Chapter 22

Steam billowed out from behind her. Her wet hair clung to her cheeks, water trickling down her graceful neck and onto her collarbone.

Cedric stood before her, dressed in nothing but a pair of pajama pants.

He had already showered in the study, his short hair still damp. His honey-toned chest was a landscape of defined muscle, tapering down to where the pajama pants sat low on his hips. The air was thick with his raw, masculine scent. Liliana held her breath, her wide eyes meeting his cool gaze.

Before she could ask what he was doing here, his powerful arm shot out and wrapped around her waist, pulling her against him. The soft curves of her chest pressed into his hard torso. Through the thin towel, the lingering dampness of her skin met the searing heat of his. The space between them crackled with an intense, unspoken intimacy.

"What are you doing?!" Liliana pushed against his chest with one hand while clutching the slipping towel with the other.

Cedric's dark eyes, now clouded with desire, fixed on her collarbone. "What do you think?" he murmured, pulling her even closer.

She could feel the change in his body, hard and insistent against her.

Liliana's eyes widened in disbelief as the image of Sylvia tidying Cedric's private lounge flashed in her mind. Was his appetite so insatiable that he couldn't last a single night? Even if he couldn't, he had no right to come to her anymore.

"Do I need to remind you that we're getting a divorce?"

A humorless smirk touched Cedric's lips. He reached up and cupped her jaw, forcing her to look at him. "You went so far as to drag Grandma into this just to set this up. Why are you still playing innocent?"

Dowager Forrest went on a spiritual retreat in the mountains for a month every year. The night of the family dinner last Saturday was right after she had left. It had only been a week, which was unusually short. Now Liliana understood: Cedric thought she had summoned the Dowager from her retreat and fabricated the "fire" to lure him home.

"Grandma tricked me into coming here too!" Liliana said, her voice sharp with indignation. She hated being misunderstood.

Cedric's expression made it clear he didn't believe her. The hand on her waist began to slide lower. "This little act is getting old."

He was a man of few words and had no interest in wasting time dissecting her petty games. He

hadn't touched her in days. Since his body was already primed, he was willing to overlook her deception. tonight. He was even willing to forgive the fact that she hadn't apologized yet. If she just let him have his way, they could put this whole incident behind them.

Liliana's lips parted to argue, but Cedric silenced her with a fierce, crushing kiss. His mouth moved against hers with a raw hunger that left her dizzy, her tongue numb. A soft whimper escaped her, which only seemed to make his breathing grow heavier.

The disparity in their strength was immense. Her struggles did nothing to deter him; in fact, they only seemed to fuel his desire to conquer her. The towel slipped, her hair fell into disarray, and the warm O lamplight cast a tempting glow on her translucent skin.

Desire coiled tightly in him, his eyes burning with a fiery intensity. But her persistent resistance was a bucket of cold water on his arousal, and his frustration mounted.

After two years of marriage, he knew she responded to gentleness, not force.

His voice dropped to a husky, magnetic whisper. "Don't you want this? Open your legs. I'll give you what you need."

The tightly wound spring in Liliana's mind snapped, and her body went limp. She had a deceptively slender frame; beneath her clothes, she was all soft curves, a fact he knew well.

Losing the last of his control, Cedric pinned her against the wall, deepening the kiss. His hands fumbled with the towel bunched at her waist, eager to take her, to give himself to her.

Her head was spinning. The roughness of his actions sent a jolt of pain through her, snapping her back to reality. Without a second thought, she bit down-hard.

A sharp, searing pain shot through his tongue, and the coppery taste of blood filled his mouth. The lust in his eyes instantly morphed into fury. "Liliana are you done with this charade? This is your last chance Are you sure you want to keep this up?"