Pride After Her Fall

Lorelei was quiet as she looked around, before turning to him and saying, ‘This is most lovely, Nash. You’re very lucky to have something so fine.’

‘Not too modern for you, Lorelei?’

‘Let me tell you I would kill to live in something so cutting-edge.’

‘Then why the Spanish villa?’

Some of the animation slid away from her face. ‘My grandmaman wanted me to have it.’

‘You could always sell it.’

Lorelei turned away. He followed her through the dining area and out to the rear of the house, where windows gave way to the ocean, telling himself he didn’t want to look any closer, dig any deeper.

He closed a hand around her lithe waist and she started, as if she’d already become unused to his touch. It made him more possessive. He found himself surrounding her, wanting to put himself front and centre in her life. He put it down to never accepting second place.

She removed his hands, walked away.

‘Why don’t you sell it?’ he asked abruptly.

Lorelei shrugged her delicate shoulders.

Frustration rippled through him.

He thought about the fact that in a couple of hours he’d be sitting down to dinner with the Eagle reps, who also happened to be long-time mates.

His rather brutal earlier thoughts on the subject had been that she could entertain herself, and he’d get away as soon as he could.

But the guys would be bringing their wives. Her remark—I’m not a toy for you to play with—nudged him.

The problem was if he took Lorelei she’d be privy to his story before it broke in the press. He tried to picture her as a media leak but all he could see were her sleepy, sexy eyes when she’d climbed on top of him in the early hours of this morning and taken him almost shyly into her slippery hot body. Those little cries of completion as she’d reached her peak had made him feel like a god, and how sweetly she’d curled in his arms afterwards and fallen asleep, still holding on to him.

He groaned in frustration and ran a hand through his thick hair.

‘We’re meeting some friends of mine for dinner at eight,’ he said gruffly. ‘I had some clothes sent up for you. I guess you’ll find them in the wardrobe.’

She turned and smiled at him. ‘Merci beaucoup, that’s very good of you.’

He almost laughed. This she didn’t fight him on.

Except she’d been fighting him ever since she’d climbed out of his bed.

He didn’t understand her.

He didn’t understand himself when he was around her. When he’d put her in Blue 16 on the track he’d only been thinking about a night, but this morning all he’d been thinking about was how soon they could be together again. He came up behind her at the glass doors leading onto the deck.

Today had been a long one for her. Even now he could see the faint mauve shadows under her eyes, a certainty fragility hovering over her. It was possibly the wisest course to leave her here. To go to dinner with the Eagle reps and give Lorelei some space. But it wasn’t just about giving her space, he acknowledged. He cared about her feelings.

Frankly, he didn’t want to make things any harder for her.

‘Nash, the ocean is right on the doorstep!’

‘It’s a matter of perspective. There’s a good twenty feet between the foundations and the surf, and this stretch of water is effectively a lagoon. It won’t rise.’

‘It’s beautiful,’ she said, looking up at him with an open face, and he smiled a little because she clearly cared nothing for the logistics and everything for the magic.

And wasn’t that how she seemed to live her life?

He couldn’t resist stroking her silken hair. Everything about her was touchable and soft and...yeah, he wanted to know her better.

But she wasn’t an ingénue, and he wasn’t a man looking for dependants. This was about her being a reward before he hit lockdown for training and him being her man of the moment. If he kept it that way this should work out for both of them.

If there was something beguiling about Lorelei’s smile as she looked up at him it was to do with the tropical light and the promise of the night ahead. So he decided to follow her lead for once and just accept the magic.