No, especially something like that.

Well, she wasn’t a girl anymore, and he wasn’t the only one who could be shocking. Lottie pressed her tongue to his, determined to show him exactly how little this meant to her—but Alec immediately froze. Her cheeks, already flushed from his attentions, burned even greater at this misstep. Rejection wasn’t humiliating enough on its own; no, she must also resemble an overripe tomato. But before she could pull back and recover what little remained of her dignity, Alec hauled her against his chest so close she could feel every thudding heartbeat. With each rhythmic pulse the kiss seemed to grow only more fierce, more desperate, and more dangerous.

Lottie gathered what little remained of her frazzled nerves and raised a hand to push him away, but the appendage had other ideas. Instead, her fingers sank into his hair, mussing those thick waves, while her nails gently scraped his scalp. Alec shivered and gripped her harder, which only further weakened her already feeble resolve. Just as her knees began to tremble, Alec splayed one large palm between her shoulder blades while the other moved close to her backside and firmly anchored her against his form. Every inch radiated heat, strength, and undeniable maleness.

Unlike the other gentlemen of her acquaintance, Alec did not fritter away the daylight hours in private clubs before spending the evening enjoying more shallow entertainments. His body was a weapon, and he treated it like one. She grazed a sizable biceps, and he immediately flexed beneath her fingertips. An appreciative moan rose from her throat, and Alec only kissed her more deeply. The insidious whisper in the back of her mind suddenly grew very loud: Perhaps this is real.

Alec tore his mouth from hers, as if he had heard it. After a moment Lottie’s eyes fluttered open. She was flushed. Breathless. But Alec seemed as cool and collected as before. He was staring past her with a sharp, calculating look in those fathomless hazel eyes.

“There,” he murmured. “That ought to do it.”

Chapter Three

Once again Alec had underestimated Lottie while vastly overestimating his own self-control.

That hadn’t been an issue in years—if anything, his control had been a point of pride—but Alec didn’t dare look at her now. He heard her sharp, surprised inhalation as he pulled away, but if he caught just one glimpse of a pliant, kiss-drunk Lottie in his arms, he wouldn’t let go. Alec kept his eyes trained on a corner of the house’s stone facade as he drew his hands away from her deceptively devastating curves. She hadn’t been made of marble at all but was warm and supple, with an enticing figure that could lure men to their deaths; a land-bound siren. A temptation that would most certainly drive him insane.

But far more unnerving was her reaction to him. Alec had felt that barely contained fire inside her. That passion simmering at the very surface, a breath away from boiling over. It might not all have been on his account—there was still the possible suitor to consider—but he sure as hell wanted to experience Lottie unbound, even if just a part of her, however small, had melted for him.