There was just enough early-morning light being filtered in through the ice bricks that Lukas could make out her sweet profile and see the warm puffs of her breaths as they met cooler air.
Lukas lay on his back and stared at the red velvet drapes cocooning them in a secret world. He gently pulled the fleecy blankets more firmly over Eleanore’s shoulder and tried to figure out how he felt.
His head seemed to be full of emotions he wasn’t used to feeling and he couldn’t decide if he should get up and leave or hold her tighter.
He pressed his nose to her hair and inhaled apples. A smile formed on his lips. He’d never eat an apple again without thinking of her. His hands drifted to her hair and he gently twirled a strand around his finger. He didn’t want to wake her. She looked so peaceful. So beautiful. So innocent.
Or not so innocent any more.
He frowned. She’d been a virgin. The realisation still shocked him. He never would have expected it and yet he should have because the sense of pureness about her was one of the first things he’d noticed. He released a shaky breath. Had he hurt her? He manoeuvred his stiff shoulder out from under her head just a little so he could look down at her.
She sighed and shifted closer, curling her hand into the hair on his chest.
Giving in to an urge he couldn’t quite understand he bent forward and kissed her. Softly. Not enough to disturb her but...she lifted her chin when he drew back as if even in her sleep she couldn’t help seeking him out. He smiled again.
‘Lukas...’ Her voice was a sleepy whisper of silk in the quiet room.
‘I’m here.’ His was more like a rumble. He cleared it. Pressed his lips to her again in a feather-light kiss.
‘Mmm, that was nice.’
She still hadn’t opened her eyes and Lukas bent to her again and kissed her sweetly. He didn’t need to have sex with her. He was content just to touch her but then she arched into him like a cat and before he knew it he had rolled her onto her back and was poised over the top of her.
‘Are you sore, moya krasavitsa?’
‘No.’
* * *
The second time he woke it was panic stations.
‘Oh, Lukas, Lucky!’
Dressed in her jeans and sweater she hopped around on one foot as she pulled her boot on. Lukas’s gut tightened with a sense of urgency to right whatever was wrong. He frowned. ‘What’s lucky?’
‘The kitten. I forgot to feed him last night. He’ll be starving.’
Lukas collapsed back against the pillows. ‘Relax. I’m sure he’s gone a lot longer without food.’
‘He’s not going hungry on my watch.’ She stood over him and gazed at him as if in some acknowledgement that he himself had gone without food at one time and a lump formed in his throat.
An emotion that seemed to create more pain in his chest than pleasure gripped him and he eased out a quick breath.
Briefly he thought about pulling her back down to him and then she mentioned something about getting a cab if he was too busy. Yes, he was too busy. Too busy imagining her naked. But she wasn’t taking a cab and he told her so as he rolled out of bed and yanked his jeans on.
She was quiet during the drive to her apartment and he wondered if she was regretting the night before. Or perhaps she was regretting being seen by the hotel staff they’d had to pass on their way to his car. His jaw clenched. It shouldn’t bother him that she relegated work above him; after all, he’d been guilty of doing the same thing with women his whole life, but for some reason it did.
Probably because right now he had the craziest thoughts torpedoing through his brain and a knot in his belly. Crazy thoughts of Eleanore in his apartment. Eleanore in his bed. Eleanore in his life. But she was leaving. Tomorrow, in fact.
She was busy checking her messages while he drove and suddenly a smile as big as the sun lit up her face. ‘She’s coming. She’s really coming! Isabelle’s coming!’
Lukas frowned. That kind of dependency was dangerous and he wanted to protect her from it. ‘You know you don’t need your family to succeed, Eleanore. You’re extremely talented and capable in your own right.’
‘I know that.’
Her response was clipped and he was sorry he’d interfered. And why had he? It wasn’t as if she was his responsibility, or that she had asked for his opinion.
Brooding on that he decided to drop her at the kerbside outside her apartment and go clean up at his. But when he turned into her street there was a parking spot right outside the building. So okay, he’d walk her to her door. But then he’d leave.