One-Click Buy: September Harlequin Presents

by Penny Jordan

  ‘Mellie Chandler,’ she bit out tersely.

  Luc continued to look, at her with cold, unblinking eyes, the harshness of his expression unchanging.

  ‘Melanie Chandler.’ She impatiently used her friend’s full, professional name.

  There was still no sign of recognition in Luc’s face—not even a raise of that arrogant eyebrow.

  ‘Oh, come on, Luc,’ Darci snapped shortly as she threw her handbag down onto one of the armchairs. ‘I know it’s been a few weeks, but surely you haven’t forgotten Mellie already?’

  Luc had already gathered by Darci’s aggressive repetition of the name Mellie—Melanie Chandler—that it was supposed to mean something to him.

  Except that it didn’t.

  He had never even heard the name before, let alone forgotten the woman!

  ‘What about her?’ he prompted guardedly.

  Darci eyed him scathingly. ‘She’s a friend of mine. And Grant’s, incidentally,’ she added challengingly. ‘In fact, she’s the absent flatmate I told you about,’ she reminded him. ‘She’s an actress, and currently living in LA,’ she added impatiently, as Luc continued to look blank.

  Luc frowned. ‘And…?’

  ‘And you pursued her until you caught her, took her to your silk-sheeted bed with promises of furthering her acting career and then you dumped her!’ Darci accused disgustedly.

  To his certain knowledge Luc had never viewed promises of furthering an acting career as a means of seducing any woman into his ‘silk-sheeted bed’.

  Despite the amount of women who were supposed to have shared that bed, he never forgot the names of the women he had been intimately involved with. He was absolutely certain Melanie Chandler had not been one of them.

  Certainly not in the last few weeks. He hadn’t been involved with any woman but Darci herself in the three months since Wolf’s wedding!

  ‘I did?’ Luc looked completely puzzled.

  ‘You know you did!’ Darci snapped resentfully.

  ‘Exactly when did I do this?’ he prompted softly. ‘A few weeks ago, I believe you said…?’

  ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, Luc,’ Darci threw at him as she began to restlessly pace the room. ‘Mellie is a very close friend, and I know exactly what happened between the two of you, so you might just as well stop this pretence now.’

  Really—did the man think she was totally stupid? Or was he just playing for time, giving himself a chance to come up with an acceptable excuse for the callous way he had treated Mellie? If he was, he was wasting his time!

  ‘When, Darci?’ he demanded, in a tone that brooked no argument.

  He really was rather intimidating in this mood, Darci acknowledged with an inward grimace. His irresistible charm was completely erased from the face of this coldly determined stranger.

  She shook her head. ‘You began pursuing her eight weeks ago, showering her with flowers and compliments, promises of getting her a part in the latest film you were producing, and then you dumped her two weeks later, after she had shared your bed!’

  Luc’s mouth tightened. ‘And I did this after “showering her with flowers and compliments, promises of getting her a part in the film I was producing”?’ he repeated with a pained wince. ‘Let me assure you, Darci, that I have never needed to use such empty promises to persuade a woman into sharing my bed.’

  Darci’s cheeks flushed as she recalled that he certainly hadn’t needed to use those ploys on her to have her hot and wanting in his arms. Much to her self-disgust!

  ‘You used them on Mellie,’ she accused angrily, that anger directed at herself as much as at Luc; she, too, had almost been persuaded by the novelty of a picnic, for goodness’ sake!

  ‘No,’ Luc said flatly.

  A frown marred Darci’s brow. ‘What do you mean, no?’

  ‘I mean, no,’ he bit out tersely. ‘I have never met anyone called Mellie—or Melanie—Chandler. And as I have never met her, I certainly haven’t seduced her into my bed—with or without flowers, compliments and promises of furthering her career!’ he finished disgustedly.

  He abhorred the men in his profession who did use such enticements on young and beautiful actresses, who were often tricked into believing that going to bed with those men would help their careers—especially as it invariably didn’t. It was usually the ones with little talent for acting who resorted to the casting couch, because any actress of any repute would make it on her own merits, without having to reduce herself to that level.

