He cocked his head and watched me, his eyes roving down my body with an expression I had never seen before. There was confidence and a new possessiveness there. There was also a knowing. I felt bare and stripped naked before his look. Just then the memory of his face between my legs came to me out of nowhere, and my eyes popped open in disbelief. Was I going crazy?

Surely that didn’t happen? I swallowed hard and tried not to show how affected I was by him.

His gaze burned a hole through me, but I continued to keep eye contact even when he came very close to me. He was so close I felt his heat like a living breathing thing. With a fork he picked up a piece of persimmon, his movements unhurried, but each second ticked away in my head like a bomb. The fruit slipped between his lips. I had a flash of seeing his lips shiny with juices. My juices.

I dropped his gaze then. I could have sworn he was doing it deliberately, to torture me, but all I could do was play along. I didn’t know what had happened last night and I needed him to tell me.

“I want to fuck you. What’s it going to take?”

Time slowed down. My heart lurched in my throat and I felt all the breath drain out of my body. I was sure that I had not heard him right.

“What?”

Patiently, he repeated himself. “I want to fuck you. What’s it going to take?”

True, I was shocked since I was not expecting him to be so blunt, but I also felt an undeniable flare of desire at the raw hunger I saw in his eyes.

“But you’re married,” I whispered.

Something flashed in his eyes. “Is it a divorce you need?”

Hearing him say the word confused me. I frowned. “No, I mean … I don’t know. I don’t want to be the person who breaks up a family. I couldn’t live with myself.”

His lips twisted. “You call what I have a family? To all intents and purposes I am alone, Charlotte.”

“What about Jillian?”

“What about Jillian?” he sneered. “Do you know where she is now?”

I shook my head.

“She is in London with one of her many lovers.”

I bit my bottom lip. Of course she was. “What about Zackary?”

I saw a flash of sadness in his eyes. “I will keep Zackary with me. Jillian is welcome to visit him as much as she wants, or he can go and stay with her for a weekend, but there is no way I am giving him up.”

“She’s not going to allow it.”

“She won’t have a choice. I am not taking Zackary with me to punish her. He is not even my biological son. I am taking him because it is the best thing I can do for him.”

I stared at him in shock. Finally, it clicked. That was why he looked nothing like Brett and everything like his mother.

“So, back to my original question …”

“I’m not a toy,” I lashed out. “Or a game that you can just play with and discard.”

“I never said you were.” His eyes narrowed. “You want me too … so what’s the problem?”

“How can you be so damn sure I want you?”

“My tongue was in your cunt last night. You came with my fingers inside you, calling out my name … no one else’s.”

My jaw dropped. What the hell? I came with his fingers inside me? The only flashbacks I had was of him eating me out.

"You don't remember any of it?" His eyes showed genuine astonishment.

But I couldn’t believe it either. My employer came to my room and did, God knows what, to me while I was practically unconscious. "You did … things to me while I was incoherent?" I whispered in disbelief.

He jerked back, his eyes tormented. "What? No! Don’t you remember? You called me and told me about your dream. You wanted me to fill you up."

I shut my eyes. Yes, yes, I did remember. Oh, God! I did do that. What a fool I’d made of myself last night, and again, by not even remembering asking someone to have sex with me.

"Do you want me to elaborate further?"

When I couldn't respond he went on.

"You begged me, Charlotte.”

"For fucks sake stop it!" I yelled, not because what he was saying wasn’t true, but because I was horribly ashamed of how I had thrown myself at him like some cheap slut. My first instinct was to run away from him and hide my shame. I whirled around and started running.

"Let me go,” I cried but he spun me around and imprisoned my arms by my sides.

"Charlotte."

"Let me go, otherwise this won't end here."

"It better not," he snarled. "Look at me. Fucking look at me."

I did and I couldn't breathe. The expression in his eyes tore at my insides. The maddening longing for him came back, but knowing we had done intimate things that I had no memory of embarrassed and crippled me. Made me unable even to think.

"You can sue me if you want ..." he rasped, "for however much you think it’s worth and I'll pay you every dime, but I won't apologize for last night. I want you. I’ve always wanted you, and I always will. Maybe it was a mistake for you.” He paused. “Tell me why are you rejecting me, Charlotte. Don't lie to me. Whatever it is I'll accept it."

I was about to dismiss the question and fight for my release from him when the significance of his question struck me. I stared at his face. His incredibly beautiful face. I could not understand how anyone could even think to call this man a monster. Even with the trace of scars running down from under his eyes he still looked more beautiful than most men I had ever come across. I told him the truth.

"It's not because of your scars."

He had been ready for the blow, for what he was sure was the reason for my rejection, but when he heard my statement, his guard slipped for just a moment. And for a second I saw the terrible sadness and loneliness within. I was no longer intimidated by him ... or embarrassed that I had begged him to have sex with me. In that moment, I wanted more than anything in the world to embrace him and try to make up for the pain that he’d had to endure. For the suffering ridicule and rejection he’d suffered at Jillian’s hands.

The moment was fleeting.

Before I could even respond to him, he had put the steel back into his gaze. "Then why?" he growled.

There was only one reason, but it was something I could not see past. No matter what he said, he could never change the fact that as far as Zackary was concerned I would always be the other woman. He would never understand. He would learn to hate me. He would think I had pretended to love him, and then torn his family up from the inside. The end would surely be drastic.

"I don't owe you an explanation,” I said to him but before I could leave he slid a hand around my neck and crushed my lips to his.

I fought the kiss ... pulling my mouth from his, but it still ended up back where it seemingly belonged. His slanted lips fit my mouth perfectly, wrenching more emotion from me than should have been possible.

I pushed at his shoulders, but with his hands around my waist he held me in place until his tongue slid into my mouth. Then my entire body went limp. There was no more fight in me. I gave in to pleasure. He stroked and dipped, and sucked, and I totally surrendered to the delicious assault. He tasted heavenly, but at the same time beautifully sinful. He was mine and yet he was forbidden. I couldn't place a reason on it. More than anything I wanted to understand why I reacted to him in this way.

His lips withdrew from mine.

"Brett," I croaked, my brain starting to reassert itself.

Instead of answering me his mouth claimed my neck. A ripple of sweet ecstasy coursed through me. It made my toes curl. I snaked my hands around his neck and let my fingers tangle in his hair. I gasped when my back was slammed against a wall.

We needed to stop otherwise I would lose myself, I thought. But I didn’t do anything about it. I just let the passion in me build higher and higher and grow even more wild. Suddenly, an image of Zackary crying for his mother came into my head. I felt something like panic and tears rushed to my eyes as I struggled to break free of him.

If I didn’t let go now, I would never be able to. "Brett," I cried, "Brett. Stop."

My voice reverberated in the still room and he immediately came to a halt. His breathing was ragged, and so was mine. He lifted his gaze to mine and seeing the tears in my eyes, flinched and pulled away from me.

I felt cold when the heat of his body was gone. So cold I wanted to throw myself back into his embrace.

“Charlotte, are you alright?” he started to reach out, but I held my hand out. “Please don't touch me.”

I couldn't meet his eyes for the fear that he would see how much I wanted him. I hurried away from the room.