by Penny Jordan
‘I am taking you out to lunch,’ he answered her confidently as he continued to manoeuvre the car through the suburban London traffic and out into the English countryside.
Darci frowned at him behind her sunglasses. ‘Are we going to a country pub?’
‘No.’
‘A country hotel.’
‘No.’
‘A golf club with a restaurant, then?’ They had to be going somewhere like that, because they were leaving London far behind!
Not a reassuring realisation in the circumstances….
‘Again, no,’ Luc drawled mockingly.
‘A burger joint?’ she said, out of desperation.
He shook his head. ‘We could have stayed in London for that! But, no, I am afraid I have never understood the liking people have for fast-food restaurants,’ he responded.
Neither had Darci—although she had indulged several times while she was in medical school, when she’d been hungry and her time off had been limited.
‘Just tell me where we’re going, Luc,’ she prompted in an impatient tone, knowing that it wasn’t helping her slightly resentful mood that Luc looked so damned gorgeous!
His hair shone in the sunshine, and his already olive-complexioned face—that hard-angled face that was so handsome it was almost beautiful—was tanned a deep bronze.
Darci had told herself this morning that his body couldn’t really be as hard and muscled as her dreams last night had suggested it was. Only to be proved completely wrong when she’d opened the flat door to him earlier, and the sight of his honed body in tight faded denims and a white T-shirt had rendered her breathless.
Perhaps, she decided, with another sideways glance at him now, Luc was short for Lucifer—because this man tempted her more sinfully than she had ever been tempted before!
‘It’s a surprise,’ he answered her cryptically.
‘I don’t like surprises,’ she shot back.
‘Everyone likes surprises, Darci,’ he dismissed with a grin, his teeth very white against his bronzed skin.
Not when Luc Gambrelli was generating that surprise, they didn’t!
Although Darci had a feeling that when it came to Luc, women and surprises, she was in a minority—probably of one!
Because most women wouldn’t care that any relationship with Luc was sure to be of short duration—would simply enjoy the affair while it lasted, enjoy him while it lasted.
Unfortunately Darci simply wasn’t made that way. She had grown up in a loving family, and her parents had been absolutely devoted to each other—they were still. And Darci had promised herself that one day, once she was firmly established in her career, she would have that sort of partnership for herself.
Her plans didn’t include a deviation into a fling with someone like Luc Gambrelli!
‘I don’t,’ she assured him firmly.
Luc had no doubt that it was in just such a voice that Darci advised her less cooperative patients. Unfortunately for Darci, he wasn’t one of them…
‘I’m sure that as a child you must have enjoyed the anticipation of Christmas and birthdays?’ he persisted.
‘Well, of course,’ she retorted. ‘But neither of us are children, Luc. And I really can’t just disappear from London like this for hours on end.’ She looked at the surrounding countryside as it sped past. ‘I may be needed at the hospital—’
‘It is your day off and you’re not on call,’ he pointed out, having no intention of turning back now that he had got Darci all to himself.
‘Well…yes,’ she accepted grudgingly. ‘But I often go in on my days off.’
‘Through choice, or because you are called in?’ he queried.
Darci gave a sigh. ‘Luc, being a doctor isn’t just a nine-’til-five job. People get sick twenty-four hours a day.’
‘In other words, you go in because you want to?’ Luc guessed. ‘And all work and no play makes you a stressed and less-than-efficient Darci.’
She glared at him over the top of her sunglasses. ‘I thought the saying was—“makes Jack a dull boy”?’
A glare Luc chose to ignore. ‘So I used a little poetic licence.’ He grinned. ‘My point being,’ he continued firmly, when he could see she was about to protest again, ‘that you and your patients will benefit from your taking time off away from the hospital to have some fun.’
‘Luc—’
‘This will do,’ he decided imperiously, and he turned the car off into a wooded parkland area, hoping Cesare would forgive him for the effect the uneven dirt road was having on the suspension of the Porsche, but knowing, once he had explained the situation to his cousin, that Cesare would understand.