  The fact that Darci believed him to have behaved in just that fashion with a close friend of hers certainly explained her odd behaviour the last few days.

  It also explained why Darci was so confused about her own response to him….

  Because she hadn’t expected to be attracted to him, Luc realised grimly. Had thought merely to attract him and then shun him, as recompense for hurting her friend.

  All of this—Darci’s barbed conversation which had so attracted him when they’d met at the film premiere, the way she had deliberately stood him up at Garstang’s two evenings later, the pointedly cutting remarks she had made since—had been to exact revenge on him for using and then discarding her friend Mellie!

  A woman he had never even met, let alone seduced into his bed!

  Darci stared at Luc, more than a little wary of the evidence of his steadily increasing annoyance in the cold glitter of his eyes and the nerve that pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw.

  Something was wrong here—very wrong….

  She swallowed hard. ‘I don’t believe you,’ she told him weakly.

  ‘No,’ he grated. ‘I can see that you don’t.’

  Her mouth felt very dry. ‘Well?’ she challenged at his continued silence.

  Very, very wrong, she acknowledged, and she moved her slightly shaking hands behind her back, so that Luc shouldn’t see how nervous his icy stillness was making her.

  But Luc’s claim never to have even met Mellie couldn’t be true, could it?

  Of course it couldn’t!

  If it was, then Mellie was the one who was telling fibs—and what possible reason could her friend have for inventing such a story?

  None whatsoever. Which meant that Luc had to be the one who was lying after all.

  Or that he had such a succession of women parading through his bed that he really had forgotten Mellie!

  Darci let out a sigh. ‘Let’s just stop all the pretence, Luc—’

  ‘I would be glad to,’ he agreed, his eyes glittering with altogether another intent as he began to move stealthily towards her.

  ‘Wh—what are you doing?’ Darci prompted nervously, even as she took a step backwards from his direct approach.

  ‘Dispensing with the flowers, compliments and promises to further your career, and getting straight on with the seduction into my bed—or, as this is your apartment, your bed,’ Luc corrected hardly.

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she dismissed breathlessly, taking a step back for every one he took forward. Until—once again!—she found herself with her back pressed up against the wall and nowhere else to go.

  Or hide.

  Because the determination in Luc’s harshly set expression, in the darkness of his eyes, was enough to make Darci want to turn on her heel and run!

  Luc came to a halt mere inches away from Darci as she stood pressed against the wall, his mouth quirking as he looked down at her and saw the apprehension in her expressive green eyes.

  She might well look apprehensive—Luc couldn’t ever remember feeling this cross in his life before. And it was an emotion that demanded to be assuaged.

  He had known he wasn’t going to like the explanation for Darci’s strange behaviour towards him, but until this moment he’d had no idea just how much he wasn’t going to like it.

  The whole of their relationship had been based upon Darci’s plan to exact revenge for what she considered his callous treatment of her friend. It had become obvious that Darci herself didn’t even like him!


  She liked it when he touched her, though—and that was what he intended doing right now!

  ‘You can’t do this, Luc,’ Darci protested, as she saw that intent in his dark eyes.

  ‘But I thought this was exactly what you believed I could and would do, Darci?’ he came back tauntingly, and he moved so that his hands rested on the wall either side of her head and his body was moulded against hers from chest to thigh. The heated throb of his hardened thighs told Darci all too clearly of his arousal. An arousal fuelled by anger rather than desire…

  ‘No!’ was all she had time to groan before Luc’s head bent down and his mouth claimed hers in a kiss that seared.

  Punished.

  Consumed.

  Conquered…

  She was caught, captured between the hard wall behind her and the equally hard wall of Luc’s body, as his mouth continued to plunder hers, taking it, claiming it for his own. His tongue moved between her parted lips in a hard thrust at the same time as his thighs moved evocatively against hers and melted all resistance.

  She wanted this man.

  Wanted Luc.

  Wanted him with an ache that was almost painful in its intensity.

  Luc increased the pressure of his mouth on hers, and he heard Darci’s groan of surrender only seconds before she angled her head and began to kiss him back, to take and demand his response. Her arms moved up about his shoulders and her fingers became entangled in the thickness of the hair at his nape.

