‘A public one.’
‘Oh, right. Silly me. I thought maybe you’d want to kiss me because you found me irresistibly attractive and just couldn’t help yourself.’ She scooped her purse off the coffee table and slipped her knickers inside and clipped it shut. ‘Let’s not forget you were the one to give me the biggest come-on in the nightclub.’
‘I’m doing this for you, Daisy.’
She clutched a hand to her heart theatrically. ‘For me? How incredibly sweet.’
He gave her a black look. ‘Don’t be like that.’
She pressed her lips tightly together as she studied him. ‘Is this because of my father?’
‘He’s got a right to be worried about you. You’re a loose cannon.’
Daisy decided right then and there she would show him just how loose she could be. He might want to keep things on a platonic level but she had other ideas. She wanted her holiday fling and she wanted it with him and no one—not even his newly invented moral code—was going to stop her. ‘I’m going back to my hotel to get my things.’
He reached for his room key. ‘I’ll come with you. The press will be—’
‘No, don’t do that. I’ll meet you back here in ten or fifteen minutes.’
A frown was beetling his brows. ‘I might as well come with you and wait until you’re ready.’
‘Erm, I don’t think so.’ She gave him a cryptic little smile. ‘Edward might not like that.’
His frown deepened. ‘Who the hell…? Oh…’
Daisy lifted her hand in a cheery fingertip wave. ‘See you in fifteen.’
CHAPTER SIX
LUIZ CAUGHT HER before she got into the elevator. Thankfully, the press had moved on now they had their story. And what a story it was. How had he ended up in this melodrama? One act of chivalry and he was in so deep he didn’t know whether he was coming or going. Well, he definitely hadn’t come, but it had been a close shave. Closer than he cared to admit.
The shock of seeing that torn scrap of lace had reminded him of what he’d been about to do. Deflowering virgins, even ones with attitude, was not on his agenda. Especially ones with fathers with agendas of their own. He had to do the right thing by her and not just because of her old man. She was a nice kid. A bit ditzy and naïve, but in a way that was what was so darned refreshing about her. She didn’t treat him as if he was a demigod. She hadn’t even known who he was when she’d first met him. It was only his protection of her that had changed her mind about him.
Now she had her mind set on him being her first lover…apart from her mechanical boyfriend, that was. He might be a thoroughly modern guy and chilled about all things sexual, but there was no way he was going to stand outside the door and let some battery-operated device do what he ached and throbbed to do. If he had to be celibate for the next couple of weeks, then Daisy could damn well join him.
He slipped in before the elevator doors closed and faced her squarely. ‘You can’t go haring off by yourself. We’re supposed to be a couple. Couples do everything together.’ Or so I’m told.
Her bright blue eyes with their dark fan of lashes looked up at him guilelessly. ‘But the press have gone now.’
‘That’s not the point.’ He reached over to stab at the ground floor button as if it had personally insulted him. ‘There are people with camera phones everywhere. One shot of one of us without the other and the gossip will start. There’ll be speculation that we’re over. I can’t afford to let that happen until the paperwork is secure on my sponsorship.’
‘Fine, I’ll stick to you like glue.’ She closed the distance between them and looped an arm through his. ‘I’ll be your little shadow.’
Little tormentor, more like, Luiz thought, as the soft skin of her arm brushed against the hairs on his. He looked at her mouth, that delicious curve that was always on the verge of smiling, the cute little dimples that appeared when she did.
How had she lasted this long without someone snapping her up? She was gorgeous and super sexy and she kissed with such passion his body was still thrumming with the aftershocks.
How was he going to keep his hands off her for the duration of their ‘relationship’? The sensation of her soft creamy breasts against his mouth, the way her tender skin caught against his stubble, the feel of her tightly budded nipples against his tongue and the soft little gasp she gave with each of his caresses made his body writhe with sexual hunger.
He would have to fly in icy water from Antarctica to douse the heat she had stirred in his blood.