9

Money would be the lever he’d pull in order to get her to do what he wanted, since money he had in abundance. Sex too was a lever, as he knew after that encounter down by the lake that they had some kind of sexual chemistry. Not that it would be any hardship; there was nothing he liked more than making a woman burn for him.

___________

Anna had gone very still, like a deer catching a predator’s scent.

Cedric thought she’d have researched him before she’d arrived the way he had with her, and would already know that he was the man she’d met by the lake. But it was clear from her stiff posture and sudden tension that she hadn’t known. Not until he’d spoken. He stared at her elegant back, conscious of desire stirring to life almost instantly inside him.

Ah yes, he remembered that feeling, not to mention his own uneasiness with the ferocity of it. But he could manage that. It was only physical desire, and he knew, if anyone did, that desire only meant what you wanted it to mean. Which to him was only pleasure, nothing more. There was nothing emotional about it.

Emotions he avoided like the plague.

So he let himself look at her, let the desire rise inside him, because she was tall and sleek, and her figure was accentuated by the plain jeans and white shirt she wore. Her red hair was falling down her back in a simple ponytail caught at the nape of her neck, and she was still every bit the wild goddess she’d been in the woods that day.

She would be a perfect wife for him, at least for a time. And the perfect mother for their child. It was as if she’d been intended for him all along, and their weird, intense chemistry only proved it.

“Anna,” he murmured into the silence. “Anna Remington.”

She turned around abruptly, her gaze the same brilliant golden brown as he remembered, and just as full of shock.

Then the sexual tension hit, a sharp jolt of electricity that had him catching his breath. Colour rose into her cheeks, making it clear that she felt it too, though he knew that already.

“You,” she breathed.

Cedric inclined his head. “Yes. It is indeed. The naked man you met beside the lake last week”

“You’re…you’re the Duke?”

“Cedric Blackwood, Seventh Duke of Springbrook.” He gazed at her vivid, passionate face. “But from the look on your face, I suppose you’re probably wanting to call me “that asshole”.”

“That’s why you were swimming,” she said, ignoring him. “You weren’t trespassing.”

“No.” He shook his head slowly. “I was out for a run and decided to cool off in the lake. My lake.”

She kept on staring, her eyes wide. Then the shock drained away and a thousand angry golden sparks glittered suddenly in her gaze. She strode forward, closing the space between them without hesitation until she stood only inches away. The expression on her face now blazed with outrage and anger. A goddess who’d been wronged and who was now looking to punish some poor worshiper for their transgression.

Cedric watched her, and couldn't help but think that she was magnificent. So tall he barely had to tilt his head to meet her gaze, and her anger had brought the most beautiful flush to her skin. There were very few people who confronted him in this way these days. He covered his single-mindedness and the icy streak of ruthlessness that ran through him with a veneer of dry amusement to put people at ease, which was useful when it came to both business and pleasure. But that veneer was thin. And when people sensed it, they were intimidated. But she was not intimidated. She was not afraid.

She looked at him as if she wanted to strike him for his temerity and he found that he almost wanted her to try. He would enjoy a fight with this woman. Anger was a potent fuel when it came to generating pleasure.

“How dare you?” She sounded shaken and furious, her eyes gone a smoky, molten gold. “How dare you not even say one single word to me? You should have told me who you were, not let me assume. And how dare you let me come here not knowing—?”

“I didn’t let you do anything,” he interrupted coolly, though cool was the last thing he felt. “I assumed that you would have done the most basic internet search. Research, Anna. Isn’t that what intelligent people do?”

He knew saying that would be like throwing a lighted match into a pool of spilled petrol, but he wanted to see her blaze. And she did. She went up like a torch. He saw the moment her temper snapped, the moment her hand lifted, and so he was ready, grabbing her wrist calmly before her palm could connect with his cheek, the sound of his heartbeat roaring in his head.

You fool. What do you think you’re doing, provoking her like this?

Maybe he was a fool. But now her skin was warm against his fingertips and her furious gaze was on his, staring right at him. And he realized he’d never felt more alive than he did in this moment. In this old house he hated, that somehow still managed to make him feel like a ghost in the walls, even all these years later.

A taut, crackling second passed. Her skin was warm and silky, and he could feel the tension in her arm. Outrage and fury poured off her. She was like the sun during a solar flare, flames leaping in her eyes, a fire burning under her skin. It made him want to take that fire in his hands and coax it higher, make it burn brighter. Turn it into a bonfire. And only when it was blazing as high as it would go would he step into the flames and have them consume them both.

Careful. She could have you on your knees.

No, she wouldn’t. He’d never let anyone have power enough to put him on his knees and he certainly wasn’t going to start with this woman, no matter how lovely she was.

Cedric let go of her wrist and she blinked, as if coming back to herself. Then just like that the anger in her eyes vanished, then she jerked herself out of his grip and began to stride back to the door.