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CHAPTER TWO

‘SO, LUCCY,’ Sin murmured softly as he replenished their brandy glasses and set one of them down on the coffee table in front of where she had sat down on one of the sofas, choosing not to sit down himself yet; he couldn’t think straight when he was too close to her! ‘Why don’t we relax and you can tell me a little about yourself?’ he invited.

She looked back at him beneath lowered—guarded?— lashes. ‘There really isn’t anything interesting to tell,’ she claimed.

Sin’s mouth quirked. ‘I somehow doubt that very much,’ he contradicted.

She straightened, her breasts thrusting forward as she moved one of her hands and lifted the heavy weight of her hair back over her shoulder, once again drawing Sin’s appreciative gaze to the bare expanse of her throat and the swell of those creamy breasts against the red silk.

‘You first,’ she said.

He shrugged wide shoulders. ‘Like you, there isn’t anything of interest to tell.’

She gave a rueful smile. ‘And, like you, I doubt that very much!’

Sin smiled appreciatively at how neatly she had turned the conversation back onto him. ‘Well, I’m obviously American. As were my parents. And their parents before them,’ he added dryly.

She nodded. ‘Are you an only child, or do you have siblings?’

‘Only child. Only grandson, too,’ he expanded as he found himself drawn into sitting beside her on the sofa despite his previous decision not to do so.

‘Wow.’ She grimaced. ‘So, no pressure, then?’

Sin smiled in spite of himself. ‘As you say, no pressure,’ he drawled even as he reached out to pick up a tendril of her long blue-black hair, loving the silky feel of it as he curled it around one of his fingers.

He breathed in the heady scent of her perfume, his senses already aroused by her exotic beauty and the kiss they had shared on the terrace. He knew he should have resisted getting too close to her again so soon after that kiss…

‘What brings you to London, Luccy?’ he asked in an attempt to clear his mind of passionate thoughts.

‘Like you, business,’ she said.

Sin nodded. ‘And what work do you do?’

She hesitated before answering. Sin was patently not going to tell her much about himself; despite the attraction between them, he obviously wasn’t interested in having a close relationship with her. So perhaps it would be better to limit the amount of information she gave him about herself. ‘I—why don’t you try and guess?’ she suggested lightly.

Sin smiled derisively. ‘I’m not really into guessing games.’

She regarded him quizzically. ‘Oh, come on, it could be fun.’

‘Okay.’ Sin couldn’t resist her mischievous expression. ‘A model, perhaps?’

She laughed softly. ‘Don’t they have to be tall and willowy?’

This woman might not be tall enough to be a model, Sin acknowledged, but she was certainly stunningly beautiful enough to be one.

He relaxed back against the sofa. ‘So not a model, then?’

‘No.’ She smiled.

Sin shook his head. ‘I somehow can’t see you in an office.’

Luccy frowned. ‘Why not?’

He raised a mocking eyebrow. ‘If I had a secretary that looked like you I would never get any work done!’

‘Isn’t it a little chauvinistic of you to assume a woman has to be a secretary if she works in an office?’ she teased.

Sin gave a self-deprecating grimace. ‘Hmm, you have a point.’

Luccy’s earlier tension started to leave her as she realised she was quite enjoying this teasing conversation.

He shrugged. ‘Okay, so you work in an office…’

‘Actually, no, I don’t.’

He frowned. ‘Is it always this difficult to get a straight answer from you?’

Not usually, no, Luccy acknowledged ruefully. But she was loath to confide too much about herself. As well as her earlier concerns on a personal level, she doubted the management of PAN Cosmetics would appreciate it if the incident between herself and Paul Bridger ever became public knowledge. Jacob Sinclair, the owner of Sinclair Industries, was very strict concerning his policy of no bad publicity. So much so that it was actually written into employees’ contracts, including the one Luccy had signed with PAN Cosmetics the previous year.

Usually Luccy was completely professional when it came to her work—it really wasn’t her fault that men like Paul Bridger couldn’t behave in the same way!

And the situation she now found herself in? What woman in her right mind would manage to extricate herself from one potentially dangerous situation only to land herself in another one that could prove equally disastrous? In fact, more so, because Luccy hadn’t been attracted to Paul Bridger, whereas she was definitely attracted to Sin.

