“Yes?”
“I’d be delighted to be your friend,” he told her.
“I… I thought we’d established that. I’ll be delighted to be your friend too.”
He nodded.
So did she, but hers was jerky and unsure.
“But I also intend to be your husband.” Her body stiffened again and she started to pull away but glanced at his sling and stopped then her eyes flew to his in fear.
Douglas ignored her look, determined to move to the next phase in his strategy and went on. “Julia, I intend to be your lover.” With Julia’s soft warmth pressed so close, he could smell her. Both the feel of her and her scent made his body begin to tighten in an intensely pleasant way so that, when he spoke, his voice deepened, became hungry, as he, again, made his intentions clear but this time, he made them clearer. “I intend to sleep in sheets that smell of tangerines and jasmine. I intend to have your na**d body squirming under mine. I intend to touch you everywhere with my hands and my mouth. I intend to memorise the taste of you, to make you call my name while I’m moving inside you, to make you so excited you beg me to let you come…”
“Stop it,” she whispered but her voice was husky, her frame had softened, moulding to his and, in her eyes, there was a mixture of warmth and panic.
Progress.
Now, Douglas thought, to make myself perfectly clear.
“I’ll do whatever I have to do. Even break our rule,” he promised, thinking about Lizzie.
The warmth in her eyes gave way to the panic.
“You wouldn’t!” she gasped.
“I would,” he assured her bluntly and her eyes widened then narrowed.
“That’s low,” she accused.
“I get what I want,” he vowed. “I’m a patient man but my patience is running out.”
“Why do you want to marry me? Be my lover?” Her voice rose hysterically. “Douglas, it’s mad!”
He stared at her quizzically. Could she not know her effect on him, on Nick, on Oliver, on men in general?
The thought was ludicrous, all women knew. They knew it and they used it.
All of them.
“Don’t ask ridiculous questions,” he clipped, his voice impatient. “It doesn’t suit you.”
Her mouth fell open and then snapped shut.
Suddenly, she dropped her head and exerted gentle pressure on his arm.
“Okay, fine, you’ve made your point. No truce, no compromise, the battle still rages.” She was talking quietly but sarcastically. He could not read her mood, couldn’t see her face but something in her tone made him let her go.
She quickly took several steps away.
“You should know,” she said when she looked at him, her face carefully controlled but her eyes were still glittering with something he could not read, “that there will be consequences to all of this. I doubt you’ll understand it, that it will even penetrate that reserve of yours, but it will happen.”
He had no idea what she meant and when he started to ask she shook her head.
She moved toward the dressing room. “Please, just go. For tonight, let me be the winner.”
Without looking back, she entered the dressing room and closed the door behind her.
After a moment of gazing at the door, he did as she asked and left.