Part Three of SEASON OF DESIRE, a fiercely passionate five-part serial novel by Sadie Matthews which will excite all fans of FIRE AFTER DARK, BECAUSE YOU ARE MINE and FIFTY SHADES OF GREY. Freya Hammond is used to people fulfilling her every whim. Wealthy and spoiled she lives a butterfly existence of fashion and parties and is accustomed to getting her own way. Which is why the new bodyguard is riling her. Miles Murray is ex-SAS and obeys her instructions with barely repressed scorn. She can sense that he doesn't think much of her. The Hammonds have been staying at their luxurious retreat high in the Alps. Now Miles is driving Freya to the airport but the rapidly worsening weather and a near-miss with a dangerously driven jeep causes him to lose control and sends the car plummeting off the side of the mountain. When Freya comes to she is lying on the freezing ground Miles beside her. The car is a mangled mess far below them. Now Freya needs Miles to save her life. Using all his survival skills Miles manages to locate an old shepherd's hut and get them both there despite Freya's twisted ankle. Rescue will surely come before too long... but until then Freya is no longer in control. The tension between them is soon at fever pitch as she tries to dominate a man who no longer obeys her orders. And when rescue does come how will they return to their old life of mistress and bodyguard after what has happened between them?
Release date:
November 7, 2013
Publisher:
Hodder & Stoughton
Print pages:
70
* BingeBooks earns revenue from qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate as well as from other retail partners.
‘I came looking for you!’ I say, joy bubbling up in me at the sight of him. He looks so gorgeous in a pair of loose cotton pyjama pants and a white T-shirt that shows every bulge of muscle beneath. I throw my arms round his neck. ‘I’m so glad I found you! I thought we were going to be kept apart and I couldn’t stand it. I had to see you.’
Miles is standing still and unresponsive. Then he reaches up and takes my arms from around his neck.
I gaze up into his face, worried. His expression is stony, his blue eyes almost black in the white light from the overhead bulb. Despite its hard set, his mouth is still unbearably sexy.
‘What is it? Aren’t you pleased to see me?’
There’s a pause that seems far too long, making me jittery with nervousness, before he says, ‘I don’t know if I’m pleased to see any of the Hammonds right now, if I’m honest.’ He turns and walks away from me, down the short hall and into the main room. It’s like something in a basic hotel, with a small double bed and some functional furniture. Miles sits down in a bucket armchair, looking far too big for it, and throws his arms over its back. I follow him.
‘Why?’ I ask, dismayed. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Wrong?’ He glares at me. ‘How about being interrogated for hours about the circumstances of our crash? How about being treated like some kind of criminal? I haven’t heard so much as a “thank you for saving my precious daughter’s life”.’ Miles looks angry now, and all I can think of is how amazingly sexy it makes him. His blue eyes start to flash and his hands ball into fists. ‘Your father hasn’t said as much but he’s making out that I’m some kind of blackmailer or kidnapper – I can’t quite work out what crazy ideas are floating through his head. He seems to think I’m guilty of something, anyway. And now they’re holding me as though I’m under some kind of house arrest.’
‘Arrest?’ I echo. ‘But you can leave if you want to, can’t you? I mean – you came out into the corridor to find me. They haven’t locked the door.’
‘It wouldn’t matter if they had. If I wanted to go, a locked door isn’t going to keep me in.’ He laughs mirthlessly. ‘But that arsehole Pierre has made it very clear that I’m not to go anywhere. I was just in the middle of deciding whether I’ll oblige him or not.’ He looks over at me. ‘I’m sitting here thinking about heading off when I see the handle of my door turning. Nice and quiet and sneaky. So I wonder if there might be some dirty tricks going on and slip out to have a look. And there you are, down the hall. You’re lucky I recognised you or it might have been rather nasty.’
I stare at him, horrified by his implication. ‘You mean – you might have killed me?’
He glares back and then suddenly a huge smile breaks up his angry expression and he laughs, properly this time. I’m filled with relief as he says, ‘Ah, ignore me. I’ve been sitting here, working myself into a fit of paranoia as bad as your father’s. I’m not angry with you. I’m fucked off, it’s true, but it’s not that bad. I just resent being treated like a suspect for some unknown crime when I thought I’d done pretty well at bringing the boss’s daughter home with nothing more than a bruise.’
Miles stares over at me and our gazes lock. The atmosphere changes and I feel the charge of sexual tension fill the room. We’re both remembering that the boss’s daughter came back with a whole new education.
‘So,’ he says softly, still staring at me. ‘You decided to come and find me, did you?’
I nod, my mouth going dry. I’ve been enjoying my fantasies of Miles but the reality is both infinitely more complex and much more exciting. He hasn’t fallen on me, telling me I’m the woman of his dreams and he has to have me now. In fact, when he thought I was a danger to him, he was more likely to strangle me than kiss me. But I can’t help preferring this flesh-and-blood man to my imaginings, whether he refuses to act like my romantic hero or not. My gaze travels over him, taking in the way he looks so heart-poundingly sexy in his cotton pyjama pants and T-shirt.
He says, ‘I guess you’re not exactly used to this part of the building, are you?’
I shake my head, not able to speak. His gaze is raking over me, taking me in. I wish now that I’d inspected myself in the mirror before I set out to find him, but the whole thing was so impulsive, I didn’t think of it. I’m wearing the clothes that Jane-Elizabeth brought me earlier: ballet flats, black skinny jeans and a loose silk top printed with a pattern of birds.
Miles says softly, ‘I’m honoured. You came to the staff quarters. It must be a first to see a Hammond on this floor.’
I manage to find my voice at last. ‘I had to see you.’
‘Did you now?’ He smiles, a lop-sided half smile of amusement. ‘We only saw each other this morning. You’re not going to tell me you can’t live a day without me, are you?’
I can hardly believe that it was only this morning that we woke up together in that hut. Could he have forgotten what he did to me in the night? I can almost still feel the swollen sensation that lingered for hours after he pounded me with his huge prick. The thought makes me pull in a sharp breath. ‘I don’t know how we left things,’ I say at last. ‘I wanted to know what you think.’
‘What I think?’ He stands up, and I’m almost overwhelmed by his physical presence. He’s tall and broad, making me feel small and fragile by comparison. He takes a few steps closer to me and I start to tremble. How on earth does he have this effect on me? I’m eaten up with longing for him. I have the most tremendous urge to leap on him, kiss him, hold him – but I know instinctively that this would be the wrong approach. I say nothing but look up at him. He reaches out a finger and strokes it along my jaw, leaving a trail of tingling nerve ends where he touches me. ‘I think,’ he continues, ‘that we had an agreement. What happened in the hut stays in the hut. Right?’
‘That was what you said,’ I say, my voice loose and shaky with the effect he’s having on me. I can’t seem to breathe properly and my whole body is alive with excitement.
‘So…’ His blue eyes search my face. ‘Is there anything more to say?’
You know there is! There must be! We can’t just leave it like that!
The words shriek inside my head but still I say nothing. I can’t, not while I’m working so hard at controlling my breath and the racing of my pulse. I long for him to touch me again so badly, it’s all I can do not to grab his hand and press it to my face.
I close my eyes, concentrate hard and take in a deep breath. When I’ve released it I say quietly, ‘I don’t think my education is complete.’
His eyes flicker with something I can’t identify. ‘Oh, really? But the terms of my tuition were very clear. Do y. . .
We hope you are enjoying the book so far. To continue reading...
Please log in to recommend or discuss...
