Playboy's Lesson (16 page)

His breath snagged in his throat like a fine cotton shirtsleeve catching on a nail. She was all that he was not: innocence and beauty. Trust and honesty. Decency and integrity. Sweetness and sincerity.

Her gaze challenged his in a little lock that made her eyes look like green sea glass. ‘I want you to draw me, Lucca.’

‘I’ve drawn you.’

‘Not like that.’ Her hands fell from her body to hang by her sides. ‘Like this.’

Lucca let his gaze soak up the sight of her. She had never looked more beautiful than she did right now. How could he not want to draw her? To capture this moment when her body told him a story that only he and she knew. A private sensual tale of two opposites finding something in the other that no one else could ever understand. He didn’t understand it himself. It was a story he was still uncovering. Page by page. Chapter by chapter. Scene by scene. Word by word.

Discovering layers to her and of himself he had not realised were there until now. ‘Why?’

‘Because I want to see how you see me.’

‘I’ve never done a nude before.’ He gave her a flash of his bad-boy smile. ‘Well, not like that, I mean.’

‘That will make it even more special. Something that’s just between us. No one else has to see it. I wouldn’t want anyone else to see it. It’ll be totally private.’

He rubbed a hand over the back of his head, still wrestling with his conscience. It was a surprise to him that he still had one. A big surprise. He saw the trust shining in her bright clear gaze and felt like something dark and dirty inside him had been cleansed. ‘I thought you said art was to be shared?’

‘It will be shared.’ Her dimples appeared as she smiled. ‘By us.’

* * *

‘Can I look now?’ Lottie asked the following afternoon.

‘No, sit still while I get the angle of the light falling across your shoulder.’

‘But I’m getting cold.’

‘Hey, sweetheart, this was your idea, remember?’ He dipped his paintbrush and bent back to the task, his concentration fiercely played out on his features, making him look formidable and cross rather than playboy handsome.

Lottie wasn’t cold so much as she was dying to see what he had done. They were due to fly back to the island tomorrow now the quarantine had been lifted. The bug had been identified as food poisoning, ironically from a bakery that supplied the hotel. Only a handful of guests had been affected but the authorities had taken conservative measures to keep the infection contained.

The time spent with Lucca had more than made up for any inconvenience. She could not remember a time when she’d felt as happy and contented in someone’s presence. The private Lucca was not the public Lucca, or maybe she brought out a different side to him. She didn’t delude herself with the thought their relationship—
fling
—would last longer than it took for Madeleine and Edward to drive out of the Chatsfield Hotel driveway with Just Married written in shaving foam on the back windscreen.

But at least she would have something of him to keep with her always. His painting of her would be a reminder of the first time in his life when he had committed to something—
someone
—for more than a few hours.

‘Right.’ He sat back and wiped his forehead with a paint-smeared cloth that looked suspiciously like a Chatsfield Hotel hand towel. ‘It needs a few more touches but I’ll do that when we get back. This coat has to dry before I add any more detail.’

Lottie stepped out of the bath and quickly dried her feet and ankles on a towel before coming to look over his shoulder. ‘Do I really look like that?’

He frowned. ‘What? You don’t like it?’

She suddenly realised he was uncertain and hiding it behind a gruff impatience. ‘I don’t know....’ She put a finger to her lips and tapped against them as if in deep critical thought. ‘I think you could’ve done a better job with my breasts.’

‘What do you mean?’ He scowled at her irritably. ‘I spent bloody ages on your breasts. They’re perfect. They’ve got just the right amount of form and light and shadow.’

Lottie tapped him on the end of his nose with a playful fingertip, flashing him a cheeky got-you smile. ‘You are such a sensitive boy.’

‘Little witch.’ He grabbed her by the hips and pulled her close, taking her right breast into the hot cavern of his mouth and drawing deeply.

She looked down at his dark head against her white skin and shivered. She stroked her fingers through his closely cropped hair, breathing in the scent of the signature Chatsfield shampoo. She wondered with a sharp little pang if there would be a time in the future when she could smell cedarwood, leather, white rose and lavender and not think of him.

Lucca’s mouth went to her other breast, his tongue teasing the nipple into a hardened point. Her belly turned over in delight as one of his hands left her hip to cup her intimately. She pushed against him, wanting more, aching for him with every throbbing cell of her being.

‘We’re supposed to be giving you a rest,’ he said.

‘I’m rested.’

‘No, you’re not.’ He put her from him but softened it with a rueful smile. ‘Stop tempting me, baby girl. Don’t you know creative types are easily distracted?’

‘I like distracting you.’ She traced his bottom lip with her finger, then over his top one. ‘You look so intense when you’re working. You get deep frown lines here.’ She touched his forehead. ‘You look moody and grumpy, sort of like Beethoven.’

He gave a self-deprecating laugh. ‘Yes, well, that’s a side of me no one else sees. Thank God.’

Lottie put her hands on his shoulders and looked into dark brown eyes. ‘You’re a good person, Lucca Chatsfield. Don’t let anyone ever tell you any different.’

‘Don’t go pinning any angel wings on me, little princess.’ His eyes contained a dangerous glint. ‘I’m rotten to the core.’

‘I don’t believe that.’

His hands cupped her bottom, bringing her between his spread thighs. His erection was tenting his jeans; she could feel it pressing against her thigh, making her need of him all the more desperate. She reached down and undid his waistband, sliding his zip down and freeing him to her hand, caressing that proudly jutting flesh as she watched pleasure play out over his features. ‘You like it when I do that?’

‘What do you think?’

She rubbed his shaft up and down, rolling her fingertip over the bead of moisture that oozed from his tip. ‘I want to pleasure you.’

‘Here’s the thing.’ He stood and scooped her up in his arms. ‘I have this little rule about ladies coming first. Call me old-fashioned but that’s the way I always do things.’

