He loosened his hold a touch and nuzzled a kiss into her hair while he could—while she was wrapped up and couldn’t protest or reject him.
‘Of course I like you,’ he said. ‘I’ll have you know I don’t go around kissing just anyone.’ Speaking of kissing… ‘Did I hurt you earlier? Was I too rough?’
The luxurious spill of her hair tumbled over one shoulder, a shimmering flow of dark bronze that Thane swept back from her face tenderly.
Those absurdly long lashes fluttered, yet she prised her eyes wide, fighting it. Fighting him. It just made him want her all the more.
‘Yes, you hurt me. Inside you hurt me. And I’ll never forgive you for that stunt you just pulled.’
‘Admittedly I didn’t think it would backfire in such a spectacular fashion,’ he drawled, trying his utmost to ease the tension he could feel coiling in her body. Her luscious, curvy weight was glorious, he decided. ‘Would you consider that I thought your tongue down my throat meant yes?’
‘No, I most certainly would not.’
The haughty lash of her riposte made him retaliate with his equally devilish mouth. ‘What about the way you rode my lap?’
Her lips parted on a stunned smack. ‘Lord, you really are wicked.’ Punching at the blanket for some wriggle room, she shoved at his chest. ‘Go away. Go and take your guilt elsewhere. I’m not pacifying it for you. You deserve it.’
‘Who says I feel guilty?’
He did. Terribly. He might have wanted to lure and beguile her, but upset her this much? No. That was the last thing he’d wanted. It made him wonder if he was missing something vital. Surely being rescued from a repulsive royal marriage was something to celebrate, not to weep over.
‘I can see it all over your face. And you should feel guilty too. I told you I was not getting on this plane, but did you listen? Of course you didn’t. Then I begged you to go back for my bag, my phone…’ Sighing heavily, she thumped her head back down on his shoulder. ‘I hate you.’
‘So you said. But, like I said, your cell phone would not have worked in Galancia. At least nowhere near the castle.’
Like Fort Knox with scrambling systems, its obscene opulence was locked up tight.
And right then, for the first time, he thought of his birthright and doubt slithered its sinuous way up his spine. Not only did he loathe the place but also his uncle… He didn’t want his uncle anywhere near Luciana. Because as soon as his uncle set eyes on her he’d know Thane planned to overthrow him and doubtless stir up trouble.
To hell with that. He needed Luciana to say I do first. And to get her there he needed time. Time only for them. When he wasn’t distracted by having to peer over his shoulder.
Glaring up at him with a fierceness that verged on the adorable, she mocked, ‘My phone wouldn’t work in the castle? Truth or lie?’
A laugh burst past his lips—one he hadn’t heard in an age. For a woman who had been in Zurich to let loose and have fun, she remembered quite a bit. ‘Truth. Swear it. Why do you want your phone so badly?’
She flung her now unencumbered arm out in front of them, exasperated, missing his face by an inch.
‘Why do you think? My family will be beside themselves with worry by morning and it’s heartless of you not to care.’
He was heartless. Completely heartless. Yet every time he thought of that single tear he didn’t want to be. Not for her. And that was akin to tying a garrotte around his own neck. By opening up he would give her the power to destroy him again, and he couldn’t go through that a second time. It would kill him. No, he had to keep his head straight and focus on his end goal. The crown.
But, unlike him, Luciana had a huge heart, and he didn’t want her fretting about her family so he’d have to fix that too. He didn’t want her mind on anything else but him.
‘Are we talking about the same family who is pushing you into an arranged marriage that you don’t want?’ he asked.
‘First off, what you have offered isn’t much different.’
She had a point there. What could he give her in a marriage that Augustus couldn’t? Just as he despised Henri for dragging her towards matrimony, he didn’t intend to do that either.
Which begged the question—how was he going to entice her there?
‘Maybe it isn’t. But that man will never be in your bed as long as I live and breathe.’