shades of strawberry blonde amidst the deep russets and copper of her hair. Eyes drifting down, he followed the line of her shoulders and the swell of her breasts under the bikini, which he had not really been able to appreciate when she had been hugging her knees to herself, making sure that as little of her body was on show as humanly possible.
The bikini was black and modest by any modern standard but nothing could conceal the tempting swell of her pert, small breasts, the barely there cleavage, the jut of her hip bones and the silky smoothness of her thighs.
Lucas didn’t bother to give in to consternation at the hot, pulsing swell of his arousal which, had she only opened her big green eyes and cast a sideways glance at him, she’d have noticed was distorting his swimming trunks.
He’d acknowledged her appeal from day one, from the very second she had walked into his office. No red-blooded male could have failed to. He’d also noted her belligerence and lack of filter when it came to speaking her mind, which was why he had decided to take on babysitting duties personally until his deal was safely in the bag. When you took into account that she had shimmered into his line of vision as a woman not averse to sleeping with married men, one who could not be trusted, it had seemed the obvious course of action.
But he knew, deep down, that even though he had dismissed any notion of going anywhere near Katy the prospect of being holed up with her for a fortnight had not exactly filled him with distaste.
He wondered whether he had even played with the forbidden thought of doing what his body wanted against the wishes of his brain. Or maybe he had been invigorated just by the novelty of having that mental tussle at all. In his well-ordered life, getting what he wanted had never posed a challenge, and internal debates about what he should or shouldn’t do rarely featured, especially when it came to women.
He thought that if she had lived down to expectations and proved herself to be the sort of girl who had no morals, and really might have tried her luck with him, he would have had no trouble in eating, breathing and sleeping work. However, she hadn’t, and the more his curiosity about her had been piqued the more he had been drawn to her like a wanderer hearing the call of a siren.
Which was so not him at all that he almost didn’t know how to deal with it.
Except, his body was dealing with it in the time-honoured way, he thought, and then hard on the heels of that thought he wondered what she would do if she looked and saw the kind of response she’d awakened in him.
Katy wasn’t sure whether it was the sudden silence, or just something thick and electric in the air, but she opened her eyes and turned her head, her mouth already opening to say something bland and chirpy to dispel the sudden tension.
His eyes caught hers and she stopped breathing. She had a drowning sensation as she was swallowed up in the deep, dark, quiet depths of his eyes. Those eyes were telegraphing a message to her, or they seemed to be. Was she imagining it? She had no experience of a man like him. That cool, brooding, speculative expression seemed to be inviting a response, but was it? Flustered and confused, her eyes dipped...
And then there was no doubt exactly what message was being telegraphed.
For a few seconds, Katy froze while her mind went into free fall. He was turned on. Did he think that he could try it on and she would fall in line because she was easy? Who knew, he probably still believed that she was the sort who had affairs with married men, even though he surely should know better, because she had shared stuff with him, told him about her childhood and her parents and the morals they had instilled in her. Maybe he hadn’t believed her. Maybe he had taken it all with a pinch of salt because he was suspicious and mistrustful.
She wasn’t easy. And yet, unleashed desire flooded through her in an unwanted torrent, crashing through common sense and good intentions. She wanted this man, this unsuitable man, and she wanted him with a craving that was as powerful as a depth charge.
The shocking intensity of a physical response she had never, ever felt towards any man, including Duncan, scared the living daylights out of her. Mumbling something under her breath, she leapt to her feet, the glittering blue of the infinity pool beckoning like an oasis of safety away from the onslaught of confusion overwhelming her.
Heart hammering in her chest, she scrambled forward, missed the step that gave down to the smooth wood around the pool and found herself flying forward.
She landed with a painful thump, her knees stinging where she had grazed them after her airborne flight.
Clutching her leg, she watched in fascinated slow motion as Lucas strode towards her, every lean muscle of his body intent.
‘What were you thinking?’ he asked urgently, scooping her up and ignoring her protests that he put her down because she was absolutely fine. ‘You took off like a bat out of hell. Something I said?’
He was striding away from the pool area, carrying her as easily as he would carry a couple of cushions. Katy clutched his broad shoulders, horribly aware that in this semi-folded position there were bits of her on view that made her want to die an early death from embarrassment.
One glance down and he would practically be able to see the shadow of one of her nipples.
‘Where are you taking me?’ she croaked. ‘This is ridiculous. I tripped and fell!’
‘You could have broken something.’
‘I haven’t broken anything!’ Katy practically sobbed.
‘How do you know?’
‘Because if I had I wouldn’t be able to walk!’
‘You’re not walking. I’m carrying you. How much do you weigh, by the way? You’re as light as a feather. If I didn’t see how much food you’re capable of putting away, I’d be worried.’
‘I’ve always been thin,’ Katy said faintly, barely noticing where they were going because she was concentrating very hard on making sure no more of her bikini-clad body went on show. She felt she might be on the verge of passing out. ‘Please just take me to my cabin. That would be fine. I can clean my knee up and I’ll be as right as rain.’
‘Nonsense. How could I live with myself if I didn’t do the gentlemanly thing and make sure you’re all right? I wasn’t brought up to ignore damsels in distress.’
‘I’m not one of those!’
‘Here we are,’ Lucas intoned with satisfaction. He kicked open the door and, when Katy tore her focus away from her excruciating attempts to keep her body safely tucked away in the swimsuit, she realised where he had taken her.
Away from the safety of the pool and straight into the hellfire of his private quarters.
LUCAS’S CABIN WAS different from hers insofar as it was twice the size and unnervingly masculine: dark-grey silky throw on the bed, dark-grey pillows, built-in furniture in rich walnut that matched the wooden flooring. He laid her on the bed and she immediately wriggled into a sitting position, wishing that she had something to tug down to cover herself, but instead having to make do with arranging herself into the most modest position possible, back upright, legs rammed close together and hands primly folded on her lap.
Sick
