Tempestuous Reunion

‘If you say so.’ She wound her arms round his neck, stretching up on tiptoe. ‘Personally I think it was thrilling. I waited twenty-four and a half years to be spirited off to an Italian castle, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.’

‘Be serious.’ He was alarmingly set on contrition. In fact, the more forgiving she became, the more grim he looked. ‘Be honest with me. Can you forgive me for what I have said and done?’

‘I forgive you freely, absolutely and forever. Do you want to know why?’ she whispered teasingly. ‘You’re crazy about me…aren’t you?’ She drew back to stare up at him, suffering a sudden lurch in overwhelming confidence.

Brilliant golden eyes shimmered almost fiercely over her anxious face. ‘Only a lunatic would

behave the way I did if I wasn’t,’ he grated. ‘Of course I love you!’

‘I don’t want a separation…I don’t even want a separate bedroom,’ she swore.

‘Relax—you weren’t getting either. What I have, I hold.’ He lifted her with wonderful ease off her feet. ‘But I should never have made love to you before you regained your memory. Unfortunately that night I found you in my bed,’ his voice thickened betrayingly, ‘I could not resist you.’

‘I can’t resist you, either.’ She sank small determined hands into his black hair and drew his mouth down to hers. He lowered her to the bed without breaking the connection. It was some minutes before she remembered to breathe again.

‘It’s been torture to stay away from you,’ he admitted roughly. ‘But I believed that was what you wanted. I went to all that trouble arranging to go to Paris, thinking that you would be tempted to come, and you said no.’

‘Serves you right for being so casual about it.’

He shuddered beneath the caressing sweep of her hands. ‘Don’t do that,’ he groaned, pinning her provocative hands to the mattress. ‘When you do that, I react like a teenager.’

‘Why do you think I do it?’ she murmured wickedly.

‘Dio, I want you so much,’ he said raggedly, removing her dress with more speed than expertise. Abruptly he stopped dead, staring down at her. ‘It isn’t safe, is it? I could make you pregnant.’

‘The best things in life are dangerous. It’s your choice,’ she whispered.

‘You wouldn’t mind?’ He looked dazed. ‘By the pool that day, you weren’t very enthusiastic about the idea. That’s why I worried that it was too late.’

She ran a loving fingertip across his sensual mouth. ‘I’m afraid all those intensely erotic experiences in Italy were unproductive.’

He nipped at her fingertip with his teeth, a brilliant smile curving his lips. ‘Give me a month’s trial.’

‘You’re so modest.’ She blushed under raking golden eyes, heat striking her to the very centre of her body, making her tremble deliciously. He started to kiss her slowly and deeply and hungrily until conversation was the last thing on either of their minds.

What followed was wild, passionate and incredibly sweet. And afterwards he told her how much he loved her in Italian and English and French.

‘You’ve got a certain je ne sais quoi,’ Catherine conceded against a damp brown shoulder, letting the tip of her tongue slide teasingly across his smooth skin.

Luc’s tousled dark head lifted, a sudden lancing grin flashing across his darkly handsome features. ‘I understood that I was a habit.’

‘You are,’ she sighed with a voluptuous little wriggle of glorious contentment. ‘An addictive one. Didn’t I mention that?’