by Abby Green
Luc looked down, and then back to Jesse. ‘It’s a kitten. I found him wandering around the garden yesterday, so I gave him some milk and a wash and he’s been here ever since.’
Jesse was helpless, walking towards them before she knew what she was doing. She and her mother had used to have a cat in her father’s house, and once it had had a litter of kittens. When her father had found out he’d taken them all and told Jesse malevolently that he was going to put them in a sack and drown them in the river. Whether he had or not Jesse had never found out, but why wouldn’t he? He’d done so much worse. She’d cried herself to sleep for a month after that incident.
Without even thinking about what she was doing she’d reached for and was stroking the tiny grey-striped tabby. It was horribly malnourished and scrawny, but his huge eyes broke Jesse’s heart wide open.
‘Where’s the mother?’ she asked huskily, too emotional to look up at Luc.
She saw Luc’s wide shoulders shrug. ‘She must have died—or else she would have come looking for this little one before now. Feral cats and dogs are all over Greece. The mother cat could have come onto the island on a boat, already pregnant … Here, hold him while I finish making breakfast.’
He handed the tiny bundle into Jesse’s arms and she caught him to her, revelling in his warm weight, light as it was. The kitten snuggled into Jesse like the most trusting thing on the planet.
‘I’m making an omelette. Would you like some?’
Jesse looked up at Luc then, and as much as she’d have liked to say no and insist on burning her own toast she was starving, and completely disarmed after seeing him cradling this tiny animal with such gentleness.
She shrugged. ‘Okay … if you have enough.’ She blushed when she thought of how she’d picked at his leftovers yesterday like some fugitive and turned away. She saw a box in the corner which Luc had obviously set up for the kitten, with paper at the bottom and some milk in a bowl.
He said from behind her, ‘There’s plenty.’
Jesse sat down on a chair and stroked the kitten, which was purring happily now. Her chest felt tight. This was the last thing she’d expected when she’d steeled herself to see Luc.
He came over to the table after a couple of minutes and put down the fluffiest omelette Jesse had ever seen, with hot buttered toast on a plate beside it.
‘Why don’t you put Stripy in his box while we eat?’
Suddenly Jesse was awfully reluctant to let the kitten go, but she forced herself to get up and put him in the box, seeing him lap hungrily at the milk. When she came back and saw Luc sitting down with his own food she said, ‘Stripy?’
Luc glanced at her. ‘Well, he’s grey and stripy …’
Jesse sat down and tried not to notice the expanse of Luc’s bare chest. He was definitely doing this on purpose, and she was not going to react—even though she already felt hot and wanted to undo some buttons on her shirt.
‘I think Tigger is a better name.’
When she didn’t get a response she risked a glance at Luc, who was chewing his food. He swallowed. ‘Tigger?’
Jesse felt silly now. ‘You know—after Tigger in Winnie The Pooh.’
‘Wasn’t he orange?’
Jesse shrugged, embarrassed, wishing she hadn’t said anything. She took a mouthful of omelette and had to stop herself from moaning out loud. It melted on her tongue.
‘Well, I don’t see why he can’t be Tigger too. Who says he has to be orange?’ Jesse swallowed and looked at Luc. Something fluttered in her chest. ‘It really doesn’t matter. He’s only a kitten …’
Luc watched as Jesse ducked her head again. Fascinating. The kitten had obviously moved her so much that it had melted the lines of tension he’d seen in her when he’d first turned around to greet her. He knew his bare chest was a bit much, but he’d been determined to make her as uncomfortable as possible.
And it would have worked if it hadn’t been for the kitten. She’d softened instantly on seeing it. Transforming her. It was more than a little irritating that a small bit of fluff with four legs and a tail had managed to crack through Jesse’s veneer quicker than Luc had.
With tension rising he finished his breakfast and sat back to watch Jesse finish hers. She cleaned her plate, and his chest tightened when he thought of how she’d taken some of the leftovers he’d left out yesterday.
He cursed himself. For God’s sake, anyone would think she was the victim here! Time to stir her up a little.
