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  ‘I wish we could hear definitely that our chap is going to come through…’ Peter was complaining, and automatically Luke turned his attention to what he was saying.

  ‘Hello, I’m Suzy.’ Suzy introduced herself to the children with a smile.

  ‘You’re Lucas’s girlfriend, aren’t you?’ the little boy demanded, adding importantly, ‘Maria told us. She’s one of the maids.’

  Luke’s girlfriend! Something turned over inside Suzy’s chest, and an odd and unwanted feeling of loss and pain ached inside her.

  ‘Charlie, you shouldn’t gossip with the servants. Mummy wouldn’t like it,’ the little girl announced primly, and Suzy could see the mixture of anxiety and protectiveness in her eyes as she looked at her younger brother.

  ‘You can’t tell me what to do, Lucy,’ He retaliated immediately. ‘Does being Luke’s girlfriend mean that you are going to get married?’ he asked Suzy.

  Married! To Luke!

  A feeling of fierce intensity shot through her.

  ‘Charlie, it’s rude to ask personal questions,’ Lucy told him imperiously.

  ‘Our mother and father were married,’ Charlie told her, ignoring his sister, ‘but they aren’t any more. Our mother is married to someone else, and he doesn’t like us, does he, Lucy?’

  ‘Charlie, you aren’t supposed to say things like that,’ Lucy hissed, red-faced.

  ‘Why not? I heard Mummy saying it to Aunt Catherine.’

  Poor children, Suzy thought sadly. Charlie was still too young to be aware of what he was saying, but Lucy was old enough to be embarrassed and upset by her younger brother’s revelations. Suzy could see that, so she gently distracted them, asking, ‘What was that game I saw you playing?’

  Her simple ploy had the desired effect. Immediately Charlie began to enthuse about the game and his skill with it.

  As she listened to him Suzy turned to look at Lucy. The little girl gave her a hesitant smile. The pristinely laundered dress she was wearing, whilst unmistakably expensive, was too short and too tight, Suzy recognised, and she wondered absently if she had perhaps chosen to wear it because it was an old favourite.

  Still listening to Peter complaining about the way the visiting Head of State kept changing the carefully made arrangements, Luke looked towards the window.

  The children were now seated either side of Suzy, apparently hanging onto her every word—nestling against her, almost.

  For some absurd reason the sight of the three of them together aroused an emotion inside him he wasn’t prepared to name, and it was with relief that he heard the sound of the dinner gong.

  ‘Suzy, my dear, you don’t know what a pleasure it is for me to have the company of such a very attractive and charming young woman,’ Sir Peter announced flatteringly once they were all seated around the magnificent antique table. ‘And I’m sure the children agree with me—don’t you, children?’

  Obediently Charlie and Lucy nodded their heads.

  ‘Luke, you are an extremely fortunate man. I just hope, Suzy, that we will be able to persuade you to spend some time with us as well as with Luke. The children would certainly welcome your company, I know.’

  Suzy hid a smile as she realised what Sir Peter was trying to do. He obviously saw in her arrival an opportunity to persuade her into helping out with his children. And to be honest, she acknowledged, she would be perfectly happy to do so. It would give her something to occupy her time during her enforced imprisonment.

  With that in mind, she smiled compliantly at her host.

  ‘You must take Suzy for a walk through the gardens after dinner, Luke,’ Sir Peter announced amiably, after giving Suzy a warmly approving smile. ‘The grounds to the villa are very beautiful. There’s a lake—’

  ‘And a grotto,’ Charlie broke in eagerly. ‘I want to explore it.’

  Immediately his father gave him a stern look. ‘Charlie, I’ve already told you that you are not to go near the grotto. It’s unsafe and too dangerous, and that’s why a metal gate has been placed across it—it’s too dangerous for anyone to enter!’ Turning to Suzy, he told her, ‘There is supposed to be some sort of tunnel and an underground chamber beneath the grotto, which was built originally as a folly.’

  Suzy shivered as she listened to him. She had always had a fear of such places, and certainly did not share Charlie’s enthusiasm.

