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Just like the warm muscles she could feel beneath her hand.
Her fingers itched to touch his ruthlessly smooth face. To move along his jaw as if she were reading braille, carefully seeking out any patch that he might have missed with his razor. Even if it was just a single solitary scrape against the pads of her fingers.
His chest rose and fell evenly beneath her palm and she could feel the thud of his heart—sure and regular. The same could not be said for her own. Her pulse tripped madly, knowing this...voyeurism was wrong. Knowing even thinking about touching him was wrong.
Her breath turned ragged at the mere thought of crossing that line. But...
He’d done it to her, hadn’t he? Watched her while she’d slept?
Watched. An angel had suddenly appeared on her shoulder. He didn’t touch.
But you were naked. A devil sat on her other shoulder whispering tempting truths.
And it was true. At least Luke was fully clothed.
That doesn’t make it okay, the angel insisted.
Go ahead, it’s fine, the devil urged.
Claudia had never been more tempted in her life. It was just a tiny touch to his face, after all. Light as a feather. He was sound asleep. He probably wouldn’t even feel it.
And then with no conscious control, her hand was moving anyway. Slowly, tentatively, as if he might wake any second. Her fingers made landfall at hard jaw, the pads practically sliding down the slope of his throat his face was that smooth.
She paused, tensed, waited. Held her breath.
Her heart thundered.
Nothing happened. He didn’t move. He didn’t shift in his sleep. He didn’t wake and demand to know what the hell she was doing.
Claudia eked out a ragged breath that sounded freaking cyclonic in the heavy silence of the room. Then, when she was sure he was staying asleep she trailed her finger from the angle of his jaw to his chin. It was less than a touch, more like a butterfly whisper across his skin, a flutter.
And not a single patch of rough whisker to be found. He was baby smooth, talcum soft. Like his lips. Her gaze zeroed in on the two perfect pillows, illuminated to perfection by the red digital glow.
How many times had she fantasised about kissing that mouth? Too many to count.
And there it was, right in front of her.
Her pulse kicked up another notch as the devil whispered, Kiss him, and she contemplated doing just that.
That would definitely wake him up.
But what if he rejected her advances? It would be embarrassing and awkward. For a very long time. It would probably even kill her. She’d probably die of mortification on the spot.
It would certainly be hard to come back from.
Another sinful whisper. But what if he doesn’t?
Her finger inched towards his mouth, the very tip lightly touching the bow of his top lip. He shook his head slightly as if a mozzie had buzzed him and Claudia froze. His tongue darted out and swiped along where she had touched. But he settled back to sleep again quickly.
Her heart was beating so loudly now she was surprised it alone hadn’t woken him up. Hell, she was surprised it hadn’t triggered a tsunami.
The possibilities of what could happen here scared the living daylights out of her—the number of ways he could reject her and crush her spirit made her cringe. But she realised something else as she waited like a scared rabbit in the shadows for her heart rate to settle. In a few short months Luke would be heading back to London, and the thought that she might never get another opportunity to show him how she felt suddenly scared her a hell of a lot more.
Screw it.
And the devil smiled.
FOURTEEN
Luke drifted up out of the many layers of sleep to a pair of lips brushing along his. Light and gentle but definitely a mouth. Definitely a kiss. His lips responded on autopilot to the pressure before his brain could compute the facts.
He opened his eyes. Claudia?
‘Claude?’ he murmured, her lips so close they brushed against each other again.
Claudia pulled back abruptly, clearly startled. ‘Oh, God,’ she whispered. ‘I’m sorry...I just...I...’
Every cell in Luke’s body stood to attention. Claudia was kissing him? ‘You just decided to...kiss me?’ he clarified.
Claudia shuffled away a bit, put some distance between them as she rolled back onto her elbow, propping her head up with her hand. She could feel the heat in her face and was grateful it was too dark to see the resulting pink in her cheeks.
‘I’m...I don’t know what happened. I was just...no.’ She shook her head. ‘There are no excuses for it.’
Luke was fully awake now. Claudia had kissed him. A delicious buzz took up residence in his lips as the tension from the dance floor revisited. He rolled up onto his elbow too, facing her, his gaze drifting to her brea**sts where a decent amount of soft swell made the clea**vage interesting.
