Modern Romance January Books 5-8. Heidi Rice

times. I had to leave all the things I’d tried so hard to build. I don’t want to just jump to someone’s orders like that ever again.

      ‘I know you didn’t mean it that way, I know it’s only a few days...but I’m still... I’m still mastering the art of navigating my own ship. I don’t want to jump just because you’ve asked me to.’ She looked into his face, willing him to understand. ‘And that dress, for that party at the palazzo—that was a one-off. I’m not Cinderella, you’re not my fairy godmother or my Prince Charming, I don’t want to take things from you in that way. This thing between us isn’t like that.’

      ‘This thing?’

      ‘Yes. This affair.’

      ‘It’s an affair?’

      She flushed and anger gleamed in her eyes. ‘I don’t know what to call it. I just don’t want it to become any more complicated.’

      Somehow he was irritated again as well. ‘So I’m not to come back with an emerald bracelet or diamond necklace for you, my current lover?’

      ‘Of course not.’ She was appalled at the thought. Was that what he did for other women he’d slept with? She hated that idea—she didn’t know that side of him at all. And she didn’t want to.

      ‘You don’t like gifts?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘So, no gifts, no travel. What do you like?’

      She liked him. Her heart pounded as she answered. ‘Control.’

      ‘Really?’ His eyebrows arched. ‘You don’t want anything else from me apart from this?’ He drew her closer.

      ‘I really don’t.’ She sucked in a breath. ‘I only want what we agreed. Only you. Only now.’

      For some reason Rafe was even angrier when he really should have been relieved. She was holding fast to their initial agreement. But once again, when she delivered what he’d thought he wanted from her, he found he wanted the exact opposite.

      ‘So have me, then,’ he challenged her bluntly.

      He didn’t want to talk any more, didn’t want to question. He wanted to make her pay. He’d tease and torment her so she’d be unable to forget him for these few days he’d be away. He wanted her to regret this rejection.

      ‘I don’t want to fight,’ he muttered, stripping her out of her underwear.

      But in a way he wanted exactly that. Here and now.

      He hoisted her into his arms, holding her so he could kiss her exactly where and how he knew she liked it the most. Making her moan, making her shake with urgency and need until she was twisting beneath him. But he wouldn’t give her what she wanted. Not yet. Not when she frustrated him so completely. He was irritated with himself for wanting her so badly, as much as he was irritated with her refusal to go away with him. He couldn’t hold back the emotion he felt from her rejection and he demanded recompense. He wanted to make her want him more than she’d ever wanted anything in her life. Hell, he was turning into a complete egotist.

      He’d leave for Paris immediately—get his meetings concluded quickly so he could come back and burn this out entirely and then he’d go back home to Manhattan. He’d been here too long already anyway. That’d leave her free to find whatever it was her heart wanted. Because he knew it wouldn’t be him for much longer. But in kissing her, in touching her, it was his own control that slipped.

      ‘Rafe. Rafe,’ she begged him. ‘Please, please.’

      She was so responsive, so welcoming, so damn hot. And so deliciously quick. In the end he couldn’t resist his own driving need to get close to her again. To make peace. He wanted her too much. His plan to make her pay was shredded as emotion claimed control of his mind and body. He didn’t want her to be angry, but happy. Content. Glowing. To welcome him, to move with him. Together. In the end, the only thing he could gift her in this moment was himself.