  ‘But you must show Suzy the sunken garden, Luke. It’s a very romantic walk, Suzy,’ he added warmly,

  ‘and if Luke hadn’t bagged you first, I can assure you I would have enjoyed showing it to you myself.’

  Sir Peter was flirting with her!

  Hastily Suzy took a sip of her wine, and then choked a little as she realised how strong it was.

  The food was delicious, but she seemed to have lost her usual appetite, Suzy acknowledged as her churning stomach prevented her from eating more than a few mouthfuls of her meal.

  Was it because every minute that passed meant that it was getting closer to the time when she would have to go back upstairs with Luke to that suite? Their suite. Their bed.

  A tense shudder ripped through her and she reached for her wine again, hoping to distract herself.

  The children were looking tired and had started bickering. It was far too late for them to be eating, in Suzy’s opinion, and the food was surely too rich for young digestion.

  ‘Charlie, that’s enough!’

  Peter was giving his son an angry look, but Suzy could see that the little boy’s behaviour was caused more by tiredness than wilfulness.

  ‘Finish your dinner,’ Sir Peter instructed.

  ‘I don’t want it. I don’t like it.’ Charlie resisted stubbornly.

  ‘Charles!’

  ‘I think the children are tired,’ Suzy intervened gently. ‘It is rather late. I don’t know what time they normally go to bed…’

  ‘Of course. You are quite right! It is late!’ Sir Peter agreed immediately. ‘I’d better send for one of the maids to take them upstairs and put them to bed,’ he added, signalling to the hovering waiter.

  Within minutes a plump, elderly woman appeared, and their father instructed the children to go with her.

  A small frown creased Suzy’s forehead as both children followed the maid without receiving a goodnight kiss from their father.

  Half an hour later, their own meal over, Suzy was beginning to feel tired herself—and to regret the two glasses of red wine she had drunk!

  Coffee was to be served in the same salon where they had had their pre-dinner cocktails, and once they had made their way there Sir Peter settled himself on one of the damask sofas. Patting the space beside himself, he invited, ‘Come and sit here, next to me, Suzy, and tell me all about yourself.’

  Hesitantly Suzy began to walk towards him, only to come to an unsteady stop as Luke stepped in front of her.

  ‘If you don’t mind, Peter, I think I’d like to have her to myself for a while,’ he announced smoothly, taking hold of Suzy’s arm as he did so.

  Just the feel of his fingers on her bare arm was enough to make her quiver from head to foot, Suzy recognised dizzily.

  ‘Of course, of course. Don’t blame you, old chap,’ Sir Peter responded heartily.

  Before she could say or do anything Suzy discovered that she was being almost force-marched in the direction of the salon door. She could almost feel the blast of heat from Luke’s anger as he opened the door and propelled her out into the hallway, up the stairs and into their suite.

  As soon as he had closed the door behind them he rounded on her, demanding savagely, ‘What the devil do you think you are playing at? Or do I need to ask? It’s the same old trick, isn’t it? I warned you—’

  ‘I’m not playing at anything!’ Suzy denied fiercely.

  ‘Liar! You’ve seen that Peter is susceptible to you, so you’re doing everything you can to encourage him…giving him limpid-eyed looks, pretending to be concerned about his children—’

  ‘I am concerned about them!�
�� Suzy stopped him.

  ‘And as for me encouraging him—I was doing no such thing! You’re behaving like a jealous lover!’ she threw furiously at him. ‘Accusing me of things I haven’t done, and have no intention of doing!’

  A jealous lover! Luke stared at her.

  Suzy gasped as she was dragged into Luke’s arms. She tried to protest. And she tried to resist. But the wine had obviously weakened her resistance. Of its own accord her hand clutched at the sleeve of his shirt and her body leaned into his. Greedily her senses absorbed the feel of him. Tough, male, strong…She looked at his mouth. She looked into his eyes. And then she looked at his mouth again. She could feel the sound he was making in his throat vibrate through his body in a feral growl of warning male arousal.

