Tycoon's One-Night Revenge Read Online Free PDF Page A

your laptop?”
    Consternation tightened the line of his brows, but Susannah was beyond dissecting what he was thinking or feeling or pretending not to feel. Always she had taken pride in her ability to contain her emotions, to present her side of an argument with logic and clarity. Yet now the bubble of anger tightened her chest and disillusionment burned the back of her throat.
    Earlier, he’d claimed that it hadn’t been all bad, and she’d allowed herself a fleeting memory of the good. The stimulation she’d felt from conversations that ranged from wicked banter to sharp debate. The simple pleasure of walking beside him, the strength of his hand around hers, smiling when their strides fell into a matching rhythm. The more complex pleasure of his body joined with hers, delivering her to places unknown, to emotions unfelt.
    She’d thought the aftermath, the consequences, his failure to respond to her phone calls, had destroyed all the good memories, but she’d been wrong. Some had lingered, enough for him to trample with today’s insulting allegations. Enough that she now felt angry and bitter and profoundly disappointed in him and her own judgment.
    Drawing a strengthening breath, she forced herself to face him one last time and to say what still needed to be said.
    “I was about to tell you why I agreed when Mother suggested adding The Palisades to the marriage contract, but I will save my breath. It’s obvious you don’t remember anything about my character or my background or what we shared that weekend. I’m beginning to wonder if you remember me at all.”
    Suddenly she felt cold and drained and tired. She wanted home and the security of the choices she’d made, nice and orderly and safe. With strides that gathered strength and pace as she went, she circled the dining table and headed for the door.
    He called her name, but she kept right on moving. When she heard the heavy pad of his footfalls against the timber floor, she moved even faster. Clumsy fingers struggled with the lock before, finally, she yanked the door open. But a large hand flattened against the timber beside her head and pushed it shut.
    For a long second, she stared at the broad curve of his thumb, while her heart raced and her body registered the familiar heat and weight of his body at her back. Far too close, all too familiar. Anger welled up inside her, and this time, she welcomed its rescuing strength.
    “Let me go,” she said through gritted teeth.
    “Not yet.” His voice was low and conciliatory, his breath warm against the side of her face.
    The traitorous response that prickled through Susannah’s skin only made her madder. She refused to be taken in by false apologies or belated attempts at placation. She ungritted her teeth, but only so she could speak. “You have three seconds,” she said tightly, “before I scream blue murder. If you remember nothing else, then you should remember how far my voice carries across this headland.”
    Closing her eyes, she started the count but only made it through one before the warmth of his breath distracted her. At two he started to speak; at three his words took hold.
    “I don’t remember, Susannah. You, your scream, anything.”

Three
    S tunned, Susannah peeled herself from the door and turned within the wide stance of his body. He didn’t back off more than a few inches leaving her little room to manoeuvre. The impact of his words blurred with the shock of contact between his knees and her thighs, her elbow and his chest. Renewed heat bloomed beneath her skin, quick and unquenchable.
    Squeezing her eyelids tight, she forced the memories—only memories, she told herself again—back under control so she could concentrate on the present. His memory, or lack thereof. But when she opened her eyes, her gaze caught on the broad vee of chest exposed between the gaping sides of his robe. The exposed skin, the sprinkle of dark hair, the line of raised flesh…
    She sucked in an audible