As that kiss outside on the terrace had proved…

‘Why are you so interested?’ She frowned at Sin’s persistence.

‘Because everything about you interests me,’ he drawled huskily.

Luccy felt the heat enter her cheeks as she easily read the expression in his eyes. This man didn’t just want to know about her—he wanted her!

She swallowed hard. ‘I’m a receptionist. To a photographer.’ Not completely untrue; she did act as her own receptionist on occasion, usually when Cathy was at lunch or off sick.

His brows rose. ‘Anyone I would have heard of?’

Only if she was very unlucky!

‘I doubt it,’ she dismissed.

‘And that guy earlier—’

‘Paul?’

Sin nodded. ‘You said he’s a work colleague?’

She had said that, hadn’t she? How complicated things became when you told just one little exaggeration of the truth!

She shrugged. ‘He’s more of a prospective client, actually. My boss is out of town so it was left to me to do the wining and dining this evening,’ she added lamely.

Sin nodded. ‘And do you have a husband, and possibly children, too, waiting for you at home?’ He was beginning to think that Luccy’s one-name introduction, and her aversion to talking about herself, showed all the classic signs of a married woman out for a night on the town.

Her mouth, that deliciously tempting mouth, curved into a rueful smile. ‘No husband, and certainly no children,’ she assured him.

‘And Luccy is short for…?’ Sin was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt concerning a husband and children, a glance at her left hand confirming that there was at least no indentation to the third finger, or evidence of slightly paler skin where a ring might have been hastily removed. He drew the line at becoming involved with a married woman.

‘It isn’t short for anything,’ she said mendaciously as she shook her head. ‘And as we obviously aren’t going to meet again after tonight, I really don’t see the relevance of any of these questions, do you? Or their answers.’

This man really didn’t need to know that her full name was Lucinda Harper-O’Neill. Or that she was a photographer, primarily in advertising, with her own studio and apartment right here in London.

‘We can’t know that yet.’

Luccy gave him a startled glance. ‘Can’t know what?’

‘Whether or not we’re going to see each other again. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t. I come to London quite regularly—’

‘And I’m not about to become your “regular London girl”!’ Luccy informed him slightly incredulously. ‘Look.’ She placed her brandy glass down on the coffee table in front of them, releasing her hair from his caressing fingers as she did so. ‘I really am grateful to you for—for rescuing me from a very awkward situation earlier, but I’m not grateful enough to hop into bed with you!’

His gaze was lightly teasing. ‘But we aren’t in a bed.’

‘We aren’t going to be in one, either,’ Luccy told him firmly.

‘Maybe not tonight—’

‘Not ever,’ Luccy insisted flatly.

‘How can you be so sure of that?’

She couldn’t—that was the problem! Each minute— second!—that passed, she only became more aware of this man. ‘Sin—’

‘Luccy,’ he came back softly even as he moved along the sofa so that their thighs touched, his arm along the back of the sofa behind her as he easily held her gaze with the intensity of his.

To say Luccy was unnerved by his close proximity was an understatement. She was completely overwhelmed by his sheer physical magnetism—and the heat of the desire that suddenly burned in those silver-grey eyes as he looked at her.

Her breath caught in her throat as he lifted a hand to cup and hold her chin, his gaze still fixed intently on hers as he gave her one last chance to tell him no.

Which Luccy already knew she wasn’t going to be able to do!

In fact, she had a feeling that every moment since she had first looked up and seen him standing in the hotel hallway had all been leading to this very point.

‘I’m aware of how upset you were earlier, so we won’t let this go any further than you want it to, okay?’ he assured her gruffly as Luccy stared up at him in fascination.

She moistened dry lips. ‘Okay,’ she breathed tremulously, having absolutely no will to resist anyway as Sin lowered his head towards her and his lips claimed hers in a kiss of such gentleness that it made Luccy ache inside. She had known from that single kiss out on the terrace that it was going to be like this if Sin ever touched her again.

Luccy groaned low in her throat even as her body curved into his, finding herself unable to do anything else but respond as she felt the heat of Sin’s body through his shirt as she reached up to grasp his shoulders, her own body flaring and coming tinglingly alive as the tips of her breasts responded to that heat. Sin seemed to take her response as acquiescence as his mouth suddenly hardened demandingly on hers.

