Tempting Taine (7 page)

“So, you had to walk to work in the rain.”

“You drove twenty miles in this weather just to give me a ride to work?”
 
She gave a disbelieving snort.
 
“Yeah, right.”

He pulled into a parking space close to the side entrance and cut the engine. “You’d better believe it.”

She shrugged, annoyed at his
pretense
.
 
Once, she might have believed him.
 
Once, he might have driven fifty miles just to give her a ride around the block.
 
But now
?
 
When they meant nothing to each other?
 
She reached for the handle of the car door, anxious to escape his presence.
 
“Yeah, whatever.”
 

His face was black as he turned to her.
 
“I went looking for you this morning because I want you back, Verity,” he ground out between clenched teeth.
 
“Even knowing how self-
centered
and selfish you are, even knowing that you care more for yourself than you could possibly care for anyone else, I still want you in my bed again.”
 

He scowled at her, the lines on his face looking harsh and angular in the misty winter light.
 
“And I’m giving you fair warning - I intend to have you there.”
 

Chapter 4

Verity froze with shock, her hand still on the door handle.
 
She made no move to open it.
 
She did not think she could move even if she tried.
 
Taine still wanted
her?
 
Taine?
 
“You d...don’t even like me,” she finally stammered, as breathless as if she had just run a marathon.
 
Taine could not do this to her.
 
He just
couldn't
.
 
She felt as though she were immobile in the grips of a nightmare and struggling to wake up.

“You’re right – I don’t like you very much at all.
 
I don’t trust you, either.”
 
He reached out and brushed a damp tendril of hair from off her face with gentle fingers.
 
“That doesn’t stop me from wanting you, though.”

She winced at the touch of his hand on her cheek, and withdrew into the farthermost corner of the car.
 
She could not take his gentleness, the soft touch of his fingers that could almost make her believe he cared for her still.
 
Unbidden memories tugged at her heartstrings.
 
She could take anything but that.
 
“If you don’t like me, you certainly can’t want me.”

At her reaction to his touch, he pulled his hand away
as if he had been stung and placed it firmly back on the steering wheel
.
 
“Unfortunately, it seems I can.”
 
He gave a bitter laugh, the lines on his face more pronounced than ever as he stared out of the windscreen in front of him.
 
“It doesn’t make me feel very good about myself, but it’s the truth.
 
Look, Verity, I
don’t
want to get all deep and meaningful with you, and I’m certainly not going to pretend that I’ve fallen in love with you.
 
Nothing could be further from the truth.
 
I just want you in my bed.
 
Temporarily, of course.
 
I’m not talking anything permanent here.”

The distaste in his voice made her cringe
inside
.
 
“Have I got this right?” she asked, her shock slowly seeping away and
being replaced
with anger.
 
“You don’t like me and you don’t want to spend time with me or have any kind of ‘relationship’ with me - you just want to have sex until you get tired of me or find someone better to sleep with.
 
Someone, presumably, whom you actually
like
?”

He shrugged, still refusing to look at her.
 
“You’ve summed it up pretty accurately.
 
Call it a winter fling, if that will make you feel better about it.”
 

He could not be serious.
 
What could he hope from such an absurd proposition?
 
“And if I find someone who
I
would rather sleep with?” she asked, curious as to what his response might be.
 
She was ready to grasp at any straw that could shed some light on his motives for propositioning her.
 
“What then?
 
You’d let me walk away without a fuss?”

His hands on the steering wheel whitened, but his voice was steady when he spoke.
 
“I’ll simply have to make sure that you don’t want to stray until I’m ready to let you go.”

“Thanks for the kind offer,” she said, sarcasm dripping liberally from her voice.
 
Was he really trying to make her feel as cheap and nasty as he possibly could, or was it just a talent he had for doing it without even trying?
 
“I’m sure there’s a woman out there somewhere who would take you up on it, but it won’t be me.”
 

“I’m prepared to be a generous lover.
 
Very generous.
 
I’ll make sure you’re not the loser in any bargain we make.”

Had he completely lost it?
 
Was he offering her money – again – as if he thought she
could be bought
just like that?
 
She felt herself start to explode.
 
“I don’t want your damn money---” she began, her voice rising dangerously high.

“I wasn’t talking about money,” he interrupted her easily.
 
“I was talking about the more, shall we say
intangible
benefits of inviting me back into your bed.”

She gave a derisive snort.
 
“Forget it.
 
I’m not interested.”
 
She squelched the traitorous memory of
his hands on her body, and just how good they had felt there
.
 
Sex without commitment had never been her style, and she was not about to change her habits for Taine
Hunter’s
asking.
 
Especially
not for Taine.
 
Despite the way he was making her feel
at the moment
, he was still her first and only lover, and the only man she had ever loved.
 

