The Reluctant Duke (10 page)

And yet…

‘You seem to be taking an awful long time to decide, Lucan.’ Lexie broke teasingly into his thoughts.

He looked down into her upturned face. ‘Much as I might want to return to London, I’m not willing to do it at the risk of either your safety or my own. That being the case, we’ll give it a couple of hours and see if the snow stops.’

One dark brow quirked. ‘And if it gets worse instead…?’

He shrugged. ‘Then I guess we’re stuck with each other for another night.’

Which was exactly what Lexie
didn’t
want.

What she had assured her grandmother wouldn’t happen!

Nanna Sian had been as concerned for Lexie as she was for Lucan St Claire. Her grandmother knew only too well how much the St Claire family hated her, and consequently anyone connected to her. The only thing that had soothed her grandmother’s anxiety was Lexie giving her word that she would put an end to this situation as soon as she and Lucan returned to London.

Unfortunately, when Lexie had made that promise she hadn’t taken into account the possibility of being snowed in here with Lucan for several days!

She gave a firm shake of her head. ‘I think we should leave now.’

Lucan eyed Lexie mockingly as he took in the wilful sparkle in her eyes and the stubborn set to her mouth. ‘In case you haven’t realised it yet, Lexie, this is a dictatorship, not a democracy! And, as the driver of the only vehicle at
our disposal, I have decided that the conditions aren’t safe for us to leave yet.’

A frown appeared between those dark brows. ‘Isn’t it just for conditions like this that you
have
a four-wheel drive vehicle, for goodness’ sake!’

He shrugged. ‘I’m still not willing to take the risk. That being the case, what’s for lunch?’ he added tauntingly.

She frowned up at him. ‘As you’re obviously the dictator, and I’m only the poor, oppressed peasant, I suggest
you
decide. And once you’ve decided I suggest that you also prepare it. I am going upstairs to pack my bag, ready for when we can leave!’ She turned on her heel and marched out of the kitchen.

Lucan gave a wolfish grin as he stood and enjoyed watching the provocative sway of Lexie’s denim-clad hips and perfectly rounded bottom until she had left the room and slammed the kitchen door behind her.

Lexie Hamilton might be infuriating and impossible, and stubborn as a mule, but she was also the sexiest bundle of femininity Lucan had ever met.

Dangerously so.

‘Well?’

Lucan relaxed back in his chair to look across at Lexie as she appeared in the kitchen doorway. ‘Well, what?’

Lexie eyed him frustratedly as he continued to sit calmly at the kitchen table, eating toast. ‘In case you haven’t noticed, it’s stopped snowing.’ There was only a couple of inches of snow on the ground outside, which certainly wasn’t enough to hamper the progress of the monster vehicle parked outside in the driveway.

‘I noticed.’

‘Well?’

‘W—’

‘If you say “well, what?” again I may be provoked into hitting you!’ Lexie warned between gritted teeth, breathing hard in the face of Lucan’s unruffled calm when she was so agitated she really could have hit something. Or someone!

The visit to her grandmother earlier had only emphasised how vulnerable Lexie was—how at any minute she could be exposed as the granddaughter of Sian Thomas.

And if that happened then not only would Lucan make Lexie personally suffer for that exposure, but probably Premier Personnel, too.

Lucan raised dark brows. ‘I was actually going to ask what’s in London for you to rush back to?’

‘Civilisation?’ she came back scathingly.

Once again Lucan found himself laughing at one of Lexie’s remarks. At the way she didn’t even attempt to stop herself from saying the first thing that came into her head. It was totally refreshing to a man who always thought long and hard before speaking. Mainly because millions of pounds and thousands of people’s jobs very often depended upon what Lucan did or didn’t say, but also because that was just the way he was. The way he had deliberately schooled himself to be.

He gave a rueful shake of his head. ‘It will still be there tomorrow.’

‘I want to go back
today!’

Lucan shrugged. ‘“I want” doesn’t always get.’

‘You’re being ridiculous again—’

‘No, Lexie, I think at the moment
you
have the monopoly on that,’ he said harshly.

‘I’m not the one who’s being so difficult about leaving.’

‘John mentioned before he left yesterday that there are
some things he needs to discuss with me before I go back to London.’ Lucan frowned down at her.

