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She fearlessly held eye contact. ‘You let the lady go first.’
‘Oh, that wasn’t gentlemanly. That was for my own pleasure.’ His lips curved more deeply into that delicious smile and he answered mock primly, ‘But, okay, if you insist, I shall avert my eyes.’
He presented her with his rear view. She just gawped for a second, before remembering her intention and dropping the sheet to hurriedly dash back across the room, around the bed to find her slip. Glancing down, she saw a couple of light bruises colouring her thigh. The faintest of finger marks. She remembered his firm clutch with vivid clarity. The squeezes as she’d slid down to take him to the hilt over and over. She turned her head away and screwed her eyes shut tight, as if she could block the blush as the involuntary excitement skittered through her.
‘Okay, I’m decent.’ Breathing in, she watched him turn back to face her. He was no more physically ‘relaxed’.
‘You were wearing that?’ He half gasped, theatrically pressing his hand against his ribs. ‘Damn, I wish you had turned on the lights.’
‘Stop it.’ She laughed. ‘You don’t need to try and flatter me.’
‘Yeah, I do.’ He walked towards her, totally serious now. ‘How can I not?’
She could see the muscles twitching under his skin. She’d never considered herself any kind of seductress before and she knew she wasn’t really now—it was that sexual toy thing. They shared an illicit fantasy for real. The guy was no doubt sex-mad. Insatiable. One track. Only problem with that was his condition had rubbed off on her. Hell, the thought of him finding her so attractive put a zing in her step. But to do this again—stone-cold sober and in the cold light of day? She wasn’t that crazy. She backed up, snatched up the towel from the low table next to her and threw it at him in defence.
He caught it and held it so it unfolded like a flag. ‘What am I supposed to do with this?’
Oh, hell, she’d not got the towel—only the facecloth that had sat on top of it. Pocket-hanky-sized—ridiculously small hanging from his hand.
‘I’m insulted,’ he teased. ‘I think you need a refresher in what I have to offer.’
‘Oh, don’t.’ She giggled, unable to hide her all-over-body blush in just the slip—she needed the sheet back. ‘Just...don’t.’
He chuckled. ‘I’m glad you can see the funny side.’
Biting her lip, she shook her head. ‘Oh, this is such a nightmare.’
‘Crazy, yes, nightmare, no. Don’t regret it.’
She steadfastly met the sincerity in his eyes. And the smile on his mouth. Yeah, she bet he’d experienced many a morning after. ‘You know how to give a girl a good time.’
‘I like to think it’s one of my strengths.’
Oh, it was.
He turned, his attention grabbed by something out of the window. ‘This Nathan guy,’ he muttered. ‘Wouldn’t have dark hair and laugh like a hyena?’
She reluctantly moved to stand next to him. Not a hyena, but a distinctive laugh. She remembered hearing it late last night, right when she shouldn’t have. Right when she’d breathlessly been falling towards sleep, when her lover had still been inside her and caressing the base of her spine with gentle fingers.
‘Oh.’ She swallowed the swearword when she saw Nathan kiss the pretty young woman they’d met at the bar in the late afternoon yesterday.
Naked Guy’s eyebrows had shot upwards. ‘It looks like he might have been sharing his flirt around.’
Just a little.
‘It’s like a French farce,’ Ellie muttered. But it was real. ‘In a chateau and everything.’ She felt her mystery lover turn his gaze on her and refused to show any kind of disappointment.
‘I can’t believe you mistook me for him,’ Naked Guy accused in a tone of utter outrage. ‘He’s at least five inches shorter than I am. And not as fit.’ He flexed his muscles in a preening display.
Yeah, they were poles apart. This guy was way more outrageous than Nathan. Bold in flirtation. In his demands. Desire. He tempted with humour and cheerful abandon.
‘You were lying down,’ she said through gritted teeth.
‘And you hadn’t slept with him.’ He sounded pleased about that.
She didn’t reply. She knew she’d admitted that last night in her amazed gasps of pleasure. They both watched the couple in the courtyard for another moment.
Her tall lover was the one to break the silence, turning to face her directly. ‘Well, I’ll be frank, I think you got the better deal.’
She gaped at him. Then giggled. ‘Arrogant much?’ She laughed again only for the sound to die quickly as she shook her head and gave it to him. ‘But I’ll admit in this case, I think you might be right.’
