Summer Love - Page 55

Something in his tone pried through the pleasure she felt. Carefully she drew back so that she could see his face. “I don’t think I know what you mean.”

“I believe you do.”

She was tempted to laugh, but there was no humor in Stephen’s eyes. Rebecca felt her stomach knot as it always did when she was faced with a confrontation. “If I do, then I’d have to think you ridiculous. Maybe we’d better go back to the table.”

“So you can be with him?” Even as the words came out he realized the unfairness, even the foolishness, of them.

She stiffened, retreating as far as she could from anger. “I don’t think this is the place for this kind of discussion.”

“You’re quite right.” As furious with himself as he was with her, he pulled her from the dance floor.

Chapter 8

“Stop it.” By the time he’d dragged her to the elevators, Rebecca had gotten over her first shock. “What’s gotten into you?”

“I’m simply taking you to a more suitable place for our discussion.” He pulled her into the elevator, then punched the button for their floor.

“You have guests,” she began, but he sent her a look that made her feel like a fool. Falling back on dignity, she straightened her shoulders. “I prefer to be asked if I want to leave, not dragged around as though I were a pack mule.”

Though her heart was pounding, she sailed past him when the doors opened, intending to breeze into her own rooms and slam the door in his face. In two steps he had her arm again. Rebecca found herself guided, none too gently, into Stephen’s suite.

“I don’t want to talk to you,” she said, because she was certain her teeth would begin to chatter at any moment. She didn’t argue well in the best of circumstances. Faced with Stephen’s anger, she was certain she would lose.

He said nothing as he loosened his tie and the first two buttons of his shirt. He went to the bar and poured two brandies. He was being irrational and he knew it, but he seemed unable to control it. That was new, he decided. But there had been many new emotions in him since Rebecca.

Walking back to Rebecca, he set one snifter by her elbow. When he looked at her… he wanted to shout, to beg, to demand, to plead. As a result, his voice was clipped and hard.

“You came to Athens with me, not with Dimitri or any other man.”

She didn’t touch the snifter. She was certain her hands would shake so hard that it would slip out of her grip. “Is that a Greek custom?” It amazed her—and bolstered her confidence—to hear how calm her voice was. “Forbidding a woman to speak to another man?”

“Speak?” He could still see the way Dimitri had bent his head close to hers. Dimitri, who was smooth and practiced. Dimitri, whose background would very likely mirror Rebecca’s. Old money, privileged childhoods, quiet society. “Do you allow every man who speaks to you to hold you, to touch you?”

She didn’t blush. Instead, the color faded from her cheeks. She shook, not with fear but with fury. “What I do, and with whom I do it, is my business. Mine.”

Very deliberately he lifted his snifter and drank. “No.”

“If you think that because I came here with you, you have the right to dictate to me you’re wrong. I’m my own person, Stephen.” It struck her even as she said it that it was true. She was her own person. Each decision she made was her own. Filled with a new sense of power, she stepped forward. “No one owns me, not you, not anyone. I won’t be ordered, I won’t be forced, I won’t be pressured.” With a flick of her skirts, she turned. He had her again quickly, his hands on both of her arms, his face close.

“You won’t go back to him.”

“You couldn’t stop me if that was what I wanted.” She tossed her head back challengingly. “But I have no intention of going back downstairs to Dimitri, or anyone else.” She jerked her arms free. “You idiot. Why should I want to be with him when I’m in love with you?”

She stopped, her eyes wide with shock, her lips parted in surprise. Overwhelmed by a combination of humiliation and fury, she spun around. Then she was struggling against him. “Leave me alone! Oh, God, just leave me alone!”

“Do you think I could let you go now?” He caught her hair in his hand, dragging it back until her eyes met his. In them she saw triumph and desire. “I feel as though I’ve waited all my life to hear you say those words.” He rained kisses over her face until her struggles ceased. “You drive me mad,” he murmured. “Being with you, being without you.”

“Please.” Colors, shapes, lights were whirling in her head. “I need to think.”

“No. Ask me for anything else, but not more time.” Gathering her close, he buried his face in her hair. “Do you think I make a fool of myself over every woman?”

“I don’t know.” She moaned when his lips trailed down her throat. Something wild and terrifying was happening inside her body. “I don’t know you. You don’t know me.”

“Yes, I do.” He pulled away just far enough to look down at her. “From the first moment I saw you, I knew you. Needed you. Wanted you.”

It was true. She knew it, felt it, but she shook her head in denial. “It’s not possible.”

“I’ve loved you before, Rebecca, almost as much as I do now.” He felt her go still. The color fled from her face again, but her eyes stayed steady on his.