Seduction: The Billionaire's Bride of Vengeance

She seemed to float into the room, the candlelight casting a golden circle over her head, like a halo. She’d taken her hair down, he noted, bringing an ethereal quality to her nudity which he found exquisitely beautiful and perversely ironic.

Because she was no angel. More like a devil, tempting him all the time to care about nothing but what she could make him feel. She was a siren of the highest order. Beautiful and bold. And, he believed, born to be bad.

As she moved closer to the bed, some light eventually fell onto his face. And into his opened eyes.

‘Oh!’ she gasped, and stopped abruptly. ‘You’re awake.’

‘Yes,’ he agreed coolly. ‘And the electricity’s obviously still not on.’ Propping himself up against the pillows, he drew his knees up. He could not believe how quickly she could turn him on. She didn’t have to do a thing, just stand before him in her birthday suit and he was a goner.

Nothing new about that, Russell, he reminded himself ruefully as his eyes continued to feast on her. You’ve been a goner since the first moment you saw her in that shower.

His teeth clenched hard in his jaw as he realised it was going to take more than one wretched night to rid himself of his lust for Nicole Power.

The sound of a cellphone ringing startled both of them.

‘It’s not mine,’ he said, nodding towards where the sound was coming from.

‘If it’s Kara,’ Nicole said with a groan as she put the candelabra down and picked up her bag. ‘I’m going to strangle her.’

Russell welcomed the interruption. It would give him the opportunity to get himself under control.

He watched her pull out a sleek silver cellphone and flip it open. ‘Hello?’

Her face immediately reflected exasperation. ‘Mum! What on earth are you doing, calling me at this hour? Yes, well, it might be the middle of the day where you are, but it’s the middle of the night here in Australia!’

She threw an apologetic look at Russell, who just shrugged nonchalantly. But his ears had very definitely pricked up. Maybe he would find out where his enemy had decamped to. Though who knew what he would do with the knowledge?

‘Yes, yes, I know I promised to ring you when I got to Sydney but I’ve been very busy and … What? No, I had no trouble doing that … The house was empty … No, there wasn’t a For Sale sign on it …’ This was said with a decidedly worried glance Russell’s way. ‘Yes, all my clothes were still there and all my jewellery arrived safe and sound at Kara’s this morning. Look, can I call you tomorrow, Mum? I was just about to go to bed …’

When Russell threw back the sheet on her side and patted the mattress, her face betrayed a flash of embarrassment. Or was it guilt?

He recalled that Nicole hadn’t initially liked the thought of sleeping with him in her mother’s bed. He’d had to use persuasive logic along with some passionate kisses to get her to put aside her qualms.

Now the woman herself was there, in the room with them, via a phone, reminding him again of why he was here. Not just to satisfy his needs, but also to soothe his vengeful soul.

Russell’s dark side thrilled to the thought of making love to Nicole whilst she talked to her mother. Even better if she started talking to her father.

But when he patted the mattress again, she frowned and shook her head.

‘I’m fine,’ she said, still frowning. ‘Kara’s mum said I could stay at their place for a while. No, I don’t need you to send me any money. I have enough. And I have a plan.’

Russell pulled a face. If he was her plan, then why wasn’t she lying back down next to him? That would be the way to his wallet, and his heart. If he had one, that was.

‘No, I don’t want to talk to him,’ Nicole went on sharply. ‘It won’t do any good and it certainly won’t change my mind.’

She exhaled a totally exasperated sigh before slumping down on the side of the bed, her back to him.

Russell just sat there, somewhat exasperated himself. If she didn’t hang up soon, he might have to take matters into his own hands.

‘Don’t be like that, Mum,’ she continued, her tone a tad weary. ‘Look, I’m too tired to argue at the moment. I really need to go to bed.’

Good idea, Russell thought, growing more frustrated by the moment.

‘Yes, I know I don’t usually go to sleep before midnight, but Kara dragged me off to a wedding today and … What? Oh … Megan Donnelly, a girl we went to school with … You probably wouldn’t remember her. She wasn’t in our class at school but Kara’s mum has become buddy-buddy with her mum and she insisted I accompany them. I couldn’t really say no … Well, yes, it was rather swish … The groom was James Logan, the advertising tycoon …’

As Russell listened to Nicole answer her mother’s interminable questions about the wedding, he decided he could not wait for this conversation to finish. It was time to see just who had the most power over Ms Power: her mother, or her new lover.

Russell rose onto his knees behind her and smoothed her hair back from one beautifully bare shoulder.

Nicole managed to smother the gasp which rose to her lips, her whole back stiffening as her head twisted round to glare at him.

But he wasn’t looking at her. He was busy nuzzling away at her shoulder, the tantalising graze of his lips making her skin break out into goose-pimples.

‘Nicole, are you there?’ her mother asked.

‘Yes, Mum, I’m here,’ came her brusque answer.

‘What did you wear, darling?’

Did she really have to answer these silly questions?

‘Nothing special, Mum. Just a dress. The green one I wore on Christmas Day last year.’

‘You didn’t! Not to a formal wedding. Oh, Nicole, I thought I’d taught you better than that. I hope you at least wore some decent jewellery.’

Nicole had had enough of this conversation. And of Russell doing what he was doing. He knew she was talking to her mother. Didn’t he have any sense of decorum at all? Kissing her shoulder had been bad enough. Now his hands had found their way around to her breasts.

When his wicked fingers began plucking away at her nipples, she almost dropped the phone.

‘I wore my emeralds,’ she choked out as she gripped the phone harder. Dear heaven, but it was hard to concentrate on anything when your head was swimming and your nipples burning.

‘The ones Alistair gave you for your twenty-first?’

‘Yes.’

Nicole almost cried out when Russell pulled her back onto the bed, her eyes flinging wide once she realised what he was going to do.

She clasped the phone with both hands, biting her bottom lip to stop herself from making embarrassing noises.

‘Better than nothing, I suppose,’ her mother was saying grudgingly. ‘But you should have worn something really glamorous. You might have met someone. James Logan’s wedding would have been full of suitable catches.’

She almost blurted out that she had met someone. But that would have started a whole lot more questions and she was desperate now to get off the phone.

‘Mum, I … I really have to go. I’ll call you back later this week and we’ll have a nice long chat.’

‘You promise?’

‘I promise. Bye.’