And if, in his newly respectable married state, Cesare didn’t understand, then Luc would simply replace the Porsche!
Fun! The word Luc had used for today echoed mockingly in Darci’s brain.
She wasn’t having fun! She was so tense, what with her complete awareness of Luc, so churned-up inside, that she couldn’t breathe properly, let alone think. She certainly wasn’t having fun!
And now Luc had turned the car off into a forest area miles from anywhere. Certainly nowhere near a restaurant.
Had she been a fool? Had the suggestion of going out to lunch been just a ruse on Luc’s part? Perhaps he had brought her here with the intention of making her his lunch…?
‘Your suppositions are not flattering.’ The harshness of his voice cut into her rapidly escalating thoughts. ‘Either to yourself or to me!’ he added hardly as he turned the car into a deserted car park about half a mile into the forest, before turning to look at her, those finely chiselled features as harsh as his voice. ‘If I had asked you out today with the intention of making love to you then, believe me, I would have chosen somewhere more comfortable than a forest floor littered with pine-cones!’
Darci stared at him for several seconds, biting her top lip in an effort to control the smile this image brought to mind. No doubt the intrusion of pine-cones and needles at the wrong moment could play havoc with seduction—even Luc’s!
‘Better.’ Luc grimaced as he saw the laughter gleaming in those moss-green eyes. ‘Have a little faith, hmm, Darci?’ He sighed before turning to get out of the car and go round and open the boot, giving Darci those few minutes to sit and consider the mistake she had made concerning his intentions.
Not completely, of course.
He did not intend going back to London today without kissing Darci. Maybe a little more than kissing her. But he really would prefer the comfort of a bed when he held her completely naked in his arms and worshipped that beautiful body from the top of her fiery head to the tips of her slender toes.
Of course it wasn’t helping his self-control that she looked so stunningly beautiful in a fitted black T-shirt and an above-the-knee-length white skirt that clung to the rounded contours of her bottom. Those long legs were bare and her elegant feet were thrust into cork sandals.
No, there was no way he was going to be able to resist at least kissing and caressing Darci today!
When she finally climbed out of the car to join Luc, Darci was no nearer to knowing what they were doing in the middle of a deserted forest than she had been a few minutes ago.
The wicker basket he carried in one hand and the blanket tucked under his other arm gave her the answer she had been looking for….
‘A picnic?’ Her face lit up. ‘Luc, are we going to have a picnic?’ she added, as her pleasure grew.
She hadn’t been on a picnic in years—not since she was a child with her family, in fact.
But she would never, ever have thought that Luc Gambrelli, mega-rich sophisticated film producer, who probably ate at exclusive restaurants like Garstang’s every night of the week, would enjoy eating his meal alfresco….
‘You’re letting your unflattering thoughts show again, Darci,’ he reproved dryly, before turning to look around them. ‘Over that way, I think.’ He nodded in the direction of a well-worn path.
‘Can I
carry anything?’ she offered, as an apology for what he had guessed were her less than flattering thoughts about him.
‘The blanket.’ He handed it to her. ‘That way we both have a hand free,’ he observed with satisfaction, and he reached out with his own free hand to lace his fingers intimately with hers.
Completely throwing Darci’s equilibrium off-balance again as she realised that, although this park might be busy at the weekends, with urbanites escaping the city, on a Tuesday lunchtime it was virtually deserted. The only other people around were another couple who had arrived in separate cars as Luc was locking the Porsche, who Darci suspected of a romantic tryst. A suspicion they seemed to confirm when, after one furtive glance around them, they scooted off in the opposite direction to the one Luc and Darci were taking!
‘You’re making assumptions again, Darci,’ Luc said as he strode towards the pathway. ‘Probably correct ones this time, though,’ he conceded. ‘But I make it a point of principle never to pass judgement on other people’s actions.’
