“Need a hand, Princess?”

She yelped with surprise as her eyes flew open and her fingers jumped away from her body. She’d been too far down the line to ecstasy to notice the door opening. She ought to be mortified – the old Sophie certainly would have been - but he was naked, and the molten heat in his eyes told her not to be, as did the erect curve of his cock against his hard, smooth abdomen.

Had she conjured him up by the power of thought alone? He stepped inside and dropped to his knees between her legs.

“Carry on.”

She looked down into the dangerous gleam of his eyes as he laid his head against her inner thigh. Gold on cream. He was close enough to reach out his tongue and lick her, yet he didn’t.

“Tell me what you were thinking of just now.”

Sophie took a huge fortifying gulp of water. Just a few days ago she’d have played things differently, but right now she willed herself to match his boldness. She tipped a little of the cool water onto her fevered skin and they both watched the rivulets run down between her breasts.

“I was remembering.” She let her hand fall casually back between her legs.

He dropped a languorous kiss onto her thigh. “Hmm. Tell me more.”

“I was thinking about this morning… in the woods…” She watched him run his tongue over his lips as she opened herself with her fingers. She could feel his breath on her clitoris.

“Which part?”

She reached out a fingertip and traced the full, damp curve of his lower lip, then touched herself. “The part where you put your hand inside my jeans to check if I was wearing knickers.”

He lifted an approving eyebrow. “I liked that part too.” He kissed the back of her fingers. “What else?”

Sophie could barely get her breath. She was hot, and wet, and desperate for him. She kept her voice steady, with an effort.

“I was thinking about how your tongue felt on me.” She circled her clitoris with her fingers as she spoke. “I was imagining you licking me. Right here.”

“Here?” He followed the movement of her fingers with the faintest trace of his tongue, making her shudder with pleasure.

“I love the taste of you,” he murmured. “Keep talking.”

That wasn’t so easy with his mouth a whisper away from her sex. “I was thinking about your hard, beautiful cock inside me.” He groaned, his heated mouth so close to her, letting her know how much her words were turning him on. It was a heady feeling. “About you fucking me hard against that tree.”

His control snapped, and he replaced her hands with his own between her legs, his fingers splayed on her thighs to hold her open. His thumbs slid inside her as he lowered his head to make slow, hypnotic love to her with his mouth, shockingly intimate and mind-numbingly erotic. She wanted it to last a lifetime, but he had her in seconds. Breathless with exquisite pleasure, she watched and felt him worship her. His eyes flickered up and connected with hers as he held her in his mouth while she came. Dangerously dark and glittering, their grey-blue depths were heavy with the promise of a long night ahead.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

They dressed for dinner.

Lucien looked like James Bond’s sexier brother, lethal and dripping with sex appeal. Sophie felt as if she’d stepped onto a film set and been unwittingly cast as his lucky love interest. But of course, as in all the best Bond movies, she was only Lucien’s leading lady until the adventure ended.

The food was divine, yet they barely tasted it.

Her knee touched his as she reached for her wine.

His fingers brushed hers as he refilled her glass.

His gaze lingered on her lips as she tested the golden cloudberry puree drizzled around the perfectly set pannacotta.

“This is delicious.” She savoured the chilled, velvet cream in her mouth.

Lucien inclined his head as he sampled his own dessert. “It’s missing something.” He pushed his chair back and headed around the table with his dessert plate in his hand. “What do you think?” He spooned a little of his pannacotta into her mouth, his eyes on her lips. He was in full-on predator mode, and a thrill of anticipation rippled down Sophie’s spine.

He rested against the table, and she placed a deliberately casual hand on his leg as she swallowed her mouthful of the faultless dessert.

“Mmm. I see what you mean…”

Lucien’s eyes dropped to watch her hand slide up his thigh. In seconds, he pulled her onto her feet against his body.

“You know, I think it needs to be sweeter,” he said, and slid down the zipper on her dress.

It pooled on the floor, leaving Sophie outrageously turned on and wearing only her knickers and black suede high heels. His eyes roved over her body, and his tongue touched his lip in concentration as he switched her around to perch on the table. Lucien’s fingers were already working open the buttons of his shirt, and he threw it aside a moment later and shifted her to sit more securely on the edge of the table.

It was cold and smooth beneath her bottom, even more so when Lucien dispensed with her knickers a second or two later. He moved in close between her legs, his mouth over hers.

“You should tell the cook to add a little more sugar,” she said, massaging his erection through his trousers.

“Hm.” Lucien dipped his finger into his dessert and wiped it across Sophie’s lower lip. She snaked out the tip of her tongue to taste it, and met his tongue there already doing the same thing. His arms were braced either side of her body as she tilted her head back to let him do a thorough job on her mouth.

“That tastes a little sweeter already,” he murmured.

“Not enough, though?” she asked, fully aware that it wouldn’t be.

He shook his head, rueful. “Not quite.”

Sophie nodded, then dipped her own fingers into the pannacotta and painted her peaked nipples until they resembled the Alps outside the windows. “Would this help, do you think?”

He lifted an approving eyebrow. “Let me check.”

He lapped each of her nipples clean, and the connection between his hot tongue and the cold dessert on her flesh made Sophie sigh with pleasure. His cock was as hard as rock under her hand.

“Well?” she whispered, besieged by the rampant lust in his eyes when he straightened.

“It’s almost there.” He reached behind her, and in one swift move he swept the entire contents of the dining table onto the floor.

Everything besides his pannacotta.

His warm hands spanned her waist and shifted her backwards on the table, and he spread her legs wide. Sophie knew full well where he was headed, and her body trembled with anticipation. She bit her lip as his fingers dipped into his dessert, and her body tightened with erotic shock as he smeared the chilled cream between her legs. He paused momentarily to admire his handiwork; a layer of thick peaked swirls that covered her modesty in the lewdest possible way.