A Night of Royal Consequences

She gave him a look, half smile, half scolding. He’d stopped within touching distance. His heat enveloped her. And that voice. Dark chocolate tones strummed her senses until they were clamouring for the sort of pleasure she guessed Luca knew only too much about. He towered over her in a way that blocked out the light, which was enough to warn her to be careful. She didn’t stand in anyone’s shadow. ‘Are you here on your own?’ she asked, diplomatically stepping away.

‘I am,’ he confirmed.

His voice curled around her, making her skin tingle. ‘No one waiting for you back home?’ she enquired casually.

‘My dogs, my cats and the horses,’ he said.

‘I think you know what I mean,’ she insisted.

‘Do I?’ Luca stared at her in a way that made heat curl low in her belly. ‘Do you always put people you’ve only just met through the third degree?’

When they look like you, and have who knows what secrets, yes, I do, she thought. ‘That depends who I’m talking to,’ she said.

‘So why do I get the third degree?’

‘Do we have enough time?’ she demanded, and when he laughed, she said honestly, ‘I just didn’t expect to see you here, so it’s a bit of a surprise.’

‘A surprise I hope you’re getting used to?’

His black eyes were dancing with laughter, so, responding in kind, she shook her head and heaved a theatrical sigh. ‘I’m trying to be tactful, and I realise now that blunt is much easier for me.’

‘I’m with you there,’ he said. ‘So be blunt.’

‘Are you married?’ she asked flat out. ‘Or do you have a partner, a special friend?’

Luca grinned. ‘You weren’t joking about blunt.’

‘Correct,’ Callie confirmed. ‘Before I say another word, I need to know where I stand.’

‘Do I look married?’

‘That’s not an answer to my question,’ she complained. ‘In fact, I’d call it an evasion.’

‘I’m not married,’ Luca confirmed as she turned to go. She stilled when he caught hold of her arm. His touch was like an incendiary device to her senses. ‘I’m unattached, other than being briefly joined to you,’ he said as he lifted his hand away. She felt the loss of it immediately. ‘Does that satisfy your moral code?’

‘My moral compass is pointing in a more hopeful direction,’ she agreed.

‘You’re an intriguing woman, Callista Smith.’

‘Callie.’ She enjoyed the verbal sparring with him. ‘And you must have led a sheltered life.’

He laughed out loud at that suggestion, making her wish they could carry on provoking each other for the rest of the night. Electricity sparked between them. He made her feel good. Primal attraction, she thought. Sex, she warned herself flatly. Who couldn’t think about sex with Luca?

He looked like a natural-born hunter who thought he’d found his prey. While under her blunt manner, Callie was sugar and spice and all things nice, and determined to remain that way. Her body could argue all it liked that sugar and spice could still enjoy verbal sparring, but she had no intention of taking things any further. Luca might be everything she’d fantasised about while she was on her knees scrubbing floors in the pub, but this was reality, not a dream world, and the safest thing she could do now was leave. ‘I was about to go home,’ she explained, glancing away down the drive.

‘Aren’t you enjoying yourself?’

Too much. ‘I am.’ She couldn’t lie. She’d enjoyed everything about today, and now the food smelled amazing, the band was playing, and it was a beautifully warm evening beneath a canopy of stars. And then there was Luca. ‘But I’ve got work tomorrow.’

‘So do I,’ he said smoothly.

‘You’re making this difficult for me.’ And hard to breathe, she silently added.

‘Why deny yourself the reward for a hard day’s work?’

That depended on the reward. Good grief, he was beautiful! His stillness reminded her of a big, soft-pawed predator preparing to pounce. She didn’t need a wake-up call, Callie concluded. She needed a bucket of ice-cold water tossing over her head.

‘Hey, Luca!’