Daisy held his look with an aplomb she had no idea she possessed. Who knew flirting could be so much fun? ‘Then perhaps those riders should make sure they never get caught.’
He picked up a lock of her hair and twirled it a couple of times around his tanned finger. She felt the gentle tug as one by one the roots of her hair lifted off her scalp. His eyes slipped to her mouth, lingered there as if he was weighing up whether to kiss her or not.
Do it. Do it. Do it, a voice chanted in her head.
His head came down in a slow motion action, blocking out the light shining in from the window. He stopped a mere millimetre away from her mouth, close enough for their breaths to mingle. His smelt of toothpaste. God alone knew what hers smelt like after a night on the tiles. Bathroom ones included. Ack!
Daisy put a fingertip against his lips, her voice coming out as little more than a husky whisper. ‘Wait.’
He nibbled her fingertip with his lips, making her legs unlock at the knees. ‘What for?’
‘I haven’t even told you my name.’
He turned her hand over and kissed a tickling pathway from her wrist to her elbow. ‘So, tell me.’
She shivered as his lips came back down to the sensitive skin on the underside of her wrist. ‘Daisy…Daisy Wyndham.’
He held her wrist to his mouth as his eyes meshed with hers. ‘Nice.’
Daisy had trouble breathing. His eyes were so dark she felt as if she were drowning in their bottomless depths. His stubble-surrounded mouth against her skin was making her belly do somersaults worthy of a Cirque du Soleil performance. She even heard the rasp of his skin as he moved his mouth to the heel of her hand as his tongue made one flicking lick against the ridge of flesh. A flashpoint of heat triggered a tumult of sensation in her core. She hadn’t even realised that part of her hand had an erogenous zone.
The doorbell sounded behind him and he dropped her hand with a regretful smile. ‘Breakfast.’
CHAPTER THREE
FOOD HAD NEVER been further from Daisy’s mind, which was saying something as normally it was always on her mind. Forbidden food. The yummy stuff she secretly craved but rigorously denied herself in fear of losing control. Her father had drummed it into her from early childhood that being in control of one’s mind and body and physical appetites was the mark of a well-disciplined person. In order to win his approval she denied herself anything that was the slightest bit sinful. But the years of self-denial hadn’t made her stronger and more disciplined. If anything, they had made her all the more conflicted and confused about what she wanted and why she wanted it.
She watched with her mouth watering and her stomach rumbling as Luiz opened the door to the hotel attendant, who wheeled in a loaded trolley of silver domed dishes. The delicious aroma almost knocked her off her feet. Crispy bacon, soufflé-soft scrambled eggs, deep-fried hash browns, fluffy buttermilk pancakes, the sweetness of maple syrup—not the cheap imitation but the real stuff—a platter of tropical fruit, coffee and even a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket.
The attendant left with a sizeable tip in his hand, closing the door on his exit.
‘Wow.’
Luiz tossed his wallet on the sofa. ‘Hungry?’
‘I meant the tip.’ Daisy’s eyes were still out on stalks. ‘Did you really give that young man two hundred dollars?’
He shrugged a loose shoulder. ‘I can afford it.’
‘Do you light your cigarettes with a fifty?’
He flashed her a quick smile. ‘I don’t smoke.’
Another point in his favour, she thought as he began to take the lids off the food. He handed her a plate. ‘Help yourself.’
Daisy tried to be circumspect. She really tried. But the food was so scrumptious and she hadn’t had a proper cooked breakfast in years. Before she knew it, her plate was loaded with a mountain of monstrously wicked calories that would at some time in the future have to be worked off. But it would be worth it.
She took the chair opposite his at the table near the window overlooking the Nevada desert in the distance. She unwrapped her silver cutlery from the snowy white napkin it was encased in and then glanced across at Luiz but all he had in front of him was a steaming cup of black coffee. ‘Aren’t you hungry?’
‘I’ll have something later.’
‘But there’s so much here.’ Most of it on my plate.
‘I like to work out first.’
The gym or the bedroom? Daisy blushed as the thought slipped into her mind. ‘I suppose you have to be super fit to be a polo player.’
‘If you want to be the best then that’s exactly what you have to be.’