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Me! the devil on her shoulder yelled, holding its hand straight in the air like an overzealous schoolchild trying to do the right thing, and boy, didn’t she know what that felt like in her family! ‘What if I promise not to hurt you if you do?’ she said breathlessly.
He laughed. ‘You couldn’t hurt me if you tried.’
Goaded, she hooked her foot behind his calf, twisted and punched him in the stomach at the same time.
Her hand felt like she’d just smashed it into a warm brick wall and her only saving grace was that she’d brought him to the floor. Unfortunately he’d brought her along with him and she was now straddling his waist on the carpet, something her old instructor would not be pleased with. Still, she felt gleeful in her success and, slightly out of breath she threw Lukas a victorious grin. ‘See. I got you down.’
‘Did you?’ His smile told her that she had only toppled him because he’d let it happen and then he smoothed his hands along the tops her thighs and all Eleanore could think about was the hard packed abdomen she was seated on top of. ‘You should have let go of your bag as soon as that kid grabbed you,’ he said gruffly, a strange expression on his face.
‘I was holding on to the kitten,’ she said dizzily, ‘and anyway, I didn’t realise what he was after. I would have given him money if he’d asked for it.’
Lukas shook his head. He didn’t doubt that she would and emotion once again welled up from deep inside his chest.
He thought of all the times he’d tried a similar trick when he’d been about ten and how many people had walked past without even caring about some stray animal in need. All the kids in his sector had agreed it was an amateur’s trick because if adults didn’t give a damn about their kids why would they care about an animal? But Eleanore cared and the raft of emotions swelling inside of him threatened to break free.
The problem, he decided, was that she was like no woman he had ever come across before and he had no way of knowing how to handle her. Well, he knew one way, but a deep self-preservation instinct warned him that he shouldn’t touch her.
‘I’ve never met anyone quite like you,’ he admitted absently.
She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue and shifted her weight on his abdomen and every muscle in his body pulled tight. ‘I’m nothing special.’
The words seemed to be wrenched from her throat and he knew she believed them.
‘You’re incredible,’ he countered. ‘Talented. Kind. Beautiful.’
‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘My sisters—oof!’
She let out a squeak as he easily flipped her onto her back, holding most of his weight on his hands as he loomed over her. ‘Your sisters would only be incredible because they share your genes.’
‘Oh...’ She gazed up at him, her eyes enormous in her lovely face, her lips soft. ‘No one has ever said anything like that to me before.’
Something in her face, an innocent wonder he hadn’t been expecting, gave him pause.
A distant memory of searching for his mother snuck into his brain as lethally as smoke from a burning building. Of those times he’d seen a woman with a similar stance to her, or similar hair colour, or with a tinkling laugh, and of him rushing up to her with adrenaline pumping through his young veins only to be hit by the devastation of having the woman turn around and be a complete stranger. It had been on one of those occasions that a woman had grabbed a nearby politseyskiy and he’d experienced his first beating at the hands of the law. Then he’d been sent to the state orphanage.
The orphanage he’d been on the verge of telling this woman about when she’d guessed his heritage before. Along with the fear and the beatings and the abject loneliness.
Der’mo.
Chemistry.
That was what this was. Nuclear strength admittedly, but chemistry all the same, and he was letting it addle his thinking. The fact was she was here to build his ice hotel and then she’d be gone. Sleeping with her would be nice—great, even—but ultimately a mistake and he was man enough to admit it.
So why did he still have her spread out on the floor beneath him?
As if guessing at his internal agitation she shifted, her thighs, and all those thoughts flew out of his head. She was smart and warm and good and so gloriously feminine. Everything a man could ever want. And he wanted her. Badly.
Slowly he lowered his body until his weight just rested over the top of her, his eyes fixed on her face.
Her eyes darkened with the same need that was firing his blood, her cheeks pinking prettily.
