The Sicilian's Innocent Mistress

A mistake for which Luc had exacted his own revenge, in turn, by making her feel guilty enough that she had agreed to come to Paris with him this weekend….

‘He seems perfectly fine to me,’ she dismissed.

‘Really?’ Cesare prompted as the music came to an end. His hand rested lightly beneath Darci’s elbow as they turned to walk back to the table where Chantelle, Angel and Robin were seated.

‘Yes, really,’ Darci assured him, a slight blush in her cheeks as she looked up and found herself the focus of Cesare Gambrelli’s dark, penetrating gaze.

They did have the most intense, compelling brown eyes, these Gambrelli men, Darci allowed as she felt her blush deepening at the deliberate lie; Luc didn’t seem fine to her at all!

He was moody, bad-tempered, and had virtually growled at her earlier, when she’d initially appeared in the sitting-room in her revealing black dress, making her more self-conscious of her appearance then ever.

Of course, his mood could be due to the argument that had ensued when she had discovered there was only one bedroom in their hotel suite….

‘My dance, I believe?’ Luc demanded as he joined them, his gaze narrowing on the delicate colour in Darci’s cheeks before he turned questioningly to his cousin.

Cesare smiled confidently back at him. ‘Darci is a wonderful dancer,’ he confirmed.

Luc’s eyes narrowed to dark slits. ‘Darci is wonderful at a lot of things,’ he snapped, and then immediately regretted his testiness as he heard Darci’s sharply indrawn breath. Feeling even worse when he looked down and saw the hurt and reproach in her moss-green gaze, he amended, ‘I meant, of course, that she’s a very gifted and dedicated doctor.’

Cesare gave an inclination of his head, his mouth tight with disapproval. ‘Of course you did,’ he drawled. ‘I hope we may dance together again later this evening, Darci.’ His tone softened warmly as he relinquished his hold on her elbow before nodding abruptly to Luc and moving away to rejoin his wife.

Darci’s face was slightly pale now, Luc noted with guilty impatience. ‘I’m sorry,’ he muttered as he drew her out onto the dance floor and took her in his arms. ‘I’m afraid that at the moment being with my family has this effect on me,’ he explained as they circled the floor.

‘Really?’ she came back tartly. ‘I thought it was only me who had such a mood-changing effect on you!’

Luc’s gaze was guarded as he looked down at her. ‘Why do you say that?’

Darci’s expression was challenging as she flicked back the long length of her fiery-red hair to look up at him, baring the tops of her creamy breasts.

Darci’s dress had been doing strange things to him all evening, Luc remembered, its low neckline and thin shoulder straps leaving far too much of her visible for his comfort even as the black material clung to the curve of her hips and narrow waist and exposed an expanse of her breasts. It didn’t help that Luc could recall that her nipples were a tempting rosy pink….

‘Let’s just say you’ve been less than your charming self the last few hours,’ she pointed out to him.

‘You weren’t exactly your charming self earlier this evening, either,’ he reminded her, referring to the argument the two of them had had before Wolf and Angel had arrived.

‘You know exactly why that was,’ Darci retorted.

Yes, Luc knew exactly why that was….

Darci had disappeared to take her shower, only to come blazing back out of the bedroom seconds later, the light of battle in her sparkling green eyes.

Luc hadn’t been sure whether to feel insulted or flattered when she had seemed less than reassured by his assertion that the arrangement was only for the benefit of his over-interested family—that he had every intention of sleeping on the couch in the sitting-room.

He had begun to doubt that assertion himself when she’d appeared in the sitting-room, minutes before Wolf and Angel were due to arrive, wearing this scandalously revealing dress that had the effect of totally demolishing his usual cool control!

She really did look incredibly beautiful this evening, and the swaying movements of her body as they danced, those wonderful breasts and lean hips occasionally brushing against him, was doing very little to still the clamouring of his senses.