A Contract for His Runaway Bride

His hand had almost reached the doorknob, but he lowered it to his side and turned to face her, his expression guarded. ‘Yes?’

His tone was clipped, with an edge of impatience, which only made her all the more determined to get close to him. He had lowered his guard enough to tell her about his sadness over the prospect of losing Nina. What else might he reveal if she encouraged him to be vulnerable with her? Would getting close to him physically unlock more of his emotional armour? What if the Lincoln she’d been engaged to in the past was not the real Lincoln? What if, like her, he had kept back a part of himself he allowed few people, if any, to see?

‘You don’t have to leave while I get ready. We’ve dressed and undressed in front of each other before—heaps of times. And we can take turns using the bathroom.’ A smile played at the corners of her mouth and she added, ‘I promise I won’t peek.’

The line of his mouth remained tight, but his eyes darkened. ‘I’m going for a walk. I’ll be back in half an hour.’

He walked out and closed the door with a firm click that sounded as definitive as a punctuation mark.

***

Lincoln went for a brisk walk through the gardens to get himself back in line. The more time he spent with Elodie alone, the harder it was to resist her. She was flirting outrageously with him, and he would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy every moment of her playful behaviour.

He did. Too much. Way too much.

But it wasn’t just the playful flirting that got to him. She had revealed more about herself than she ever had in the past, and so had he. This new emotional connection between them was strange...foreign to him...because he always kept people at a distance. And keeping Elodie at a distance was supposed to be his top priority.

But she was making it near impossible to keep his hands off her—especially as he remembered all too well how clever those little hands of hers could be. How hot and tempting her soft mouth. Kissing her had almost blown the top of his head off. And the passion that flared between them was getting harder and harder to control.

Her cheeky bend-the-rules personality had always appealed to him—mostly because his nature tended to lean towards the colour-between-the-lines conservative. She evoked in his staider personality a recklessness that was exciting to indulge. She made his flesh sing when she touched him. Her lips had set his alight and he could still taste the fresh sweetness of her. It was like a drug he had forgotten how much he craved. One taste and he was addicted all over again.

But their marriage had a short timeline, and he was adamant there would be no casualties in the aftermath. As far as he was concerned this was a business deal like any other. Emotions were not required, and in fact only blurred the boundaries. And he needed boundaries when it came to Elodie.

Firm, impenetrable boundaries.

Lincoln stood for a moment, looking at the view of the ruins of Sagunto Castle. The fortress-style castle had a history going back two thousand years. His history with Elodie was much shorter. And while the fortress he had built around himself was not quite in crumbling ruins, he would still have to be careful to keep it secure.

But... But...

A persistent voice kept niggling at him. What if he indulged himself with a little tweak of the rules? After all, he had always kept his emotions out of his sex life. Sex was a physical experience he enjoyed on a regular basis, with like-minded women who played by the same rules. No strings, no promises, no commitment other than for a brief interlude of mutual pleasure.

The pleasure he and Elodie had experienced together in the past was something he couldn’t eradicate from his mind or indeed from his body. The memory of possessing her, the slick, wet tightness of her body and her passionate response to him, was something he had never been able to recreate to quite the same degree with anyone else. In fact, for years he’d had trouble having sex without his mind drifting to her.

Maybe these six months would be the antidote to his obsession with her. He could finally move on with his life once he had ruled a thick black line under them as a couple.

End of story.

No sequel.

No reruns.

Finished.

Elodie was doing the final touches to her make-up when Lincoln came back to their suite. She squinted one eye to apply her volume-enhancing mascara. ‘The bathroom’s free.’ She blinked a couple of times and then dabbed the wand back into the container. ‘I hope what I’m wearing is okay. Not too OTT?’

Lincoln would have preferred to see her naked, but decided to keep that to himself. The hot pink dress she was wearing should have clashed with her red-gold hair and creamy complexion, but somehow she made everything look stunning on her.

‘You look great.’

He moved further into the room, resisting the temptation to touch her. He could smell her perfume—a rich, exotic blend of flowers and spice that teased his nostrils and tantalised his senses. Her hair was piled up in a makeshift bun that somehow managed to looked casual and elegant at the same time. But then, that was Elodie to a tee. She would look glamorous without a scrap of make-up on and dressed in a rubbish bin liner.

She reached for her lip-gloss and leaned closer to the mirror to apply it. He couldn’t tear his eyes off her plump lips as she painted the glistening colour on her mouth. She pressed her lips softly together and then glanced at him in the mirror, a mercurial smile forming, her blue eyes sparkling like the diamond droplet earrings dangling from her ears.

‘Nice walk?’

‘Nice enough.’