The Sicilian's Innocent Mistress. Кэрол Мортимер

thinking,’ he came back throatily.

      Darci blinked as he returned her provocation tenfold, the intimacy of his tone telling her exactly along what line his thoughts were wandering.

      As if the dark caress of his stare as he slowly moved it across her face to trail down the length of her body wasn’t already making her completely aware of that!

      Well, she wasn’t some shrinking violet, or a relatively unknown actress who was hoping he would give her a break in her career; she was twenty-eight years old and a doctor, and she was going to take great delight in letting this man know that she really wasn’t impressed by anything about him.

      She stepped back, deliberately removing her hand from Luc Gambrelli’s arm as she did so, amazed at how much easier she found it to breathe now that she was no longer so aware of the hard warmth of his body. ‘Try me,’ she invited challengingly.

      Appreciation lit those dark eyes as he grinned at her. ‘Would you like a detailed account or just an overview?’ he came back easily, so obviously a consummate flirt.

      Darci calmly took a sip of her champagne as she seemed to give the question some thought, inwardly fighting a battle not to wipe the confident smile off Luc Gambrelli’s arrogant face. Not yet, anyway.

      She’d had every intention of having the pleasure of giving Luc Gambrelli a royal set-down this evening, if he should show interest in her, to let him know that he really couldn’t have every woman he wanted. But just these few minutes in his company had shown her that his interest in her was certain. Those dark brown eyes easily conveyed the depth of his physical attraction to her.

      So much so that Darci couldn’t help wondering if she shouldn’t take this a step further than just this evening….

      There were a couple of ifs involved in that plan, of course….

      If Luc Gambrelli should actually ask to see her again.

      If she had the nerve to actually agree to seeing him again, knowing she had no intention of keeping that date!

      She looked up at Luc and allowed her green eyes to meet his unblinkingly. ‘The detailed account, I think,’ she invited coquettishly.

      Grant Wilde’s sister was becoming more and more of a surprise to him the longer he spent in her company, Luc acknowledged appreciatively; he was no longer just attracted to her luscious body, but also to the sharp edge of her tongue and the intelligence he could read in the depths of those moss-green eyes.

      She was Grant’s twin, so Luc knew she had to be aged in her late twenties, and, beautiful as she was, she must have received more than her fair share of male attention. And it was attention she obviously had no difficulty in dealing with.

      The fact that there wasn’t even the slightest blush on her cheeks as she encouraged him to voice the intimacies he would like to share with her confirmed that.

      He gave a slight inclination of his head. ‘Perhaps we should go somewhere a little more—private, for this conversation?’ he suggested softly.

      Darci continued to survey him coolly. ‘I was only suggesting that you tell me your thoughts, Mr Gambrelli—not that we put any of them into action!’ she told him tartly.

      ‘Ah.’ He smiled. ‘My mistake.’

      ‘Indeed,’ she snapped waspishly, those green eyes glittering warningly.

      Luc allowed his gaze to once again move appreciatively over the beauty of her face. Darci Wilde, he decided, was something of a contradiction; that glorious abundance of red hair, the lush curve of her breasts and the slenderness of her waist and thighs were so totally feminine, and yet at the same time were in total contrast to that sharp flick of her tongue.

      It was a contrast he was finding more and more intriguing by the minute!

      Perhaps not such a good idea…

      Only a year ago there had been three Gambrelli bachelors: his cousin, Cesare, his brother, Wolf, and Luc himself. But a year ago Cesare had fallen in love with Robin, and then, four months later, the two of them had married. Only three months ago Wolf had married his beloved Angel. Leaving Luc as the only one who remained single.

      A status quo that he was absolutely determined to keep!

      So much so that he had avoided entering any relationships at all since his brother Wolf’s wedding.

      But telling Darci Wilde of the ways in which he would like to make love to her wasn’t a relationship, was it?

      ‘Very well. As you insist.’ His voice lowered huskily. ‘First of all I would like to kiss you. Just your mouth, you understand? It’s such a—delicious mouth,’ he added, as his heated gaze locked onto her peach pout. ‘Soft. And full. And `so tempting. Yes, I would very much like to kiss you,’ he confirmed. ‘To taste you. To let my tongue explore you.’

      Darci could feel the heat creeping into her body as the intimacy in Luc Gambrelli’s voice moved across and into her. She was aware of the way her breasts had swelled, their nipples hard and tingling, of the heat moving between her thighs.

      Not exactly what she had planned to happen when she’d decided to call this man’s bluff!

      ‘And while I am kissing you,’ Luc Gambrelli continued in that low, sensuous voice, ‘I would like to thread my fingers into your beautiful hair, to feel its silky softness, to tangle it about my fingers as we deepen the kiss. And then I would like to release one of my hands to run the zip of your dress slowly down your spine, touching you as I do so, caressing the smoothness of your bare skin as I allow the gown to drop to the floor. Underneath the gown you would be wearing nothing but a pair of silk panties—black, I think,’ he added, as he looked over her with slow consideration, ‘and sheer flesh-coloured stockings—’

      ‘Are you trying to shock me, Mr Gambrelli?’ Darci cut in quickly, hopefully hiding her inner discomfort at the fact that he had guessed exactly what she was—or rather, wasn’t!—wearing beneath her gown.

      No doubt, experienced lover that he was, Luc Gambrelli was more than capable of undressing a woman with just his eyes, she acknowledged hardly.

      ‘Am I succeeding?’ he enquired, those dark eyes glinting with a devilish humour.

      Something else Darci hadn’t been prepared for…

      She had expected Luc Gambrelli to be as good-looking as sin. And he was.

      She had expected him to be arrogant. And he was most definitely that.

      But what she hadn’t expected was that he would also have a wicked—and very appealing—sense of humour!

      ‘Not in the least,’ she assured him with calm dismissal, as she took another sip of her champagne.

      ‘Good—because I haven’t got to the best part yet,’ he murmured assuredly, laughter glinting in those dark eyes. ‘Once I had you out of your dress I would kneel at your feet, paying homage to your beautiful breasts with my lips and tongue on the way down, and then I would slowly slide off your silk panties—’

      ‘I’m sure it’s fascinating to hear your fantasies, Mr Gambrelli.’ Her scathing tone told him she considered it the opposite. ‘But then they are just fantasies, aren’t they?’

      ‘For the moment,’ he agreed, and once again his gaze fixed caressingly on the full pout of her mouth.

      Darci knew exactly the effect her looks had on men of all ages—how her height, her unruly red hair and voluptuous breasts prevented most men from taking her seriously. She had been fighting against that prejudice all her life, but especially during her years of training to be a doctor. In fact, she was still fighting it with the male staff at the hospital where she worked. And with some of the patients, too—young men considering her easy bait for their teasing, and most older men reluctant to let an attractive young female doctor care for them at all.

      The fact that Luc Gambrelli had taken one look at her