‘But I want to be in deep. I want to experience life to the full. I want to feel. I don’t want to be an onlooker. That only makes the ache inside me worse.’
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake!’ Shooting up in bed, he glared at her.
She shrugged and smiled. ‘There you are,’ she whispered. ‘Now, can I thank you for finding me?’
‘You already did.’
‘I don’t mean when I was lost in the snow.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Can I explain?’ Before he could answer she was sitting on the bed. ‘I just want to talk.’
Dipping his head, he gave her a disbelieving look. ‘We can talk in the morning.’
‘I don’t want to wait that long.’
‘Okay, so what do you want?’
‘I want to have sex with you.’
His body responded immediately. ‘Be very careful,’ he warned.
‘Why? Will you pounce on me?’
Swinging out of bed, he grabbed his jeans. ‘Does this answer your question?’
‘If you go you’ll regret it.’
‘I’ll regret it if I don’t go,’ he assured her.
‘Then, I guess it’s up to me to stop you.’
‘I’d like to see you try.’
Slipping off the bed, she knelt in front of him. ‘Oh, I’m going to try all right,’ she assured him.
Before he had the chance to stop her she drew her tee shirt over her head, revealing lush breasts. He could still remember the scent of them, and the taste of her skin. Her nipples were erect, and he grew harder in response. He didn’t push her away; instead, he dragged her close. The ache, the need, the pain inside him could no longer be sustained.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing now?’ he asked sharply, throwing his head back to drag in some much-needed air as she made her intentions clear.
‘Pleasuring you,’ she informed him. ‘Stay still, or I’ll bite.’
Dios! What? The kitten had become a tigress. Lacing his fingers through her hair, he kept her close. A groan of pleasure escaped him. He needed this, needed Stacey, and she knew exactly what to do. Using her tongue, her teeth, and her lips, she made sure the outcome was inevitable. ‘No!’ he exclaimed at the very last minute. Control was everything. Here, in dodging the questions she asked him, in business, in everything. Fisting his erection, he pulled back.
Her eyes were wide and bewildered as she stared up at him. ‘Did I do something wrong?’
‘You did nothing wrong. This is wrong. We’re wrong. This just cannot be.’
‘Who says? We’re not related. You’re not very much older than I am. Is it because I’m not rich, not good enough for you? Or are you frightened of my brother?’
‘Your brother?’ He shook his head and smiled. ‘As for you not being good enough—’
‘Don’t bother,’ she said, putting a crack in the stone wall of his heart as she stumbled to her feet. ‘I don’t want to hear your excuses. I don’t have the patience to stick around while you find yourself.’
‘Says you?’ Grabbing her by the shoulders, he brought her to her feet in front of him. ‘Don’t you understand? I just can’t think of you this way.’
‘Still lying to yourself?’ she countered tensely. ‘Still hiding your feelings, Lucas? Is that why you’ve got an erection? We’re both consenting adults, and however determined you are to banish emotion from your life, you can’t hide that.’
‘Don’t make this harder than it has to be.’ He stared pointedly at the door, but she refused to take the hint, and instead made a cradle of her hands to offer her breasts like a gift. This cut straight through his desire to protect her from him, and made him see the sensual woman he’d made love to in Barcelona. As if that weren’t enough, she dipped down to capture his straining erection between her luscious curves.
‘You like that, don’t you?’ she whispered. ‘You don’t want me to go now…’
As she began to move rhythmically to and fro, her question was redundant. Eventually, he managed to grind out, ‘This does not mean I will allow you to seduce me.’
‘Allow?’ she said, angling her chin to one side as she stared up at him. ‘I’d say you don’t have any choice. Unless I decide otherwise, of course…’
SHE LET HIM go suddenly, which left him in an agony of frustration. Shaking his head, he barked an incredulous laugh at the incongruity of the situation. ‘I suppose it’s no use my telling you to go?’
‘None at all,’ she agreed.
‘Then, for your sake, I must.’
‘For my sake?’ she said, moving quickly to stand between him and the door. ‘If you were doing something for my sake you’d make love to me. You wouldn’t walk out.’
‘This is not a battle of wills,’ he said, spearing a glance into her eyes as he fastened his jeans. ‘It’s about me caring for you.’
‘Twaddle. It’s about you reinforcing your barricades, leaving me feeling like a fool.’
Backing her into a shaft of moonlight that had unwittingly trespassed on the drama, he bit out, ‘You did nothing wrong. It’s me. I’m wrong for you, and no amount of sex can make that right.’
‘Try me,’ she challenged.
He wanted to say a lot of things as he headed for the door, but prolonging this served no purpose.
Stacey flinched as the door closed behind Luc. Deep down she’d known this was a daft idea, and had been primed for disappointment. But she hadn’t expected it to go quite so badly. Lucas was too sophisticated to fall for her clumsy ploys, and all she’d managed to prove tonight was that fantasies never played out as you expected them to. Only one thing was certain, and that was that she couldn’t leave it here.
Scooping up her discarded pyjama top, she dressed and left the room. She found Luc downstairs in front of a guttering fire with shadows flickering around him, head back, eyes closed, jaw set, like a dark angel sitting on the steps of hell.
She wouldn’t let him go through those gates. Somehow she was going to save him. And however ridiculous that sounded—a word he liked to use—she was a very determined woman.
He didn’t say anything as she came closer, but she’d put money on him knowing she was there.
‘Go away, Stace.’
‘You haven’t called me that for years.’
‘I haven’t felt this way for years.’
‘Have you felt anything for years?’
Too deep, too intrusive a question, she thought when he remained silent. She tried again. ‘How do you feel?’
‘Conflicted,’ he admitted. ‘Contrary to what you think, I want you more than you know, but if you expect hearts and flowers, you’ll be disappointed.’
Of course she was disappointed. Didn’t every woman want the dream?