‘What do you mean?’ He scowled at her irritably. ‘I spent bloody ages on your breasts. They’re perfect. They’ve got just the right amount of form and light and shadow.’
Lottie tapped him on the end of his nose with a playful fingertip, flashing him a cheeky got-you smile. ‘You are such a sensitive boy.’
‘Little witch.’ He grabbed her by the hips and pulled her close, taking her right breast into the hot cavern of his mouth and drawing deeply.
She looked down at his dark head against her white skin and shivered. She stroked her fingers through his closely cropped hair, breathing in the scent of the signature Chatsfield shampoo. She wondered with a sharp little pang if there would be a time in the future when she could smell cedarwood, leather, white rose and lavender and not think of him.
Lucca’s mouth went to her other breast, his tongue teasing the nipple into a hardened point. Her belly turned over in delight as one of his hands left her hip to cup her intimately. She pushed against him, wanting more, aching for him with every throbbing cell of her being.
‘We’re supposed to be giving you a rest,’ he said.
‘I’m rested.’
‘No, you’re not.’ He put her from him but softened it with a rueful smile. ‘Stop tempting me, baby girl. Don’t you know creative types are easily distracted?’
‘I like distracting you.’ She traced his bottom lip with her finger, then over his top one. ‘You look so intense when you’re working. You get deep frown lines here.’ She touched his forehead. ‘You look moody and grumpy, sort of like Beethoven.’
He gave a self-deprecating laugh. ‘Yes, well, that’s a side of me no one else sees. Thank God.’
Lottie put her hands on his shoulders and looked into dark brown eyes. ‘You’re a good person, Lucca Chatsfield. Don’t let anyone ever tell you any different.’
‘Don’t go pinning any angel wings on me, little princess.’ His eyes contained a dangerous glint. ‘I’m rotten to the core.’
‘I don’t believe that.’
His hands cupped her bottom, bringing her between his spread thighs. His erection was tenting his jeans; she could feel it pressing against her thigh, making her need of him all the more desperate. She reached down and undid his waistband, sliding his zip down and freeing him to her hand, caressing that proudly jutting flesh as she watched pleasure play out over his features. ‘You like it when I do that?’
‘What do you think?’
She rubbed his shaft up and down, rolling her fingertip over the bead of moisture that oozed from his tip. ‘I want to pleasure you.’
‘Here’s the thing.’ He stood and scooped her up in his arms. ‘I have this little rule about ladies coming first. Call me old-fashioned but that’s the way I always do things.’
Lottie quivered with anticipation as he lowered her to the bed in his suite. His eyes were black with desire as he parted her legs, stroking the sensitive skin of her inner thighs, ramping up her excitement with each slow caress. By the time he put his mouth to her she was already flying. Her back arched off the bed, her fingers clawing at the bedcover as wave after wave of ecstasy rippled through her. The intensity of her response to him always shocked her. It took her by surprise each and every time. Her response was never quite the same. There were new things to learn about her body each time he touched her.
But now it was time for her to learn more about his.
Lottie pushed him onto his back on the bed and straddled him. He was fully engorged, painfully so if the look on his face was anything to go by. ‘I want to suck you dry.’ She could barely believe she had said the shockingly erotic words, let alone meant them.
‘Not without a condom.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because it’s safer for you with one.’ He reached for protection in the bedside drawer and handed it to her. ‘You can put it on me if you like.’
She took it from him and tore the packet with her teeth. ‘Can I put it on with my mouth?’
‘You’re inner bad girl is letting it all hang out tonight, isn’t she?’
She gave him a teasing look. ‘Do you think you can you handle her?’
He smiled a wickedly sexy smile. ‘Let’s see, shall we?’
THE PRESS WERE waiting for them as they landed in Preitalle the following day but for once in her life Lottie didn’t shy away from the surge of people and the flash of cameras. Her body was still humming from Lucca’s passionate lovemaking the night before, not to mention a quick hot interlude in the shower before they left the hotel that morning. It was a new experience to be the darling of the press and she lapped it up while Lucca led her to the waiting car. He handled all the questions with his usual charm and good humour, even the question about a second royal wedding.
‘Let’s get the first one out of the way first,’ he said with an easy smile.
Madeleine, however, was not so happy about the way the press had taken to Lottie’s affair with Lucca, and took her aside once he had left for the hotel. ‘Do you realise what you’re doing?’ she said.
‘I’m going out and having a life just like you told me to.’
‘Your affair with Lucca Chatsfield is taking the attention off my wedding.’ Madeleine scowled. ‘Not one camera looked my way when we were out there just then. No one even spoke to me. They were all clicking away at you and him as if it were you two getting married and not me and Edward.’
‘It was your idea to bring him here,’ Lottie reminded her.
‘He’s supposed to be helping you with the wedding.’
‘He is helping me with the wedding. He’s in charge of the hens’ night. It’s going to be fun. Just you wait and see.’
Madeleine was still scowling as she followed Lottie to her office. ‘You’re not really in love with him, are you?’
Lottie put her mobile phone on the desk next to her computer. Lucca had been sending her smoulderingly hot texts to remind her of what he was going to do to her when he finally got her alone. Her body reacted to each one as if he had reached through the phone and touched her. She clicked off the screen so her sister couldn’t see his latest missive. ‘No, of course not, but I do like him. He’s fun to be around. He makes me laugh.’
Madeleine humphed. ‘He’s not in love with you even if he acts as if he is. He’s just using you to fill in the time before he collects his allowance.’
Lottie felt a sharp little pain near the bottom of her heart as if something was trying to tug it down below her rib cage. She knew Lucca’s motives were not entirely pure. She knew he was only here for his family’s money and that he would not let anything or anyone stop him from collecting what he felt he was entitled to, but she hated being reminded of it, especially by her sister, who had found a man who loved her so completely and unreservedly. ‘I know what I’m doing.’
‘I don’t want anything to spoil my wedding.’ Madeleine pressed her lips together for a moment. ‘You almost ruined my twenty-first birthday with your silly little fling with that diplomat’s son. I hope you’re not going to let history repeat itself.’
Lottie jolted as if her sister had slapped her. What about what had happened to her? What about her devastation at being exploited? At being exposed in such a degrading way? ‘If you’re so worried I’m going to stuff everything up for you, then why did you ask me to be your wedding planner?’