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Besides, she really did find Lucien far too disturbing when he was only wearing a pair of faded denims and showing lots of bare, muscled flesh. Her ripped blouse was the perfect excuse for her to cry off having dinner with him this evening.
‘We haven’t talked about the Jonathan Miller situation yet.’
Lucien had just—deliberately?—said the one thing guaranteed to ensure Thia stayed exactly where she was!
* * *
Lucien had found himself scowling at the idea of Thia working in a public restaurant night after night, wearing no bra, with those delicious breasts jiggling beneath her uniform for all her male customers to see and ogle.
Just as it now displeased him that Cyn was so obviously rethinking her decision about not having dinner with him only because he had mentioned the Jonathan Miller situation.
The other man had physically hurt her, was responsible for her having had nowhere to sleep last night other than that disreputable hotel, and yet Miller hadn’t given a damn what had happened to her when he’d thrown her belongings haphazardly into a suitcase this morning and handed them over to Lucien.
Worst of all, Lucien now knew, from his conversation with Miller, that the other man had been using Cyn for his own purposes. He had believed—wrongly, as it happened—that her presence in his apartment in New York would give the impression that his affair with Simone Carew, was over. Something Cyn was still totally unaware of...
‘Well?’ he rasped harshly.
She gave a pained frown. ‘Perhaps you have a T-shirt I could wear? And maybe you could find one for yourself while you’re at it?’ she added hopefully.
How did this woman manage to deflate his temper, to make him want to smile, when just seconds ago he had been in a less than agreeable mood at how distracted he had been all afternoon? Because of this woman...
But smile he did as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. ‘It really bothers you, doesn’t it?’
‘All that naked manly chest stuff? Yes, it does.’ She nodded. ‘And it isn’t polite, either.’
‘That was a rebuke worthy of my mother!’ Lucien was no longer just smiling. He was chuckling softly.
‘And?’
‘And far be it from me to disobey any woman who can scold like my mother!’
‘You’re so funny.’ She eyed him irritably.
He gave an unconcerned shrug. ‘I’ll get you one of my T-shirts.’ No doubt Cyn would look sexy as hell in one of his over-large tops!
Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. ‘You’re being very obliging all of a sudden.’
Lucien quirked a dark brow. ‘As opposed to...?’
‘As opposed to your usual bossy and domineering self—’ She broke off to eye Lucien warily as he dropped his arms back to his sides before stepping closer to her.
‘You know, Cyn,’ he murmured softly, ‘it really isn’t a good idea to insult your dinner host.’
‘Would that be the same dinner host who almost ripped my blouse off me a few minutes ago?’
The very same dinner host who would enjoy nothing more than ripping the rest of that blouse from her body! The realisation made Lucien scowl again.
This woman—too young for him in years and experience, and far too outspoken for her own good—made him forget all his own rules about the women in his life—namely, only older, experienced women, who knew exactly what they were getting—or rather what they were not going to get from him, such as marriage and for ever—when they entered into a relationship with him.
He’d had little time even for the idea of marriage after his parents had separated and then divorced so acrimoniously, and making his own fortune before he was even twenty-one had quickly opened his eyes to the fact that most women saw only dollar signs when they looked at him, not the man behind those billions of dollars.
So far in their acquaintance Cyn Hammond had resisted all his offers of help, financial or otherwise, and that pride and independence just made him like her more.
‘Good point.’ He straightened abruptly. ‘I’ll be back in a few minutes.’
* * *
Thia admired Lucien’s loose-limbed walk as he left the room, only able to breathe again once she knew she was alone. She knew from that determined glitter in Lucien’s eyes just now that she had only barely—literally!—managed to avert a possibly physically explosive situation. Just as she knew she wasn’t sure if she had the strength of will to resist another one...
The truth was her breasts tingled and she grew damp between her thighs every time she so much as dared a glance at all that fascinating naked and bronzed flesh!
Lucien was without doubt the most nerve-sizzling and gorgeous man Thia had ever seen. His whole body was muscled and toned but not too much so, in that muscle-bound and unattractive way some men were. And as for the strength and beauty of that perfectly chiselled face...!
