She stood up to step into her dress, but he stood too and caught hold of her shoulders. When she looked up his face was deadly serious.

“This isn’t about your husband, Sophie. It’s about you. It’s about the fact that you’re a young woman trapped in an unfaithful marriage.” His hands moved up to cradle her face, his thumbs warm along her jawbone.

“Christ Almighty. How can he lie next to you and not want you?”

Tears scorched Sophie’s throat again, and she swallowed them down.

Jesus. Lucien was dangerous enough when he was being his usual cocky self, but like this? Perceptive and raw? He was lethal.

Lucien took the dress from her hands and threw it on the chair behind him. “Don’t lie to yourself because you feel guilty, Sophie. He’s cheating, and you deserve better. You deserve to be adored, and you deserve to be fucked until you can’t stand up.”

Sophie stared at him and her insides twisted with desire. That was just about the sexiest thing anyone had ever said to her, and the way he was gazing at her now with undisguised carnality was just about the sexiest way anyone had ever looked at her, too.

She’d never known anyone like Lucien, so in touch with their own sensuality, so unencumbered by unnecessary inhibition.

He must have sensed that his words had found a crack in her armour, because he moved in close and took her hand.

“Come with me. I want you to see something.” He led her across the room to the huge, gilt-framed, floor-standing mirror. “Look in the mirror, Sophie.”

She tried to pull away but he held her firm. “Look. Tell me what you see.”

She looked, reluctantly. And she saw the same person she always saw reflected back at her. The same yet subtly different. More grown-up? More knowing?

Black silk underwear, hold-ups, high heels. Long, tumbled blonde hair. A kiss-swollen mouth, and the liquid, sensual eyes of a satisfied woman.

And standing behind her, a head and shoulders taller, Lucien. Shirtless.

Beautiful.

Her Viking warrior, and now her Viking lover.

“Let me tell you what I see.” Lucien said, his hands on her shoulders.

“I see a woman with the face of an angel.” He ran the back of his fingers down her cheek. “A face that makes men want to fuck her just to see how she looks when she comes.”

Sophie stared at him in the mirror, shocked and mesmerised.

“She has the kind of curves that make men want to touch her.”

He splayed a big warm hand over her pale stomach, making her skin tauten and her breath catch in her throat.

“I see a woman who deserves to be treated like a princess.”

He only had to touch her and it was as if he’d flicked the ‘seduce me now’ switch in her head.

“Look at you, Sophie.” He was so close that she could feel the warmth of his breath tickle her neck. “You’re like a peach waiting to be plucked from the tree.” He stepped flush against her, her back against his chest.

“Velvet soft skin.” He trailed his fingertips down her arms.

“Luscious curves.” He covered her breasts with his hands and stroked them through her bra.

“Ripe.” He slid a hand between her legs and cradled her. Sophie watched his every move in the mirror with wide eyes, almost too turned on to breathe.

“Juicy.” He groaned as he slid his hand inside her knickers. “So fucking  juicy.” He moved his fingers along her sex, still wet from the first time he’d made her come.

“I want to lick your juices, Sophie.”

Sophie could feel his erection pressing hard into her back, and all she could think of was how much she wanted him to carry on making her feel this good. The sight of them in the mirror was like a life size soft porn movie; she couldn’t take her eyes away from his hand moving inside her knickers.

“Tell me that isn’t beautiful,” he said against her ear.

She couldn’t. The fact was that he made her beautiful.

“Stay there.” Sophie almost cried out in protest when he eased his hands off her and backed away. He returned moments later with her glass of champagne in one hand, and a large, silver vibrator in the other.

Sophie gaped. Whatever she’d been expecting, it wasn’t that.

“Which one would you like first?” he asked, that lazy, cock-sure smile back in place.

“Lucien, no. I don’t want to…”

“Sophie, Sophie, Sophie.” He handed her the champagne and shook his head. “Don’t tell me you don’t want this. I saw you in my office, the way thinking about that toy turned you on.”

“But I’ve never…” she eyed the vibrator with apprehension. “I’ve never really used anything like… like that…” she tailed off, flame-cheeked, and swallowed a huge mouthful of champagne. “It’s just not my thing.”

He laughed and came to stand behind her again. “That’s just the thing, Princess. I don’t think you know what your thing is.” His arm slipped around her waist, the silver vibrator in his hand. He flicked the switch and it hummed quietly into life.

Sophie stood stock still, knowing full well that she wasn’t going to stop him. Right now, he could do just about anything he wanted.

“You’ve lived your safe, vanilla existence.” He touched the tip of the vibrator between the swell of her breasts, and unclipped her bra at the same time in one swift movement. She gasped and went to hold onto it, but he was too quick and whipped it out of her hands.

“Stop hiding from me.” He moved her hair behind her shoulders to fully expose her naked breasts. “Look at you.” His eyes darkened with lust and he ran the head of the vibrator up her stomach. “You’re wasted on the occasional bout of missionary sex with a disinterested man.” He placed the tip of the vibrator against one of her nipples, and Sophie’s eyes widened at the new sensation. Lucien’s teeth grazed her neck as he moved the vibrator around her other nipple. Jesus. Sophie felt the erotic vibrations fizz from her pebble hard nipples to her groin, and she arched into the erotic waves of pleasure that lapped through her.

“I see you. Really see you,” he whispered, watching her eyes in the mirror. “I see the girl in there who’s greedy for more.”

He slid the vibrator down her body and nuzzled it in between her legs. “Are you still sure this isn’t your thing, Sophie?”

She shook her head and leaned back against him, reaching an arm behind her head to hold onto his neck. She wasn’t sure of anything apart from how damn good that vibrator felt as he ran it over the scant silk that covered her sex.