"Roberts, Nora - Private Scandals" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roberts Nora)

"But you took me. Right here, on this floor the first time. Remember?" With her eyes locked on his, she slid her
hands up his chest, shivering with triumph when she felt the unsteady thud of his heart under her palm. "I drove you
crazy; you tore my clothes off of me. Remember what it was like?" Her voice lowered, sliding through his system like
tainted honey.
He remembered, and the memory made him sick with desire. The bite of her fingernails on his back, her teeth at his
shoulder. She'd drawn blood and he hadn't given a damn.
"I want you to take me again, Finn." She watched his face as her hand crept downward.
His fingers curled at her back, digging into the silk. He knew what it would be like and, for a moment, desperately
craved that moment of violent pleasure. But he remembered much more than the urgent sex and the dazzling
fantasies.
"It isn't going to happen again, Angela." He let his hands drop away from her back. She was quick. He should have
been prepared, but her vicious backhanded blow knocked him back two steps.
His eyes heated like suns, but he lifted a hand and coolly wiped the blood from his lip. "More than this room hasn't
changed, I see."
"It's because I'm older than you, isn't it?" She hurled the words at him as her fury contorted the careful beauty of her
face. "You think you can find someone younger, someone you can mold and train and



teach to grovel."
"We've played that tune before. I'd say we've played them all." He turned, heading for the door. He was nearly
across the foyer when she threw herself at his feet.
"Don't. Don't leave me!" She clung to his legs, sobbing. Rejection sliced at her, bringing as much fear as pain. As it
always did. As it always would. "I'm sorry." And she meant it, completely, utterly, at that moment. It only made it
worse. "I'm sorry. Please, don't leave me."
"For God's sake, Angela." Pummeled by pity and disgust, he dragged her to her feet. "Don't do this."
"I love you. I love you so much." With her arms twined around his neck, she wept against his shoulder. The love was
as true as her earlier fury, as volatile, and as capricious.
"If I thought you meant that, I'd feel sorry for both of us." He jerked her back, gave her a quick shake. Tears. He'd
always considered them a woman's most potent and most underhanded weapon. "Turn it off, damn it. Do you think I
could have slept with you on and off for three months and not know when you're manipulating me? You don't love me,
and you only want me because I walked away."
"That's not true." She lifted her tear-ravaged face. There was such innocent hurt in it, such wretched sincerity, that
he nearly faltered. "I do love you, Finn. And I can make you happy."
Furious, with her as well as with his own weakness for her, he pried her arms away. "Do you think I didn't know that
you put pressure on James to have me fired just because you didn't want me to take the London assignment?"
"I was desperate." She covered her face with her hands and let the tears leak through her fingers. "I was afraid of
losing you."
"You wanted to prove you were in control. And if James hadn't been so solidly behind me, you could have fucked up
my career."
"He didn't listen to me." She lowered her hands, and her face was cold. "Neither did you."
"No. I came here tonight because I'd hoped we'd both had enough time to let things settle. Looks like I was wrong."
"Do you think you can walk out on me?" She



spoke quietly and with utter calm as Finn moved toward the door. The tears were forgotten. "Do you think it's simple
to just turn your back and walk away? I'll ruin you. It may take years, but I swear, I'll ruin you."
Finn paused at the door. She stood in the center of the foyer, her face blotched and puffy with weeping, her eyes
swollen and hard as stone. "Thanks for the party, Angela. It was a hell of a show."