A Contract for His Runaway Bride

He gave a rueful movement of his lips. ‘Not quite like you do.’ He stroked her bottom lip with his thumb. ‘I’m surrounded by sycophants most of the time—people intent on pleasing me. It gets boring after a while.’

Elodie placed her hands against his chest, felt his warmth seeping into her like the rays of the sun. Her lower body brushed against his and a wave of longing swept through her. ‘I’m glad you didn’t find me boring. But if you were missing a good old ding-dong fight, why didn’t you just call me? I’m sure we could have found something to argue about.’

She was only half joking. She had missed their fights too. In fact, she had missed way more than that. She had missed everything about him.

His eyes drifted to her mouth. ‘That night we ran in to each other in Soho...’ He grimaced, as if the memory pained him. ‘When I saw you go off with Fraser MacDiarmid I was shocked at how much I wanted to stop you.’

Elodie arched her eyebrows. ‘You said you weren’t jealous that night.’

His expression had a hint of sheepishness about it. ‘Seeing you again was...difficult. I’d seen you heaps of time on billboards or in magazine spreads and on television, but not in the flesh.’ His eyes came back to hers, dark and glittering. ‘I was jealous, angry...disappointed that it wasn’t me you were going off with instead of him. The thing is, I’d never felt jealous before. It annoyed me that I felt it then.’

Elodie wasn’t fool enough to think his jealousy signalled love. He was a proud man who had been publicly humiliated by her jilting him. Seeing her with another man would have triggered him in the same way she had been triggered by seeing him with his beautiful and clearly devoted new partner that night.

She lifted her hands to the tops of his broad shoulders, then slid them down his muscled arms to his strong wrists. His fingers entwined with hers and heat coursed through her body. ‘We’re going to have to deal with the chance of running into each other in the future—I mean, once we divorce.’

It seemed a good a time as any to remind him of the time frame on their marriage. To remind herself.

Lincoln placed one of his hands in the small of her back, bringing her up against him. ‘Let’s not mention the D word until after Nina passes.’

‘But what if she doesn’t die within our time frame? I mean, it can happen, you know... People go into remission, or a new drug is released, or—’

‘Our agreement is six months and six months only.’

The edge of intractability in his tone was just the reminder she needed to keep her emotions in check.

‘Fine.’ She pulled out of his hold and sent a careless hand through her hair. ‘I’m going back to bed.’

She turned and walked through the French doors, back into the bedroom, aware of Lincoln’s footsteps following her. He came up behind her and placed his hands on her hips, pulling her against him. His hands cupped her breasts and a shiver of anticipation coursed over her flesh.

‘Want me to join you?’

He spoke against the sensitive skin of her neck, sending another hot shiver racing down her spine like a cartwheeling fiery coal.

‘I thought you didn’t like spending the whole night with your casual lovers any more?’

Lincoln turned her so she was facing him. His smile was sardonic, his eyes glittering. ‘You’re not a casual lover—you’re my wife.’

‘For six months and six months only.’ Elodie followed up her statement with a sugar-sweet smile. ‘That’s still a lot of nights sharing a bed.’

His hands skimmed down the sides of her body, from her shoulders, past her ribcage and waist, to settle on her hips, his gaze smouldering. ‘Then let’s not waste a single one of them.’

And his mouth came down and sealed hers hotly, explosively, possessively.

It was an urgent kiss that sent a river of fire through her blood and her body. Her inner core turned to molten lava within seconds, her need of him so intense it surged in pulsing and pounding waves through her most intimate flesh.

Lincoln tumbled with her to the bed, only stopping long enough to apply a condom. He rolled her over so she straddled him, his hands caressing her breasts with thrilling expertise. He guided himself into her, his expression a grimace of pleasure at the contact of aroused male flesh against aroused female flesh.

‘You feel so damn good...’ he groaned.

‘You took the words right out of my mouth.’

Not to mention taking her breath away.

Elodie moved with him, the rocking motion of their bodies sending her over the edge within moments. She gasped out loud, riding out the powerful orgasm, her hair swishing wildly about her shoulders, her body so rattled and shaken by ripples of pleasure it was like being transported to another world. A world of intense sensuality where no thoughts were necessary.

This was not the time to think of the temporary nature of their relationship. This was not the time to think about the love she had for him that put her at so much risk of heartbreak. This was the time to enjoy a moment of pure ecstatic bliss, of two perfectly in tune bodies.

Elodie came floating back down from the stratosphere to watch Lincoln shuddering through his own release. It looked and sounded as mind-blowing as her own. She scooped her hair back over one of her shoulders and smiled down at him. ‘You look like you had a good time.’