How much did Charles Wyndham know about the way Alejandro and Teddy had come together? Luiz knew Alejandro was at great pains to give Teddy the best wedding day imaginable, given he had marched her off to a register office for a civil ceremony that had no hint of romance or fairy tale about it. Charles Wyndham had implied Alejandro and Teddy’s special day would be sabotaged if Luiz didn’t play by the rules.
Rules. Schmules. No one told him what to do or how to do it.
But this wasn’t just about him now. His older brother had sacrificed years of his life—the best years—to salvage the family business and to bring Luiz up. Alejandro had forfeited fun for duty. Now he was finally happy with the lovely Teddy and all that could be undone if Luiz didn’t watch his step.
As much as it galled him to appear to be kowtowing to a tyrannical dictator, he knew it was in his interests to keep things cool until this particular storm cloud blew over. All he had to do was hang out with Daisy for a few hours before getting her back on her way with her girlfriends.
After he finished kissing her, of course.
When had a kiss tasted so tantalising? Her arms were around his neck, her mouth pressed hotly to his, her fingers playing with the ends of his hair that brushed his collar. Shivers coursed up and down his spine at her touch. He imagined those soft little hands exploring other parts of his body: down the muscles of his back and shoulders, his chest and abdomen and lower, where he throbbed and pulsed the hardest.
He groaned deep in the back of his throat as her teeth nipped at his lower lip before salving the sting with a moist stroke of her cat-like tongue. His erection painfully hardened at the thought of that clever little tongue teasing the length of him, tasting him, taking him to the limit of human control and beyond.
Her body rubbed against him invitingly, from chest to thigh, ramping up his desire to a level that was quickly slipping out of the bounds of his normally cool and measured control. He prided himself—some would say arrogantly so—on being a supremely competent lover who always made sure a good time was had by all. But with Daisy’s soft little mouth and her perky little breasts and her curvy body wreaking such havoc on his senses he felt like a trigger-happy teenager.
He pulled back reluctantly, his body instantly wailing at the loss of the teasing friction of hers. ‘This might be a good time to put the brakes on.’
Her cheeks were flushed a deep shade of rose. Her lips were swollen from the press of his; even her chin had a little red patch where his morning stubble had caught her. She had a dazed look in her beautiful blue eyes. He suspected it might match the one he was doing his level best to disguise in his own. ‘Oh…yes, right. Good idea…’
‘Do you normally kiss like that?’ he found himself asking.
Her forehead puckered. ‘Was I totally rubbish at it?’
‘Hell, no. I’m just saying…’ What was he saying? That she knocked him off his feet with a kiss? Yeah, right, like he was going to tell her that. Anyone that.
She, it seemed, had no such scruples. ‘You’re an amazing kisser. No wonder you’ve got the reputation you have.’
Why did his reputation feel like something to be ashamed of when he was with her? He couldn’t imagine her leaping from one bed to the other, barely taking enough time to register a sexual partner’s name before moving on to the next.
Not that he wasn’t happy with his life. His life was fun. He liked being on the move. Putting down roots was for trees. Not for him.
But something about the way she was looking at him made a space creak open inside his chest. A tiny fissure along a fault line, barely enough to send a beam of light through, but he felt a spill of warmth flow from it and brush like a puff of a hot breath against his chilled heart.
‘What was wrong with the way I was kissing you?’ she suddenly asked.
‘Nothing. It was great. You were great. Fabulous, in fact.’ He stopped gushing long enough to draw a breath to rebalance. ‘You might want to hold back on the enthusiasm a bit. A less principled guy might take advantage of it.’ Jeez, he was starting to sound like a parent again.
‘But what if I wanted you to take advantage of it?’
Luiz blinked. ‘No, you don’t… Do you?’
Her face was so youthfully open and fresh it made something deep inside his chest pinch. ‘I didn’t before but I’ve changed my mind. I like you. I’d like to spend some more time with—’
‘No. No. No. A thousand times no.’ He practically frogmarched her to the door. ‘You, young lady, need to go and join your friends. Go do a tour of the Grand Canyon or go shopping or book to see a show or something.’ He scooped up her purse and thrust it in her hands before opening the door. ‘Out.’