Tycoon's Forbidden Cinderella Page 8

  He slid his hands under her hair to cradle her head. A fresh wave of lust consumed him like a wall of flame, whooshing through him with incendiary heat. He wanted her with such fierce desire he could feel it thundering through his groin and tingling his spine. He groaned against her mouth, flicked his tongue in and out against hers in erotic play. He lifted to change position but Audrey pulled away with a dazed look on her face. Her mouth was plump and swollen and her chin reddened from where his stubble had grazed her.

  It was a new experience for Lucien to be lost for words.

  What the hell just happened?

  He cleared his throat and made a show of straightening the front of his creased shirt where her hands had fisted. ‘Right, well. That must not happen again.’ He knew he sounded stiff and formal. Damn it, he was stiff. But he had to break the sensual spell she had cast over him.

  Audrey touched her top lip with her fingertip, still looking a little shell-shocked. ‘You didn’t...enjoy it?’

  He’d enjoyed it too darn much. ‘Sure. But we’re not doing it again. Understood?’ He put on his stern schoolmaster face, not wanting to show how undone he was. Seriously undone.

  She glanced at his mouth and nodded. ‘Probably a good idea... I mean, you were really going for it there. I thought you might start ripping my clothes off and—’

  Lucien sliced the air with his hand with such force it bumped his tray table. ‘Not going to happen.’ But he’d wanted to. Oh, how he’d wanted to. Still wanted to. ‘You and me getting it on is a crazy idea.’

  ‘Because?’ Was that a note of self-doubt in her voice?

  ‘Did you just hear what I said? I said we’re not doing this, Audrey. No more kissing. No more touching. No more anything.’

  She gave him a guileless look. ‘Why are you making such a big thing about this? I’m not asking you to sleep with me. Anyway, it was just a kiss.’

  Was it just a kiss? Or was it the kiss of a lifetime? A kiss from which all past and future kisses would be measured? His lips were still tingling. He could still taste her. His blood was still hammering.

  He needed a cold shower.

  He needed his head examined.

  He needed to straitjacket and shackle his desire.

  Lucien’s gaze kept tracking to her mouth like a sniffer dog on a drug bust. ‘Listen to me, Audrey.’ He took a breath and dragged his eyes back to hers. ‘We have to be sensible about this...situation. We’re on a mission to stop your mother and my father from making a terrible mistake. Their third terrible mistake. It’s not going to help matters if we start making our own mistakes.’

  Her eyes drifted and focused on a point below his chin. ‘I hear you, okay? There’s no need to keep banging on about it. I get that you’re not into me even though you kissed me like you were.’ She gave him a little stab of a glare. ‘You shouldn’t send mixed signals—it can give people the wrong idea. Not that I got the wrong idea. I’m just saying you should be more careful in future.’

  He sucked in a breath and released it in a quick draft. ‘Let’s just forget that kiss ever happened, okay?’

  She sat back with a little thump against her seat and picked up the remote control. ‘What kiss?’ She pressed on the remote as if she were switching him off.

  Lucien settled in his seat and tried to rebalance himself. Forget about the kiss. Forget. Forget. Forget. But every time he swallowed he tasted the sweetness of her, the temptation of her. He would never be able to eat chocolate again without thinking of her. Without remembering that kiss.

  For six years he had resisted Audrey. He had been sensible and responsible about her tipsy passes.

  But now he’d kissed her.

  Not just kissed her but all but feasted off her mouth like it was his last meal. His body was still feeling the dragging ache of unrelieved desire. It pulled and pulsed in his groin, running down his thighs and up again as if every nerve was on fire.

  But now he didn’t have his ‘relationship’ with Viviana to hide behind, his self-control had collapsed like a house of cards in a stiff breeze. Damn it, there was that word ‘stiff’ again. He’d needed that relationship to keep his boundaries secure. He wasn’t the sort of guy to kiss another woman when he was in a relationship with someone else, even if that relationship was only a charade.

  He had standards. Principles. Morals.