All that wealth and power, and the man also had a face and body that would make poets of both sexes wax lyrical. Hell, she was writing a sonnet in her head about him!
And now she was completely alone with him, in his fiftieth floor apartment, with her tattered and ripped blouse pulled tightly across her bare breasts...
She should have kept to her earlier decision to leave. Should have made her escape as quickly and as—
‘Here you go—what is it?’ Lucien questioned sharply, having come back into the room and seen how pale Cyn’s face had become in his absence. Her eyes were dark and troubled smudges between those sooty lashes. ‘Cyn?’ he prompted again concernedly as she only continued to look at him nervously, with eyes so dark they appeared navy blue.
Her creamy throat moved as she swallowed before speaking. ‘I think it would be better if I left now, after all...’
Lucien frowned. ‘What have you eaten today?’
She looked puzzled by the change of subject. ‘No breakfast, but I bought a hot-dog from a street vendor on the way to the Empire State Building for lunch.’
‘Then you need to eat. Put this T-shirt on and then we’ll go into the kitchen and see what Dex has provided us with to cook for dinner.’ He held out the white T-shirt he had brought back for her to wear, having pulled on a black short-sleeved polo shirt over his own naked chest. A naked chest that had seemed to bother her as much as she bothered him...
Her eyes widened. ‘Does Dex do your food shopping for you, too?’
‘When necessary, yes.’
‘What else does he do for you...?’
‘Many, many things,’ Lucien drawled derisively.
‘You probably wouldn’t know how to go about buying your own groceries anyway,’ she dismissed ruefully.
‘Probably not,’ he acknowledged easily. ‘Does it bother you that we’re eating here?’
Cyn shrugged. ‘I just assumed you would be ordering hotel room service this evening.’
‘Most of the time I do.’ He nodded.
‘But you decided tonight would be an exception?’ she said knowingly.
‘I just thought you would prefer to eat here. Don’t tell me.’ He grimaced. ‘You don’t know how to cook?’
‘Of course I know how to—’ She broke off, eyes narrowing suspiciously. ‘You’re challenging me to get your own way again, aren’t you?’
He quirked a brow. ‘Is it working?’
Some of the tension eased from her expression. ‘Yes.’
He nodded. ‘Then that’s exactly what I’m doing.’
Cyn eyed him frustratedly. ‘Why are you so determined to keep me here?’
Lucien had absolutely no idea! Especially when he had initially made the suggestion of dinner in his apartment just to see what Cyn’s reaction would be. Boy, had that backfired on him! ‘Why are you so determined to leave?’ he came back challengingly.
‘Yep, the face of an angel and the wiles of the devil...’
Lucien heard her mutter the words irritably. ‘Sorry?’ he said. He knew exactly what Cyn had said—he just wanted to see if he could get her to say it again. Especially the part where she said he had the face of an angel...
‘Nothing.’ Cyn refused to humour him and gave a rueful shake of her head. ‘Okay, give me the T-shirt.’ She took it out of his outstretched hand before holding it up defensively in front of her breasts. ‘Why don’t you just disappear off into the kitchen while I slip off my blouse and put this on?’ she prompted as he made no effort to leave.
‘And if I’d rather stay here and watch you slip off your blouse...’
He enjoyed the flush that instantly coloured her cheeks. Enjoyed teasing Cyn, full-stop. So much so that, despite her being so disruptive and stubborn, teasing her was fast becoming one of Lucien’s favourite pastimes. Exclusively so.
‘Life is just full of little disappointments!’ she came back, with insincere sweetness.
‘Oh, it wouldn’t be a little disappointment, Cyn,’ he assured her huskily. And it wouldn’t be; Lucien could imagine nothing he would enjoy more than to see Cyn strip out of her blouse, allowing him to look his fill of those pert little breasts and plump, rose-coloured nipples.
‘Go,’ she instructed firmly.
‘And you accuse me of being bossy...’
‘You’ve made a fine art of it. I’m just doing it out of self-defence.’
