One Christmas Night In.... Кэрол Мортимер

didn’t succeed in convincing either of them of her sincerity.

      No one man should be allowed to possess the sinful good looks that Dmitri did. That air of haughtiness that in no way disguised the animal magnetism beneath. The hard and muscled body that drew her attention like a moth to a flame.

      ‘Lily?’

      She drew in a deep breath even as she schooled her features into polite query before turning. ‘Yes?’

      ‘Just so that you know I was telling the truth just now …’ He slowly removed the towel from about the leanness of his waist, revealing that he did indeed wear brief black swimming trunks that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. Lily’s imagination, at least!

      Had he deliberately removed the towel in an attempt to cause her further embarrassment? Or because he knew the effect his near-nakedness was already having on her?

      If he hadn’t known before then he did now, because she couldn’t take her eyes off him. Her cheeks became flushed with her rapidly escalating arousal, her breasts were once again feeling full and tingling, and between her thighs she was starting to ache gently.

      Dmitri’s bare shoulders were so very wide and powerful. His muscled chest was covered in that fine dusting of dark hair that only hours ago Lily had caressed. His stomach was flat and lean—he might sit behind a desk in an office most of the time, but he must also work out regularly to achieve that washboard six-pack. As for that telling bulge beneath the thin black material of his bathing trunks …

      Lily moved her gaze back almost desperately to the hard, sculptured beauty of his face, glaring at him as she saw the open amusement that he made no effort to hide. ‘Very nice, Dmitri,’ she bit out as she slowly, deliberately, looked him up and down from head to toe. ‘Now, would you mind not being such an exhibitionist and putting some clothes on?’

      This time he was unable to quell a laugh as Lily spoke to him and looked at him in that condescending way; she really was the most intriguing woman he had met for a very long time. If ever.

      A sobering thought in itself … Becoming intrigued by the beautiful and outspoken Lily Barton was certainly not on Dmitri’s future list of things to do. His immediate list, however, was a different matter altogether …

      ‘Don’t wait up for me if you would rather go up to bed,’ he said as he squashed that tempting thought by glancing away on the pretext of rewrapping and securing the towel about his waist.

      Her brows rose. ‘I’d like to stay and have coffee too—unless you would rather I didn’t?’

      Dmitri’s jaw tightened just at the thought of Lily still being there when he returned. Waiting for him … ‘And what possible reason could I have for not wanting you to stay and enjoy a cup of coffee when you were actually the one to make it?’

      ‘No reason.’ She shrugged. ‘You just seemed … Well, as if you would rather be alone.’

      Dmitri was accustomed to being alone. Claudia still lived at the palazzo with him, yes, but she was a late riser and he was an early one, meaning that they rarely ate breakfast together. Claudia also invariably went out in the evenings—latterly with Felix, he now realised!—and Dmitri was usually out at his office for most of the day and early evening. Meaning that brother and sister lived fairly separate lives for the main part.

      In fact, Dmitri did not remember the last time he had spent as much time all at once in the company of a person he was not related to or discussing business with.

      Even his physical relationships were usually conducted with the least amount of socialising, and Dmitri had always made a point of never spending the whole night with any of those women. Mutual physical gratification was one thing—eating breakfast or spending the day with any of those women was not something he had ever felt the inclination to do.

      So this prolonged time spent with Lily was unusual for him. Something he should perhaps have thought of before he’d had her brought here …

      ‘If it takes you this long to answer then I was obviously right in my deduction,’ Lily drawled ruefully. ‘I’ll just pour myself a cup of coffee and disappear upstairs with it before you come back—’

      ‘It only took me so long because I considered the question too ridiculous to necessitate a reply at all,’ Dmitri said.

      ‘Ridiculous?’ Lily repeated slowly, her gaze wary as she waited expectantly for another one of his now familiar set downs. Nor was she disappointed!

      He shrugged bare shoulders. ‘Ridiculous in that I see no relevance to me as to whether you choose to drink your coffee down here or upstairs in your bedroom.’

       Ouch!

      Lily deliberately stood her ground as she raised blond brows. ‘Now who’s getting cranky?’

      She watched as Dmitri closed his eyes briefly, as if by doing so he might shut her out of his awareness altogether —or in the hope that she might just have disappeared by the time he opened them again.

      No such luck! ‘I’m still here, Dmitri,’ she taunted gently.

      Pale green eyes glittered as he raised his lids to glare across the room at her. ‘So I see.’ He breathed deeply. ‘I will return for my coffee shortly.’ He strode from the kitchen, amazingly still managing to look every inch—every delectable, edible inch—the proud and haughty Count Dmitri Scarletti, despite being barefoot and half naked.

      Leaving Lily to make the choice as to whether she should go back upstairs or whether she should stay exactly where she was …

      CHAPTER EIGHT

      ‘SO you decided to take your coffee upstairs with you last night, after all, then?’ Dmitri folded his lean length down into the chair opposite Lily’s at the kitchen table, where she sat at seven-thirty the following morning already eating toast and drinking coffee.

      Instantly reminding her that she had taken the cowardly way out the previous evening and not waited for Dmitri to return from dressing …

      At the time she had decided that caution was probably the better part of valour—which was a polite way of saying she simply hadn’t trusted herself to spend any more time in his provocatively disturbing company last night.

      She placed her coffee cup carefully down on the saucer, continuing to look down at that saucer as she answered him. ‘I was tired after all the travelling and—and excitement of yesterday.’

      ‘That is one way of putting it, I suppose,’ Dmitri drawled.

      Lily glowered as she looked at him properly for the first time this morning, her eyes widening slightly as she saw he was wearing faded blue jeans and a black cashmere sweater that emphasised the width and power of his shoulders. The sleeves of the sweater were pushed up to just below his elbows, revealing the strength of his arms and wrists—

      Oh, good Lord—she couldn’t be stupid enough to find even his arms and wrists sexy, could she?

      She had expected him to be dressed in readiness for going to his office this morning, to continue his search for Claudia and Felix. Once he had seen Lily safely delivered to a hotel, of course. ‘I was referring to the way the police descended on the palazzo last night.’

      ‘No doubt a thrilling tale for you to tell your friends on your return to England,’ Dmitri said dryly as he sat forward to pour himself a cup of coffee from the pot in the centre of the table.

      Lily bristled. ‘If you think I enjoyed even one moment of that—that embarrassing episode, then you are sadly mistaken! In fact, I would prefer never to think of it again.’

      Dmitri remained completely unruffled by her vehemence, and he sipped his coffee before replying. ‘Not even as an amusing tale to relate to your grandchildren one day?’

      ‘Of the night I tried to break out—unsuccessfully, I might add—of an Italian count’s palazzo?’