  But the irony was Viviana hadn’t ended the charade out of jealousy because of that mischievous tweet of Audrey’s mother’s but because she had fallen in love with someone on her photo shoot—a cameraman she’d known for years.

  Now Lucien was inconveniently free. Inconveniently, because without the protection of a ‘relationship’ with someone else he was tempted to indulge in a fling with Audrey.

  Seriously, dangerously tempted.

  Bad idea. Dumb idea. Wicked idea. It didn’t matter how many arguments he put up, his mind kept coming back to it like a tongue to a niggling tooth. They were both adults, weren’t they? They were clearly attracted to each other. She didn’t want marriage, nor did he.

  He had always chosen his partners carefully. No strings. No promises. No commitment. He didn’t choose women who made him feel out of control. He wasn’t averse to a bit of passion. He was a man with all the normal desires and needs. But he’d always been selective in how that passion was expressed.

  He had no such control when it came to Audrey. He knew it on a cellular level. She had the potential to undo him. To unravel the self-control he worked so hard to maintain.

  But maybe if he got it on with her it would purge her from his system. Get the fantasies of her out of his head once and for all.

  Audrey clicked off the remote and turned to look at him. ‘You know, for someone who just broke up with the person they were thinking about marrying, you certainly moved on indecently quickly.’

  She didn’t know how indecent his thoughts were right now. Shockingly indecent. But he figured he might as well tell her the truth about Viviana, otherwise Audrey would never stop banging on about his attitude to love and marriage. ‘We were only pretending to be dating. I was doing her a favour.’

  Her eyebrows came together. ‘Friends with benefits, you mean?’

  ‘No benefits. We just hung out so her cheating ex would get annoyed she moved on so quickly.’

  ‘Oh...’ Her teeth pulled at her lip. ‘That was...nice of you. But weren’t you a little bit tempted to sleep with her? I mean, she’s gorgeous and—’

  ‘I’m assuming you’re currently between relationships or should I be worried some guy is going to take my kneecaps out with a baseball bat?’

  Her lips made a funny little movement—a quirky, wry movement. ‘I haven’t dated anyone for a while.’

  ‘How long a while?’

  Her eyes flicked away from his. ‘You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.’

  ‘Try me.’

  She looked at his mouth, then back to his eyes and he felt a strange little jolt. ‘Are you thinking about that kiss?’

  ‘No.’ It was such a blatant lie he mentally braced himself for a deity’s lightning strike.

  ‘Then why do you keep staring at my mouth?’

  Lucien forced his gaze back to hers. ‘I’m not.’

  ‘Yes, you are. See? You did it just then. Your eyes flicked down and then up again.’

  ‘I was checking out the stubble rash on your chin.’ He brushed his finger over the reddened patch. ‘Is it sore?’

  She gave a delicate shiver as if his touch had sent a current through her flesh. ‘You’re touching me again.’ Her voice was soft and husky, making his body give an answering shiver.

  Lucien dropped his hand and curled his fingers into a fist. ‘While we’re on the subject, why do you keep staring at my mouth?’

  ‘Do I?’

  ‘You do.’

  Her eyes darted to hi
s mouth. ‘Maybe it’s because no one’s ever kissed me like that before.’

  Right back at you, sweetheart.

  ‘No one?’

  ‘No one.’

  Lucien stroked a finger across her lower lip. She closed her eyes and swayed slightly. He moved his finger under her jaw, applying gentle pressure beneath her chin to raise her gaze back to his. ‘Stop that thought right now.’

  Her expression was as innocent as a child’s. ‘What thought?’

  He gave a soft grunt of laughter. ‘You’re thinking what I’m thinking, so don’t try and deny it.’

  The tip of her tongue passed over her lips and she gave the tiniest of swallows. ‘How do you know what I’m thinking? You’re not a mind reader.’

  Desire throbbed through him, a dull pain in his groin. ‘You want me.’

  ‘So? It doesn’t mean I’m going to act on it. Anyway, you said no more kissing or touching.’ She batted her eyelashes. ‘But maybe you only said that for your benefit.’