Lexie stilled. ‘Estate business?’

‘I believe so, yes.’ Lucan gave a slow inclination of his head.

‘Oh.’ Lexie felt like a deflated balloon at the realisation that Lucan wasn’t just being bloody-minded, after all. He had a perfectly valid reason for staying on awhile longer.

Why
had Lucan had to laugh again in that totally unselfconscious way?

It changed his whole appearance—gave warmth to the darkness of his eyes, revealed laughter lines beside that sculpted mouth, as well as that cleft in his left cheek. A very sexy cleft. A sexy cleft that made Lexie want to move closer and lick it, taste it with her tongue—

Oh, good Lord!

Why did just being anywhere near this man now make her think about sex?

About having sex.

No, not sex. Making love. Sex for sex’s sake had never appealed to Lexie. Which was probably why she was still a virgin at twenty-four!

Even so, Lexie had absolutely no doubt that the person she wanted to make love to and with was definitely Lucan.
Only
Lucan.

Was this the same emotional and physical trap that her grandmother had fallen into all those years ago when she’d first met Alexander? Did Lucan, as far as Lexie was concerned, possess the same magnetic hold over her that his father had held over Sian? The sort of magnetic hold that could reduce a woman who was usually sensible, logical, into forgetting everything else but him?

If he did, then Lexie wanted no part of it!

‘If it’s estate business…’ She nodded abruptly, very conscious of how close Lucan was standing to her.

‘That’s very understanding of you,’ he murmured huskily.

‘I think so.’ Lexie couldn’t look away from those mesmerising dark eyes. Could feel the heat emanating from her own body now as well as Lucan’s. A heat that doubled, tripled, when Lucan raised one of his hands and curved it over the warm contours of her cheek. ‘What are you doing? ‘ she breathed unevenly.

He gave a half-smile. ‘You’re looking a little. flushed.’

Lexie was more than a little flushed—and not just outwardly. She felt that familiar fire once again burning between her thighs.

Lucan raised one dark brow. ‘You aren’t coming down with something, are you?’

Lucanitis, probably!

Lexie had to say something, do something—anything to break this magnetic pull that just made her want to move closer to the warmth of this man’s body. ‘Do you always wear your hair so short…?’

He frowned slightly and raised his other hand to run it through that dark hair. ‘You don’t approve?’ His voice was gravelly and low.

Lexie looked up at him consideringly. ‘It makes you look.’

‘Older?’ he suggested harshly.

‘I was going to say severe,’ she corrected dryly.

He gave a mocking half smile. ‘But I
am
severe, Lexie.’

Not all the time. Most definitely not all the time!

In fact, standing this close to him, with the heat from their bodies mingling, matching, Lexie was finding it
harder and harder to think of him as the arrogant and aloof Lucan St Claire!

Which wasn’t surprising when what she most wanted to do at that moment was rip those faded denims and that brown sweater from the muscled leanness of Lucan’s body and caress and taste every inch of him!

Help…!

Lexie definitely needed help. Something to give her the strength, the will, to fight this growing attraction she felt for Lucan.

Where was a lightning bolt when she most needed one?

Lucan was totally aware of the tension that permeated the room. A sexual, sensual tension that swirled around the two of them like an ever-deepening, sense-drugging transparent mist.

He looked down into the deep, dark blue of Lexie’s eyes before moving his gaze lower, to the soft pout of her lips. Plump and enticing lips, which parted slightly even as he looked at them. As if knowing, waiting for his kiss.

The skin of Lexie’s cheek felt like velvet against the palm of his hand, reminding him all too forcefully of how her bared breasts had felt as velvety soft as he’d cupped them the previous evening, before caressing and savouring them with his hands and mouth. Inciting a need deep inside him to touch and taste her like that again.

‘Lexie—’ He broke off as a knock sounded briefly on the outside door before it was pushed open and John Barton stood framed in the doorway.

The caretaker shivered in the icy wind blowing outside and stepped quickly into the room to close the door behind
him. Coming to an abrupt halt, he glanced across the kitchen to where Lucan and Lexie stood so close together they were almost touching.

‘I’
M NOT
interrupting anything, am I?’ John Barton continued to hesitate near the door.

Not interrupting anything…!