  He was furious with this woman—more furious than he had ever been before in his life.

  For deliberately enticing him into asking her out when all the time she was intent only on retribution. For not believing him when he claimed he had no idea what or who she was talking about as she accused him of hurting her friend Mellie.

  But none of that seemed to matter now as their kisses deepened, became hungry, a sweet torture—until just kisses weren’t enough, and Luc knew he had to touch her, that he wanted to feel Darci’s naked flesh in his hands, to kiss and touch every heated inch of her until she was pleading for his possession.

  He pushed her T-shirt out of the way, his eyes dark as he looked down at the breasts he had bared, so firm and upsweeping, their tips already as hard as pebbles. He reached to roll one between his thumb and finger, raising his head to watch as pleasure suffused Darci’s face, heavy lids falling down over misty green eyes as she pressed herself closer against his hand in silent invitation.

  Luc took up that invitation as he reached down to clasp one of her legs and bring it up about his thigh. He moved in closer to her, his hardness pressing against silk as he began to move against her, knowing from the way Darci melted against him and her increasingly breathless groans that his erection was rubbing at the very heart of her pleasure.

  He wanted to release himself, push aside that silk barrier and bury himself inside her. Deep inside her. Wanted to bury himself to the hilt before stroking deep and hard. Wanted to bring Darci to her knees as she released herself hotly around him.

  Instead his hands moved up to capture both of hers, moving them above her head before grasping them tightly in one of his, leaving his other hand free to capture those invitingly thrusting breasts, kneading, caressing, but not quite touching the turgid nipple as he looked down at Darci’s flushed face and feverish eyes.

  ‘Please, Luc!’ Darci breathed achingly as she offered herself to him. ‘Oh, please…!’

  Oh, yes, he would please her. He intended pleasuring Darci until she begged. Intended her to know that no woman had ever gone away from his bed less than satisfied, let alone bent on the type of revenge she had tried to exact on him.

  ‘Tell me what you want, Darci,’ he encouraged hardly.

  She looked stricken as she shook her head. ‘I can’t…!’

  ‘Yes, you can,’ he assured her softly, his fingertips now like butterfly wings against her breast. ‘Tell me, Darci!’ he repeated harshly.

  ‘Oh, God, no…!’ she protested achingly, even as her thighs moved restlessly against his.

  ‘Tell me.’ Luc deliberately swept his thumb across the very tip of her nipple, and watched as the ripples of pleasure washed over and through her.

  She released a shuddering breath, her eyes closing. ‘Touch me…’ she groaned. ‘For God’s sake, touch me! Take me in your mouth, Luc!’ She rubbed her silky thighs encouragingly against his.

  ‘Look at me, Darci,’ Luc instructed huskily. ‘I want you to watch as I pleasure you.’

  Darci raised heavy lids, her gaze caught and held by Luc’s as he lowered his head and flicked his tongue moistly across her nipple. Her knees almost buckled at the waves of heated pleasure that coursed through her body.

  They did buckle as she watched Luc place his lips over that peak before he drew it full into his mouth and began to suck, and all the time that brown gaze locked with hers, and the hardness of his thighs pressed against her ever-increasing wetness as she burned and ached for his full possession.

  She wanted him deep inside her—wanted him to release her from this pleasure that was becoming almost painful as it intensified and swirled over and in her.

  She felt hot, so hot, and so achingly wet between her thighs. Her cry was one of longing as Luc’s mouth left her and she saw the full, thrust of the nipple he had just suckled to full erection.

  ‘Tell me what else you want, Darci,’ he encouraged as his tongue once again rasped moistly against that fullness.

  ‘Touch me again, Luc!’ she groaned.

  ‘Where?’ He stroked his tongue over her other nipple, setting off more ripples of heated pleasure. ‘Tell me, Darci. Show me!’ he urged roughly, and he released one of her hands to bring it downwards.

  She hesitated only fractionally before taking his hand from her other breast and moving it lower, much lower, placing it against her silkiness, showing him exactly what she wanted. Needed. Hungered for.