Lottie quivered with anticipation as he lowered her to the bed in his suite. His eyes were black with desire as he parted her legs, stroking the sensitive skin of her inner thighs, ramping up her excitement with each slow caress. By the time he put his mouth to her she was already flying. Her back arched off the bed, her fingers clawing at the bedcover as wave after wave of ecstasy rippled through her. The intensity of her response to him always shocked her. It took her by surprise each and every time. Her response was never quite the same. There were new things to learn about her body each time he touched her.

But now it was time for her to learn more about his.

Lottie pushed him onto his back on the bed and straddled him. He was fully engorged, painfully so if the look on his face was anything to go by. ‘I want to suck you dry.’ She could barely believe she had said the shockingly erotic words, let alone meant them.

‘Not without a condom.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because it’s safer for you with one.’ He reached for protection in the bedside drawer and handed it to her. ‘You can put it on me if you like.’

She took it from him and tore the packet with her teeth. ‘Can I put it on with my mouth?’

‘You’re inner bad girl is letting it all hang out tonight, isn’t she?’

She gave him a teasing look. ‘Do you think you can you handle her?’

He smiled a wickedly sexy smile. ‘Let’s see, shall we?’

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE PRESS WERE waiting for them as they landed in Preitalle the following day but for once in her life Lottie didn’t shy away from the surge of people and the flash of cameras. Her body was still humming from Lucca’s passionate lovemaking the night before, not to mention a quick hot interlude in the shower before they left the hotel that morning. It was a new experience to be the darling of the press and she lapped it up while Lucca led her to the waiting car. He handled all the questions with his usual charm and good humour, even the question about a second royal wedding.

‘Let’s get the first one out of the way first,’ he said with an easy smile.

Madeleine, however, was not so happy about the way the press had taken to Lottie’s affair with Lucca, and took her aside once he had left for the hotel. ‘Do you realise what you’re doing?’ she said.

‘I’m going out and having a life just like you told me to.’

‘Your affair with Lucca Chatsfield is taking the attention off my wedding.’ Madeleine scowled. ‘Not one camera looked my way when we were out there just then. No one even spoke to me. They were all clicking away at you and him as if it were you two getting married and not me and Edward.’

‘It was your idea to bring him here,’ Lottie reminded her.

‘He’s supposed to be helping you with the wedding.’

‘He
is
helping me with the wedding. He’s in charge of the hens’ night. It’s going to be fun. Just you wait and see.’

Madeleine was still scowling as she followed Lottie to her office. ‘You’re not really in love with him, are you?’

Lottie put her mobile phone on the desk next to her computer. Lucca had been sending her smoulderingly hot texts to remind her of what he was going to do to her when he finally got her alone. Her body reacted to each one as if he had reached through the phone and touched her. She clicked off the screen so her sister couldn’t see his latest missive. ‘No, of course not, but I do like him. He’s fun to be around. He makes me laugh.’

Madeleine humphed. ‘He’s not in love with you even if he acts as if he is. He’s just using you to fill in the time before he collects his allowance.’

Lottie felt a sharp little pain near the bottom of her heart as if something was trying to tug it down below her rib cage. She knew Lucca’s motives were not entirely pure. She knew he was only here for his family’s money and that he would not let anything or anyone stop him from collecting what he felt he was entitled to, but she hated being reminded of it, especially by her sister, who had found a man who loved her so completely and unreservedly. ‘I know what I’m doing.’

‘I don’t want anything to spoil my wedding.’ Madeleine pressed her lips together for a moment. ‘You almost ruined my twenty-first birthday with your silly little fling with that diplomat’s son. I hope you’re not going to let history repeat itself.’

Lottie jolted as if her sister had slapped her. What about what had happened to
her
? What about
her
devastation at being exploited? At being exposed in such a degrading way? ‘If you’re so worried I’m going to stuff everything up for you, then why did you ask me to be your wedding planner?’

‘Because I felt sorry for you.’

The words fell into the room like a hand grenade.

Lottie swallowed a painful lump in her throat.
Pity
. The one thing she hated more than anything else. ‘Is that why you agreed to have Lucca Chatsfield come over here to spice up my woefully pathetic social life?’

A hard look came into her sister’s eyes. ‘Have a fling with him but try and keep it out of the headlines, okay? This is the most important day of my life. I don’t want anyone on centre stage but me.’

* * *

Lucca knew Lottie was upset as soon as she stepped into the Chatsfield bar where he had arranged to meet her. She didn’t show it on her face. It was the way she carried herself. Stiffly. As if she was carrying an invisible weight on her head that at any moment was going to topple off. He pulled out a chair for her. ‘You look like you need a couple of champagne cocktails to loosen up.’

Her eyes seemed to be having trouble meeting his. ‘Sorry I’m late.’

‘Two minutes isn’t late.’ He gently flicked her cheek with his finger. ‘I guess it is when you’re a control freak, huh?’

She gave him a tight smile before looking away again. ‘My sister’s upset with me.’

He brought her chin back round so she met his gaze. ‘What? She didn’t like the lingerie?’

Her forehead was puckered with a frown. ‘She doesn’t like the fact that our fling is taking the attention off her.’

Lucca felt his stomach stumble like a foot misjudging a step. Did she want to end their relationship ahead of schedule? The thought was disturbingly uncomfortable.
Unfamiliar
. What did he care if she ended it? There were plenty of women who would willingly take her place in his bed. He could replace her in a heartbeat. ‘Aren’t you entitled to your share of the limelight?’

She let out a breath that made her shoulders slump. ‘I can’t seem to please her. For years she’s been at me to get out more. Now I’m finally out having a bit of fun and she wants me to tone it down.’

‘Ever thought of telling her to mind her own business?’