Santiago's Command by Kim Lawrence

sounding bored. ‘I suppose it’s too much to hope you are not going to tell me why I am an object of pity in your eyes?’
    ‘Because people like you—’
    ‘People like me?’
    ‘Sorry, I forgot, there are no people like you—you’re special,’ she drawled, sketching speech marks in the air. Her mocking smile faded as she added in a voice that shook with contempt, ‘But actually you’re not. Living in a castle and having pots of money makes you lucky—not special.’
    ‘And you were born on the wrong side of the tracks forced to live off your wits? I don’t think so,’ he drawled.
    Lucy blinked, but recovered quickly. ‘I don’t live in a castle.’
    ‘And the Fitzgeralds are paupers, I suppose?’
    Her blue gaze grew frosty. ‘Leave my family out of this,’ she warned fiercely.
    This display of protectiveness struck him as ironic. ‘Like you did? Did it ever occur to you to consider how your actions would affect them? How do you think they feel when they see you use your body and beauty as a weapon?’
    Lucy laughed, finding the accusation particularly ironic when she was standing here struggling to control her breathing.
If only!
    ‘What can I say? I’m a shallow and superficial person.’
    ‘You’re …’ He lunged without warning and grabbed her by the waist, the other hand went to the nape of her neck, his fingers pushing into her hair as he pulled her into him.
    Panic made her struggle but then his mouth was on hers and her resistance melted,
she
melted; the arm banded around her narrow waist took her weight as she went limp.
    He sank his teeth into the plump fullness of her lower lip, sighing as she moaned. The heat of his body penetrated the silk of her dress … nothing she was feeling was like anything she had experienced before.
    ‘I really want to taste you.’
    His smoky voice shivered through her body, awakening an answering need deep inside her. Using what strength she had to force her heavy lips open, she looked up at him with passion-glazed blue eyes.
    ‘Yes,’ she breathed huskily. ‘Please.’
    He kissed her deeply, his warm lips seductive, his probing tongue shockingly intimate, but it was the contrast of soul-piercing tenderness and ravenous hunger of the carnalassault on her senses that drew a series of soft moans from Lucy’s throat.
    Overwhelmed by the need his touch awoke, she wound her arms vine-like around his neck and kissed him back hard, meeting his tongue with her own.
    The shocking rock-hard imprint of his erection as it ground into her belly excited her incredibly, making her gasp and moan, giving herself over totally to the wild hunger in her blood as the passion generated between them burned hotter. His mouth demanded more and she struggled to give it.
    His hands moved down her body, moulding her against him, as Lucy’s hands slid over his shoulders feeling the hard ridges of muscle through his clothes feeling the racing of her pulse, feeling his heartbeat, the two sounds becoming one.
    The desperation of their soft moans and murmurs grew more frantic and uncontrolled until finally Santiago pulled back.
    It took a few seconds for sanity to return. When it did the shocking realisation of what she had just done hit Lucy. She stood staring at him as she shook her head in denial, unable to accept the need he had awoken inside, the confusing tangle of emotions that the kiss had shaken loose.
    He said nothing. The shadows across his face accented the strong planes and fascinating hollows. Just looking at him made her ache to touch him. ‘You think that proves anything?’ she challenged.
    ‘It proved that we’d be pretty sensational in bed.’
    She gave a scared little gasp and just ran.
    When Ramon returned she was waiting in the car. He was terribly apologetic about the wait and didn’t seem to notice anything unusual about her silence.

CHAPTER SIX
    ‘R ELAX,’ Ramon recommended as Lucy looked nervously over her shoulder. ‘You won’t see him.’
    That