Craving His Forbidden Innocent. Louise Fuller

luckiest man alive.’

      Mimi nodded. ‘Yes, you are,’ she said quietly.

      But her pulse was beating out of time and she felt a familiar ache in her chest. Would any man ever say those words to her?

      It seemed unlikely. She’d only ever really loved one man, and he had made it so dauntingly clear that his interest in her had been nothing more than a moment of indiscretion to be swiftly forgotten that she had decided there and then that she was not ready for love. Maybe she never would be if it involved making herself vulnerable to such unbearable hurt.

      Her jaw tightened as she remembered how for a couple of hours she’d let herself believe that her youthful fantasy of love might become reality, only for Bautista Caine to trample her heart and her pride into dust.

      Even now, nearly two years later, she could still picture his face as he had stared straight through her, despite having kissed her just an hour earlier with an intensity that had left her blinded, breathless and dazed.

      She could feel herself being sucked towards the familiar vortex of unanswered questions.

      Why had he kissed her?

      No, why had he kissed her like that?

      With such fierce, consuming hunger.

      And why hadn’t he come back?

      Had she been too eager? Too clumsy?

      Her heart balled like a fist.

      It had hurt so much. It still did, if she let herself think about it, and what made the pain a thousand times worse was him being her best friend’s older brother, for that meant she had no one to confide in.

      Her stomach tightened.

      She’d have liked to pretend that she hadn’t said anything to Alicia purely out of love, and a desire not to put her friend in the middle, but part of her had been afraid. She knew what it was to be cast out into the darkness, and she hadn’t been willing to risk losing Alicia as she had lost everything else.

      And anyway, there had been too much other stuff going on—important stuff. Charlie and Raymond had been arrested and their two families had been torn apart, so she’d hardly been in a position to just call up her friend and discuss not sleeping with her brother.

      But now was not the time to be dredging up that particularly dismal part of the past, she told herself firmly. Her best friend was here in London, and she wasn’t going to let anything ruin that.

      Sitting down, she glanced admiringly around the restaurant. ‘This is such an amazing place.’

      ‘Never mind that. I want you to tell me everything you’ve been doing,’ Alicia said, laying down her menu. ‘Starting with your film.’

      Stalling for time, Mimi picked up her water glass. There was depressingly little to say. Like everything else she touched, it had fallen apart—all her effort and hopes turning to dust just as they always did.

      It was true that she had made a film—a short, largely improvised black and white movie about a group of girls on a night out in London—and, incredibly, she had managed to find a distributor for it. Only that had been nine months ago, and she was still struggling to get it released. And, frankly, the chances of that ever happening seemed to be getting less and less likely.

      She felt a twinge of tension in her shoulders.

      When filming had begun, both her lead actresses had been desperate to grab some arthouse credentials, but since then they had signed on to a high school movie franchise, and now their lawyers were blocking her film’s release on the grounds that their clients had only made the movie as a ‘favour’ to her.

      It wasn’t true. The real reason those actresses didn’t want to see the film released was that some of their ‘improvised’ comments were not very PG, and they didn’t want to damage their new, fresh-faced images.

      It was all such a mess—and far too long and boring a story for a celebratory lunch.

      She shook her head. ‘Later.’ Reaching over, she picked up Alicia’s hand and turned it over so that the diamond engagement ring glinted beneath the lights. ‘Right now I want to hear all about how you two got together.’

      Watching her friend talk, Mimi found herself relaxing. There was something so innocent and hopeful about Alicia. Philip was right. She did make the world a better place, and she wanted to make the world better for everyone too.

      ‘So, how many people are coming to the wedding?’ she asked as the waiters cleared the table.

      Philip frowned. ‘We’ve tried to keep the numbers down to about two hundred.’

      Mimi almost laughed. But of course—their wedding wasn’t just a private exchange of vows. It was a huge event in the social calendar.

      She cleared her throat. ‘I’m guessing you’re going to have it at Fairbourne?’

      Before her life had been turned upside down she’d been a regular guest at Fairbourne, the Caines’ fabled ivy-clad Georgian manor. She could still remember her first visit—how dazzled she’d been by the grandeur and beauty of the house and the almost ludicrous perfection of everything in it.

      Although not nearly so dazzled as she’d been when the beautiful, dark-eyed heir to the estate had kissed her all the way to his bedroom, closing the door and pulling off his clothes first, then hers.

      Her stomach clenched.

      She felt her fingers twitch against the smooth white tablecloth. Bautista looked sexy as hell clothed. He had the kind of lean, muscular physique and sculpted body that allowed him to wear anything and make it look better than anyone else could. But naked—

      Her mouth was suddenly dry. Naked, he was just beautiful, gorgeous…all endless, smooth golden skin and curving muscles.

      An image of Bautista stretching out over her flickered before her eyes and she blinked it away as she saw Alicia shake her head, her soft brown eyes suddenly bright with tears.

      ‘Oh, Lissy, what is it?’

      Philip took Alicia’s hand. ‘Bob had a viral infection at Christmas and he’s been a bit low since. That’s why we’ve brought the date forward to May.’

      Mimi nodded, trying to calm her beating heart. She’d met Alicia’s father, financier and philanthropist Robert Caine, many times, and he’d always been a generous, gentle and welcoming host. She felt her stomach knot with guilt. Of course that had been before his already frail health had deteriorated following her stepfather and her uncle’s betrayal.

      ‘And it’s why we decided to have the wedding in Argentina,’ Philip added. ‘It’ll be autumn there, so warm but not humid.’

      Alicia gave him a shaky smile, her face softening. ‘And Basa has very sweetly offered to let us use his estancia in Patagonia for the actual ceremony, and let guests stop over at his house in Buenos Aires en route.’

      Mimi’s mouth curved upwards automatically, responding to the joy in her friend’s voice, but for a moment she couldn’t breathe or speak. Alicia’s words were jangling inside her head like the notes on an out-of-tune piano, but she heard herself say quite normally, ‘Oh, Lissy, that sounds wonderful.’

      The waiters arrived with dessert and, glancing down at her hibiscus jelly and rum baba, Mimi suddenly felt sick. She’d known all along when she’d accepted Alicia’s invitation to lunch that it was only a matter of time before Bautista’s name came up in the conversation, but even so she was shocked by how much it hurt to hear it spoken out loud.

      Was that how he felt when he heard her name?

      Did he wince inside?

      And if so was it with shame at how he’d treated her?

      Or, given Charlie and Raymond’s actions, was he just relieved that he’d called time before they’d