He leant forward just as she was wiping her mouth, and he noticed the telltale way she moved back fractionally.
‘Six more nights, Jesse.’
She leant back and pushed her plate away slightly, tense and suspicious. Avoiding his eye. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘I’m talking about the fact that there are six more nights to go in this villa, on this island, before you let me go.’
Jesse mentally counted in her head and then looked at Luc, determined to recover her equilibrium after the kitten had severely demolished it. She told herself stoutly that it had nothing to do with Luc.
‘So what’s your point?’
‘My point, dear Jesse, is how are you going to get through the next few days and nights without admitting how much I affect you?’
Jesse snorted and stood up abruptly, reaching for Luc’s plate and her own skittishly, making them crash together. She stalked over to the sink and busied herself clearing them and washing them. And then promptly dropped one back into the sudsy water when she felt a very large warm presence behind her and two very naked masculine arms snaked around her, caging her against the sink.
His heat and scent were all around her, and Jesse hated that her treacherous heart was thumping double-time. Her skin prickled with awareness and anticipation.
Luc’s head came down near hers and he said softly, near her ear, ‘Admit it, Jesse, you want me …’
Jesse turned abruptly within the cage of his arms and glared up at him, far too aware of that naked chest only centimetres away and that gorgeous mouth directly above hers. Lightning anger flashed up her spine at how weak he made her feel, at the power he had over her.
‘Never, Luc Sanchis. I’ll never admit such a thing because it’s not true. You’re deluding yourself. Do you think that you’re some God-given gift to women? Well, you’re not. You’re very easily resistible, actually, and you can just stew in your own ego for the next six days for all I care.’
Jesse had wriggled out under his arm before he knew what she was doing and was almost out of his reach. But Luc caught her by the hand and pulled her back to him. He could feel the slender bones of her hand and wrist, and her inherent fragility only made him feel angrier.
‘Damn it, Jesse, why is it so important that you get to have O’Brien?’
To Luc’s utter shock and surprise he saw moisture glint in Jesse’s eyes and she spat out, ‘It just is, and I’ll never tell you why. It’s none of your business.’
Luc let her hand go, but brought both his hands to her arms, clamping them there and drawing her right in against his body—which was on fire now.
‘You made it my business when you hacked into my life and brought me here with no means of escape, damn you.’
Jesse looked up into Luc’s eyes and saw the burning flames of anger in their depths. Her heart was beating so fast now that she felt dizzy. A desperate yearning was rising within her … to have him kiss her and make all those words disappear. It was so strong at that moment that it scared her to death.
Exerting all her strength, she pulled away from him. ‘Just stay out of my way, Luc Sanchis …’
Jesse backed away out of the kitchen and Luc’s voice was scathing. ‘That’s very mature, Jesse. Are you going to hide in your room for another twenty-four hours?’
Jesse turned and fled, her emotions in turmoil. She was seriously tempted to go up to her room, but his caustic words made her go out through the front door instead. Impulsively she took the key to the Jeep from its secret spot a
nd started it up with a shaking hand. She headed down the drive and through the gates, clicking the button to make sure they were shut again.
And her dominant feeling as she drove away from the villa, leaving Luc behind, locked in, was one of searing guilt.
She finally got to the edge of the airstrip and stopped, pulling over at a skewed angle. She all but fell out of the Jeep and stood in the bright morning sunlight, breathing deeply. Her heart was still hammering. It was as if Luc had reached inside her and effortlessly tied her insides into a knot, while at the same time making her melt as if she were made of nothing more than putty.
The truth was, right now she didn’t know if she could last another week with Luc tormenting her. He had no idea how close he was to the truth of how much she wanted him to touch her … it was getting worse with every moment spent in his company. Once again she was feeling more like the prisoner.
Why couldn’t she be immune to him? Why was he proving to be the one man on the planet who made her feel anything but cold inside? It was so demoralising to be one of the legion of women who fell at his feet in sighing ecstasy. And why had he had to tell her about his vulnerable younger sister with special needs, and how his mother had become ill after his father’s death?