Because there were so many people willing to pass judgement on his actions? Darci wondered as they wended their way through the denseness of the trees.
Including her.
But there was no excuse for the heartless way he had treated Mellie, she told herself stubbornly. The way he would treat her, too, if she gave him the chance!
Well, she wouldn’t give him that chance.
Something that might be a little difficult to avoid when the two of them were alone in the middle of deserted forest, miles from anywhere!
Luc’s mouth tightened and he decided to ignore the thoughts he could see from Darci’s expressive face were churning through her over-active imagination. He gritted his teeth as he continued to stride through the forest to where he could hear the sound of water running, for the first time considering his reputation with women might be a curse rather than an asset.
Maybe it was because of the glitzy, ephemeral world of movie-making that he usually inhabited, but Luc knew he had never met anyone quite like Darci before. The things that attracted other women to him—his undoubted power, his wealth, his reputed prowess in the bedroom—cut absolutely no ice with Darci Wilde. She viewed all of those things with the same suspicion she obviously felt about him, and Luc knew that for every two steps forward he took with Darci he also took one back.
And patience, as he knew, had never been one of his virtues!
‘Oh, this is lovely!’ Darci turned to him to enthuse warmly as they reached a clearing in the forest with a small stream running through its centre. The flattened grass bordering the stream bank showed evidence of other people having picnicked there recently.
Luc found himself entranced by her obvious pleasure. He saw her green eyes glowing as she moved smilingly to the stream’s edge, knowing from her approval that he had chosen well by deciding to bring her on a picnic today, that these surroundings suited her much better than the glitter and falseness to be found in a restaurant like Garstang’s.
Making him wonder what had made Darci demand that he take her somewhere so sinfully expensive in the first place?
Except, as he was now utterly convinced, she had never had any intention of turning up for that date.
And he still didn’t know the reason why….
‘Food,’ he announced abruptly. ‘As you’re aware from Sunday evening, I’m much more amenable when I’ve been fed!’
Mellower had been the word he’d used, Darci remembered, with a return of her wariness as she moved to spread the blanket beside the stream before going down on her knees to help Luc unpack the picnic basket.
And a mellower Luc Gambrelli in these already relaxing surroundings could prove irresistible!
‘Goodness, there’s enough food here to feed ten people rather than just two!’ she exclaimed, as they laid out pâté, pieces of cooked chicken, prawns, boiled eggs, cheeses and salad, as well as two freshly cooked baguettes, and a cooling carton revealing fresh strawberries and a carton of cream. There was also a bottle of chilled white wine and two cut-glass goblets.
‘You can thank the hotel staff at Gambrelli’s for that,’ Luc replied, as he opened the bottle of wine and poured some of the chilled liquid into the glasses.
Of course he would have had the picnic prepared at the hotel where he was staying, Darci acknowledged, with a faint feeling of disappointment, knowing she would have appreciated this treat more if Luc had taken the trouble to prepare the picnic food himself. It certainly would have been less impersonal.
‘Now what have I done?’ Luc prompted warily.
Darci looked at him from beneath lowered lashes and was struck anew by the way he looked: his hair was a gleaming gold, his eyes a warm indulgent brown, and those aristocratic features were almost too perfect to be true. Steely strength melded with raw sensuality. His body was lean and powerful, exuding that same sensuality even relaxed, as he was now as he sat beside her on the blanket.
The plain, totally honest truth was that this man didn’t need to do anything to make her completely aware of him!
‘You think I should have gone out this morning and bought the things for the picnic myself?’ he guessed, sounding slightly miffed at her continued silence.
Darci saw what he meant; the image of Luc Gambrelli wandering around a supermarket delicatessen choosing the meats and cheeses for their picnic wasn’t an easy one to envisage!
It was also slightly disconcerting that, in some areas at least, Luc seemed to be able to read her mind.
