My hottest Billionaire a Boss

Episode 18

Liza?’

At first he thought that he had it wrong. There seemed to be no one in

the library and it was as still and silent as the rest of the house. But

then that sigh came again, drawing him across the room to look over the

high back of the big leather chesterfield, his eyes narrowing as he

spotted the figure of the woman lying there.

She was sprawled half on and half off the seat, as if she had just

tumbled there as sleep claimed her, having no time to settle into a

comfortable position. Her limbs, softened in sleep, were loose and

relaxed—hell, everything about her was softened by sleep. Those clear,

often icy, blue eyes were closed and the long, lush lashes lay in dark arcs

above cheeks that were faintly flushed with warmth. Those cheeks still

bore the tracks of the tears she had shed for her no good rat of a

fiancé, making savage anger burn in him at the memory of how she had

tried to replace the other man with him, using his kisses, his caresses to

erase the memory…

Damn it, no! He did not want to remember that.

Liza’s burnished chestnut hair was wildly tousled by what seemed to

have been disturbed sleep and fell in tumbling disarray over the cushions,

several tangled strands of it straying across her cheeks, stirring faintly

with each breath she took. Her full pink mouth was very slightly open,

revealing just a glimpse of white teeth and, as another of those soft sighs escaped her, his own mouth moistened, remembering the taste of

her lips, the play of her tongue against his.

It was a memory that went straight to his loins, hardening him in an

instant, and the hard kick of sensuality that gave him had his fingers

tightening over the curved back of the chesterfield as he fought for

control.

It didn’t help that from this position he could see how the green silk

shirt that Lizw still wore was only roughly buttoned up, as if she had

dressed in a rush and not totally successfully. The way that a button had

been shoved into the wrong hole pulled the blouse open at the neck, and

lower, exposing the creamy flesh of her breasts and making it clear that

right now they were unconstrained by any bra.The lacy garment must

have been discarded some where. Perhaps in the other room, where he

had tossed it in the heat of their lovemaking.

Ochi!’

Shaking his head fiercely he dragged himself back from the edge of the

mental cliff he was on before he tumbled headlong into the heated

waters of the sensual waves that foamed beneath it, losing his rational

control altogether. This was not what he wanted. He was going to wake

Liza, deliver the news that she was not wanted here, that there was

no home for her at the House and that she should pack her bags

and be on her way. And he didn’t give a damn if she had anywhere to go or

not.

As if sensing his presence, Liza sighed again and shifted slightly on

the settee. The movement sent a waft of the intensely personal perfume

of her skin upwards towards where he leaned on the back of the

chesterfield. Inhaling it put his senses on to instant red alert, his blood heating and pounding through his veins so fast that it made his head

swim.

Not wanted.The words in his own thoughts hit him like a hard slap in the

face. Notwanted . Who the hell was he trying to kid?Not wanted was the

furthest thing from the truth about this situation. The real truth was

that he wanted Liza like hell. He always had done, right from the

moment that he had seen her as a teenager when she had come to the

stables where he had taken a temporary, lowly job in order to find out as

much as he could about the man he had just learned was in fact his

father. He had wanted her then and he had had to fight against showing

her just how he felt about her. Those moments when she had thrown

herself into his arms, soft and willing and wearing only the scraps of

white lace underwear, had been hell on earth as he had resisted the

hunger he felt for her.

But there had been reasons then why he could not give in to the burn of

desire. Reasons that now no longer existed. If he still wanted Liza,

then he could have her.

If he still wanted—Hah!

His harsh laugh cracked in the air, making the woman on the chesterfield

stir again in her sleep. Of course he still wanted her. He had wanted

nothing else from the moment that he had walked into the room filled

with middle-aged mourners and seen her there, vibrant and glowing in all

the true beauty of the woman she had become. He had known then that

having field alone was not enough. It would never be enough. He

wanted the estate and he had worked and planned for years to make it

his. But, deep in his heart, and in the most basic, most essentially male

parts of his make-up, he knew that that would never be enough. He would never be satisfied until he had the lady of the manor in his bed

as well. And kept her there until he had had his fill. Until he had

appeased the frustration and hunger of the first time they had met—and

all the years in between.