She thought churlishly that he would make a good model for one of those posters of men holding tiny vulnerable things like babies … or kittens.
Immediately Jesse felt trembly again. And emotional. She’d been blocking out emotions for so long now she almost didn’t recognise the tight feeling which got tighter and tighter until she felt moisture running down her face and recognised tears.
She hadn’t cried in years. Not since she’d retreated to a numb place where nothing could hurt her after her mother died. The same numb place her ex-lover had failed so spectacularly to melt. And yet within days of spending time with Luc Sanchis she was blubbing uncontrollably and melting all over.
Jesse fiercely wiped the tears from her cheeks and blew her nose. She had to get it together. This was exactly what he was trying to do—make her crumble so that she’d give in and send for the plane to take him back. She was so close now to her goal. She couldn’t fall at the final hurdle.
Resolutely, after a few shuddering breaths, Jesse got back into the Jeep, turned it around and went back to the villa.
Luc had finished a punishing round of lengths in the pool and was walking back up through the garden, a towel slung casually around his waist. He tensed when he saw Jesse sitting cross-legged in the distance, just outside the kitchen doors, playing with the kitten. For a second he was almost tempted to laugh: his gaoler could hardly present a more benign image. And then he scowled. Because she was all too effective as a gaoler.
He came closer and saw the unmistakable lines of tension come into her body. He cursed inwardly. He didn’t know why it was, but he’d felt like a heel when she’d all but run from the kitchen earlier. She’d seemed genuinely upset. But he knew he had to knock these weak impulses on the head. It was all an act, designed to keep him off balance. The woman had kidnapped him to further her own nefarious ends. She was about as vulnerable as a poisonous cobra!
When he reached her she said, without glancing up, ‘Is our milk okay for Tigger?’
He reacted inexplicably to our. Her voice had sounded husky, reminding him of how his sister’s voice sounded after she’d been crying. Had she been crying? Luc tensed at the hollow feeling in his belly.
‘It isn’t ideal, but it’s all we have … He looks too small to eat anything solid yet.’
The kitten at that moment scrambled out of Jesse’s hands and bounded over to Luc’s bare foot. He reached down and scooped it up in one hand, aware of Jesse valiantly ignoring him and fixing something in the box nearby.
Eventually, giving up on Jesse actually looking up at him, and aware that her proximity even in that shirt and jeans was having an effect on him, he handed the kitten back to her, holding out his hand.
She reached up, slightly akwardly because she wouldn’t meet his eyes, and took the kitten. An electric shock zinged between them when their fingers touched and Luc’s jaw tensed. He quashed any weakness at hearing her husky voice.
Ignore that at your peril, he told her silently in his head, and finally went back into the villa, thoroughly irritated by everything about Jesse Moriarty.
Jesse breathed a deep sigh of relief. She’d emerged from that encounter relatively unscathed, thanks to the fact that she just hadn’t looked at Luc. But she couldn’t very well behave like that for the rest of the week. She had to keep drumming it into her skull that he was out to get her and to torture her. She had to resist him at all costs.
Feeling sticky and hot in her jeans and shirt, Jesse decided to have a swim too. At least the pool would be safe now that he’d finished. She carefully put Tigger back in his box and watched him curl up into a tiny ball of fluff, envying him his ease at being able to shut out the world and depend on the kindness of strangers.
Jesse went upstairs to get her swimsuit, and was passing Luc’s bedroom door when she heard a sound. Without thinking, she glanced in. She could see right through the open door to his bathroom, where his tall and tautly muscled form was stepping out of the shower. Completely naked.
Jesse stopped in her tracks. She couldn’t seem to take her eyes off his body. She’d never seen anything so perfect. Water droplets clung to taut muscles. Not an ounce of fat marred the lean lines. He had stopped too, and was looking right back at Jesse, totally unselfconscious in his nudity.
After a long moment, during which Jesse forgot how to breathe, Luc casually reached for a towel and held it over his penis, doing little to erase the image of the dark thatch of hair which cradled his impressive masculinity. Jesse knew it would be burnt onto her mind like a tattoo for ever.