  Her back arched, her head falling back as Luc touched the very centre of her, the soft pad of his thumb finding that hardened nub. He began to caress her, lightly, rhythmically, before he increased the pressure and fire threatened to ignite and explode.

  She thought she would explode as Luc’s tongue laved across the aching hardness of her nipples, first one and then the other. With the same hypnotic rhythm his hand caressed her, and he entered her with two fingers, those deep thrusts reaching into the very heart of her, touching off waves of sensation that took her to the edge of trembling completion.

  ‘Oh, oh, oh…!’ Darci cried as Luc’s thumb continued to caress and rub her sensitive nub as he took her higher and deeper into the realms of sensual pleasure.

  Luc gentled the thrusts of his fingers before removing them completely when he felt Darci’s inner tightness start to contract with the ripples of impending release. ‘Not yet, Darci,’ he murmured huskily as she looked down at him with mute pleading; she hadn’t begged nearly enough yet! ‘Remember my fantasy of that first evening, Darci?’ he reminded her lazily. ‘Remember…?’ he prompted, and he dropped down onto his knees in front of her.

  His gaze held hers as he slipped her silky panties down the lean length of her thighs to throw them to one side and then place one of her legs over his shoulder, completely exposing the moist and swollen pink lips of her full arousal to his gaze…and his mouth.

  He laved his tongue over her hardened nub, first strongly and then with gentle sweeps, tasting her as her juices flowed. His tongue was deep inside her now, with strong, hard thrusts that he could once more feel taking her to the edge of sobbing release.

  Again he stopped, looking up at her with dark eyes as her hands closed convulsively about his shoulders. Her gaze was feverish as she looked down at him imploringly.

  Luc sat back slightly before reaching up to cup the fullness of her breasts, watching Darci’s face as his thumbs moved across her nipples in a brief caress. He saw her breath catch in her throat even as a spasm of renewed pleasure coursed through her. Luc knew exactly what s
he wanted from him as her hands tightened on his shoulders and she drew him towards the dewy warmth of her moistness.

  He would only have to touch what was hidden beneath those silky curls with the tip of his tongue now, he realised, just one moist caress and she would disintegrate in front of his eyes as he gave her the release she ached for.

  For a moment indecision raced through him—the need to give Darci what she wanted set against the fact that he knew she was only using him, that she didn’t even like him.

  His face set into harsh lines as he made his decision, surging to his feet to sweep Darci up in his arms.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she groaned protestingly.

  Luc glanced down at her as he strode forcefully across the room. ‘Taking you to bed,’ he rasped. ‘That is what you want, isn’t it?’ Darci looked up at him uncertainly, finding no hint of the tender lover in his harshly set expression and the darkness of his eyes. ‘Luc, what—? Luc…!’ she cried, as he didn’t place her on her bed, but instead dropped her from a three-foot height so that she bounced on the springy mattress.

  His mouth twisted derisively as he looked down at her, and she tried to regain her balance enough to straighten her clothing over her exposed body. ‘I said I was taking you to bed, Darci—not that I would be joining you there!’ he informed her evenly.

  Darci swallowed hard, not understanding any of this—not understanding Luc. He had been as aroused as she still was a few minutes ago, hadn’t he?

  Hadn’t he…?

  Luc continued to look coldly down at her in a way that said otherwise. ‘I suggest that the next time you speak to your friend Mellie you ask her why she lied to you when she told you she and I had been lovers,’ he grated hardly.

  ‘What…?’ Darci couldn’t think straight. Her body was still on fire with the need Luc had lit deep inside her but left unassuaged.

  Deliberately?

  Had he aroused her on purpose, touched her, caressed her, with the sole intention of humiliating her?

  ‘Oh, I think you understand me perfectly well, Darci,’ he said, his gaze once again sweeping over her disdainfully. ‘I’ve never even met your friend Mellie, let alone showered her with flowers, compliments and empty promises in order to seduce her into my silk-sheeted bed,’ he stated plainly, so that there should be no lingering misunderstanding.