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CHAPTER 7
Silence fell. Since Christophe wasn’t a man easily silenced, Lara looked up. He cleared his throat, tension thrumming from his poised stance by the window.
“I want you to pretend to be my fiancée.”
She couldn’t hide her astonishment.
“Why?”
“I have my reasons,” he parried, the anger gone and replaced by a set gravity that disturbed her.
“If I have to play this role, I don’t see why you can’t tell me…”
“I’ll tell you only this,” he breathed shortly, his golden eyes grim and distant as he studied her. “I’ve been estranged from my father for some years and now he’s dying. I wish to spend some time with him and, in order for me to do so, I need a fiancée to accompany me to his home.”
&n
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LIGHT AFTER DARK CHAPTER 8
Lara woke up from a long, dreamless sleep, wonderfully relaxed. And then she opened her eyes. Christophe was less than six inches away. Dark golden eyes raked mockingly over her startled face. And so, the relaxation vanished and tension took its place.“I don’t think a woman has ever fallen asleep waiting for me before. You could be seriously bad for my ego…” With a falsely bright smile on her lips, she sat up.“Good gracious, is that the time?” she gasped. “Why didn’t you wake me?” Christophe dealt her a genuinely amused smile that quite transformed his powerful dark features. He anchored one hand in the tumbled fall of her blonde hair before she could take evasive action and pulled her head closer to his.“Don’t worry
LIGHT AFTER DARK CHAPTER 9
She looked at Christophe trying to understand the reason for such evilness on his part. ‘Don’t cry, Lara! Don’t you dare crying!’ she encouraged herself.“Why do you have to be so cruel? Why do you treat me this way?” Her voice was strangely steady, but she was dying inside.“I have a photographic memory of you walking down the aisle in your virginal white dress to marry another man!” Christophe raked back at her.“Well, I still don’t understand why should that have bothered you? You didn’t want to marry me!”“That annoyed you, did it?” he incised.“I hated you, Christophe... How could it? And I certainly had no desire to be your traveling whore!”“Excuse me?” He looked
LIGHT AFTER DARK CHAPTER 10
Lara sank back to the present and found her fingers shakily touching her lips. She saw more clearly now than she had seen then. Just as Christophe had, ironically, seen more as an outsider looking on. Christophe alone had registered the lack of sexual tension between her and Randall. But Christophe had cynically misread her behavior. He had believed she was using Randall as a weapon against him, using Randall and her fast-approaching wedding to pressure him into offering her more. And in return, Christophe had used her father’s company to balance the equation. Taking the cellphone from the table, Lara called Dr. Elliott to ask about her father and was relieved to hear that her father was still angrily insisting that he had had no thought of harming himself but that he was, nonetheless, greatly pleased
LIGHT AFTER DARK CHAPTER 11
He was shaking… in the circle of her arms. When had Lara closed her arms around him? It didn’t seem important. Briefly, crazily, she experienced an extraordinary sense of power. A heartbeat later it was torn from her by the burning assault of his hungry mouth. Her body leaped into throbbing life. Any rational thought she might’ve had ended for long, timeless minutes. The scent of him was so achingly familiar it was an aphrodisiac. Christophe’s shirt was open and Lara found the sleek, smooth brown skin of his shoulder with her tongue and he shuddered against her, chest to breast, thigh to thigh in a savage feast of agonizing, uncontrollable excitement. He rolled over and wrenched violently at her dress. She heard something
LIGHT AFTER DARK CHAPTER 12
“This is a huge opportunity for me, sweetheart,” Kenneth Miller continued with satisfaction. “A challenge is exactly what I need right now, and I’ve always liked Scotland.” Lara gave her excited father a strained smile. Christophe had offered him the management of an ailing engineering company in Glasgow. And her father, seemingly a broken man mere days ago, had been so boosted by Christophe’s apparent faith in his abilities that he was a changed personality. There was a new spring in his step and a look of energy in his tautened features that Lara hadn’t seen in a very long time.“He couldn’t have been more understanding,” Kenneth murmured, not for the first time. “But obviously, I couldn’t let him write off the money I took from the company.”&n
LIGHT AFTER DARK CHAPTER 13
His palms still framing her face. His brilliant golden eyes, blazing with desire, scanned hers. Simultaneously, her nostrils flared. Lara could sense a woman’s perfume still clung to him. Her stomach twisted painfully. Christophe had been in close bodily contact with another woman. Nausea doused her excitement. She jerked her head free and slid upright on wobbly legs.“No doubt you’re very familiar with those kinds of facilities.” An ebony eyebrow elevated.“Do you want the truth or a polite fiction? Of course, there have been women in my life, but never more than one at a time.” Furiously, Lara turned her head away. All she could smell was that perfume and it was turning her stomach now, reminding her what a fool she was in this man’s presence.&
LIGHT AFTER DARK CHAPTER 14
Her teeth gritted. Lara wanted to tear his honey-smooth drawl out of her head, no matter how much it hurt! How could he have thought that she might sell the revelation that his father was dying to the highest bidder? Lara shuddered with revulsion. Of course, she had been hurt. Nobody could easily accept such an accusation. So, Christophe didn’t trust her as far as he could throw her... but what had made him like that? She remembered him saying that knowledge was a weapon in a woman’s hands and that had come straight from the gut! Clearly, at some stage, Christophe had got badly burned by a woman and the memory hurt him, kept him on his guard, made him cynical and suspicious... So, who’s playing the therapy game now, Lara?
LIGHT AFTER DARK CHAPTER 15
A groan of remembered embarrassment escaped Lara while she was waking up.“Oh, God… Why did I let it happen… I must be out of my mind…” she whispered and sat up. Lara had felt half-dead when Christophe had all but carried her on to the helicopter. She had been wishing she were dead by the time she was hauled off it again, sick and in a state of collapse. Her impressions had been fleeting. Lara recalled the cluster of security men converging on the helipad, blurred glimpses of an incredibly large white villa, and heat that only increased the nonstop pounding behind her temples. Jet lag had finally caught up with her. A rueful grimace slanted her face as she gingerly slid out of bed to gratefully appreciate that the ground beneat
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