They raced to the edge together. Gazes locked, bodies joined, two halves of the same whole. Again and again, his h*ps pistoned against her and she took everything he had, urging him on.
As the first crash of her orgasm slammed into her, she called out his name and Garrett felt her body spasm around his. He watched her shatter, felt the strength of her cl**ax shaking her. And Garrett realized he’d never known this before. Never been this connected to any woman before. He watched her pleasure and felt it as his own.
He heard her sighs and wanted to capture them forever. Heard his name on her lips and felt both humbled and victorious. Possession raged through him and his only thought as his own release finally claimed him was: mine.
Seconds ticked past, became minutes, and those could have been hours for all Alex knew. Or cared.
With Garrett’s body still locked with hers, she had everything she had been craving for days. The incredible feel of him deep inside her. The dazzling orgasm that was so much better than anything she had ever felt before. The sweet sensation of his arms wrapped around her. It was all…perfect.
As if she really had found the magic she had been looking for when she first began this holiday.
But even as that thought flitted through her mind, she knew it wasn’t true. Despite what she was feeling, she knew now that Garrett didn’t share it.
Want wasn’t romance.
Desire wasn’t love.
Love? Now where had that thought come from? She stiffened in his arms as the word circled round and round in her mind. She didn’t want to believe it, but how could she not? What she felt for Garrett was so far beyond what she had ever known with anyone else.
What else could it be, but love?
Which put her in a very uncomfortable position.
She was in love with a man who was only with her because he had been hired by her father.
“Alex…” Garrett’s voice thundered down around her, sounding like a summer storm, and she knew that their moment was over.
She looked up at him, watching his face as he spoke again.
“I’m sorry.”
She blinked. “You’re sorry?”
He pulled away from her and she instantly missed the feeling of his body pressed into hers. And she wanted to kick herself for it. How could she possibly love such a Neanderthal?
“It shouldn’t have happened,” he muttered, raking one hand through his hair and stepping back so she could slide off the back of the couch. “I let myself be distracted and allowed you to do the same.”
“Allowed?” she echoed. “You allowed me?”
He didn’t pick up on the temper in her voice, or if he did, he wasn’t paying attention. His mistake.
“I take full responsibility for this, and I want you to know, it won’t happen again.”
“You…you…” She opened and closed her mouth several times, but nothing came out. Well, who knew that “stunned speechless” could actually happen? Her bare toes curled into the rug beneath her feet as if she needed all the help she could get just to keep her balance.
“I know what you’re going to say,” he told her, with a small, brief smile. “And you don’t have to. I know you regret this as much as I do.”
Oh, she wanted to do something to wipe that “understanding” expression off his face. But once again, her breeding rang true and she settled for quietly seething instead. When she could speak again, she did so quietly. “So you’re writing my dialogue for me as well, are you?”
“What?”
Fury flashed inside her like an electrical storm. She actually felt bolts of white-hot anger stabbing through her system, and it was all she could do to keep from screaming. Looking up at him, Alex shook her head and said, “You pompous, arrogant, dim-witted, ego-maniacal…twit!”
He scowled at her. “What the hell?”
“Oh,” she said, eyes widely innocent. “Weren’t expecting that, were you?”
“What are you so pissed about now?”
“The very fact that you could even ask me that proves your twit-dom!”
“That’s not even a word.”
“It is now,” she told him, stalking a few paces away because she was simply so furious she couldn’t stand still. She should have been embarrassed, or, at the very least, uncomfortable, walking about her suite stark naked. But truthfully, she was too angry to care.
“I’m trying to do the right thing,” he said, each word grinding out of his throat.
“For the both of us, it seems,” she snapped. Her gaze fixed on him, she said, “Did it even occur to you that what I might regret most is your ridiculous attitude?”
“Ridiculous? I’m taking responsibility for this mess. How is that ridiculous?”
“How is this a mess?” she countered.
“You know damn well how,” he muttered. “Because I’m here to protect you.”
“But not from pompous asses, apparently,” she said.
“Okay, that’s enough.”
“Have you decided that, as well?” she asked, a sugary sweet tone to her voice.
“What the hell, Alex? We both know this shouldn’t have happened.”
“So sayeth the almighty arbiter of everything sexual.”
“You’re starting to piss me off.”
“Well, join the bloody club!” Walking back to him, she stopped within a foot of his gorgeous body, tipped her head back and glared into those eyes that only moments ago had been glazed with passion. Now there were ice chips in those depths and damned if she didn’t find them just as attractive. “I’m not a naive young virgin out for her first romp in the hay, you know. You’re not the first man in my bed. You’re simply the first to regret it the moment it was over. Well, thank you very much for that, Garrett King.
“Now, why don’t you take your sense of responsibility and leave?”
“I’m not going anywhere until we settle this.”
“Then I hope you packed a lunch,” she quipped, “because I don’t see that happening anytime soon.”
“Maybe if you’d be reasonable…”
She sucked in a gulp of air and gave him a shove. He didn’t budge an inch. Like shoving a bloody wall. “Reasonable? You think I’m not being reasonable? It’s only my exceptional breeding and the training of my mother, not to mention countless governesses, that’s keeping me from punching you in the nose!”
He laughed at the very idea, which infuriated her enough to curl her hand into a fist and take a wild swing at him, just as her brothers had taught her to. Garrett, though, was too fast for her and caught her hand in his before she could make contact.