  He was lowering his head and she wanted to reach up and hold it, so that he couldn’t escape, so that his mouth had to cover her own…

  And it did! How long had she yearned for this? Suzy wondered dizzily as her lips clung to his. Surrounded by the sensual soft dark of the Italian night, she gave in to her own need. She was in his arms and then in his hands—quite literally, she realised in soaring shocked pleasure as they moved over her, shaping her, learning her…

  Into the darkness of their room she moaned her uninhibited delight. She could feel her breasts swelling into his hands whilst her stomach tightened with expectation. She lifted her arms to wrap them around him, her fingers sliding into the softness of his hair. His mouth tasted erotically of wine and man, and she wanted to feed on it until all her senses were sated with the pleasure of him. The straps of her top had slipped down her arms and were digging into her flesh, and she wanted to beg Luke to remove it from her body, right here and right now.

  Helplessly Luke gave in to the need he had felt the first time she had kissed him. Then he had denied it, buried it, but somehow it had survived, tormenting him in his dreams. Luke felt his body shudder as his hunger for her ripped through his defences. Now he was beyond reason, beyond sanity, beyond anything and everything but wanting her. He was, Luke recognised distantly, completely out of control. And she was the one who had done this to him, who had driven him, aroused him, made him so insane with need for her. That eager female sound she had just made had logged straight into his body and switched on every damn thing, sending him completely crazy. He lifted his hand to push Suzy’s auburn hair off her creamy neck and shoulder, leaving them exposed to the exploration of his hungry mouth. A tiny pulse jumped and skittered beneath his kiss and he paused to touch it with his tongue.

  She was openly trembling with longing, Suzy recognised as her head fell back to allow Luke even more access to the curve of her throat. Behind her she had the hardness of the heavy wooden door, and in front of her she had the hardness that was Luke. A deep shudder tormented her as he started to explore the delicate whorls of her ear, his thumb on the pulse at the base of her throat.

  Someone was tugging frantically at the straps of her top trying to remove it. How could Luke be doing that and touching her as well?

  It wasn’t Luke who was tearing off her clothes and exhaling in a rush of fierce pleasure as they fell to the ground, Suzy realised. It was her.

  Luke had felt her clothes slither to the floor as his eyes adjusted to the velvet darkness, and now he could see the pale outline of her body. Her almost naked body.

  He had known that she wasn’t wearing a bra—had known it and registered Peter’s equal awareness of that fact—but that knowledge and the knowledge he had now, of the soft, pure nakedness of her torso, with the outline of her breasts sketched in blurred charcoal light, were a world apart.

  Almost as though it was happening in slow motion Suzy watched as Luke turned his head and looked down at her body. His hand came out and slid beneath one breast, gently supporting it.

  If she was any more perfect she wouldn’t be human, Luke thought as he felt the delicious weight of Suzy’s breast on his palm. His thumb searched for her nipple.

  She gave a sharp, electrified moan and her whole body stiffened in response to his touch.

  She was a conniving, manipulative wanton who had never had a genuine emotion or reaction in her life, Luke told himself savagely. But his body was beyond listening. His hand was working urgently on her breast, preparing it for the hungry possession of his mouth. Every sweet moan she made was causing the sensation in the pit of his belly to screw down harder. If he didn’t have the taste of her in his mouth soon he was going to…

  His free hand slid down her body and encountered the lacy edge of her underwear. He hooked one finger under what he thought was elastic and then realised that it was a ribbon bow. A bow he could untie with his fingers, or…Luke had a sudden mental picture of himself laying her on the bed, tugging the bows loose with his teeth. He wanted to eat her like a fresh peach, filling his mouth with her taste until the juice of her ran from his fingers and his lips.

  His erection was straining against his clothes, and he could tell from the small urgent sounds Suzy was making that she was equally aroused.

  They were partners, after all, he reminded himself with inner black humour. Partners on opposite sides of a very sharp divide, he acknowledged, and reality suddenly kicked in.

  Suzy tensed as she felt Luke’s hand start to leave her breast. Something had happened. Something had made him draw back from her, and she didn’t want that something. She wanted him.

