LITMIR.BIZ

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the phone in his pocket. ‘No special reason.’

      ‘I don’t like being photographed.’ She gave his fingers around her wrist a scowling look. ‘And I don’t like being manhandled either.’

      He turned her wrist over and slowly raised it to his mouth so he could access the sensitive underside with his lips. He held her gaze as he brushed his lips against her delicately scented skin, watching as her eyes widened and her pupils flared like twin spills of black ink.

      Lust heated his blood, set it moving, thundering, roaring to his groin as the tip of her small pink tongue darted out and swept over her lips, making them glisten invitingly. Her slim throat rose and fell as she swallowed; he even heard the tiny gulping sound in spite of the background chirruping of birds and the light whistle of the breeze moving through the cypress pines in the distance.

      He lowered his head until he was barely a breath away from connecting with her lips, pausing there to give her the chance to pull back if she wanted to. He breathed in the sweet vanilla-milkshake scent of her breath as it danced over his lips as her mouth softly parted.

       Come on, little princess, you know you want to….

      The sound of the gravel being shifted by the tread of approaching footsteps made Lottie spring back from Lucca as if someone had fired a cannon from the battlements. She whipped around to see Madeleine coming towards them arm in arm with her fiancé, Edward Trowbridge. If the loved-up couple had seen anything untoward they were showing no sign of it; they were too engrossed in each other with their heads bent close together as they ambled along the pathway.

      A tiny pang of envy twisted her insides. It would be so wonderful to have a man look at her with nothing but love and adoration in his eyes. No one would ever think she had romance running with wild hopes in her veins, but she secretly longed for a man to look at her as if his world began and ended with her. Would she ever find that sort of happiness? Or would she always be left on the sidelines, the spare part no one needed. The wallflower. The not-pretty-enough, not-smart-enough princess everyone either mocked or pitied.

      Madeleine looked up and smiled. ‘Ah, Mr Chatsfield, at last I get the chance to meet you and to personally thank you for stepping in at the last minute to help Lottie with the wedding arrangements.’

      ‘It’s my very great pleasure, Your Royal Highness,’ Lucca said.

      He was so charming, so adaptable to every situation, Lottie thought with growing annoyance. No wonder he had the reputation of being irresistible. That smile would melt through steel and leave it in a little silver puddle at his feet.

      ‘How is she behaving?’ Madeleine asked him once formal introductions were out of the way. ‘She can be a little headstrong and overcontrolling at times.’

      ‘Princess Charlotte is a delight in every way imaginable,’ he replied with consummate charm.

      Lottie shot him a narrow-eyed little glare while the others weren’t looking.

      ‘Oh, you don’t have to address her so formally,’ Madeleine said. ‘Family and friends call her Lottie. I’m sure she doesn’t mind, do you, Lottie?’

      ‘Not at all.’ She stretched her mouth in a rictus smile.

      Lucca’s dark brown eyes gleamed with a wick of wickedness. ‘Your sister was just consulting me about the flowers for the ballroom.’

      ‘Oh, really?’ Madeleine looked a little surprised. ‘But I thought—’

      ‘He’s great at flowers,’ Lottie said. ‘A natural. Born to it. Should have been a florist. Missed his calling if you ask me.’

      Edward Trowbridge’s brows lifted ever so slightly. ‘How … nice …’

      ‘I thought she would’ve had you working on the entertainment program for my bachelorette party?’ Madeleine said, swinging her gaze back to Lottie. ‘What are you up to, Lottie? You’re not up to mischief, are you?’

      Lottie smiled innocently. ‘You know me better than that.’

      Madeleine swung her gaze back to Lucca. ‘I’m afraid Lottie wasn’t too happy about having any help with the planning at this late stage. She’s a bit of a control freak. But this team effort will be really good for her. I’m sure you’ll do a splendid job helping her to learn to let go a bit.’

      ‘I’m putting in my very best effort,’ Lucca said with a smile that would have charmed a seagull away from a food scrap.

      Madeleine and Edward made their goodbyes and wandered off towards the grotto at the far end of the palace gardens.

      ‘Nice couple.’

      Lottie snatched up the flower basket. ‘Just for the record, I would’ve slapped your face if you’d kissed me back then.’

      ‘What makes you think I was going to kiss you?’

      She stopped marching and rounded her gaze on him. Had she imagined his intentions? Was she so out of touch she couldn’t tell when a man was interested in her or not? But whether he wanted to kiss her or not, she had been alarmingly close to pressing her mouth to his. Caught up in the moment she had been entranced, mesmerised by the thought of feeling his lips against hers. Her body had thrummed with the need to taste him. The teasing breeze of his breath against her lips, the way his breath had mingled with hers in that erotic way, had almost been her undoing.

      ‘You … you weren’t?’

      He flashed a sudden grin. ‘I was tempted, but I don’t want to swing from the tower for breeching palace protocol. There are probably CCTV cameras behind every rose petal out here.’

      She gave him a speaking look. ‘I’m quite sure you wouldn’t let the inconvenience of a centuries-old rule book get in the way of your base interests.’

      He took the flower basket off her, somehow making the most of the opportunity to brush his hand against hers as he did so. The nerves beneath her skin leapt to attention, her stomach pitching in delight at the warm thrill that coursed through her body. ‘So what’s the penalty for stealing a kiss from a princess?’

      She held his gaze with a spark of challenge in hers. ‘Why don’t you try it and find out?’

      His eyes went to her mouth and then back to her eyes. Back and forth. Back and forth. Will I or won’t I? he seemed to be asking himself. ‘Are you flirting with me, little princess?’

      ‘Of course not!’

      He smiled again, a smug, self-congratulatory smile, as he flicked her cheek with an idle finger. ‘You want me so bad.’

      Lottie jerked back with a roll of her eyes, which she hoped would in some way cancel out her betraying blush but she wasn’t putting any money on it. ‘Tell me something … does your ego have its own zip code?’

      He laughed as he fell into step beside her. ‘Cute.’ His shoulder brushed against hers as they went through one of the rose-covered archways and a shower of shell-pink petals fell around them like confetti. ‘So … tell me why this wedding is so important to you.’

      She gave him a sideways glance. ‘It’s my sister’s wedding. Why wouldn’t it be important to me?’

      ‘Fair point.’

      They walked a little farther in silence.

      ‘I want it to be just as Madeleine wants,’ Lottie said. ‘I want everything to be perfect for her.’

      ‘Seems to me everything already is perfect for her.’

      She glanced at him again but his expression was unreadable. ‘Yes, well, some people are lucky in life and in love.’

      ‘And you?’ He’d stopped walking and looked down at her. ‘Have you been lucky?’

      ‘I could hardly complain given all this.’ She waved a hand to encompass the palace and its surrounds.

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