Every other thought fled her mind as Sin’s mouth continued to plunder hers, tongue questing, stroking, before thrusting deep, drawing Luccy into a swirling maelstrom of emotions and needs, her nipples actually aching now, burning, wanting—

Luccy dragged her lips from his to groan low in her throat as she felt Sin’s hand against her naked breast, having no idea when he had slid the zip of her gown down her spine, and not caring either as he cupped and held her before finding that thrusting tip with light, caressing fingertips.

‘You can stop me at any time,’ he promised huskily.

Luccy couldn’t answer him. She knew she should probably take him up on his offer to stop now, but her body was firmly intent on having its own way. She couldn’t think when his caresses drove her wild with wanting more, needing more, Sin obligingly giving her more as his skilful hand became more demanding and his head moved lower to draw the tip of her other breast into the heated cavern of his mouth.

Luccy sank back against the cushions of the sofa, her body on fire, a deep aching need between her quivering thighs as Sin continued to make her burn with desire.

Sin had meant it when he told her he would stop at any time, but he was fast losing control, no longer sure he would be able to stop!

His gaze was hot and hungry as he raised his head to look at Luccy. At the twin peaks of her breasts with those rose-tinted tips and the flushed beauty of her face as he ran the pad of his thumb across one of those pouting nipples before once more slowly lowering his head to claim it with his lips and mouth. Immediately he felt her hips move restlessly beneath him with a greater, wilder need.

His hand moved from her breast to her knee, her skin as soft as velvet. He gently stroked along the length of her thigh before sliding under the soft silk of her gown to touch the delicacy of her hip bone, the flatness of her stomach, his touch telling him that he had been wrong about her being completely naked under the red silk gown; she was wearing the briefest scrap of lace, her curls already damp with her need as he cupped her there before seeking the heated warmth beneath that lace.

Luccy cried out at the first touch of Sin’s hand against the ultra-sensitive core of her arousal, her body seeming to melt as he stroked her there, his fingers moving in a rhythmic caress. His mouth moved from her breast to once more claim her lips, his tongue mimicking the rhythm of his fingers.

It felt as if Sin were everywhere all at once. Above her. Beside her. Inside her.

Luccy wanted him deeper inside her, hungered for his possession as his fingers caressed but didn’t quite enter her. Luccy writhed, lifting her hips to enable him to remove that scrap of lace, silently pleading with him to satisfy her torturous need. She cried out with pleasure as he finally gave her what she wanted. Luccy’s eyes widened as she felt the intensity of her pleasure increase to unbearable heights. Dear God, she was going to—

Luccy groaned low in her throat, eyes closing, desperately pulling his shirt open before she dug her fingers deep into Sin’s naked muscled shoulders as the pleasure consumed her, filled her, his ravenous mouth on hers even as she convulsed about those thrusting fingers. Nothing else mattered at that moment except that she didn’t ever want him to stop, wanted, ached, for this pleasure to go on and on.

Sin wrenched his mouth from hers to move lower, to give Luccy more as he once again drew one of her pink nipples into his mouth. He felt her back arch as she once more lost herself totally to that pleasure.

He lifted his head to look at her, her breasts full, the nipples pouting a dusky pink now from the ministrations of his mouth and tongue. She groaned as Sin gently parted her legs, before lowering his head and suckling the hardened nub nestled there as her groans turned into a pleading mewl.

Sin dealt quickly and efficiently with the fastening of his trousers as he knew that he couldn’t wait a moment longer to sheath himself inside her.

Luccy groaned in protest as his mouth left her, that groan turning to a soft aching sound as she felt the tip of his hardened shaft rubbing against her before slowly, inch by pleasurable inch, he entered her.

He was big and hard, steel encased in velvet, his hands moving to cup her bottom as he began to slowly move in and out of her. Luccy’s eyes closed in ecstasy at each thrust, her hand moving down to draw him deeper inside her as those thrusts became fiercer, his mouth once more claiming hers as she felt him tighten, harden, swell inside her before climaxing long and deliciously inside her, inciting wave after wave of new, totally uncontrollable pleasure.