When she noticed her lungs screaming she took in a deep breath and then, issuing a strangled sound, she reached for Luc’s door to close it.
Just before she did, she heard him say mockingly, ‘You’re the one who stopped to look, Jesse.’
She slammed the door on his incendiary image and was out and down by the pool before she realised she’d never picked up her swimsuit. Beyond angry with Luc, and herself, and everything at that moment, Jesse rebelliously stripped off completely and dived into the pool.
She realised her folly only when her limbs were shaking with exhaustion and she stopped to come up for air—and saw Luc hunkered down by the side of the pool. He looked very fresh, with his damp hair slicked back, and was dressed in chinos and a shirt. He had a towelling robe in one hand.
‘If I’d known you were going to skinny-dip I would have waited to join you.’
The recent image of him fully naked and so potently masculine made Jesse’s anger surge all over again. She crossed one hand over her breasts and held out the other, making sure to stay under water, where her body would be distorted enough not to give him a clear view. At least it was dusky now, which would also hide a multitude.
Luc straightened up then, to go and stand by the steps which led out of the shallow end of the pool. He held out the robe just over the water. To get to it Jesse would have to walk up a few steps stark naked. She fumed and cursed silently. This was all her own fault. If she hadn’t acted like a teenager after seeing him naked she’d be perfectly decent in a one-piece swimsuit.
‘It’s only fair, Jesse,’ he cajoled softly. ‘After all, you saw me naked.’
She spluttered indignantly. ‘Only because you left your doors open so I couldn’t fail to notice you.’
He shook his head and chuckled softly—and that did all sorts of things to Jesse’s equilibrium. ‘Do you really think I went to all that trouble just in case you walked past at that exact moment?’
Jesse flushed even as goosebumps popped up on her exposed skin. No, she could very well imagine him nonchalantly shedding his towel and stepping into the steaming shower, not caring who saw him.
‘Come on,’ he said more briskly. ‘You’re goi
ng to freeze.’
Jesse’s teeth were already starting to chatter; it was cool in the evenings here, with hot summer still a few months away. Gritting her jaw, and feeling more exposed than she’d ever been in her life, Jesse stepped forward and then up the steps out of the pool. She grabbed the robe out of Luc’s hands.
She put it on awkwardly, and as every nano-second passed with torturous slowness was aware of his eyes on her bare skin. She could have wept when one arm of the robe proved to be stubbornly impossible to find, and stilled when Luc came forward and found it, helping to thread her arm through.
He came in front of her then and pulled the lapels of the robe together, covering her. Jesse belted it firmly, feeling the awful onset of weak tears again. She couldn’t curse Luc any more than she already had. She felt a finger tipping up her chin and gritted her jaw against his hand, her eyes flashing brilliantly in the gloaming light.
Luc was speechless for a long moment. Seeing Jesse emerge from the pool just now … he’d never witnessed such delicately feminine perfection. She was small-boned and tiny-waisted. But her hips flared out from her waist in such a way as to make him ache to put his hands there and mould their shape to his. The small tangle of strawberry-blonde curls covering her sex had made his mouth go dry.
Her breasts were fuller than he’d thought, and firm, with small nipples, tight and hard from the water and pink against her pale skin.
She was looking up at him now, eyes huge in her heart-shaped face, hair slicked back. No make-up. A wealth of emotion brimmed in those grey pools, and Luc was falling into a place he’d never been before.
The words came out of his mouth before he realised he’d even registered them. ‘You’re beautiful.’
He knew then that he’d said them many times before to other women but never really meant them as he did now.
For a second Jesse couldn’t respond. She was in thrall. To this moment and this man, and the way he’d pulled her robe closed with a kind of proprietorial gentleness, and then the way he’d said You’re beautiful.
A bird called loudly nearby and the spell was abruptly broken. Humiliation washed over Jesse. He was doing it again—mocking her. The man deserved an Oscar for his performace.
