The Brazilian Millionaire's Love-Child Read Free

her breath. ‘I’m divorced,’ she told him shortly. ‘Now, please—I’d like you to let me go.’
    ‘Because I have offended you?’ His scowl was absurdly attractive. ‘That was not my intention.’
    ‘No?’ Isobel thought she knew exactly what he had intended. But right now she was more concerned with putting some breathing space between them. With his warm breath against her temple, and his fingers digging into her flesh, she was far too vulnerable. ‘Well, whatever you meant, I’m not interested in massaging your ego.’
    ‘My ego?’ he sounded amused. ‘So you think you know what kind of man I am?’
    Isobel shifted in his grasp. ‘I think you’re too sure of yourself,’ she declared stiffly. ‘And, whatever you say, I doubt if you’re a virgin either.’
    He grinned then, white teeth showing between the sensual contours of his lips. ‘Esta certo,’ he said. ‘You are so right, cara . I have slept with women, sim . Would you like to know how many?’
    ‘No.’ She looked horrified now, and he gave a low laugh.
    ‘I did not think so,’ he said smugly, and, before she had an inkling of what he intended to do, he bent his head and caught the corner of her lower lip between his teeth.
    He bit into the soft flesh, but the experience was more of a pleasure than a pain. His tongue stroked across hermouth, a sensuous exploration, and then his mouth covered hers and his tongue surged between her teeth.
    One hand circled her neck, and she felt his fingers loosening the knot that bound her hair. She’d swept it up earlier, but she now realised how precarious it had become. Silky strands tumbled down about her ears and his knuckles, and his groan of satisfaction said it all.
    Her muffled protest was only a half-hearted thing, the complete unexpectedness of what he was doing leaving her with an odd feeling of unreality. This couldn’t be happening, she thought. Not to someone like her. David had always said she was frigid, but in Alejandro’s arms the hot blood was fairly burning through her veins.
    He moved so that she was pressed back against the counter, the hard strength of his body virtually moulded to hers. The kiss deepened and lengthened, and his hands sought her hips, bringing her fully against him, so that all thought of denying his love-making faded rapidly away…
    ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’
    Isobel heard the angry exclamation as if from a distance. But its significance didn’t register until sharp nails dug into her arm and she was wrenched away from Alejandro.
    Then she saw Julia, and the look on her friend’s face brought a damning feeling of shame. It took the place of what she described to herself later as utter euphoria; she was certain she must have been out of her mind.
    ‘Julia,’ she said, turning towards her. ‘I—it’s not what you think.’
    ‘Isn’t it?’ Julia wasn’t convinced. ‘My God, is that blood on your shirt?’
    Isobel half-wished it was, then she could claim that Alejandro had only been comforting her. But she doubted Julia would believe that either. ‘It’s beer,’ she admitted ruefully. ‘I spilled it all over me.’
    ‘That’s not all that’s been all over you.’ Julia was bitter. ‘I thought we were friends, Issy.’
    ‘We are—’
    ‘So are you drunk or what? God, aren’t there enough men here for you to choose from without hitting on my date?’
    ‘Julia—’
    ‘ Se fez favor . Excuse me.’ Alejandro had been silently listening to their exchange, but now he intervened. ‘I came to the party alone, Julia,’ he told her coldly. ‘I may be many things, but I am not your date.’
    ‘Oh, please—’
    Isobel tried again, her gaze barely glancing off Alejandro’s scowling face. She didn’t dare look at him properly, didn’t dare acknowledge something to him that she dared not acknowledge to herself.
    Nevertheless, she registered his stillness, the fact that he’d pushed those long-fingered hands into the back