The Tycoon's Rebel Bride (The Anetakis Tycoons #2)(27)

“Please, do call me Sophia.” Sophia reached out and took Isabella’s hand from Theron’s. “Can I get you something to drink? Have you had anything to eat since you arrived?” She turned to Alannis. “Will you excuse us for a minute, dear? You stay here with Theron while I take Isabella over to grab a bite to eat.”

Theron held up his hand to stop the endless stream of chatter. His head was pounding, and what he really wanted was to go pound on Marcus for touching Isabella, for putting his lips on her.

“Just stay here. I’ll have a waiter bring around a tray. I’d prefer that Isabella remain with me for the remainder of the evening,” he said brusquely.

The older woman’s eyes widened in surprise. Alannis moved closer to Isabella and touched her arm. “Are you sure you’re all right, Isabella?” she asked softly.

Isabella’s smile seemed strained when she looked back at Alannis. “I’m absolutely fine. Theron overreacted.” She shot him a challenging look. “I’m not sure how he expects me to find a husband when he flips his lid the moment a man pays attention to me.”

Theron took a deep breath. “I don’t think what he was doing could be classified as paying attention to you. Theos! He was making love to you for all to see.”

She raised her eyebrows and a slow smile formed on her lips. “Is that what they call kissing these days?” she taunted.

His nostrils flared at the reminder of the kisses they’d shared. He was well and truly caught in a trap of his own making.

“His actions were inappropriate,” he gritted out. “You are under my protection. You’ll heed my instructions.”

She turned cheekily to Sophia and Alannis. “I suppose he’ll mark that one off the list of potential husbands now.” Then she sighed dramatically and dropped her hands helplessly to her side. “I didn’t even get to dance again.”

“Theron will dance with you,” Alannis urged. “He’s a marvelous dancer as I’m sure you determined earlier.”

“Yes, do go on,” Sophia said. “I’ll make sure there is food when you return.”

Theron’s mouth went dry. He wouldn’t survive another dance with her lush body molded to his. One torture session was enough for the night.

But then the alternative was letting her dance with the circling pack of men. Men he’d hand-selected.

Over his dead body.

Without another word, he snared Isabella’s hand and dragged her toward the dance floor.

“You’re hell on these shoes,” she murmured as he pulled her into his arms.

For the first time since Marcus had arrived, Theron relaxed as Isabella’s soft body molded so sweetly to his. There was an innate sense of rightness. He loved touching her. It was difficult to keep his hands from roaming up and down her soft curves.

“You feel it, too,” she said softly as she gazed up at him. “You don’t want to. You fight it, but you feel it every bit as much as I do. It’s why you’ve kissed me.” She laughed softly. “You can’t help but kiss me, just as I’m unable to resist. I don’t want to resist.”

He shook his head even as his body hummed agreement.

She smiled and put a finger over his lips as they swayed with the music. Then turning, so that his back was to Alannis, she let her hands run down his chest. Her eyes narrowed to half slits, and she parted her lips in a hungry gesture.

He groaned. “We mustn’t, Bella. You make me so crazy. You have to stop with the teasing.”

“Who says I’m teasing,” she asked as she arched one eyebrow.

He took her hands and pulled them away from his body before turning her around again so that they were sideways to Alannis.

“You see her? Alannis. I’m going to ask her to marry me, Isabella.”

She greeted his announcement with calm. No visible reaction. Had she already known?

“This must stop between us,” he pressed on. “We’re going to marry different people.”

“And yet you keep kissing me,” she said with a slight smile.

“I won’t do so again,” he vowed.

Instead of deterring her, a sparkle lit her eyes. “If I have anything to say about it you will.”

Before he could respond, she pulled away. “I’m starving.” Then suddenly she leaned close and murmured so only he could hear. “You say you don’t want me, yet you don’t want another man to have me. Pretty strange wouldn’t you say?”

She turned and walked away, her hips swaying gently as she navigated her way back to where Sophia waited with a plate of food.

Ten

“H e still plans to propose tonight?” Isabella asked in dismay. She held the phone tightly to her ear as she listened to Madeline.

Somehow she’d hoped that after last night Theron would have realized he felt something for her. Maybe not love. Not yet, but she’d thought he’d wake up to the attraction between them.

Okay, maybe he wasn’t completely unaware, but he certainly seemed determined to ignore it.

She closed her eyes as she listened to Madeline confirm that according to Theron, the proposal was still on.

“Thanks, Madeline,” she said slowly.

She hung up the phone and sunk lower into the bed. Theron with Alannis. She just couldn’t imagine it. Theron needed…someone to shake him up, someone who wouldn’t let him get too serious and organized.