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wanted him to know because she had sensed, with every pore of her being, that he wouldn’t be thrilled.

      For a man who didn’t do commitment, and who gave warnings about the perils of involvement, a virgin would represent the last word in unacceptable.

      She quailed and clenched her fists because making love to Lucas had been the most wonderful thing in her life, just the most beautiful, right thing she had ever done, and now it was going to be spoiled because, quite rightly, he was going to hit the roof.

      She wriggled and tried to yank some of the covers up because there was no way she was going to have an argument with him in the nude.

      ‘So what?’ She eyed him mutinously under the thick fringe of her lashes and glowered. ‘It’s really no big deal.’

      ‘No big deal?’ Lucas parroted incredulously. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

      ‘Because I know how you would have reacted,’ Katy muttered, hugging her knees to her chest and refusing to meet his eyes for fear of the message she would read there.

      ‘You know, do you?’

      Katy sneaked a glance at him, and just as fast her eyes skittered away. He was sprawled indolently on the bed, an in-your-face reminder of the intimacy they had just shared. She was covering up for all she was worth but he was carelessly oblivious to his nakedness.

      ‘I wanted to do it.’ She stuck her chin up and challenged him to argue with that. ‘And I knew that if I told you that I’d never slept with anyone before you’d have run a mile. Wouldn’t you?’

      Lucas grimaced. ‘I probably would have been a little cautious,’ he conceded.

      ‘Run a mile.’

      ‘But I would have been flattered,’ he admitted with even more honesty. ‘I would also have been more gentle and taken my time.’ He raked his fingers through his hair and vaulted out of the bed to pace the floor, before snatching a towel which was slung over the back of a chair and loosely settling it around his waist. Then he circled to sit on the bed next to her. ‘It is a big deal,’ he said gently. He took her hands in his and stroked her wrists until her clenched fists relaxed. ‘And if I was a little rough for you, then I apologise.’

      ‘Please don’t apologise.’ She smiled cautiously and stroked his face, and it was such an intimate gesture that she almost yanked her hand back, but he didn’t seem to mind; indeed he caught her hand and turned it over so that he could place a very tender kiss on the underside of her wrist.

      ‘You’re beautiful, cara. I don’t understand how it is that you’ve remained a virgin. Surely there must have been other men before Powell?’

      Katy winced at the reminder of the man who had been responsible for landing them here together on this yacht. It was fair to say that, however hateful her memories of him were, they seemed a lot less hateful now. Maybe one day she might even mentally thank him because she couldn’t see how she could ever regret having slept with Lucas.

      ‘That was another of those down sides to having parents who were pillars of the community.’ Katy let loose a laugh. ‘There were always expectations. And especially in a tiny place, when you’re growing up, everyone knows everyone else. Reputations are lost in the snap of a finger. I didn’t really think about that, though,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘I just knew that I wanted the whole love and marriage thing, so my standards were maybe a bit on the high side.’

      She sighed and smiled ruefully at Lucas, who was looking at her with such sizzling interest that every pulse in her body raced into overdrive.

      ‘When Duncan came along, I’d just returned from university and I wasn’t quite sure what direction my life was going to take. I remember my mother and I talking about the social scene at university, and my mum asking me about the boys, and something must have registered that I needed to take the next step, which was finding someone special.’ She gazed at Lucas. ‘I slept with you because I really wanted to. You said a lot of stuff...basically about seizing the day...’

      ‘I had no idea I was addressing a girl who had no experience.’

      ‘But, you see, that’s not the point.’ Katy was keen to impress this on him. ‘The point is that you made me think about things differently. I know this isn’t going anywhere but at least you were honest about that and you gave me a choice.’ Duncan had denied her the truth about himself and, even if this was just a one night stand, which was something she had always promised herself she would never do, was it really worse to lose her virginity to Lucas than to a liar like Duncan?

      She gazed up at him earnestly and Lucas lowered his head and very tenderly kissed her on the lips. He could have taken her again, right then, but she would be sore. Next time, he intended to make it up to her, to take his time. It blew his mind to think that she had come to him as a virgin. It was a precious gift and he knew that, even though he couldn’t fully understand what had led her to give it to him.

      ‘Yes, cara, there will be no “for ever after” with us but believe me when I tell you that, for the time we’re together, I will take you to paradise and back. But before that...can I interest you in a shower?’ He stood up and looked down at her slender perfection.

      ‘With you?’

      ‘Why not?’ Lucas raised his eyebrows. ‘You’d be surprised how different an experience it can be when you’re in a shower with your lover.’

      Katy shivered pleasurably at that word...lover. She shook her head and laughed. ‘I think I’m going to relax here for a bit, then I’ll go back to my cabin.’

      Of course there would be no ‘for ever after’...and she was tempted to tell him that she understood that well enough without having to be reminded of it.

      ‘Why?’ Lucas frowned and then heard himself inviting her to stay with him, which was astonishing, because he had always relished his privacy, even when he was involved with someone. Sex was a great outlet, and his appetite for it was as healthy as the next man’s, but when the sex was over his craving for his own space always took precedence over post-coital closeness. He’d never spent the night with a woman.

      ‘Because I need to be on my own for a bit.’

      Right then, Lucas felt that by the time they were ready to leave this yacht he would have introduced her to the joys of sharing showers and shown her how rewarding it could be to spend the night in his bed...

      * * *

      Katy had fallen into something of a sleep when she heard the bang on the door to her cabin. For the first time since she had arrived on Lucas’s cruiser, she had retired to bed without anything to eat, but then it had been late by the time she had eventually left his cabin.

      Having intended to sneak out while he was showering, she had remained where she was and they had spent the next few hours in one another’s arms. To his credit, he had not tried to initiate sex again.

      ‘I can show you a lot of other ways we can satisfy one another,’ he had murmured, and he had proceeded to do just that.

      In the end, she had been the one whose body had demanded more than just the touch of his mouth and the feel of his long, skilful fingers. She had been the one to guide him into her and to demand that he come inside her.

      It had been a marathon session and she had made her way back to her cabin exhaustedly, still determined not to stay the night in his room, because if she slept in her own bed then she would somehow be able to keep control of the situation.

      ‘Katy! Open up!’

      Katy jerked up with a start at the sound of Lucas’s voice bellowing at her through the locked door. She leapt out of the bed, half-drugged with sleep, and yanked open the door, every fibre in her body responding with panic to the urgency in his voice.

      She looked at him in consternation. He was in a pair of jeans and a black, figure-hugging tee-shirt. Not the sort of clothes anyone would consider wearing for a good night’s sleep. Her already

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