‘Who?’ Liza stirred uneasily, struggling up from the clinging depths of

sleep as some sound reached through the stillness of her mind and

started to tug her awake. Edward?’

Right here,agape mou .’

The drawled words with their cynical edge jolted her out of any last

remaining drowsiness and into full and wary wakefulness. Her eyes

snapped open, looking straight up into his watchful gaze, dark as a

starless sky at midnight.

You came back!’

‘This is my house. Where else would I go?’

As a reminder of their different positions in the world and her recently

totally changed status, it was like a slap in the face. She needed to sit up

properly, as she suddenly felt too vulnerable lying there while he leaned

against the back of the chesterfield, big and dark and dangerously overwhelming. His black eyes might be hooded and faintly shadowed from

lack of sleep, his strong jaw line darkened by the night’s growth of beard,

but he was still the most lethally overwhelming man she had ever met.

Looming over her like this, he was just too big, too strong too

everything for her peace of mind. But her limbs had stiffened from lying in tortured positions on the

settee and she had to struggle to make them move in the way she wanted.

And all the time Edward simply watched her with that distant, hidden

look in his dark eyes. The steadiness of his gaze seemed to focus like a

laser on the sensitive skin of her face burning deep below the surface as

if he was probing her thoughts, as well as her appearance.

Unnerved by the close scrutiny she shifted uncomfortably from one foot

to the other, plagued with pins and needles as the blood rushed back

through her body. Knowing she desperately needed to attend to the way

she looked, to tame the tangled mane of her hair that fell so messily

around her face, she smoothed her hands over it, catching painfully on

several knots, then tried to straighten her crumpled clothing.

Tugging her shirt down simply made matters worse because it was only

then that she realised the way that some of the buttons she had

fastened in such haste last night had been pushed into the wrong holes.

The garment was badly bunched up at the front, the hem hanging messily

uneven around her waist and the neckline gaping widely. But she couldn’t

bring herself to try to make the adjustments it needed. For one thing,

doing so would mean she had to unbutton her blouse before she could

refasten it properly, exposing even more of herself to Edward’s dark

scrutiny. Especially as the movement of her breasts and the rub of the

material of her blouse against her n*****s had just brought home to her

the memory of the way she hadn’t bothered to dress fully in her haste to

go after Edward last night.

And then there was the other, more disturbing fact that she didn’t

actually have the strength to drag her gaze away from the almost

hypnotic power of his eyes but stood, transfixed, like a rabbit facing the

gleaming gaze of a sleek black hunting cat.

‘Back to Italy? She didn’t dare to admit that at one point in the long night she had

feared he might actually do just that. That he might have walked out of

her life for good and that she would never see him again. But that had

been in the darkest hours before the slow dawn, when she had sat alone

in the still silent house, facing up to the way that her life had changed so

dramatically over the past few days and wondering just where she would

go from here.

And leave you in possession of the House? Edward queried and, to

her shock, there was actually a faint note of humour on the question, a

hint of laughter in his voice. ‘I think not. You cannot get rid of me that

easily.The idea never entered my head!’ Liza snapped, knowing deep in her

heart that it was true. She had been thinking more of his return, of the

moment that he would walk back through that door, and the fact that she

would have to face him all over again. That image had overridden every

other consideration and it had been all she had been able to focus on in

her thoughts.

I’ll admit that I was surprised to find you still here,’ he said now,

disconcerting her yet again. Had he thought that she would have packed

and gone while he had been out? That she would have fled into the night without looking back?OK, if she was honest, she’d actually considered it once or twice. But the

knowledge that she had to see him one more time, if only to explain to

him that he had totally misinterpreted her reaction earlier, had kept her

where she was, sitting on the edge of her seat, with her hands clenched

into tight fists in her lap, or pacing to and from the window, hoping for a

sign that the damn man was returning. ‘I could answer that in the same way as you just did.’ Irritation flared

fiercely inside her giving the words a snap she hadn’t intended.Where

else would I go? As you’ve pointed out, this is your house now and I’m not

welcome here. But, believe me, if there was anywhere else I could go, I’d

be out of here like a shot you wouldn’t see me for dust! I would have

gone yesterday if I could have done, but then things.She faltered lost her train of thought as a rush of memory made her

head spin shockingly.