found her gone.
Enquiries the following morning had revealed that the table in the restaurant the evening before had been booked to Harper-O’Neill Ltd, the representative of that company joined by two guests from Wow magazine.
It hadn’t taken too long after that to ascertain that the photographer Lucinda Harper-O’Neill had represented herself; the names ‘Luccy’ and ‘Lucinda’ had been too much of a coincidence for it not to be the same person, proving that Luccy had lied to Sin when she’d told him she worked for a photographer—she was the photographer.
Unfortunately for Luccy, Sin’s enquiries hadn’t stopped there—he had also had a very interesting conversation with Paul Bridger, one of the senior executives with Wow magazine, earlier this morning. A conversation that had resulted in Sin questioning exactly when Luccy had realised he’d seemed familiar to her that following evening. Before or after he’d come across her with Bridger? After his conversation with Bridger, Sin was betting on it being before. Long before…
There had certainly been no way Sin intended returning to New York until he had seen Lucinda Harper-O’Neill again!
His movements were unhurried now as he strolled over to the chair facing the desk to lower his long length into it before looking across at her with cool deliberation. ‘Go ahead and finish up your work. I’m in no hurry,’ he assured her quietly.
Luccy frowned her frustration with his relaxed attitude—she was even more tense now than when she had first walked out of her studio and seen him just standing there. ‘I told you, I’m busy—’
‘Then I’ll wait until you’re finished,’ he persisted evenly.
There was no way that she could go back into her studio and continue working when she knew Sin was sitting out here waiting for her like that stalking, lethally dangerous tiger he so reminded her of!
‘What is it you want from me, Sin?’ she demanded impatiently.
‘Didn’t the fact that I left that night tell you that I have no interest in pursuing a relationship with you?’
It hadn’t even occurred to her that Sin would attempt to track her down in this way. And for what purpose? Surely he had to realise that she considered what had happened between them to have been a mistake on her part? A mistake she had no intention of repeating!
He relaxed back in the chair as he continued to look across at her with narrowed, unfathomable grey eyes. ‘It told me that you had—finished with me. For the moment…’
Luccy didn’t like the insult she could hear in his tone. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ she said as she stood up to glare down at him, too restless to remain seated any longer. ‘Now I really think it’s past time that you left, Mr—’
‘Formality between us seems—a little out of place, in the circumstances, don’t you think?’ he put in mockingly.
Luccy huffed her frustration. ‘I would prefer it. And what I would really prefer is for you to just leave.’
‘Not possible, I’m afraid,’ Sin returned calmly, icily. ‘Not until you’ve given me a satisfactory explanation for your behaviour three nights ago.’
‘My behaviour?’ Luccy gave him a bewildered look. ‘Weren’t you there too?’
‘Oh, yes, I was there,’ he acknowledged. ‘Suitably intrigued. But that was the point, wasn’t it?’
‘The point of what?’ Luccy was fast approaching a feeling of unreality.
They had met, made love together, an action they obviously both regretted; what else was there left for them to talk about?
‘I could always telephone the police and have you forcibly removed,’ she threatened.
‘You could try, I suppose,’ Sin agreed with an unconcerned shrug of his shoulders. ‘Although that might be a little embarrassing for you when I explain to them that this is merely a lovers’ tiff.’
‘We are not lovers,’ she told him forcibly.
His mouth twisted. ‘Oh, but we are, Lucinda—’
‘My name is Luccy!’ she cut in vehemently. ‘And, no, we most certainly are not!’
She really did have the most beautiful eyes, Sin acknowledged distractedly, of the deepest, loveliest sky-blue, and fringed with the longest, thickest black lashes he had ever seen.
In fact, as he knew intimately, this woman was beautiful all over…
Too much so for him to have simply walked away without finding out more about her. Although a part of him now wished he had just left that night as a pleasant memory. Instead of what it really was!
His mouth tightened. ‘If you really believe that, Luccy, then your memory is much more conveniently accommodating than mine.’
No, it wasn’t—because Luccy could remember every single intimate detail of their time together in this man’s hotel suite.
Every. Single. Intimate. Detail.
Her breasts tingled uncomfortably just being in the same room with him again, and the heated awareness between her thighs was distracting too.
‘Oh, please,’ she scorned. ‘Let’s not get carried away and act as if that night really meant anything to you!’
‘You think not?’
Luccy gave an impatient shake of her head. ‘Probably the only thing that bothers you about that night is that I walked away from you at the end of it!’
He became very still, eyes narrowed to steely slits as he studied her, once again looking like that tiger with the sheathed but ready-to-pounce claws. ‘Why did you do it, Luccy?’ he finally asked softly.
‘It was an impulse. A reckless impulse!’ She sighed. ‘It certainly isn’t something I’m particularly proud of—’
‘That’s something, I suppose,’ Sin acknowledged hardly.
Luccy raised bewildered brows. ‘Exactly what are you implying?’
‘Why don’t you tell me?’ he invited, no longer relaxed in his chair as he sat forward.
‘Probably because I have no idea what you’re talking about!’
Sin had never been as intrigued by any woman as he had been that night with Luccy—or Lucinda Harper-O’Neill, as she had turned out to be. Except he hadn’t been the one indulging in intrigue!
Although he somehow doubted that night had worked out quite the way Luccy had thought it would; Sin was experienced enough to know that her physical response when they’d made love had been too wild, too out of control, to be in the least bit faked.
Luccy’s expression became guarded. ‘I’ve already told you that night was a mistake, that we should both just forget about it.’
‘Is that really what you intend doing, Luccy—forgetting
