Untamed Billionaires: Marriage: For Business or Pleasure? / Getting Red-Hot with the Rogue / One Night with the Rebel Billionaire

‘What’s that?’

His hands glided over the slinky material of her dress to caress her butt, the heat of her scorching his palms through the thin silk of her dress.

‘You’ve got the hots for me.’

She chuckled, the small sexy laugh of a confident woman who knew exactly what sort of a schmuck she was dealing with.

‘It’s your fault. You’re irresistible.’

He kissed her again, softly, lingering, wondering how he’d ever had the will power to turn this amazing woman down all those years ago and wondering what the hell he was going to do when she walked out of his life this time around.

She had his libido firing on all cylinders but it was more than that. They’d reconnected on so many levels, their special friendship a thing to be treasured.

But what had changed?

Career-driven Brittany Lloyd would hightail it out of Noosa without a backward glance, leaving him cursing the day he’d been foolish enough to let her back into his heart, a heart he’d deliberately closed off from ever loving any woman too much.

He might’ve obliterated memories of his mum but he’d never forgotten the pain of abandonment, the intense loss that had clawed at his insides, the doubts that had plagued him for years that he wasn’t good enough to be loved for ever.

‘How irresistible?’

Now wasn’t a time for doubts or deliberating or questioning as he kissed her again, deepened the kiss, craving intimacy as the parched outback craved water to sustain life. The thought of losing her did it, prompting him to do all manner of crazy things like back her up against the table, wishing he’d had the sense to lock the back door.

Her hands dived into his hair, angling his head for better access to his mouth as she wrapped a leg around his waist, bringing him into delicious contact with her heat, and blind, raging need slammed through him to the point of no return.

He was out of his mind with need for her but he’d be damned if he took her standing up against a kitchen wall after all this time.

She deserved more.

She deserved the universe and then some.

Wrenching his mouth from hers with effort, he exhaled on a long, ragged breath as he broke the full-length body contact he’d been relishing so much.

‘Nick?’

‘Not now, not here, not like this,’ he said through gritted teeth, desperate to rein in his libido as he tried not to focus on her swollen mouth, on the lips he’d tasted, lips he’d savoured, lips he’d kiss all night long if he had his way.

‘Then when?’

Confusion clouded her eyes as he balled his hands to stop from hauling her back into his arms, silently cursed making a hash of this.

Desire pounded through his veins, untamed and undisciplined and uncontrollable, but he’d subdue his ferocious need for now, bide his time, for when they gave into this tempestuous passion he would stop at nothing less than making love to her all night long.

With great restraint he settled for trailing a fingertip down her cheek, along her jaw, enjoying the instant flare of heat in her sparkling eyes, the soft little smile playing about her lips.

He cupped her chin, his gaze not leaving hers. ‘Soon, Red. Very soon.’

Something fierce, something wild and something altogether terrifying flashed across her face before she nodded, slowly.

‘Good,’ she breathed on a sigh, setting his heart pumping with wild anticipation as he grabbed her hand and almost dragged her out of the door before he changed his mind.

Brittany hadn’t had this much fun in ages.

Sure, she attended swank parties in London and rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous thanks to her brilliant job, but those events were filled with pretentious flakes who spoke to you depending on which designer dressed you or how many millions you made a year.

She hated the way money talked, hated the way it divided people into classes and, while she understood Nick’s drive to gain acceptance into the privileged world she’d been born into for the sake of his business, she couldn’t help but wish he’d wanted to marry her for her all those years ago.

They’d both changed so much, yet when he touched her, when he kissed her, the last decade vanished on a wistful sigh.

They’d been too young back then; she could see it now. She’d romanticised what they had, had mistaken the throes of first love as being something to build a lifetime commitment on.

But Nick hadn’t been ready and, while his deliberate sabotaging of their relationship at the end had hurt, she understood.

His father had meant everything to him while she hadn’t been able to wait to escape hers. They’d had different dreams at the time, different goals.

So where did that leave them now?

Could two successful, career-driven people take a chance on love?

She collapsed onto a portable chair in a corner of the harvesting shed, her gaze homing in on Nick surrounded by a bunch of investors while images of the scintillating kiss they’d shared in the kitchen a few hours earlier replayed over and over, making her shiver anew.

That had been some kiss. Passionate, mind-blowing and way too intense, the type of kiss to pin hopes on, the type of kiss to give a girl ideas of how he felt. And on the heels of his admission on their wedding night, when he’d said he cared about her, way too baffling.

She’d been trying to tempt him, trying to seduce him, but he’d had nerves of steel.

Until tonight.

That kiss in the kitchen had changed everything.

He wanted her as much as she wanted him, so why had he stopped? Pulled away?

Damn, the man was infuriating and confusing the heck out of her.

Every time he touched her, she lost it. But that didn’t mean she had to lose her head completely.

Having fun and walking away was one thing.

Having fun and falling for him another.

No. This time, she’d be smarter than that. She’d come too far from the scared, confused teenager who’d bolted like a fugitive into the night to regress.

She didn’t need anyone. She’d been doing fine on her own for the last ten years, thank you very much, and getting involved emotionally with Nick would only lead to heartache for them both.

‘Hey, what’s with the look?’ Frida Rutger, Bram’s much younger trophy wife, flopped into a chair next to her and fanned her face. ‘Is it hot in here or what?’

‘Sure is.’

Brittany deliberately ignored Frida’s first question, glad for the interruption; anything to distract from her thoughts of Nick.