Lexie didn’t even want to think about what John Barton had so nearly interrupted as she shifted sideways and then stepped completely away from the heat and seduction of Lucan’s body so close to her own.

Once across the kitchen she was at least able to breathe more easily—even managing to give a strained smile to the obviously uncomfortable, but also slightly curious, John Barton.

‘Has it started snowing again…?’ She gave a dismayed frown as she saw the droplets of moisture on his sandy-coloured hair.

‘I’m afraid so.’ He shrugged, with another awkward glance in Lucan’s direction.

Lucan straightened abruptly, only the glittering black onyx of his eyes revealing—to Lexie, at least—his displeasure at the other man’s untimely interruption.

Or perhaps that displeasure was levelled at Lexie?

His firmly clenched jaw and those cold dark eyes, as he turned to look directly at her, certainly didn’t give the impression that she had escaped Lucan’s displeasure. A fact that instantly raised Lexie’s hackles.

Damn it,
she
wasn’t the one who had initiated the intimacy between them. The one who had tried to seduce her with a touch. Who would have kissed her—probably more than kissed her—if John Barton hadn’t interrupted them!

‘I suggest we go to my study and talk, John,’ Lucan stated coldly as he saw the angry sparkle building in Lexie’s expressive eyes. ‘Lexie informs me she wants to get back to London as soon as possible,’ he added, having noted the look of dismay on Lexie’s face when she had realised it was snowing again, and the possibility of delaying their departure. Something she obviously wasn’t too happy about.

Lucan couldn’t say he was exactly happy at the thought of staying on here with Lexie any longer, either.

He had thought when he’d insisted on bringing her here that she would be a diversion—a way for him to be at Mulberry Hall without his usual feelings of aversion. Instead, Lexie had made him forget all caution, all those barriers Lucan had so carefully placed about his emotions over the years. To the point where all he could think about now was touching her again, kissing her, making love to her.

If John hadn’t arrived when he had—

‘I merely commented that if we didn’t want to get snowed in then we should probably leave sometime today.’ She looked across at him challengingly.

Lucan glanced out of the window. He could see that the snow was falling heavily again. ‘I think it may already be too late for that…’

Lexie glanced out of the kitchen window, too, her heart sinking as she saw the huge flakes of snow falling delicately past the window. Her eyes narrowed accusingly as she turned back to Lucan. ‘If we had left when I first suggested it—’

‘Then we would be out in the middle of it right now,’ Lucan reasoned impatiently. ‘I have no doubt that the motorways will have been kept clear, but I very much doubt the small country roads we’d have to travel on first will have received the same treatment.’

He was right, of course, Lexie acknowledged heavily. As usual.

She straightened. ‘I’ll leave the two of you to have your talk—’

‘You need to eat some lunch first,’ Lucan cut in firmly.

Lexie’s cheeks warmed at having John Barton witness this exchange. ‘I’m really not hungry—’

‘You need to stay here and eat,’ Lucan insisted.

What Lexie needed and what she wanted were two entirely different things.

She might possibly need to eat something, but what she wanted was to get as far away from Lucan as it was possible for her to be. But, as Lucan had already pointed out to her once today, ‘I want’ didn’t always get.

‘Fine,’ she managed tautly, hoping that Lucan had picked up on her tone, and the warning in the glance she gave him. Otherwise—John Barton’s presence or not—she was going to be forced into saying something they might all regret.

The younger man gave her a rueful smile. ‘Cathy’s longing to come over and say hello.’

‘Oh?’ Lexie felt flustered at the mere idea of John’s wife coming to the house. It might not be the Cathy she knew, but chances were—the way Lexie’s luck was going—that she was.

John nodded. ‘But I didn’t think it was a good idea for her to come over today, in this weather. She’s expecting our first baby in three months’ time,’ he explained happily.

‘Congratulations! Maybe next time.’ Lexie managed to
gather herself enough to speak, knowing there wouldn’t be a ‘next time’ at Mulberry Hall for her. Not if she had any say in the matter. And she did.

Lucan gave her one last questioning glance through narrowed lids before he and John went out into the hallway.

Alerting Lexie to the fact that she hadn’t quite managed to hide the panic she’d felt when John had told her Cathy wanted to come over and say hello.