Lucien gave a wicked ‘wiles of the devil’ grin. ‘Do you need defending from me?’
She eyed him irritably. ‘Now you’re deliberately twisting my words.’
He shrugged. ‘Maybe that’s because you’re trying to spoil my fun.’
She gasped. ‘Because I won’t let you stand there and gawp at me while I change my blouse?’
‘I never gawp, Cyn,’ he drawled derisively. ‘If I stayed I would just stand here quietly and appreciate.’
Her face warmed. ‘You aren’t staying.’
Lucien gave another appreciative grin; she really was cute when she got her dander up.
Cute? He had never found a woman cute in his life!
Until now...
Because Cyn, all hot and bothered and clutching his T-shirt tightly to her as if it were her only defence, was most definitely cute.
‘Okay, I’ll leave you to change,’ he murmured dryly. ‘I’ll take the bottle of wine and glasses through with me.’
‘Fine.’ She nodded distractedly.
Anything to get him out of the room while she changed her top, Lucien acknowledged ruefully as he collected up the bottle of wine and glasses before leaving. As if such a flimsy barrier—any barrier!—could have stopped him if he had decided he wanted her naked!
* * *
‘Did you have Dex follow me today...?’ Thia prompted huskily when she entered the kitchen.
Lucien turned from taking food out of the huge chrome refrigerator that took up half the space of one wall in what was a beautiful kitchen—white marble floors again, extensive kitchen units a pale grey, a black wooden work table in the middle of the vast room, silver cooking utensils hanging from a rack next to a grey and white cooker. No doubt there was a dishwasher built into one of those cabinets, too.
He hadn’t answered her question yet...
‘Lucien?’ she said softly as she lifted her replenished glass from the table and took a sip of red wine.
‘I got so distracted by how sexy you look in my T-shirt that I’ve forgotten what the question was,’ he came back dryly.
No, he hadn’t. This man didn’t forget anything. Ever. And his prevarication was answer enough. He had instructed Dex to follow her this afternoon. And Thia wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Annoyed that he had dared to have her followed at all, but also concerned as to why he continued to feel it necessary...
And sexy was the last thing she looked in Lucien’s white T-shirt. The shoulder seams hung halfway down her arms, meaning that the short sleeves finished below her elbows, and it was so wide across the chest it hung on her like a sack, so long it reached almost to her knees. Well...it didn’t hang completely like a sack, Thia realised as she glanced down. Colour once again warmed her cheeks as she saw the way the T-shirt skimmed across the tips of her breasts. Across the hard, aroused thrust of her nipples!
Even so, ridiculous was the word Thia would have used to describe her current appearance, not sexy.
‘Did you have Dex follow me today?’ she repeated determinedly.
‘I did, yes.’
‘Can I ask why?’ she prompted warily.
‘You can if you can make salad and ask at the same time.’ Lucien seemed totally relaxed as he placed the makings of a salad down on the kitchen table before returning to the fridge for steaks.
Thia rolled her eyes. ‘I’m a woman, Lucien. Multi-tasking is what we do best.’ She took the salad vegetables out of the bags and put them in the sink to wash them.
‘That sounds...interesting.’ He turned to arch mocked brows.
She was utterly charmed by this man when he became temptingly playful. And she shouldn’t allow herself to be.
It wasn’t just those twelve years in age that separated them, it was what Lucien had done in those twelve years that set them so far apart—as evidenced by all those photographs of him online, taken with the multitude of women he had briefly shared his life with. Or, more accurately, his bed.
And at the grand age of twenty-three Thia was still a virgin. Not deliberately. Not even consciously as in ‘saving herself’ for the man she loved and wanted to marry.
She had just been too busy keeping her life together since her parents died to do more than accept the occasional date, and very rarely a second from the same man. Jonathan had been the exception, but even he had become just a friend rather than a boyfriend. Thia had never been even slightly tempted to deepen their relationship into something more.
And yet in the twenty-four hours she had known Lucien Steele she seemed to have thought of nothing else but how it would feel to go to bed with him. To make love with him.
Weird.
