HAPPY FOREVER AFTER

“Put me down!” Emma said.

“You choose to invite attention, lady–” he tried to ignore the low, throbbing ache that threatened to test his legendary self control. “–and now you have it”. He strode to his car.

She weighed virtually nothing, he thought, as he all but thrust her into the car and delivered instructions to his driver in a clipped angry tone.

“Daniel… I’m not going anywhere with you” she said

“Be silent!” still seething, he shrugged out of his jacket for the second time that evening and dropped it on her lap.

“I don’t –”

“Cover yourself” The ferocity of his tone shocked even him so he could hardly blame her for shrinking back in her seat. Her reaction shamed him because whatever his faults, he had never struck a woman and never would. He was a man who prided himself on his self control and yet at that precise moment he wanted to kill someone.

“You are barely dressed” he said flatly, turning his head so he didn’t have to look at the confusion in her eyes. He didn’t want to feel sympathy. He didn’t want to feel anything. “When we get to my home, we can find you something to put on”

Preferably something that covered every inch of her.

“your home?” she repeated. ” I don’t want to go home with you Daniel”

He ignored her.

She glared at him. “You are behaving like a caveman,” she said.

“If I were I a caveman then I would have followed my baser instincts and stripped you naked in the ballroom when you all but begged me to do so” he said silkily. “and you would now be lying naked on one of those tables and your pleasure would be so great that you would be sobbing and begging for mercy”

Her soft gasp of shock was at odds with her provocative appearance. “I would never beg you for anything” she said hoarsely, but her gaze held his for a fraction longer than necessary and his gaze hardened.

Experience told him that she was clearly not indifferent to him no matter how much she would have liked that to be the case.

“I don’t want to go anywhere with you. Just take me home. Please” her tone was flat but she slipped her arms into his jacket and closed it around her.

“It’s late and my place is closer” he said

“I don’t care Daniel.. I didn’t ask for your help.” she retorted . “You actually kidnapped me… My friends will be looking for me and wondering where I went. They know I wouldn’t go anywhere without telling them”..

“you can call them on the phone and tell them that you are with me” he said

“well I don’t want to be with you Daniel”

The jacket did nothing to conceal the tempting length of her legs. Clearly aware of that fact, she pressed her knees together and slid her legs closer to the seat.

Daniel gave a little smile. “It’s a little late for modesty, don’t you think? For some reason the sight of her bare, beautiful legs served to reignite the anger he’d only just managed to subdue.

She turned her head towards him, her amazing eyes glittering in the semi darkness, tendrils of her hair falling sleek and smooth over his jacket. “What I do is none of your business”

She looked so innocent, he mused as his eyes rested on the tempting curve of her soft mouth. He wanted to kiss her. Kiss her till she stopped claiming she didn’t want to be with him. He wanted to kiss her and touch her till she begged him to fuck her right there in his car ”

“Don’t try to provoke me,” he warned softly.

“And what if I do?” she asked. “You already took me against my will. What are you going to do to me next?. Tie me up and lock me in your basement?”

He smiled. “I honestly have no problem with the tying up part,” he said. “I would actually like to tie you up sometime… Tie you up and do so many things to you… Just don’t provoke me any more than you already have”

“I’ll do as I please” she lifted her chin and glared at him. “Everything’s about power to you. Power and influence. You think you can just demand and get anything you want when you want. Well news flash, that isn’t going to work with me. Your power doesn’t interest me in any way. I don’t want anything from you. The way I act, the way I behave, what I do and what I put on… is nothing to do with you. You don’t know me and you never will”

The words were thrown with careless indifference but he sensed the growing tension in her, saw the amazing eyes darken as something alive and dangerous snapped taut between them.

The car sped through the night, smooth and silent, the darkness of the interior ensuring their privacy and increasing the intimacy.

Suddenly stifled by it, Daniel lifted a hand and tugged at his tie, opening the top two buttons of his shirt with a deft movement of his strong fingers. She followed the movement with her gaze, caught his eye for a single tense moment and then looked away.

The atmosphere was pulled tight with a sexual tension so powerful the air throbbed and hummed.

And he knew she felt it too because he saw the rapid movement of her slender throat as she swallowed, saw her fingers clutch his jacket around her like a shield. In a self conscious gesture she tried to tuck her legs away but there was nowhere to put them. Nowhere to hide.

“Stop looking at me Daniel. Stop”

Her hoarse plea brought a faint smile to his lips and dampened some of the anger inside him. Her almost childish plea confirmed that she was suffering as much as he was. Evidently she wasn’t as indifferent as she chose to appear.

“That dress is an invitation for a man to look. It was designed entirely for that purpose” he said smoothly, allowing his eyes to roam freely over her bare legs. “But you already knew that when you chose to wear it”

Hey knuckles whitened as she clenched her hands in her lap. “I wore it to annoy you!” she said.

He gave a slow smile. “There’s something you don’t understand, lady. In public, such a dress would indeed annoy me but now we are in private my feelings are entirely different” he said

“I don’t care about your feelings,” Emma said. “I’m not yours to command. You can’t just decide to have me.”

He leaned closer.”Oh yes I can. I only have to touch you and you will be mine “. He wound a strand of her hair around his finger. “And you want that every bit as much as I do”

Her eyes stared into his, hypnotized. “Not true.” she croaked. “I don’t want that. And your ego is sickening”

“We both know that my ego is not the problem here” He said huskily. Moving his body closer to hers. “Your feelings are the problem. Or rather, your insistence on denying them. Despite what you say, you are mentally undressing me and you’re wondering how our bodies will move together when we are finally in bed. You’re wondering how it will feel when I’m inside you ”

He watched the movement of her throat as she swallowed, saw the flash of shock in her eyes, the hint of excitement in them.

” Stop it ” her voice was a tortured whisper.” I want you to stop it, now. ”

His eyes gleaned dark with amusement

” you are so arrogant” she said

“I am honest” he sat back in his seat, more than satisfied with her response.

She really was astonishingly beautiful, he mused as he watched confusion flicker over in her face as she registered his sexually explicit analogy.

“I won’t go with you Daniel” she said

“I hate to point out the obvious” He said with gentle emphasis, “but you are with me”

“a mistake I intend to rectify immediately” she said. “you are an arrogant, pompous, annoying person and I want nothing to do with you”

“You seem to have this unquenchable need to verbalize every thought that enters your head” He said

“If you don’t like the way I am then there is a simple solution.” she said flippantly., “Take me home.. I didn’t ask to be here”

“I like the way you are” there was amusement in his gaze and his tone was deceptively mild.

“I have things to do” she said

“They can wait”Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

“Why?.. Because you said so?” she asked.

When he didn’t reply she added. “Why me?” she asked. “You said you were not short of female company. So why don’t you go hang out with one of them? I’m sure they will be glad to keep you company”

He laughed. “you sound jealous” he said

“I’m not jealous, Daniel. To be jealous you have to care and I don’t care about you. You have no effect on me whatsoever”