  ‘Don’t worry. I can control myself.’

  One of her brows lifted and her eyes flashed with a challenge. ‘So if I leaned forward and pressed my lips against yours, you wouldn’t kiss me back?’

  Lucien had to call on every ounce of willpower to stop himself from looking at her lush, ripe mouth. ‘Want to try it and see?’

  Her smile flickered, then disappeared. ‘No.’

  No? What did she mean, no? He wanted to prove to her—to prove to himself—that he could resist her. It had nothing to do with how disappointed he felt. He wasn’t disappointed. Not one bit. Why should he care if she kissed him or not? He was trying not to kiss her, wasn’t he?

  And he would keep on trying. Harder. Much harder.

  He summoned up an easy-going smile. ‘Coward.’

  * * *

  Even after the two-hour flight to Marseille, Audrey was still reliving every moment of that kiss. They had picked up a hire car and were driving through a small village on the way to the chateau a few kilometres out of St Remy. She kept touching her lips with her fingers when Lucien wasn’t looking, wondering how it could be that all this time later her lips would still feel so...so awakened. So sensitive. So alive. Every time she moistened her lips she tasted him. Every time she looked in a mirror she saw the tiny patch of beard rash on her chin and a frisson would go through her. His kiss had been passionate, thrilling, magical. Their mouths had responded to each other like the flames of two fires meeting—exploding in a maelstrom of heat she could feel even now smouldering in her core. She could feel the restless pulse of unsatisfied desire in her body—an ache that twinged with each breath she took.

  Audrey looked out of the car window at the quaint village shops and houses, wishing they had time to stop and explore. The tiny village had once been surrounded by a circular wall and many of the charming medieval buildings dated back to the fourteen-hundreds.

  Lucien slowed the car to allow a mother and her two children and little fluffy dog cross the narrow street before he continued. ‘Did you know St Remy is the birthplace of Nostradamus, the sixteenth-century author of prophecies?’

  ‘Yes,’ Audrey said. ‘And the place where Vincent Van Gogh came for treatment for his mental illness. I wish we had time to stop and have a wander around.’

  ‘We’re not here to sightsee.’

  ‘I know, but what if Mum and Harlan aren’t at the chateau?’

  ‘I’ve already spoken to the owner. I called before we left London.’

  Audrey glanced at him. ‘What did he tell you? Did he confirm they were there?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then why are we heading there if you don’t think—?’

  ‘He was cagey, evasive, which made me suspect he’s been sworn to secrecy.’

  ‘But you’re Harlan’s son, so why wouldn’t he tell you? You’re family.’

  Lucien gave a lip-shrug. ‘I don’t have that sort of family.’

  Neither do I.

  Audrey shifted her gaze from his mouth and looked at the view again. She was glad it was Lucien that had started the kiss. It gave her a sense of one-upmanship she badly needed, given their history. His attraction might be reluctant but it was there all the same. She saw it every time he looked at her—the way his gaze kept going to her mouth and the way his eyes darkened and glittered with lust. She felt it in his touch—the way his hands set fire to her skin even through her clothes.

  It had surprised her to find out he hadn’t been in a real relationship with Viviana. Surprised and secretly delighted. But he’d allowed everyone, including Audrey, to think he was until Viviana had called him, no doubt after seeing her mother’s tweet. Did Viviana think he was now involved with Audrey? He hadn’t said anything to the contrary on the phone.

  But it had always seemed strange to her that Lucien would even want to get married one day in the future if he was trying to avoid love. Even arranged marriages often ended up with the partners falling in love with each other. Or was he so determined his heart would never be touched?

  As determined as she was?

  And Audrey was determined. Steely and determined. No way was she going to fall in love like her mother, losing all sense of dignity and autonomy by becoming hopelessly besotted with a man who would only leave her or disappoint her.

  But that didn’t mean she didn’t want to experience sensuality. To feel a man’s touch, to feel a man’s rougher skin move against hers. To feel a man’s mouth on her lips, on her breasts, his hands on her...

