Princess in the Iron Mask - By Victoria Parker Page 0,67

his chest.

‘Ah, well,’ she said, her cheeks pinkening to rose-gold, ‘I’d quite forgotten how slippery satin was.’

Lucas swallowed hard. Dios, he was dying here.

Dying? No, it was worse than that. He felt as if he was about to lose the most important thing in his world. Again.

‘So slippery,’ she continued, probably in an effort to keep things light, oblivious to the dark storm raging inside of him, ‘that after thirty minutes the caterers were three champagne flutes down and in all conscience I thought I better take them off.’

The tension in his midsection evaporated on a laugh. One side of her lush mouth curved and his arms ached to pick her up, carry her away.

Chin dipping, she peeked up at him through dense sooty lashes. ‘I found out something else tonight. Or should I say realised something else. You gave me the money. The funding. My parents would never have offered. How it must have pained you to coerce me.’

He shrugged. Made it lazy. He would have given her one hundred million. ‘I do not regret it.’ How could he when he never would have tasted heaven otherwise? ‘So do not forgive me,’ he bit out.

‘Oh, I will—and I do,’ she said softly, her eyes now full—the first signs of a thaw?—brimming with a warmth that made his skin prickle, his heart thud. ‘I’m in awe of you, Lucas. To come so far against all the odds.’ She reached up, trailed one finger down his jaw. ‘I’m so proud of the man you have become.’

Dios, he’d had it with this senseless woman.

Snap went his resolve, his strength. One step forward and he reached out...and every muscle in his arms, every vein in his body, froze as her lashes fluttered closed and she shook her head.

‘I should go back inside,’ she murmured. ‘Thank you for everything.’

His head jerked. Thank you? For what...? The sex? Was that why she’d wanted him to come to London...for more sex? Something told him he’d slipped into the irrationality danger zone here, but Madre de Dios—thank you? As if she could just walk away and forget.

Like hell she would.

Ignoring the pop of her eyes, Lucas dug his hand into the hair at her nape, yanked her head back and flung his mouth against hers. He muffled her shock with his lips and kissed her irrational mouth while a noxious tangle of emotions knotted his guts. Plundering her mouth with his tongue, he curved his hands around the delicate span of her waist and crushed her against him.

A fist of anxiety clenched his heart when she stiffened...but then she wrapped her arms about his shoulders, thrust her fingers in his hair and tugged, giving as good as she got. The flush of relief turned to liquid fire as she blazed in his arms.

The crackle and hum of static energy surged between their bodies, bouncing from one point of contact to the other. Dios, they created enough electricity to power the eastern grid. He couldn’t let her go. He needed...

A flash lit the sky. Then another. A slam. A door? Fireworks?

A gasp rent the air. Not his. Not hers.

Lips froze, still close, and Lucas could taste her panting breath as it whispered across his tongue.

Thuds hit his temples as reality cracked through his skull, his entire body vibrating with the force of it.

Hands falling from her pale, horrified face, Lucas took a step back, closed his eyes. No, no, no! Dios, her reputation would be in tatters.

Plink. Plink. One light after another lit the sky. Cameras. Dios, she hated cameras. She would run, he knew. Hide.

Hands fisting into a violent clench, his eyes flew open. And locked onto her amber fire.

Still here. Still standing tall. Regal. Brave. Courageous. After everything she’d been through he could not, would not walk away from her now.

* * *

Dark waves of fury poured from his rigid shoulders while an earthquake shook the paving beneath her feet.

Oh, God, why had she kissed him back? She was supposed to be staying away from him!

Her mother’s voice came to her. Think of your reputation...his work. And the cold night began to seep through her skin, burrow into her stomach.

‘Tell me this isn’t happening,’ she whispered.

‘Consequences,’ he said, his voice dark, fierce, harder than ever before. ‘Now we face them.’

‘Oh, Lucas, I’m so sorry.’

His words screamed in her head. Your selfishness is astounding. In all the years she’d loathed her own reflection she’d never envisaged disliking the person she was inside. Had she once given thought