Still laughing, she shook him off. ‘Let me go, you great oaf!’ She shrieked as he brought her crashing down on the bed at his side. ‘This isn’t the hay barn, and I’m not a child to be manhandled,’ she insisted—but without much heat.
Feeling the soft cushion of her breasts beneath his arm, he thought he would happily vouch for that.
‘And if this is about that work you mentioned, I’ve clocked off.’
‘So have I,’ he assured her.
‘So why are you here?’
‘Well, I wouldn’t call this work,’ he said, taking in every adorable aspect of her face.
‘Are you sure?’ Sitting up, she looked at him comfortably sprawled on her bed. ‘Are you sure I’m not just work for you, Luke?’
‘How can you say that?’
‘I just have to look at your track record to date. You come. You go. You report back to my brothers, who tighten the reins until I squeak. Isn’t that how it goes? Or has your role in my life changed?’
‘My being here now has nothing at all to do with your brothers,’ he assured her.
‘Good, because when you see them you can tell them I’ve found something worth finishing, and I’m not going anywhere until I’ve done just that.’
‘I’m not going anywhere, either.’ He dragged her close.
‘Luke, I—’
‘You talk too much.’ As he kissed her, he pushed the jacket down her arms and started on the buttons on her top.
‘If this is one of your jokes …’
‘This is not a joke, Lucia.’ Her skin felt like warm silk beneath his hands, but there was still space between them, as if they both had to be sure. More than sure, they had to be certain.
‘What are we doing?’ she whispered.
‘I’m making love to you.’
‘Can we still be friends?’ she asked, placing her hands flat against his chest in one final and not very convincing last-ditch attempt to hold him off.
‘We’ll probably argue more.’
‘Impossible.’
He cut her off. Cupping her face in his hands, he kissed her tenderly and slowly. For a few seconds she resisted him, as if she didn’t want to take the risk of damaging their friendship. In that moment he wondered if he’d called it wrong. He had never been uncertain in his life before, but where Lucia was concerned he was all over the place.
But just when he was about to pull back she softened against him and said, ‘Again …’
‘Why?’ he demanded, smiling against her mouth. ‘Did I get it wrong the first time?’
‘I won’t know until you kiss me again,’ she said.
He dropped kisses on her mouth, teasing her, bringing her to a higher state of arousal, but he could sense that something still wasn’t right. ‘You know I’d never hurt you.’
‘I know that.’ She squirmed with embarrassment, and then turned her head so she didn’t have to look at him as she admitted in a voice he could barely hear, ‘There must be something wrong with me.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with you,’ he insisted. ‘Does this have something to do with London?’
‘I don’t want to talk about it, Luke.’
A bolt of fury hit him as the man who had done more damage than he knew flashed into his head. He was determined to prove to Lucia that fear had no place in her life, but before he could do anything she caught him off guard. He could only describe it as some dark side of Lucia taking her over. Locking her hands behind his neck, she dragged him down to kiss him with a fire that astounded him.