he wanted her more today than yesterday, more now than an hour ago, more in this minute than the minute before.
And what was he doing, anyway, keeping on with this, with her? If he wasn’t going to take her to bed, he needed to stay away from her.
But he wasn’t willing to do that. He wanted this time with her as much as she seemed to want it with him.
The truth skittered through him, striking off sparks: he didn’t want to stop. And he wasn’t going to stop.
Impossible. Sweet Lucy Cordell, of all people. He never would have imagined. Not in a hundred years.
But he imagined it now, in detail. With growing excitement. In spite of her brother’s probable fury. Even if it ended up costing him her friendship.
Really, he ought to be a better man. Unfortunately, he wasn’t.
She stepped away from her chair, pushed it in and came around the table toward him in a rustle of red satin, her eyes never letting go of his, all woman in that moment, the girl he had known before eclipsed, changed. When she stood above him, she reached down and put her hand on his shoulder.
Her touch burned him, made his throat clutch, tangled his breath inside his suddenly aching chest. He couldn’t bear it. He caught her fingers, brought them to his mouth, pressed the tips of them against his lips. Heat seared his belly and tightened his groin. She sucked in a sharp breath. He kissed her fingers one more time and then let go.
That was when she said so sweetly, “Stand up, Dami. Please.”
Damien rose and stood with her and tried to think what to say. “Luce...”
She lifted on tiptoe, so her sweet mouth was so wonderfully, perfectly close. Her breath smelled of cocoa. “I haven’t had a lot of kisses. I mean, real kisses. On-the-lips kisses.”
He whispered her name again. “Luce.” Somehow her name was the only word he had right then.
She continued on the subject of kisses. “Two from you, so far. Two from a boy I met in Cardiac ICU at a very excellent hospital in Los Angeles. His name was Ramon. He was getting better, they said. And then one night, out of nowhere, he died. He had the most beautiful crow-black hair.” A single tear escaped the corner of her left eye.
He dipped his head, kissed that tear, tasted the salty wetness on his tongue.
She drew in a shaky little breath, put her hands on his shoulders as though bracing herself—and continued, “A boy named Troy kissed me in middle school. It was one of the few times I was well enough to go to school for a while. He kissed me out under the football bleachers. I promised to meet him in front of the school in the morning. But I got bad in the night and there was another surgery and I didn’t go to school again for three years.”
He made a low noise in his throat, a noise of encouragement, and he pressed his lips to the pretty arch of her left eyebrow.
She went on, “And then there was this boy in high school, a very pricey private school. I went there for three months in my junior year. Noah was rich by then....”
Her brother had started from nothing. Lucy’s illnesses had spurred him on to greater and greater success. He’d needed a lot of money to make sure she got the very best care available.
Lucy went on. “The boy in high school? His name was Josh and he lived in our neighborhood in Beverly Hills— This was before Noah bought the estate in Carpinteria. Josh took me to the homecoming dance and I kissed him at the door when he brought me home. He never called me after that. I called him twice, left messages with his mom. And then a few weeks later, there I was in an ambulance again. I was homeschooled exclusively after that. I never saw Josh again and I never kissed anyone else until last year.”
“You had a boyfriend last year?” He hadn’t known.
“Uh-uh. It was at one of Noah’s parties. A man named David, a business associate of Noah’s. David would have done more than kiss me, but I got cold feet—and don’t you dare tell Noah.”
“Never.” He growled the word and tried to recall if he’d ever met this David. He didn’t think so, which was probably just as well.
“Promise me,” she whispered.
“I swear on the blue blood of my Calabretti ancestors, on the honor of all the Bravos who came before me, that I will never tell Noah that you kissed a man named David at one of Noah’s parties.”
“Wow. Now, that’s a vow.”
“I’m so glad you approve.”
She gave him her best Mona Lisa smile. “But you need to seal it with a kiss.”
He didn’t even hesitate. There was no point. He accepted that now. Unless she called a halt, he was in. All the way. He bent and captured her mouth, tasted chocolate and heat and a sweet, slow sigh.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and swayed closer. He felt the giving softness of her breasts against his chest. Not the least childish, the softness of those breasts. “Dami...”
He pulled her closer still, not even caring anymore that she might feel him unfurling against her belly. He only went on kissing her, dipping his tongue into the moist heat beyond her parted lips, sharing her breath, the world a wonderful place that smelled of peaches and chocolate and something else, something of Lucy, fresh and clean and womanly, too.
After a while, he lifted his head. He gazed down into those shining brown eyes.
She whispered, “That’s three kisses from you. Give me another.”
He drank in the sight of her flushed upturned face. “You’re greedy.”
“I need a lot of kisses. I’ve been deprived.” And then she giggled.
That did it. That naughty little laugh of hers made him greedy, too. He swooped down and took her mouth again.
She cried softly, “Oh!” against his lips.
And then he kissed her long and slow and deep, sweeping a hand down to press the small of her back, pushing his hips against her, aching to have her, to feel her tight heat all around him.
She moaned a little, and she lifted her lower body up and into him. Eager. And so very sweet.
That time when he lifted his head, she took the lapels of his jacket and guided them over his shoulders. He allowed that, catching it as it fell, tossing it onto a far chair. She started on the buttons of his shirt.
He caught her hands, kissed them, one and then the other. “Anticipation is a fine thing.”
She tipped her head to the side and considered. And then she blushed again. “I’m rushing it, huh?”
“I want you right now,” he whispered. “I want to bury myself in you and hear you moan beneath me.”
Deeper color flooded upward over her throat, her chin, her
