“I’ll say it again. He’s a fucking fool.”

“Yes.”

Sophie gazed at Lucien opposite. Jesus, he was beautiful. If she was going to be unfaithful with anyone, this sinful, sexy man was it.

“Would it help if we fucked?”

Sophie laughed and put her hands to her cheeks in shock.

“Could we at least have a drink first?”

Lucien lifted an eyebrow at her and crossed the room to open a sleek cabinet. He returned moments later and placed a champagne bucket and two glasses on the table between them, then sat down opposite her again.

“Take your dress off,” he said, softly.

Sophie caught her breath. If she’d thought she was turned on before, she’d been mistaken. Now, she was turned on.

She got to her feet slowly and turned her back to him. “I need help with the zip.” She didn’t actually, she could have dragged the dress over her head as she had this morning, but that didn’t seem appropriate for this moment. She stood for a few seconds, and the horrible thought struck her that he might not get up and help. It melted away the instant she felt him lift the weight of her hair over one shoulder to expose the zip. His fingers brushed hot against her neck, and it took all of her efforts not to turn around. The sound of the zipper sliding down was indecent in the quiet room. Sophie couldn’t be certain, but she thought he ran the lightest of fingertips down her spine as he went.

“Take it off,” he breathed against her ear, then slid back into his chair to watch her again, his long legs sprawled out in front of him.

Sophie turned to face him, and the raw lust in his eyes was so unfamiliar, so powerful, that she couldn’t tear her eyes away. She slipped the dress off one shoulder and then the other, then held her breath as she let go of the material and allowed it to slither to the floor.

Lucien’s eyes moved slowly from hers, over her shoulders, and lingered on her breasts encased in black silk. Sophie squirmed, and fought the urge to bring her hands up to cover herself.

“Stand still.”

He leaned in, poured the champagne and handed her a glass. She took it and drank deeply, letting the bubbles fizz on her tongue.

His eyes moved from her breasts to her stomach, lower to her black silk knickers.

“Turn around.”

Fuck. Sophie wanted to gather up her clothes and run. Or… maybe she didn’t. She found that she wanted to turn around and let him stare at her backside.

She turned around.

For endless, silent seconds, he didn’t move a muscle. Sophie rubbed a finger up and down the stem of her glass as she wondered what he was thinking. She badly wanted to see his face. She knocked back half of her champagne, terrified that her silk-clad backside didn’t meet his approval.

She never usually wore stockings. It had taken ten minutes this morning to find the hold-ups in the back of her wardrobe, but she was glad of the effort now.

She was on the verge of turning round when she felt Lucien’s hand on her waist. Sophie drew in a sharp breath and arched her back as his warm hand slid around her to splay over her rib cage.

His other hand took her champagne glass and placed it on the table. He was so close behind her that she could feel the heat of him. When he stepped closer still, hard against her from shoulder to hip, his hands swept up and covered her breasts. Sophie heard him make a sound low in his throat, and then he turned her around in his arms to face him.

God, he was tall. She looked up into his face, and his hand slid down her spine to caress her backside. He wound her hair around his other hand, all the way up her back until he had it tight enough in his fist to tip her chin up. His fingers bit into the cheek of her bottom, right along the silken edge of her knickers. Dan was always gentle, and at that moment Lucien was anything but. He was raw, and strong, and Sophie wanted him more than she’d ever wanted anyone else in her life.

How could she be here, half naked in his arms without having even so much as kissed him?

She slid her hands up onto the wall of his chest and touched him for the first time. Her hands registered hard heat, and even through his shirt she could feel the steady beat of his heart.

“Unbutton it.”

Oh, yes please. Sophie worked the buttons open and slid the material back over his shoulders, and he yanked it off his arms and threw it to the floor.

Up close and bare-chested, Lucien was heart-stoppingly fabulous. The soft silk of her bra brushed against the hardness of his chest, and Sophie melted into him.

Lucien’s breathing was audible but steady as he caught hold of her hands. He snagged them both behind her back in one of his own larger ones, and his other hand slid around the nape of her neck to draw her mouth to his.

She was captive, at his mercy, and she loved it.

“Beautiful Sophie,” he murmured against her lips, and then, at last, he lowered his head and kissed her.

Sophie’s senses reeled at the first touch of his mouth on hers, soft and then hard and so filled with sexual intent that she trembled. He bit her lips and then licked them better. Explored her mouth with his hot, potent tongue as his firm hand cupped the back of her head. Being kissed by Lucien made Sophie feel as if everyone who’d kissed her before should queue up for lessons from him. Her knees buckled, but he had her so securely in his grip that it didn’t even matter.

“Easy,” he murmured into her mouth.

His hand slid around her throat, and then down to trace across the silk-encased curves of her breasts. Sophie arched against him, desperate for more, and she groaned as his erection pressed hard into her stomach.

He lifted his head to look down into her face, then eased his knee between her legs.

“You have no idea now many ways I’m going to make you come.”

Sophie all but yelped. He was filthy, and she couldn’t get enough of him. She was desperate to touch him, but he gripped her hands a fraction tighter when she wriggled in an attempt to free them.

Lucien shook his head. “Not yet, Princess.” He slid his thigh further between her legs. Delicious friction. With his free hand he pulled her bra straps down to bare her breasts to his eyes.

Sophie gasped and felt her nipples stiffen as she watched him lean his head slightly to one side and stare openly at her body. He rocked his erection harder against her and licked his lips as his ragged breathing belied his apparent cool control. He was every bit as excited as she was.

“So pink.” Lucien bent to suckle each of her nipples in turn, drawing a splutter of desire from Sophie’s throat. She wanted to push her hands into his hair and hold him there, but he wouldn’t release her wrists. Instead, he started to rock her on his thigh. The silk of her knickers rubbed her sex. Backwards. Forwards. Backwards. Forwards. Harder, until she rode him like a lap dancer on a pole, shameless in her need for him to finish what he’d started between her legs.