  Suzy’s sexual experience was relatively limited. And yet she discovered that her body knew far more than she had given it credit for. It knew, for instance, that if she reached out and touched Luke the way she was doing, just the merest brush of her fingertips, slowly, oh so slowly against that tight bulge she could feel beneath his clothing, that instead of pushing her away he would draw her to him again.

  He shouldn’t be doing this. Oh, he should not be doing this, Luke warned himself. But that provocative touch that Suzy was subjecting him to, just the slightest brush of delicate fingertips against his erection, was more than he could stand.

  He wanted her right now.

  He didn’t just want to taste her, he wanted to take her and fill her and spill himself inside her.

  Taking hold of her hands, Luke pinned them above her head, his body leaning into hers.

  Her eyes had adjusted to the dark now, and Suzy could see his expression quite clearly. A fast, furious surge of shocked excitement raced through her. He had lost control now. She could see it in his eyes, feel it in the way he was grinding his body into hers—and she loved it…

  As Luke felt Suzy’s hips lift and writhe tormentingly against him he knew that there was no going back.

  There was nothing he wanted more than to take her right here, against the damned door, as primitively as though every layer of civilisation had been stripped from them both. He wanted to hook his fingers in those ridiculous bows and leave himself free to give her every pleasure. He wanted to lift her up against him and have her wrap her legs around him whilst he buried himself so deep inside her that no other man would ever pleasure her as much.

  Her fingers touched him again, and this time she was tracing his erection, gauging it—measuring it?

  Suzy’s chest tightened as her uncertain touch revealed to her just how much of a man Luke was! She could feel Luke lifting her up against him. Shocked pleasure surged through her on a riptide. He was going to make love to her here against the door!

  She weighed next to nothing, Luke acknowledged as he lifted Suzy off the floor. The lacy thong she was wearing left the rounded contours of her bottom free to his touch. He could see the bright, aroused glitter of her eyes and he could feel the exhalation of her breath. His tongue touched her lips and then pierced her mouth. She tasted soft and sweet, warm and welcoming.

  ‘Open your legs,’ he commanded her.

  Hot, urgent, immediate sex—that was what he wanted with her.

  His hand was on his zip before he recognised that he wanted far more than that.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

 
‘WHAT are you doing?’ Suzy protested as Luke suddenly swung her up into his arms. Had he changed his mind? Wasn’t he going to make love to her after all? ‘Why—?’

  ‘Why?’ He stopped her as he laid her on the bed.

  ‘Because where we were would have been fine for a quickie,’ he told her rawly. ‘But right now I need to have much more than just that. Much, much more!’ he said thickly, and brushed his lips against her half-parted mouth, then touched them to each nipple in turn before returning to her mouth to kiss her with deep ferocity.

  Whilst he stripped off his clothes he told her what he wanted to do with her, how he wanted to touch her and how he wanted her to touch him. By the time he was fully nude Suzy was ready to explode. The heat in her lower body was unbearable, and so was the pressure.

  Impulsively she reached down to remove her ribbontied thong.

  ‘No!’

  His hand was over hers, but instead of unfastening the bow he started to kiss her again. Her mouth, her shoulder, her breast, laving the tight peak until she was thrashing around beneath him. And then the other breast, taking his time whilst she cried out, her hands on his shoulders, her nails digging into his skin.

  But that was nothing to what she felt when his mouth moved lower, his lips caressing her stomach and then his tongue rimming her navel, tracing the lacy edge of her thong from one bow to the other and then back again. She could feel his hands sliding beneath her, lifting her, and she writhed in urgent need. She felt his breath against her skin and watched in a sensual daze of arousal as he tugged at the bow with his teeth. When it came free he pressed his lips to her naked skin and his hand to her naked body, discovering, exploring, parting the swollen folds of flesh to expose her sex to his touch and his taste.

  Suzy heard the sounds of pleasure flooding the room and knew they must be her own, but she had no awareness of having made them. She had no awareness of anything at all other than the touch of Luke’s fingers and the lave of his tongue.

  She felt the tightening warning of her body, but it was impossible for her to hold back her orgasm. As she cried out her pleasure she felt Luke’s mouth taking it from her into his own keeping.