‘Only a fool marries an airhead, so I got what I deserved,’ Luc enunciated.
‘I’m not an airhead…’ But her mind was certainly drifting, Star acknowledged in deep shame. Not six feet from her stood the almost naked embodiment of every female fantasy come true, and her only fantasy—even with his clothes on. So with them off, barring an exceedingly cool pair of black silk boxer shorts, well, reasoning became a challenge. The twisting curl of heat low in her tummy made her go rigid with rejection.
‘An airhead who thinks of nothing but sex,’ Luc purred with awesome contempt. ‘Who, after a separation of over eighteen months, went to bed with me again within an hour of my appearance back in her life.’
‘Oh…oh!’ Star gasped, the very oxygen squeezed from her lungs at that inexcusable taunt.
‘OK, so I asked…but if you had any morals at all you would have said no to that proposition,’ Luc condemned as he came down on the side of the bed. ‘I was ashamed for you when I woke up the next morning.’
‘The next morning?’ Star forced a brittle laugh, so mad, so hurt she could happily have strangled the love of her life to death. ‘Doesn’t history repeat itself? Just like the only other night you ever spent with me. You’re so mad you succumbed to me you punish me for it!’
‘That is not true…’ Luc emphasised that statement by pulling her round to face him. His dark eyes were forthright as flames on her surprised face. ‘I got up the morning after our first night together and I looked down at you and you opened your eyes—’
‘Gosh, how daring of me! Was I supposed to be hiding under the sheet in shame after spending the night with my own husband?’
Luc released his breath in a sharp hiss. ‘I saw a teenager so besotted with me she couldn’t see or think straight. I was angry, and ashamed that I had had so little control that I had taken advantage of you—’
‘Don’t tell me you felt like that!’ Star wailed, aghast. ‘It was wonderful…it’s still a wonderful memory…and you didn’t take advantage of me in any way!’
Luc studied her with unconcealed frustration. ‘You don’t see, do you? That morning, I really badly needed to look at you and see a grown woman, but all I could remember was the vulnerable little girl I first met in Mexico…’ He hesitated, and frowned. ‘It didn’t strike me then that in some ways you’ll probably never grow up, at least not in the way less passionate personalities do.’
‘Oh, thanks a bundle.’ Star exclaimed. ‘Well, if you thought helping me to grow up was telling me to go off and experiment with boys my own age, I don’t think much of your advice.’
‘I said that in anger. Only you could have taken it so literally!’ Luc gritted.
‘How literally did you want me to take it?’ Star asked with a teasing sidewise glance.
‘You just never know when to quit, do you?’ Without warning, Luc tugged her fully into his arms and stood up. He held her fast and tumbled her back down onto the comfortable bed with him.
The heat of his big powerful body penetrated the fine silk of her dress. She quivered against him. She knew she wasn’t going to say no. She knew he knew she wasn’t going to say no either. Male amusement glimmered deep in his dark eyes and it made her want to slap him, but it didn’t make her want to push him away.
‘D’accord…OK, I gather I can assume that we’re staying married.’ Level dark eyes zeroed in on hers in enquiry.
Star tensed, lashes screening her gaze as she focused on a smooth brown shoulder instead. Stay married only for the sake of their children? Outside the bedroom he seemed to have as much grasp of her needs as the average block of solid wood. Or solid steel, she acknowledged, her weary mind running back over the enervating passage of events that had taken place during the past thirty-six hours. Her batteries required recharging. Yet Luc seemed able to take constant stress in his stride.
So damn him for making that statement which was really a direct question right now! Right now when there wasn’t an atom of her treacherous body lacking contact with the awesome promise of his. Right now when she was suffering from this shockingly lowering need to cling and stop thinking and fighting. If she said no, that wasn’t a sufficient reason to stay married, was he likely to chuck her out of bed?