She only hoped he wasn’t as knowledgeable concerning her increasing physical awareness of him…
‘You’re quite right,’ she told him briskly as she straightened. ‘It was a totally ridiculous thought.’
What did this woman want from him? Luc fumed inwardly as they helped themselves to the array of food.
He was already behaving completely out of character by pursuing Darci in this relentless way. Especially after her verbal put-downs and the deliberate way she had left him waiting at the table for her at Garstang’s for over half an hour, before telephoning the restaurant to let him know she wasn’t coming after all.
If any other woman had done something like that to him—
But Darci wasn’t just any woman, he realised reluctantly, and, as she had told him repeatedly, neither was she in the least impressed by who or what he was.
She looked like a mermaid, sitting there on the blanket with her legs tucked beneath her and all that beautiful red hair flowing silkily about her shoulders and down over her breasts and spine.
A red-haired siren probably more aptly described her, he corrected himself frowningly—Darci was certainly a lure that he didn’t seem able to resist!
‘What’s Luc short for?’
He blinked, focusing on her question with effort, his eyes narrowing warily as he saw the teasing smile playing about her lips. Lips that were bare of gloss today, and all the more temptingly sensual in their naturally pouting pink state.
Dammit, couldn’t he think of anything other than how each individual part of this woman’s body attracted him? How the whole nearly drove him to distraction?
‘Luciano,’ he supplied.
‘Oh.’ She nodded.
‘Why?’ he enquired shrewdly, as she continued to repress what he was sure was a smile.
She widened innocent green eyes. ‘It had occurred to me that Lucifer seemed more apt, that’s all,’ she confessed.
The rebel angel.
The fallen angel.
‘Oh, lighten up, Luc!’ Darci laughed openly as he scowled at the realisation. ‘Don’t you know when you’re being teased?’ she chided him lightly.
In truth, the only people who usually dared to tease him were Wolf and Cesare. But that was because one of them was his brother and the other his cousin. It was a complete novelty to have a woman treat him with the same disregard, the same familiarity, that they did.
And, seconds ago, hadn’t he been considering Darci as a siren, a wo
man who lured men to their destruction?
‘Ha-ha, very funny,’ he said, in a decidedly unamused voice.
She had enjoyed herself, Darci realised half an hour later, as they packed the remains of their food back into the picnic basket.
Luc, after his show of pride at being teased, had set himself out to be an entertaining luncheon companion, regaling her with amusing stories and anecdotes about people she had only ever seen on the big or small screen. Not derisive or hurtful stories, simply ones that had made her laugh at the ridiculousness of some of the demands of the world those people were forced to inhabit. That Luc inhabited, too.
‘Mmm, this is nice,’ Luc groaned with pleasure, as he lay down on the blanket with his head resting on her bent knees. ‘Are you comfortable like this?’ He turned to quirk one brow questioningly.
Comfortable, yes.
Relaxed, no.
How could she possibly relax with the warmth of Luc’s head against her thighs? With all that silky gold hair splayed across her skirt, making her fingers itch to reach out and touch it?
She wanted to touch all of him, she realised achingly as her gaze travelled over the wide expanse of his chest, the taut flatness of his stomach, the leanly muscled power of his thighs and long legs….
‘Darci…?’
She raised heavy lids to look at his face, recognising the same power in those beautifully chiselled features. His high cheekbones, his nose, long and straight, his mouth—that erotically tempting mouth—curved into a sensuous smile.
Luc could feel Darci’s tension—see and feel the heat of her gaze on him. Flames seemed to leap in those green depths as he turned and moved slowly, inch by inch, up her body, feeling an increase in her anticipation as her legs straightened and she fell back against the blanket. Luc took the opportunity to move completely over her. Her arms came up about his neck and she pulled his head down and he claimed her lips with his. Soft, sensual lips. Demanding lips, that claimed, possessed, with the same hunger that coursed through him.
Luc groaned as he surrendered to that hunger….
