‘’Night, Wallace,’ Sin returned distractedly.
Would Luccy even listen to any apology that Sin made? Probably not. But, as Wallace had so succinctly pointed out, at least he would have tried…
‘Yes…?’ Luccy warily answered the soft knock that had sounded on her bedroom door seconds ago, expecting to find Wallace standing outside, her eyes widening in alarm as she found herself looking at Sin instead as he stood so tall and imposing in the hallway.
She had switched on the light on the table beside her bed before getting out of bed, pulling a matching robe on over her peach silk nightgown. She clutched that robe about her now as she faced Sin defensively. ‘Yes?’
He looked at her quizzically. ‘Wallace seemed to think you were having trouble sleeping…’
So she had Wallace to thank for Sin’s presence outside her bedroom!
Much as she had taken a liking to the elderly butler, Luccy couldn’t help wishing that on this occasion he had been less than his efficient self.
‘He insisted on making me a hot chocolate, so I’m sure I shall be able to sleep now,’ she dismissed.
Sin nodded, his gaze guarded now. ‘I believe I owe you an apology.’
Luccy stiffened. She had spent a most miserable evening sitting in her bedroom, alternating between feeling angry and then tearful as she’d brooded over Sin’s earlier remarks to her. She knew he still believed that she had made a deliberate play for him the night they’d met, and there didn’t seem any way Luccy could convince him otherwise, but did he have to be so nasty about it? Yes, she was pregnant, but if he thought she was any happier about the hand fate had dealt her—and he obviously did—then he was mistaken; she had just decided that she couldn’t change what already was.
She looked at him coldly. ‘Really?’
That coldness was completely wasted on Sin as all he could see was the way the lamplight reflected behind Luccy, rendering her robe and nightgown almost see-through to show him tantalising glimpses of firm uptilting breasts, her slender waist, and the delicious curve of her hips.
Her hair was loose and silky about her shoulders and cascading, blue-black, down the length of her spine, her face completely bare of make-up.
To Sin she had never looked more beautiful…
‘Well?’ she prompted uncertainly at his continued silence.
Sin brought himself back to an awareness of why he was actually here. It certainly wasn’t to ogle Luccy in her nightgown! ‘I shouldn’t have made that remark earlier about getting pregnant.’
‘No, you shouldn’t.’
Sin gave a rueful smile. ‘You don’t intend making this easy for me, do you?’
She arched one dark brow. ‘Should I?’
‘No,’ he acknowledged with a sigh. ‘What I said was unforgivable. I apologise.’
Luccy felt a slight softening of her anger at the stiffly made apology. She very much doubted that the arrogant Jacob Sinclair the Third felt the need to make too many of them—which was probably why he sounded so out of practice!
She gave an inclination of her head. ‘Your apology is accepted.’
‘Good.’ Sin nodded his satisfaction. ‘So we’ll begin tomorrow as if tonight never happened?’
She raised dark brows. ‘I wouldn’t go that far…’
‘For God’s sake, Luccy—’ Sin broke off, drawing in a deep, controlling breath. ‘You’re right. I’ll leave it. We’ll talk about this again tomorrow.’ He had to get out of here! Now! Before those tantalising glimpses of her curvaceous body drove him insane!
Luccy frowned slightly. ‘Sin?’
‘Yes?’ he grated between clenched teeth, a nerve pulsing in his tensed cheek.
‘What’s wrong now?’ She sighed. ‘What could I possibly have done wrong in the past few seconds—?’
‘You haven’t done anything wrong, damn it!’ Sin rasped as he found himself unable to look away from her, the naked hunger visible in his eyes.
A blush slowly crept up her cheeks. ‘Oh…’
‘Yes—oh,’ Sin muttered. ‘Perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea. I should have waited until the morning.’
‘Sin?’
‘Don’t look at me like that, Luccy!’ Every part of him was tense and aching. For Luccy. For the feel of her naked against him.
Her tongue moved nervously across her lips. ‘How am I looking at you?’
‘With the same hunger I’m feeling for you,’ Sin groaned achingly. ‘Luccy, I don’t want sex from you, I want to make love with you. I want to kiss and caress every delectable inch of you. From your head to your toes. Will you allow me to do that?’
Would she? Luccy wondered shakily.
Hadn’t she felt that same aching desire the moment she had opened her bedroom door and seen him standing there?
Yes, of course she had…
It wouldn’t solve anything. It wouldn’t change anything. But she wanted it, anyway!
‘Come in,’ she invited huskily as she stood back to open the door wider so that Sin could enter her bedroom.
His gaze didn’t leave hers as he stepped inside and closed the door behind him. Luccy moved willingly into his arms as they curved about her waist and the heat of his lips travelled the length of her throat, his tongue a soft rasp against her skin.
She gave a gasp as Sin’s teeth nibbled her ear lobe, her throat arching and her hands clinging to the broadness of his shoulders as desire jolted through her body almost like an electric shock.
Sin wanted Luccy so strongly, so powerfully, that he had to fight to maintain control as the hard throb of his body cried out for possession of hers.
She tasted wonderful, so soft and creamy, the perfume of her hair surrounding him, both of them, as his lips sought and found hers.
‘From your head to your toes, Luccy,’ he promised gruffly as he swung her up into his arms and carried her over to the bed, laying her down on the cool sheet before taking off his jacket and dropping it on the floor before joining her there.
She looked so beautiful as she lay looking up at him. So damned beautiful!
He kissed her eyes first, then her nose, then those luscious lips once more, lingering there before moving on to her chin, her creamy neck, the dark hollows at the base of her throat, pushing her robe aside to bare the tops of her breasts to his questing lips and tongue.