Her breath caught in her chest as he began stroking her thighs in long, smooth gentle caresses that made her tense muscles slowly relax. She stopped breathing altogether when he put his mouth to her left thigh, his lips moving over her scarred flesh like the brush of a teasing feather.
He did the same to her right thigh, moving tantalisingly close to the moist, swollen, pulsing heart of her. ‘I want... I want...’ She didn’t know how to ask for the release she craved. She had never felt the need building quite like this before. It was rising to a crescendo in her body, every nerve tensing and twitching in feverish anticipation.
He stroked a lazy finger down the cotton-covered seam of her body. Close but not close enough. She gave a little whimper and arched her spine. ‘I want you.’
He peeled away her knickers and traced her seam again. It made her gasp to feel the thickness of his finger against her moist heat. He brought his mouth to her, gently tasting her essence, teasing her until she was grasping his head like a drowning person with a rescuer. The sensations started as a ripple and then came smashing over her in a series of waves. She cried out in a breathless, gasping sobs, shaken to the core of her being by the out-of-control passion—not someone else’s, but her own.
‘You’re very good at this.’ Did she sound unsophisticated?
He gave her a smouldering smile. ‘So are you.’
Lily shyly stroked a hand over his chest. Somehow while he had been kissing her she had managed to undo his shirt buttons but he was still fully clothed. Had he done that deliberately, to stop her from being overwhelmed by seeing his naked body? ‘I want to touch you...’
He covered her hand with one of his. ‘It might have to wait for some other time.’
Some other time?
Her stomach did that butter-churn thing again. He didn’t want to make love to her? Was she so hideous?
But surely he wanted her? She’d felt his erection. She could still feel it pressing against her right thigh.
He doesn’t want you. He wants his ex. His beautiful, perfect ex.
Lily slipped her hand out from under his and started to hunt for her clothes. ‘Right; well, then. I wouldn’t want to force you or anything. God, no; that would be ridiculously ironic, don’t you think?’
‘I don’t have a condom.’
She stopped wrestling herself back into her trousers to look at him. ‘Oh...’
He gave her a rueful look. ‘I don’t think Dominique would have packed one in the picnic basket, do you?’
She arched her brows cynically. ‘I don’t know. I’m sure if you’d asked her to she would have.’
He frowned at her. ‘You think that’s why I set up this picnic?’
‘It was a way of riding two horses with one jockey, so to speak. You got me back in the saddle—both of them.’
‘You’ve got it all wrong, Lily.’ He raked a hand through his hair, making it look even more tousled. ‘I didn’t have any intention of sleeping with you.’
‘You didn’t sleep with me.’ She threw him a flinty look. ‘You serviced me.’
His mouth went into a tense line. ‘If you think I’m the sort of man who would have sex with a vulnerable young woman without using a condom then you’re even more—’
‘What?’ she flashed back before he could finish his sentence. ‘Screwed up? Nutty? Crazy?’
His jaw moved in an out as if he was trying to control his temper. ‘Stop putting words in my mouth.’
‘It’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it?’ She stuffed her feet back in her shoes. ‘It’s what everyone thinks when they see my legs and arms.’ She sent him another fiery glare. ‘And, just for the record, I am not vulnerable.’
‘Yes, you are. You’re vulnerable and scared and you won’t let anyone get close enough to help you.’
‘You’re a fine one to talk,’ she threw back.
‘I let you in, didn’t I?’
‘Grudgingly.’
There was a short, tense silence.
‘You have helped me, Lily. You’ve helped me a lot.’
Lily felt her anger dissipating at his gruff tone. ‘I have?’
‘I think you’re right about Rafe’s wedding.’ His mouth twisted resignedly. ‘I need to be there, chair or no chair.’
She felt a wave of unexpected emotion swamp her. She blinked a couple of times to stop the tears that were threatening to spill. If nothing else, she had achieved what his brother had paid her for. Raoul was going to go to the wedding. It would be a big step for him to be out in public but it was an important one. ‘I’m so glad, for you, for Rafe and Poppy.’