
‘ANOTHER chocolate, my sweet,’ he said, and leant forward to pop one of the deliciously creamy delicacies into her mouth.
No point in objecting, Serina thought. No point in objecting to anything he suggested. The bitter truth was she simply didn’t have the willpower to resist him, or the desire.
Besides, she was ravenously hungry, having not eaten a thing since a very light breakfast—just coffee and one slice of toast.
So she ate the chocolate and washed it down with a mouthful of champagne, all the while wondering why he hadn’t suggested something more decadent than their current positions in the spa bath. They were sitting at opposite ends, only their feet touching occasionally.
It was not what Serina had envisioned. What she had, perhaps, secretly hoped for.
This wasn’t the first time they’d shared a bath. In the old days he would have placed her across his lap, his swollen sex deep inside of her whilst they lay back in the water like two spoons. His hands would have covered her breasts and he would be whispering hot words of love and passion into her ears.
‘What time is it, do you think?’ she asked suddenly.
‘Haven’t got my watch on,’ he replied. ‘But my guess is it’s just after one. Plenty of time left. We could even waste a little of it talking.’
‘Talking?’ she echoed in startled tones.
‘You don’t want to talk? Too bad, Serina. It’s not your choice. So tell me, was your marriage happy?’
The last thing she wanted to talk about was her marriage. Serina sipped some more champagne in an effort to find composure.
‘Like most marriages,’ she said at last, not quite meeting his probing gaze, ‘it had its ups and downs. But on the whole we were happy.’
His head tipped slightly to one side in that way people did when they were trying to detect if someone was lying to them.
‘Why only one child?’ he went on, blue eyes boring into her.
Serina’s stomach tightened, but she managed a nonchalant shrug. ‘We tried for more. It just didn’t happen.’
‘Your fault or his?’
‘Neither. We were perfectly healthy, the doctors said.’ Now this was not totally true. Greg had discovered quite a few years back that he had a low sperm count, possibly because he’d had mumps as an adolescent. Technically, he had been still capable of fathering a child, but conceiving had not been easy.
‘I see,’ Nicolas said. ‘Well at least you have Felicity. She’s a delightful child.’
‘Delightful,’ Serina agreed. ‘But difficult.’
Nicolas smiled an indulgent smile. ‘Yes. I can see that she might be that.’
Serina knew she had to get off that topic and quick.
‘And what of you, Nicolas?’ she countered. ‘Have you anyone waiting for you back in New York? That pretty little Japanese violinist perhaps.’
His eyebrows lifted. ‘You know about Junko?’
So he was sleeping with her!
‘I know of her. Felicity did an Internet search and showed me what you’d been up to over the years.’
‘I see.’
‘You’ve had a lot of beautiful women, by all accounts.’
‘True,’ came his cool reply.
Dear heaven, but he was annoying.
‘You never wanted to marry any of them?’
‘Yes. Once. But it didn’t work out.’
‘When was that?’
‘Years ago,’ he responded nonchalantly, as though it was of no importance. ‘Look, I can see that making idle chitchat is not our forte. Not this afternoon, anyway. Let’s get out of this bath and back to what we do best together.’
He rose up through the water, soapy bubbles clinging to various parts of his body—his shoulders his chest…
She stared up at it, then up at him.
‘As you can see,’ he said drily as he stepped out of the bath and reached for a towel, ‘I have recovered sufficiently to continue. Now put down that champagne, beautiful. I need someone out here to dry me, someone who knows just how I like it done.’
Serina’s heartbeat quickened at his command, her head whirling with hot jabs of desire. At last it was going to begin again. At last, she could touch him as she’d been dying to touch him.