Luccy returned slowly to a sense of who she was, where she was, and who she was with, never having experienced anything so wild and wonderful in her life before, her body still quivering from each pleasurably memorable caress.

She was Lucinda Harper-O’Neill, photographer for PAN Cosmetics, and she was lying half naked on a sofa in a hotel suite, her body still intimately—very intimately! —entwined with a man called Sin…

How had this happened?

She had spent the last seven years without even thinking about becoming physically involved with anyone, too engrossed in making a name for herself as a photographer to have room for anything else in her life. So what was it about Sin that had changed all that? Why him? What—?

‘I’ve always found self-recriminations after the event to be less than constructive,’ Sin advised quietly as he felt the sudden tension in the woman beneath him. He gave her a few seconds to let his words sink in before raising his head to look at her.

If anything she looked even more beautiful with that slightly bewildered look in those amazing blue eyes, her lips swollen from the fierce intensity of their kisses, and there was a rosy flush to her cheeks.

Sin felt no less bewildered himself by the wildness of their lovemaking, could never remember being so aroused by a woman—any woman—that he had almost ripped his own clothes off in his need to join his flesh with hers.

In fact, he still had most of his clothes on. Both of them did.

His smile was rueful as he raised one of his hands to lightly caress her flushed cheek. ‘Let’s finish undressing, hmm, take a shower, and leave all conversation until later,’ he suggested gently.

Luccy didn’t want to have a conversation at all with this man! She didn’t want to have anything with him, and was utterly mortified by what she had just allowed to happen.

She wasn’t the type of woman to indulge in a one-night stand with a man who completely swept her off her feet. Or, at least, she hadn’t been…

Regroup, Luccy, she instructed herself firmly. Gather your scattered wits together and just try to come out of this situation with some of your dignity intact.

She kept her gaze on Sin’s muscular chest—dear God, she had almost ripped his shirt off him minutes ago!— as she moistened her lips before speaking, the gesture not in the least reassuring as she instantly felt the sensitivity of their bruised fullness. ‘I don’t believe a post-mortem after the event is necessary, either,’ she told him evenly.

‘No post-mortem, Luccy,’ he assured her, gently stroking the hair at her temple now. ‘But maybe we could reassess your earlier decision not to become my “regular London girl”?’ he teased.

Her eyes widened as she looked up at him. Sin wanted to see her again? This wasn’t just some one-night thing to him while he was in London?

She swallowed hard. ‘I—could I take a shower first—alone—and think about that?’

He frowned darkly. ‘You don’t want us to meet again?’

All Luccy wanted right now was to be alone for a few minutes. She couldn’t think around this man!

‘I need to shower first,’ she insisted huskily.

‘But not together?’ He voiced his disappointment.

She would hardly be able to think while naked in the shower with an equally naked—totally distracting—Sin!

‘Luccy?’ Sin prompted as he sensed her hesitation.

She avoided his gaze. ‘If you don’t mind, I’ve always preferred to shower alone.’

Sin did mind; he could imagine nothing he would enjoy more at this moment than soaping her body all over before making love to her again under the hot spray of the shower. Neither was he particularly happy that she wanted to think about seeing him again.

What they had just shared had been extraordinary. Amazing.

But he appreciated it might have happened a little too suddenly for Luccy—for him too, if he was honest! But this was certainly not a casual one-night stand for him; Sin had every intention of seeing Luccy again whenever he was in London. Often.

But the comfort of a silk-sheeted bed in half an hour or so, when they were both showered and refreshed, would probably be more reassuring for Luccy. After all, they had the rest of the night to enjoy each other. All day tomorrow too, if Sin rescheduled his meetings. Maybe he would just cancel them indefinitely; Luccy was what interested him at the moment. Luccy, and getting to know each and every thing about her.

‘Fine,’ he agreed. ‘I’ll open a bottle of champagne and take it through to the bedroom while you’re in the bathroom, and then take a quick shower myself before joining you.’

Not too quick, Luccy hoped—because she already knew that no amount of time in the shower was going to change the fact that while Sin was taking his own shower she had every intention of leaving this suite, and the hotel.

And never seeing Sin again…