Dangerous delight soared through her. If she were standing on a precipice, she’d say he’d just given her a push halfway over.
‘Which is?’
His eyes sparked with hers and she sucked in a deep breath, right as he dropped his head, his eyes still haunted as his lips covered hers, his mouth taking possession of hers in a way that stole her ability to think and breathe, that made her forget everything she was, everything she’d ever been. For one moment, that moment, there was only this.
‘Thirio.’ She said his name for no reason other than that he was there, and she liked the way it felt to say it like this, with his tongue sliding into her mouth, twirling with hers. A low, husky moan flooded her throat. She barely knew the man but this one kiss was evoking feelings in her that she’d never known, making her twist and turn with a desire she couldn’t contain.
‘Tell me what you want,’ he commanded into her soul, before breaking the kiss, putting just enough space between them to look into her eyes, but not so much that his lips were far away. Her eyes clung to them, her breath coming in rushed little spurts.
But how could she verbalise it? How could she give voice to the cacophony of wants that were deafening Lucinda from the inside out? Heat spread through her, pinking her cheeks, darkening her eyes, until they were almost the colour of chocolate.
‘I—’
Nothing made sense. She’d come here because her father’s business’s future depended on securing this job, and Thirio was the man in charge of hiring. Yet, at that very moment, Lucinda couldn’t say she cared too much about whether her proposal was accepted or not. Other things were so much more important...
‘You?’ He gave her nothing. He wasn’t helping her; he wasn’t going easy on her. She closed her eyes, searching for sense, for calm, but, if anything, felt only a greater burden of need. For when her eyes were closed, her other senses were so much sharper, and his proximity set off a cascade of need she was powerless to resist.
‘You,’ she repeated, a whispered admission rather than a question. She peeked up at him, wondering at the heat that was stirring through her, wondering at the way her temperature was spiking. ‘This.’
His own eyes closed then, as though it was the last thing he’d been expecting despite the way they’d just been kissing.
‘It’s not possible.’ The words were heavy, final, and yet he didn’t move, so she held her breath, grabbing hold of hope.
Itfeltpossible. In that moment, everything she’d ever wanted seemed within her reach.
‘You don’t know what you’re asking of me.’
But she did. Uncertainty with men, insecurity with the opposite sex, had always been a voice in the back of her mind—more often than not, that voice shouted so loudly it crossed over into the front of her mind, so that she never felt anyone would be interested in her. But there was something about Thirio Skartos that overrode those doubts and uncertainties. There was something about the way he looked at her that convinced Lucinda he wanted her right back.
‘I think we’re asking the same thing of each other.’
His eyes sparked, surprise obvious, and she felt a delicious lick of triumph.
His chest heaved with each breath, his eyes boring into hers, and she lifted a hand, pressing her palm to his chest, feeling the hard and fast rushing of his heart. More triumph flooded her veins.
‘I didn’t ask you to come here.’ His fingers curled around her wrist, holding it right where it was. ‘And I don’t want to sleep with you.’ He pulled her hand from his chest, holding it at their sides, his fingers still wrapped around her flesh, making a mockery of that statement.
‘Don’t you?’
His eyes closed for the briefest of moments and when he opened them again, she saw a battle being waged in the depths of his eyes. Desire warred with determination.
‘No.’
Determination, apparently, won. Rejection seared Lucinda, making her feel like a fool for being so open about her wants, making her feel like an idiot for mistaking the chemistry between them.
‘I see.’ Pride, thankfully, came to her rescue. She wrenched her arm free and took a step back, somehow managing to summon a smile that was forged in ice. ‘I must have misunderstood.’