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CHAPTER 19
Lunch was being served outdoors beneath the leafy splendor of a ring of flame trees. Beyond them, flight after flight of shallow steps adorned with classical statues descended to the white beach below.
Demis Agelastos gave Lara a good look. He had a fiercely amused scrutinizing gaze. Flustered, Lara dropped down into her seat. One of the maids had awakened her and she hadn’t had much time to get ready.
When she glanced up again, Christophe’s brilliant golden eyes were wandering with indolent satisfaction over her in a look as unashamedly physical as a caress. A deep flush of awareness colored her skin, making her desperately conscious of the unfamiliar ache between her thighs.
Erotic recollections surfaced and Lara fought them to the
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LIGHT AFTER DARK CHAPTER 20
That assurance hit her like a cruel blow and Lara despised herself for reeling from that reality as though it were a surprise. She loved Christophe hopelessly, helplessly… but that didn’t mean making a sacrificial lamb of herself. Someday, not too far in the future, Demis would die and it would all be over. The deception would end and with it, the affair. She didn’t want a fake wedding ring to add to her bitterness. But didn’t she owe Christophe something for the immense kindness and sensitivity he had employed with her own father? Okay, they had made a deal but Christophe could have fulfilled the terms far less generously. A deal... Oh, God, she reflected painfully, had the giving of her body last night merely been part of the deal as well? Her stomach heaved at the suspicion.
LIGHT AFTER DARK CHAPTER 21
Christophe gazed down at her and slowly, erotically moved on her, brushing his arousal against her hot body.“Chérie, sometimes we all have to do things we don’t want to do,” he whispered looking straight into her eyes.“Oh… I see… Am I to understand that you don’t want this wedding either?” In quite irrational annoyance, Lara’s mouth tightened as she fought to suppress the shivering hunger Christophe was invoking in her with such insulting ease.“A wedding ring has to be about the last reward I would want to give you…” What the hell was he saying? Her sapphire eyes widened to their fullest extent.“Excuse me? Reward? Do you consider going through a disgusting parody of a wedding ceremony a… reward
LIGHT AFTER DARK CHAPTER 22
“Lara…” he whispered. “Wait there… Don’t move…” An involuntarily moan escaped her and Christophe spun fluidly around. But by then Lara had already fled, her sole desire to escape. She raced down the steps that led into the gardens, her breath sobbing in her throat.“Lara!” she heard Christophe’s voice calling. Powerful lights came on, illuminating the outdoors. But Lara kept on running blindly, heedless of the shrubs that tore at her. The heel of one of her shoes snapped when she stumbled. She kicked it off and then bent to rip off the other one. She headed for the steps that would take her to the beach, down and down and down again, far too fast for safety but truly not caring whether or not she fell and hurt herself.
LIGHT AFTER DARK CHAPTER 23
His hands wrenched down the straps of her sleeveless dress and Lara glanced down, shocked to see her own bared breasts, helplessly shy of him and yet unbearably aroused by his impatience. With a groan, Christophe lifted her and suckled at an erect pink nipple and her hands clenched fiercely into his shoulders, an involuntary moan of excitement torn from her. Her head fell back as his tormenting mouth bit at her sensitive flesh with a knowing eroticism that drove her out of her mind with excitement. Lara was boneless in his grasp, a wanton creature drunk on sensation. A lean hand skimmed beneath the flimsy silken fabric of her gown, following the upward curve of a slender thigh and lingering there with devastating effect.“You drive me crazy, chérie…” Christophe groaned, sinking to his knees t
LIGHT AFTER DARK CHAPTER 24
His words came back in her mind, harsher and harder to digest than before. ‘Someday you will come to me on your knees and beg me to take you... and I will break you.’ Lara shivered, suddenly cold and scared. Just a few short days ago, Christophe had still been talking in the same vein. And though he had yet to discover it, he had already won. She was over the moon in love with him… the man she learned to hate for three long, excruciating years. Whatever happened, Lara knew she was going to be very badly hurt. But the heart wants what the heart wants and cancel her love for Christophe wasn’t an option anymore. Another knock sou
LIGHT AFTER DARK CHAPTER 25
Christophe scanned the wildness in her sapphire eyes for a fulminating ten seconds, a muscle jerking tight at his hard jawline.“Listen, I don’t know what the hell you think you’re playing at but the wedding goes ahead tomorrow... Even if I have to drag you through it by the hair!”“I don’t think so! I refuse to be a part of this disgusting masquerade. You hear me?” Lara slung rawly. “No. Meghan told me why you had to get married! So go and find yourself another woman willing to play this game!”“Ah… Meghan… Alright, let’s hear why do I have to get married?” Christophe invited very softly. “I’m extremely curious about my real reasons behind this wedding.”“Stop it, Christophe! You know why… You lied to me,” Lara condemned fiercely. “Every single thing you told me was a lie..
LIGHT AFTER DARK CHAPTER 26
Her strained smile glazed over. Oh, God, Christophe had laid on the ‘I-love- your-daughter’ routine with a trowel. Very impressive indeed.“Christophe’s a rather more complex character than I ever appreciated,” Kenneth admitted. “I always thought of him as very cool and controlled. He is in business. But in love... he’s all emotion and reaction. So, now you tell me how you feel.” Lara took a deep breath.“I’m… Uh… I’m crazy about him, of course.”“Oh… You’re much more reserved than he is... Hmm… Did your mother and I do that to you?” he sighed regretfully. “I’m sorry, Lara… Both Linda and I ruined everything for you. And Randall…”“Daddy, stop,” she begged him and put her loving arms around hi
LIGHT AFTER DARK CHAPTER 27
Christophe stilled. His fiercely narrowed gaze slewed at speed back to Lara and simply stayed there.“Gay? Anderson was gay?” he practically whispered in disbelief. Lara unfroze and whirled out of the room. She was outraged and devastated at one and the same time. Demis Agelastos must have had her investigated. Where else could Meghan have obtained such information? All along Christophe’s father had known all about her background. She felt invaded and violated, horrified that such information should have fallen into Meghan’s grasping hands, cheap fodder for her spite. Christophe caught her back on the landing before she could head for the sanctuary of their bedroom. A far from gentle hand closed around her forearm.“Pull yo
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