Griffin stepped forward.
‘Impudent witch!’
He might be as hard as stone at the thought of touching her but he actually resented having to touch her like this. No matter how much he tried to deny it to himself, Griffin knew that he would much prefer her willing and wanting. And he’d lied to her before. He was interested. Way too interested.
Wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible, Griffin circled her tiny wrists and ran both his hands up the long sleeves of her blouse at the same time.
“You know… My stepfather warned me about men like you,” Gloriana said, her voice a breathy caress in the otherwise silent room.
“Is that right?”
 
“A… what? A movie première? Are you kidding me right now? Is there a candid camera in my office?” Griffin’s PA, Agnes, inched as she stood on the other side of his desk, and he realized he’d said almost those exact words to his sister at almost this exact time the day before. Once again, he’d been having a great morning, and again it was shot to… Okay, so it hadn’t been that great a morning, with Gloriana waking up late and a police detective waiting around in his home until she did so, but it was definitely ruined now. He cut a hard look to Gloriana, who stared back impassively at him from the white sofa.“Uhm… N-no, sir,” Agnes stuttered. Griffin glanced b
“I have to do the red carpet thing, then answer a few questions from the press, and then we can go in,” she murmured over the noise of the crowd. Griffin nodded, but his eyes were on the actor, and Griffin found himself deliberately stepping into Gloriana’s personal space to let the heart-throb know she was off-limits… That she was his for… well, for the time being. Her eyes widened quizzically, but the actor got the message, throwing his chest forward in a display of machismo. They took each other’s measure for a beat, and then the actor gave a typically Mediterranean shrug.‘Hey, man, don’t sweat it.” He laughed, backing down when it became obvious that Griffin wouldn’t.“I was just giving a hand to this sweet
“I really enjoyed the movie,” Griffin said, breaking the heavy silence between them. Gloriana didn’t look at him but continued to stare out of the window as his chauffeur drove them through the glistening London streets. It was late, and after two hours of sitting next to Griffin in a darkened movie theatre, she felt uptight and edgy. The awareness she had been trying to keep at bay by pretending to read that hateful play for most of the day had exploded the minute his lips had touched hers on the red carpet. No doubt he’d felt sorry for her after her earlier disclosure, but that didn’t stop her from wanting him to touch her because he wanted to, not out of some misplaced duty to look out for her. Not out of pity… Never out of pity.
She closed her eyes and swallowed hard. The night of Em’s party, she had dressed for him, watched him, noticed him watching her, and then, on the back of a couple of fortifying glasses of vintage champagne, she had asked him to dance… and melted into him… forever. The way he held her on the dancefloor and after that… She loved the feel of his strong arms around her, the sense of rightness that would have led her to do anything with him that night. And right now, she felt exactly the same way. Which just didn’t make sense. None of this made sense. But… does it really have to?“One.” Gloriana opened her eyes and shook her head.“Griffin, please… Don’t be ridiculous. Th
Gloriana groaned with relief when she felt his hands smooth over her thighs and pulled her dress up around her waist, her legs automatically widening to accommodate his seeking, curious hand. His movements seemed as unsteady as she felt, and they imbued her with a sense of power. Unable to keep her mouth off him, she bent her head and licked along his neck, breathing in his earthy masculinity.“Griff, please… I need you,” Gloriana begged, her voice sounding hoarse. Another saner voice was telling her that later she’d be embarrassed by such uninhibited pleading. But her body couldn’t care less about later on. It was caught up in the most delicious stupor and straining for something that seemed just out of reach. Then his fingers w
‘Fine.’ She had been going to say ‘it was fine’, Griffin thought moodily the next morning as he stared at the grey London skyline. The color reflected his dismal mood perfectly. But last night hadn’t been ‘fine’. It had been amazing, sensational, mind-blowing! The most intensely involved sexual experience of his life, in fact. And Griffin hated that. Griffin hated that he hadn’t had the wherewithal to go slow, and hated that he hadn’t been able to take her into his arms afterward and carry her up to his bed and make sweet love to her again. Slowly this time, more carefully… He released a pent-up br
“Don’t push it, Gloriana. You weren’t exactly forthcoming with the truth when I questioned you.”“That’s because I don’t find it beneficial to bash my head against a brick wall, Griffin.” She saw a muscle tick in his jaw as he gazed at her from under hooded eyes.“Tell me why I found you hiding a joint under Em’s mattress when you were fourteen.”“Wow… I thought you were apologizing…” she countered.“I did.”“You should work on it…” Griffin said nothing, his expression coolly assessing. It was a look Gloriana had come to recognize. It meant that he fully intended to get his own way.“Don’t use your courtroom tactics with me, Griffin,” she said frostily. “They won’t work
Gloriana closed the last page of the play and stared vacantly into the open fire John, the family butler, had lit for her earlier that night. The writer had captured a side of her parents she hadn’t known about. He had focused on their struggles and their hunger for fame and what had driven it, rather than just the consequence of it. The result was an aspect of their lives Gloriana knew about from her mother’s diaries but which the press rarely focused on. It was an aspect that always caused Gloriana to regret who they had become. She had expected that reading the play would instill in her a renewed sense of disgust at their wasted lives, and it had, sort of, but what she hadn’t expected was that it would fill her with a sense of yearning for them still to be around. For a chance to get to