‘I like to think I’m a realist, Lucien,’ she answered lightly. ‘Zillionaire Lucien Steele—’ she pointed to him ‘—and Cynthia Hammond, waitress/student, living from payday to payday.’ She pointed to her own chest. ‘Not exactly a basis for friendship.’
‘I have no interest in being your friend!’ he rasped with harsh dismissal.
She flinched at the starkness of his statement. ‘I believe I just said that—’
‘I have no interest in being your friend because I want to be your lover. Touch me.’ Lucien stepped forward to grasp her hand impatiently in his before lifting it to the bulge at the front of his denims.
Evidence of an arousal that Thia had been completely unaware of until that moment. She couldn’t possibly remain unaware of it now—not when she could feel the long, hard length of Lucien’s swollen shaft, the heat of it burning her fingertips as she stroked them tentatively against him. Her eyes widened as she felt the jolt, the throb, of that arousal in response to her slightest caress.
She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue and looked up at Lucien. ‘Does one preclude the other...?’
His mouth twisted derisively. ‘In my experience, yes.’
In Thia’s limited experience too...
She’d only dated maybe half a dozen times these past six years, and had always ended up being friends with those men rather than lovers. Including Jonathan. Although she suspected that their friendship had ceased after his behaviour yesterday, and yet again this morning, when he had packed her belongings into her suitcase and handed it over to Lucien seemingly without a second thought as to where or how she was.
‘Stop thinking about Miller,’ Lucien rasped.
She blinked. ‘How did you know—?’
‘I think I’m intelligent enough to know when the woman I’m with is thinking about another man,’ he bit out harshly, having known from the way Cyn’s gaze had become slightly unfocused that her attention was no longer completely here with him. Which, considering her hand was currently pressed against his pulsing erection, was less than flattering.
She gave a rueful smile. ‘I sincerely doubt it’s happened to you often enough for that to be true.’
‘It’s never happened to me before, as far as I’m aware,’ he grated.
He lifted her hand away impatiently before pulling her to her feet, so that she now stood just inches in front of him. His other hand moved beneath her chin to raise her face, so that she had no choice but to look up at him. ‘And, yes, I was challenging you earlier. I wanted to unnerve you a little by inviting you to my apartment. But I did not have dinner with you here as a way of hiding you away. I’m insulted that you should ever have thought that I did.’ He was more than insulted—he actually felt hurt that Cyn could believe him capable of behaving in that way where she was concerned...
Thia could see that he was. His eyes glittered dangerously, there was angry colour along those high cheekbones, his lips had thinned and his jaw thrust forward forcefully.
‘I apologise if I was mistaken.’
‘You were,’ he bit out. ‘You still are.’
She nodded; Lucien was too upset not to be telling her the truth.
‘Have I succeeded in ruining the evening?’ She looked up at him through long dark lashes.
Lucien eyed her impatiently. ‘I have absolutely no idea.’
She drew in a shaky breath. ‘How about we clear away in here while you decide?’
His eyes narrowed. ‘Are you humouring me, Thia?’
The fact that Lucien had called her Thia for the first time was indicative of how upset he was. ‘Is it working?’ she deliberately used the same phrase he had to her earlier, when she had challenged him about always wanting his own way.
Some of the tension left his shoulders. ‘Maybe a little,’ he conceded dryly. ‘And we can just blow out the candles in here and leave all this for housekeeping to clear away in the morning.’ He indicated the dinner table beside them.
Thia’s stomach did a somersault. ‘Oh...’
He gave a rueful shake of his head. ‘I have no idea how you do that...’
‘Do what?’ She looked up at him curiously.
‘Make me want to laugh when just seconds ago I was so angry with you I wanted to kiss you senseless!’ He gave a self-disgusted shake of his head as the last of his earlier tension eased from his expression.
‘Senseless, hmm?’ Thia eyed him teasingly. ‘According to you, that wouldn’t be too difficult!’
‘See?’ Lucien chuckled wryly, shaking his head.
The sudden hunger in Lucien’s gaze told Thia this was the ideal time for her to suggest she return to her own suite in the hotel, to thank Lucien for dinner, and his company and conversation, and then leave, never to see or hear from him again.
It was the latter part of that plan that stopped her from doing any of those things... ‘Does one preclude the other?’ she repeated provocatively, daringly.
‘You want me to kiss you senseless...?’ he prompted gruffly.
She drew in a sharp breath, knowing this was a moment of truth. ‘Even more than I enjoy watching you laugh,’ she acknowledged shyly.
Lucien’s piercing gaze narrowed on her searchingly. ‘Be very sure about this, Thia,’ he finally warned her. ‘I want you so badly that once I have you in my bed I’m unlikely to let you out of it again until I’ve made love to you at least half a dozen times.’
Thia’s heart leapt as he jumped from kissing her senseless to taking her to his bed. Her heart pounded loudly in her chest at the thought of all that currently leashed but promised passion. Of having this man—having Lucien Steele!—want to make love to her with such an intensity of feeling. It was an intensity of passion she didn’t know, in her inexperience, that she could even begin to match...
But she would at least like to the opportunity to try!
‘Can you do that? I thought that men needed to...to rest for a while...recuperate before...well, you know...’
He arched dark brows. ‘Let’s give it a try, shall we? Besides, I don’t recall giving any time limit for making love to you those half a dozen times.’
No, he hadn’t, had he? Thia acknowledged even as her cheeks burned. In embarrassment or excitement? She really wasn’t sure! ‘I only have one more full day left before I leave New York, and don’t you have to go to work tomorrow?’
‘Not if I have you in my bed, no,’ Lucien assured her softly.
Thia’s heart was now beating a wild tattoo in her chest and she breathed shallowly, feeling as if she were standing on the edge of a precipice: behind her was the safety of returning to her own hotel suite, in front of her the unknown of sharing Lucien’s bed for the night.
She drew in a shaky breath. ‘Well, then...’
* * *
Lucien’s control was now so tightly stretched that he felt as if the slightest provocation from Cyn would make it snap. That he would snap, and simply rip that T-shirt off her in the same way he had her blouse earlier.
It was an uncomfortable feeling for a man who never lost control. Of any situation and especially of himself. But this woman—barely tall enough to reach his shoulders, so slender he felt as if he might crush her if he held her too tightly—had