‘You think?’ he asked, mock-outraged. ‘Come on, you know that was spectacular.’
She felt her blush rising again as memories twisted between them, trying to draw them together.
‘Well.’ She breathed out, brazening her way through the most mortifying experience of her life. ‘Okay. Yes. Thanks so much, it was...’ She couldn’t think of an appropriate adjective.
‘Fantastic and you can’t wait to see me again,’ he inserted for her.
She shook her head. ‘No.’ She tempered the bad news with a smile. ‘This was what it was.’ One almighty screw-up. ‘But we’re not going there again.’
‘Oh, come on.’ He walked forward. ‘That hot, that quick?’ He shook his head. ‘We’d be crazy not to enjoy that again. You want to as much as I do.’ His gaze flickered to her chest. She didn’t need to look down to know her nipples were turned on like bright beacons, begging for his touch again.
Oh, yeah, she was tempted.
‘It had been a while for you, hadn’t it?’
‘Last full moon,’ she said breathlessly.
‘Liar.’ He called her on it. ‘You’re blushing more than a gaggle of schoolgirls. You can hardly look at me. You’re no vixen. Although it has to be said you have potential.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘And you’re offering to give me a bit more practice?’
‘Of course I am,’ he said simply. ‘It had been a while for me too.’
She snorted. That she simply didn’t believe.
His grin flashed. ‘Truth. I’ve been busy at work and I haven’t had any midnight callers. But you’ve really whet my appetite.’
Had she? It wasn’t only his appetite piqued.
‘I know it was an unconventional way of meeting, but we’re good together.’
For a moment Ellie let fantasy rule—imagined being with him again for another round or thirty of spectacular sex. Fantasy morphed—from this they’d develop some wonderful relationship that would rival the highest-grossing Hollywood chick flick’s happiest of endings... And, yeah, there was the problem. In the past she’d given too much where it wasn’t wanted. She’d been crushed before; she wouldn’t be daft enough to set herself up for a similar sort of heartache. She knew herself, before long she’d want the full fantasy. But a guy like this wasn’t the sort to do happy ever after. She’d seen his unveiled edge—unashamed, reckless—a complete playboy. Someone who could go along with an anonymous one-night stand with such relaxed, outrageous humour? Too, too casual. And while she could live with a casual—frankly marvellous—mistake in her life, it had to be one-off. Her non-plan with Nathan had been for just the once. This definitely had to be just the once. Naked Guy here was just too fit for her to keep up with.
‘It can’t happen.’ Her final decision.
‘Not because of Nathan.’ Statement not question.
‘No. Because of me.’ She’d get burned by Mr Naked & Too Hot to Handle. He was too much more everything than any other man she’d met—more gorgeous, more good-humoured, not only blessed by nature but more talented in bed than any guy had the right to be. She’d fall so hard, in a heartbeat.
He hadn’t taken his eyes from hers, as if trying to read her thoughts. Looking right back at him, into those molten-chocolate eyes, Ellie felt her thoughts begin to splinter dangerously. One thought became dominant. Not a thought—an urge. Steam rose, blinkering her vision—all she wanted was to plant a kiss on those perfectly curved lips.
She breathed, blinked, stepped back. Not going to happen. She moved quickly, opening the door and stepping out of the insanity.
‘Wait.’ He stepped after her, apparently not caring that she was in the middle of the hall in a sheer slip and he had only a facecloth failing to protect his modesty. ‘I don’t know your name. Mine’s—’
‘Don’t.’ She held up her hand. ‘Let’s just pretend the whole thing was a dream.’
‘But—’
‘Bye!’ She clutched her breasts so she could sprint down the hallway to the stairs.
‘You’re going to leave me like this?’
She turned at his holler, saw him standing outrageously proud, bolder than anyone she’d met in her life. He had a fascinating lack of care, and an ability to find amusement in anything—that made him all the more intriguing. But she forced another step back from temptation. ‘I’m sure you’ll figure something out.’
Yeah, it’d be no time ’til he tempted another woman into his bed. And Ellie would be all envy.
CHAPTER THREE
‘ELLIE, where have you been?’ Nathan pointedly looked at his watch when Ellie finally made it down to the breakfast table an hour and a shower later. There was no sign of his girl guest—or any other guests either.
