Public Scandal, Private Mistress

‘I’m not normally so reckless a lover,’ he murmured. ‘I stay away from casual pick-ups and I’m usually extremely careful about who I invite into my life. I truly do appreciate the rarity value of a woman like you…’

His lashes swept up as he trailed off to watch her nibble at the tantalising bait.

‘L-like me?’

‘A woman who’s smart and not afraid to be herself, who takes responsibility for her own actions and stands up for her convictions…’He walked his fingers lightly up the side of her arm to the accompaniment of his words. ‘A woman who has a good sense of humour, who’s compassionate, and tolerant of other people’s very human failings…’

She eyed him suspiciously as he toyed with the piped edge of the cushion that peeped out from under her protectively clamped elbows, and continued his flattering paean:

‘A woman who’s warm, generous and forgiving…’ her eyes narrowed and his buttery voice slowed to a sexy drawl ‘…and deeply passionate…’

He gave the cushion a sharp tug that slid it out from beneath her folded arms. ’You’re getting this all wet. Let me dry you properly,’ he chided, throwing it out of reach on the other side of the bed and quickly moving in with the towel to dab at the beads of moisture dripping from her hair onto her shoulders, stroking the soft cotton down her breastbone, insinuating between her shielding hands.

‘I can do that—’ she said weakly.

‘But I want to,’ he insisted with implacable softness, brushing away her increasingly feeble attempts at concealment, and blotting over the creamy globes of her breasts with dedicated attention to detail. ‘We don’t want you catching a chill.’

‘It’s at least thirty-eight degrees outside,’ Veronica raggedly protested the absurdity, shivering as the towel dragged across a tender nipple.

‘

But you’re shivering,’ he pointed out, gently frictioning her other nipple to a tingling point.

‘Not from cold,’ she choked, and his nostrils flared triumphantly at the heady scent of her swift arousal.

‘Oh, I missed a bit,’ he murmured, dropping the pretence of the towel altogether and bending his head to sip at a little droplet running down over the rounded side of her breast, lapping it up with a long stroke of his tongue, catching her by the waist as she shied, so that he could scrape his exquisitely rough jaw against her soft flesh and nuzzle his way to the quickening peak. Capturing the quivering bud between his firm lips, he began to suckle warmly, his other hand moving to cup the neglected breast and fondle it to a similar, aching fullness.

‘Luc—’ Her hands pressed against his slick chest, slipping against his damp skin.

‘You can dry me next,’ he promised, releasing his glistening captive for appreciative study before cherishing a series of softly exploring kisses to the tip of her left breast.

‘I can see your heart beating,’ he husked as he licked at the rhythmically pulsing nipple. ‘Do I make your heart beat a little faster, Veronica?’ he murmured, and took it deeply in his mouth, his hand sliding over the smooth fabric front of her high-cut briefs to run a finger back and forth over the pouting cleft at the juncture of her thighs, delicately tracing the puffy contours. ‘How much faster can I make it go…?’ he wondered as he rolled his hot, wet tongue around her nipple and pressed it against the slick hardness of the roof of his mouth as he suckled more strongly, sinking his teeth deep into her sensitised flesh.

Her shuddering body arched helplessly and he lifted his head, his arm going around her supple waist as he teased out her pleasure with skilful fingers, increasing the wringing dampness of the taut fabric pulled tight between her legs.

‘You can thank me now,’ he growled, looking down into her passion-hazed face with heavy-lidded satisfaction.

‘I—W-what—?’ she panted, struggling for oxygen to fuel the wild-fire in her blood.

‘You wanted to thank me for providing a distraction in the pool. I wasn’t ready to be thanked then. I am now,’ he told her silkily. ‘After all, I gained quite a lot of scrapes and bruises acting as your champion.’

‘Quite a few of those were your own account.’ Her hands tightened on his muscled shoulders, her nails digging into his skin to punish him for his taunting delay. ‘You enjoyed making it brutal.’

‘It could have been Ashley who blundered in on you. I did rescue you from that embarrassment,’ he said, taking a little nip of her lower lip.

‘You’re determined to be a hero, aren’t you?’ she said breathlessly.

‘As long as I get a hero’s reward,’ he growled, and took her mouth in a savage kiss, dragging her breasts against his chest, making her utter a muffled cry of pain as one of the buttons on his shirt caught against her turgid nipple.

He wrenched his mouth from hers. ‘What’s the matter?’ He gripped her arms, holding her scantily clad body away to inspect it for evidence of harm. ‘Damn it, if that bastard hurt you…’

She could have screamed with disappointment. ‘It was just your shirt button,’ she said, furious with herself for breaking the mood.

To her frustration Luc seemed reluctant to take her word for it. His jaw clenched as his eyes burned over her. ‘He had you pushed against the wall when I arrived—’

‘Really, I’m OK. He got in a few sly gropes, that’s all. That’s probably all he intended to do so he could laugh it off as accidental, but he lost his temper when I said no—’

‘He’s the type who likes forbidden fruit,’ he brooded.