Hot Picks: Secrets And Lies. Dani Collins

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       CHAPTER FOUR

      CINNIA WOKE TO a room that was nearly pitch-black, Henri’s arm heavy across her waist. They were naked, front to front, legs entwined. She wanted to press her lips into the smoothness of his shoulder and kiss his skin.

      What the hell was she doing?

      Succumbing to hormones. And charm. Henri was very engaging when he wanted to be. He smoothly deflected from anything too personal, but he was keenly intelligent and had exchanged lively opinions with her on everything from world politics to pop music. He had asked her advice about a point of estate law, which she had thought was pure pandering, but she soon realized he was serious and had to tell him he was better off consulting someone who specialized in international trusts.

      Then the evening’s trio had arrived and he had taken her to the dance floor and seduced her, right there in front of the world. Not that he was obvious about it. Henri was far too subtle for that. No, it had been a light brush of his chest against her breasts, a whisper that she smelled delicious, a brief contact with his hips so she knew he was aroused.

      “I can’t help it, chérie. You have that effect on me,” he had said without embarrassment.

      Dessert had arrived, a caramel flan they’d shared, but they hadn’t even finished when he said, “Will you come upstairs? I’m dying to kiss you.”

      They both knew how she reacted to his kiss.

      They might have made love in the elevator if his guard hadn’t been with them, standing discreetly at the front of the car with his back to them so Henri could steal a first kiss, then a second, longer, more passionate one.

      Inside the suite, they’d barely made it to the bed.

      How had she been so aroused? Until that moment, he’d barely touched her.

      But even as she lay here next to him, thinking about the way he’d hurriedly skimmed away her knickers and covered himself with a shaking hand, she was growing wet and achy. She had been pure butter beneath him, locking her legs around his waist and lifting into his heavy thrusts.

      She should go home. She didn’t want to do the walk of shame in the morning, not when she already knew the paparazzi were on to them.

      But she found herself slithering closer, sliding her legs against his and giving in to the temptation to taste his skin. He smelled sharp and masculine against his neck. His stubble abraded her nose and lips, but in a sexy way that turned her on because it accented how different they were. Female and male, meant to come together like pieces of a puzzle.

      “Encore?” he murmured, moving against her, hardening at her first touch.

      “What’s wrong with me?”

      “Not a damned thing, chérie. Ah, this,” he growled with satisfaction as he trailed his hand between her legs and found her juicy and plump. “I’m addicted. I have to taste you again.” He slid down, pressing her legs open.

      She moaned at the sheer indulgence of being pleasured by him like this. He made her feel like she was giving him something when she allowed this, which maybe she was because he pretty much took ownership of her. This act lowered her defenses completely so she was without inhibition, ready to beg when he drew back before she’d climaxed.

      “I need to be inside you, chérie. I can’t wait.” He rolled her over and brought her onto her hands and knees.

      He covered her like a male animal dominating his mate, filling her with a possessive thrust, so deliciously hard where she was soft and needy. One wide hand slid over her breasts, teased her nipples, rubbed her stomach, then fondled where they were joined as he moved in lusty thrusts.

      She received him with cries of encouragement and abandon, so caught up in the raw excitement of it, she didn’t care who might hear or what he thought of her behavior. When she climaxed, the paroxysm locked a scream in her throat while he shuddered over and around her, his noises guttural and final. She was his. Neither of them could deny it.

      That was in the dark.

      When she woke in the light of day, and recalled all they’d done, she wanted to die.

      Why, oh, why couldn’t she resist him?

      Henri had been tempted to join Cinnia in the shower when he woke and heard her starting the water, but he forced himself to put a small distance between them while he contemplated a decision that had been rooting a little deeper into his mind with each hour of lovemaking that had ticked by.

      He had never had a mistress, had never wanted anything long-term at all. Not since…

      The wrenching memory struck like a kick in the stomach, ambushing him as that dark day sometimes did.

      Do you love me?

      She had been a pretty thing with caramel eyes and a mouth he’d been trying to kiss for weeks. They were cornered in a stairwell and he was flushed with more attraction than he’d ever felt. Suddenly there was Trella, telling him it was time to go.

      Go, then, he told her. Little sisters are such a pain, he had told the object of his affection, as Trella ran off to be stolen by Gili’s—their affectionate name for Angelique—math tutor. I do, he had assured the caramel eyes as they were given privacy again. At least, he supposed it was love. He grew excited seeing this girl in the distance. He wanted to hold her hand, touch her all the time. He could hardly take his eyes off her when she was anywhere near him.

      And then their friend Sadiq had shouted his name, telling him, “Trella’s been taken.”

      He had seen that girl again, after Trella was home and he and Ramon returned to school. She’d tried to talk to him, but he’d avoided her.

      After that, if girls and women came on to him, if they wanted to give up their bodies for mutual physical pleasure, fine. But he was never going to make the mistake of letting a female mean something to him. It put him off his game, exposed a flank.

      It could cost the life of someone near and dear.

      Romantic love, he had determined, was a weakness he couldn’t afford.

      Taking a mistress, however, was a slightly less dangerous risk.

      He presumed, wondering if he was rationalizing.

      Dressing in his pants and shrugging on his open shirt, he moved into the lounge, where he called in an order for breakfast, put in a request for the boutiques to send a selection for them and picked up the paper left outside his door.

      “Bon matin,” he said to Pierre, who had relieved Guy overnight. “Anything I should know about?”

      “All the coverage seems run-of-the-mill, but fresh posts are still coming out. We’re keeping an eye out.”

      Henri nodded, thoughtful, as he closed the door.

      He’d never taken a mistress for the same reason he refused to marry and have children: the threat СКАЧАТЬ