She squared her shoulders, refusing to feel even a hint of regret about last night. Maybe she should feel worse, but the gorgeous Naked Guy had completely diffused any threat of angst with his humour and relaxed attitude. And Nathan here had been scoring someone else. At least he never had to know about her crazy intention last night. She really had got the better end of the deal.
‘I’ve been waiting ages for you.’ Nathan’s tone turned more to the ‘smooth’ one he used so often.
And she really didn’t think so. ‘I didn’t know we were in such a rush to get going,’ she answered ultra matter-of-factly.
‘We’re not leaving.’ Nathan surprised her. ‘He’s here.’
‘Who?’
‘The owner. He’s turned up unexpectedly.’
‘The French guy?’ Son of the folly man? Given the old dude hadn’t lived to see the chateau finished, she guessed the son to be in his late forties or fifties.
Nathan nodded vehemently. ‘We have to do whatever it takes to convince him this is the place.’
Ellie didn’t want to stay here a moment longer than necessary, not when she had that other guest to avoid. Besides, securing permission to film onsite wasn’t usually a problem. Business owners were thrilled to get the exposure. Plus they were well compensated. Although this place was in a class of its own. The elite of the elite retreated here where every luxury was on tap—and the key was its privacy. ‘What’s your plan?’
Nathan was frowning at her outfit. ‘I thought you might toy with the man or something?’
‘Pardon?’ Ellie asked, certain she’d heard wrong.
‘You know, charm him.’ He was still frowning at her outfit. ‘Flirt him round your finger.’
Ellie blinked as the real Nathan was revealed. Yeah, now the smooth had been removed—she realised that was what he did. Oozed charm to get what he wanted. All those compliments and the coy flirting he’d done with her? What had he really been after? Clearly not sex. She’d known the industry she worked in was all about the illusion—but this was killing the dream too much for her. ‘We might work for film-makers, but the casting couch doesn’t happen when it comes to locations.’
Lying back in bed—still recovering from his interrupted sleep—Ruben was glad for the open window and the way words spoken in the courtyard were carried up to his ears. The conversation going on down there was supremely interesting.
‘He’s French, isn’t he? Frenchmen love an elegant woman. Not sure they like jeans.’
‘Actually denim was originally created in France,’ Ellie—Ruben liked her name—snapped back at the Nathan prat.
‘Well, don’t you have anything sexier? What about a skirt or something?’
‘I don’t think skin is going to get us far. He’s probably married.’
Ruben bit back a chuckle at that suggestion.
‘Can’t you make the effort? This is a major deal—you know that, don’t you?’
‘I’m not going to prostitute myself just to land a contract, Nathan. That’s not the way I operate.’
‘You know this industry is all about image,’ Nathan lectured her. ‘I wanted you here because you’re so boringly together with paperwork, but you have to step up to the plate when the heat is on.’ Nathan began with the clichéd metaphors. ‘You need the killer instinct. You do whatever it takes to impress him.’
Ruben couldn’t believe she’d wanted to get it on with this idiot. What had she been thinking?
‘You might flirt your way into getting what you want, but that’s not what I’m about,’ Ellie answered back.
Go, the spitfire.
‘Don’t you want to win?’ the doofus asked.
‘Not at that price,’ she answered smartly.
No, he’d known she wasn’t ruthless or cynical. Ruben frowned at the hint of real hurt in her tone. Had she really had feelings for the jerk?
‘Fingers crossed the guy is gay, Nathan, so you can be the one to flash the skin.’
Ruben got out of bed and walked into his bathroom. He couldn’t wait to get down there. But by the time he did, she was alone, the only sign of any lingering annoyance the light flush on her cheeks. A flush that deepened when she saw him.
‘Good morning,’ he said to her for the second time that day.
‘Oh.’ She looked startled he’d spoken, as if she’d thought he was a mirage or something. ‘Hello.’
Ms Cautious herself.
‘You never mentioned your plans this morning.’ He walked to the table that was laden with breakfast options. ‘It’s a beautiful place—are you going to explore it some more?’
She shook her head and looked everywhere but at him. ‘I’m here to work.’
‘But you don’t much like your work. You’re supposed to come here to relax and escape. Have you hunted out the spa facilities yet?’
Her flush deepened again. ‘I don’t have time for the spa. I really have to work and I really do need to get on with it so...’
‘Maybe you ought to have some breakfast first. You must be hungry after last night.’
