Beautiful Beast (Gypsy Heroes)

I look up at the magnificent house and the first flutter of nerves hits me.

‘You look beautiful,’ Shane whispers in my ear.

I look gratefully up at him. We walk up to the house and climb the flight of stone steps and two Josh lookalikes in black outfits stand at the tall doors.

Inside, the party is well underway. There are beautiful people everywhere I care to look. We cross the black and white antique marble floor polished to a high sheen and enter a large room full of beautiful furnishings. The music is loud and the room is full of glamour-soaked people.

A statuesque, deeply tanned blonde approaches us with a silver tray of champagne flutes.

‘Good evening,’ she greets. ‘Would you like a drink?’

Shane gets two glasses and putting one in my hand says, ‘Come. Let me introduce you to Leo.’

So I meet Leo—as charming and urbane as he was in the Great Gatsby but a bit rounder than I expected—and his escort, a very tall South American beauty. A lot of people seem to know Shane. I say hello to various characters—a TV celebrity, a news anchor woman, and a couple of Shane’s cousins, a few decidedly shady. But neither Dominic nor Jake seems to be around. I discreetly glance at my watch. It has just gone ten.

It is only when Shane excuses himself to go to the toilet and I wander over to the open French doors to gaze out at the long, immaculately manicured lawn and surrounding gardens that I hear a man’s rich and distinctively husky voice that seems to leap above the music and make my blood throb and rush to my clit.

‘Hello, Jewel.’

FOUR

For a couple of seconds I do nothing. Just stand there, a gentle breeze lifting my hair from my neck, savoring the sensation of unfolding drama and the reckless abandonment his voice has brought into my being. I know when I turn around the world will be different.

I prepare myself and face him slowly. Even so the breath catches in my throat. I blink and stare at him.

He towers over me in an emerald suit. Sexual energy glimmers off him like the wavy heat effect in a desert. His eyes—green marbled with violet or black, beautiful at any rate—glow with desire. Every fiber in my body contracts and buzzes as if he is a great dynamo and I am some dumb equipment that is absorbing too much energy. And the worse part: he knows it.

‘Or is it Lily?’ His sinful lips caress my name like a kiss.

Heat prickles up my arms. ‘It’s whatever you want it to be.’

He lets his wicked, smoldering gaze drift over my body. ‘I want it to be Lily.’

I shrug. ‘OK,’ I say carelessly.

He takes a drink from a passing tray and hands it to me. Our fingers brush and I shiver. Visibly. His eyebrows lift, but his eyes remain inscrutable. My cheeks flame with sexual tension. I grip the glass tightly. Shit. What the hell is this? Christ in heaven. Get a fucking grip, Lily. I can’t believe how affected I am by this man. I need time to sort myself out.

I force a smile onto my lips. ‘Thank you,’ I say politely, and make to move away. His hand shoots out and touches my bare arm. This time my reaction is clear. I jerk my hand away.

‘We don’t have a no touch policy in this house,’ he observes quietly.

‘I don’t believe we’ve been introduced. Who are you?’

Green sparks of amusement dance in his eyes. He knows I know exactly who he is. ‘Who do you want me to be, Lily?’ His voice is lazy like a deadly snake coiled in the sun. One wrong move…

An unfamiliar warmth shivers and fizzles through my veins. ‘My lover’s brother.’

The amusement vanishes from his eyes—the reptile has been rudely awakened—replaced by a bolt of blazing fury.

My heart stops. I resist the instinctive reaction to back off. For a few moments, or it could have been thousands of years, we stare at each other and then he turns on his heels and strides away, his back ramrod straight.

I grip the champagne glass tightly and watch his tall figure cut through the human crush. He stands out the way a hawk stands out in a crowd of canaries. A woman in a sophisticated ivory velvet evening gown lays a manicured hand on his sleeve. He stops and bends his head to her. She says something. Her laugh is tinkling. I feel a furious tightening in my belly. I am jealous. I am sickeningly jealous of the horny bitch.

‘Did you miss me?’ Shane asks in my ear.

At the sound of his easy voice, relief floods me. It’s like having a stiff drink on a cold day. The warm waves radiate out from the middle of your belly. I turn toward him. ‘Desperately.’

‘How desperately?’ His teeth flash.