  You could have a fling with Lucien.

  She allowed the thought some traction...

  He was attracted to her. Tick. She was attracted to him. Tick. They were both currently single. Tick.

  What harm could it do? They were both consenting adults. He was the one person she would consider having a fling with because she knew he wasn’t interested in her mother’s stardom. She wouldn’t have the worry about his motives. His motives would be pure and simple lust.

  Just like hers.

  Lucien suddenly braked and grabbed her by the arm, and for a startled moment Audrey thought he must have read her mind. ‘Look. Is that your mother over there near that market stall?’

  Audrey peered in the direction he was pointing. ‘Which stall?’ It wasn’t Wednesday, the main market day, but there were still a lot of stalls full of fruit and vegetables and freshly baked bread and the gorgeous cheeses this region was famous for. Just looking at all that food made her stomach growl. But then she glimpsed a blonde head before it disappeared into the maze of the stalls. ‘I’m not sure if that was Mum or not. It looked like her, but—’

  ‘I’ll quickly park and we can do a search on foot,’ Lucien said. ‘They might not be staying at the chateau. They might be staying here in the village. Small as it is, it’s easier to blend into the crowd down here.’

  CHAPTER SIX

  LUCIEN PARKED IN a shady side-street and then they made their way back to the market stalls. In her attempt to keep up with his quick striding pace, Audrey almost stumbled on the cobblestones and he grabbed her hand to steady her. ‘Careful. We can’t have you breaking a leg.’

  ‘I’m fine.’ Audrey tried to pull her hand out of his but he held it securely. ‘But wouldn’t we be better to split up and search? We could cover twice the ground that way. We can text each other if we spot them.’

  His fingers tightened on her hand for a moment before he released her. ‘Good idea. I’ll cover this side of the market area and you can do that side. I’ll text or call you in ten minutes.’

  Audrey started searching through the crowd but her eyes kept being drawn by the glorious food. The smell of fresh bread and croissants was nothing short of torture. She was salivating so badly she was going to cause a flash flood on the cobbled street. She saw several blonde women but none of them was her mother. Right now she didn’t care a j
ot about finding her mother.

  What she wanted was one of those chocolate croissants.

  She glanced up and down the market, looking for Lucien. He was tall enough for her to see over the top of most people...ah, yes, there he was, right at the other end near a vegetable stall. She took out her purse and, recalling her schoolgirl French, bought one of the croissants. The first bite into the sweet flakiness sent a shiver of delight through her body almost the same as when Lucien had kissed her. Almost. The second bite evoked a blissful groan, but just as she was about to take her third bite she saw her mother coming out of a tiny boutique less than a metre away. Or at least a downplayed version of her mother. She was carrying a shopping bag with a paper-wrapped baguette poking out of the top as well as some fresh fruit and vegetables.

  ‘Mumffh?’ Audrey’s mouthful of pastry didn’t make for the best diction and she quickly swallowed and rushed over. ‘Mum?’

  At first she wondered if she’d made a mistake. The woman in front of her had her mother’s eyes and hair colour but the hair wasn’t styled and her eyes weren’t made up. Her eyelashes weren’t false; they weren’t even coated with mascara. Her mother’s normally glowing skin looked pale and drawn and there were fine lines around her mouth Audrey had never seen before. Even her mother’s clothes were different. Instead of a brightly coloured look-at-me designer outfit, her mother was wearing faded jeans and a cotton shirt and a man’s grey sweater tied around her waist. And she had trainers on her feet. No sky-high heels.

  This was taking stars without make-up to a whole new level.

  Sibella glanced around nervously. ‘Is Lucien with you?’

  ‘Yes.’ Audrey pointed further up the market. ‘Over there somewhere. He thought he saw you when we were driving past.’

  Sibella grasped Audrey’s hand with her free hand and tugged her under the awning of the boutique. ‘Tell him you didn’t see me. Tell him it was someone else who looked like me. Please?’

  Audrey was shocked at the urgent tone of her mother’s voice and the desperation in her gaze. ‘But why?’