“Why not?
 
We were good together once.
 
Neither of us
are
married.
 
No one will be hurt if you come over to my place and fuck me senseless once in a while.”

“Give it up, Taine.
 
I’ve
said no, and I meant it.
 
I am not, repeat
not
, going to have an affair with you.”

“I can’t see your problem with the idea.
 
I’ll give you a good time and get my lust for you out of my system at the same time.”

What had happened to the young Taine she had once known?
 
He would never have spoken to her this way, or insulted her with such a proposition.
 
“And is that how it always is with you now?” she asked bitterly.
 
“Hot sex with women you don’t even like, no strings attached?
 
You've changed, and not for the better.”

His face was back to granite again.
 
“Love and lust are two very different emotions.
 
It pays not to get them confused.”

He was treating her as if she were an easy
pickup,
and his for the asking.
 
She had never felt so disappointed or so disillusioned.
 
“Well, let me tell you, Taine Hunter, I’m not on your menu.”
 
Her mounting anger finally gave her the strength to move.
 
She grabbed her briefcase and unlocked the car door.
 
“Not now.
 
Not ever.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t like you, either, Taine Hunter,” she said, her hand once more on the door handle, ready for escape.
 
“And, unlike you, I don’t sleep with men I don’t like.”

His arm snaked around the back of her head and pulled her close to him.
 
“So tell me you don’t want this.”
 
She had not been so close to him in years.
 
His touch put prickles up and down her spine, which she tried desperately to ignore.

His mouth slanted over hers and he began to kiss her gently with long, lazy strokes of his mouth over hers.
 
She allowed her eyes to drift shut and let his touch take her back to the summer when she had been so very much in love and willing, even
eager,
to experience every pleasure she could with him.
 
She felt her heart start to pound in her breast as his kiss became more demanding, and his hand snaked under her sweater to cup one of her breasts.

The feeling on his hand on her breasts brought her to herself with a start and she suddenly woke up to the fact she was sitting in a public car park with Taine, letting him fondle her breasts.
 
That way
lay
danger, for sure.
 
She snapped her eyes open and tried to push him away but he refused to go.
 

She wrenched her head away from his and wriggled as far back in the seat as she could, intent on escaping the danger of his touch.
 
“Don’t,” she begged, as he moved to caress her breast.
 
If he did not stop soon, she did not know if she could find the will ever to stop him.

At the pleading in her tone, he raised his head and looked into her eyes.
 
“Tell me truthfully you don’t want me to kiss you and I will stop.”

She tried to speak but her mouth could not, would not, form the words.
 
His touch ignited the flames that she had kept banked for ten long, lonely years.
 
With just one touch of his lips on hers, she wanted him as desperately as she had done ten long years ago.
 

She knew that she should speak up and put a stop to it, but she could not.
 
She knew that kissing him was an invitation to trouble.
 
His kisses had already brought her more heartache than she had thought possible to survive, o to invite more was worse than foolish.
 
It was bordering on criminal.
 
But still
she could not lie to him and pretend that she no longer wanted him.

He smiled triumphantly at her silence.
 
“You see,” he said, as he drew her close to him again.
 
“You don't have to love, or even like, someone to enjoy their kisses.”

All the fight had gone out of her at the realization that, despite her disgust at the way he was treating her, he still had the power to make her blood grow hot.
 
All it took was a simple touch, and she wanted him so badly she could scarcely breathe.
 
She opened her mouth under his, welcoming his advance, shuddering with desire as he deepened their kiss.
 
She could not help
herself,
she was helpless to resist him.

He cupped one breast in his hand again, undoing her shirt buttons and slipping his hand inside to touch her.
 
This time she did not object, but whimpered and pressed herself against him, the peaks of her breasts rubbing against him.
 

He was breathing hard when he finally broke off their kiss.
 
“I still want you.
 
And you want me, too.”
 
His words were brutal in their plainness, and his satisfaction was clear.
 
“You can’t pretend you don’t.
 
Not any more.”

His words brought her back to reality with a jolt and the foolishness of what she was doing hit her with full force.
 
She had to be stronger than that where Taine was concerned.
 
Her body
could not be allowed
to betray her, or hold her good sense and reason hostage.
 
She would not let him back into her life now.
 
He did not want anything permanent - and that way
lay
heartbreak for both her and Aroha.
 
Aroha deserved better than a father who did not want her permanently in his life, who would pick her and put her down again as it suited him, just like she was a toy.

“I don’t want you,” she muttered sulkily, as she reached under her sweater and
rebuttoned
her shirt.
 
She was furious with Taine for pushing his point, and even more furious with herself for giving in.
 
What was it with this man that every time he touched her, she turned to jelly in his arms?