‘But of course you’d understand. After all, that’s how you run your life.’

‘Used to,’ Lucas corrected, continuing without any further elaboration, ‘And is this why you need an escort?’

‘Mmm.’

Georgia couldn’t quite meet those probing eyes, feeling irrationally that if she looked into them he might actually be able to see right into her thoughts and realise that the party was only part of her problem, that there was a great deal she was leaving unsaid.

‘I really think you should have dinner with me.’

‘And I really think that there’s no need for that. I can tell you all you need to know without any fuss.’

‘No, you can’t.’

‘Of course I can!’

Lucas shook his head adamantly, lounging back in his chair once more, his comfortably relaxed posture and the smug smile playing around the corners of his mouth infuriating her further.

‘Would you mind telling me just what is going to be so damn difficult about it? I really can’t see any problem at all. After all, you seem to have already started the process on your own. I mean, how did you find out where I live?’

‘As I said, I asked questions.’

‘You asked questions,’ Georgia said hollowly, not liking the idea at all.

‘And I got some very interesting answers.’

That caught her attention, though she couldn’t have said whether she was intrigued or angry at the thought of him prying into her private life.

‘Such as?’ She couldn’t help herself.

‘Oh.’

Lucas assumed a thoughtful expression, as if considering his options.

‘Such as the fact that you’re twenty-seven, unmarried, with no steady man in your life at the moment You have your own interior design company and I gather you’re building up quite a reputation.’

‘That’s not interesting!’ Georgia scoffed. ‘It’s common knowledge.’

‘It’s interesting to me.’

‘You can’t expect me to believe that! After all, you’re the one with the high profile lifestyle, the international reputation, why should you take any int—?’

‘And why not?’

Lucas startled her by getting to his feet as he spoke, coming towards her soft-footed as a cat, his eyes so deep and dark they seemed to hold hers with mesmeric force.

‘Why not?’ he murmured in a very different voice, one that seemed to wind itself around her like warm smoke, weaving through the rich strands of her hair, feathering over her skin, raising tiny prickles of awareness all over her body. ‘Why shouldn’t I be interested in—fascinated by—the most beautiful woman in the room at that charity auction? A woman whose clear, bright eyes make me think of a young doe in a forest glade, whose skin is as soft and delicate as the ripest peach.’

Reaching out with slow grace, he took her hand very gently, and entranced, hypnotised by his eyes and his voice, she couldn’t resist him, couldn’t fight against the seductive spell he was weaving. She almost believed he had the power to charm her soul out of her body like some long ago druid or shamen.

‘A woman whose hair gleams the colour of a newly opened horse chestnut, whose body could be the model for Botticelli’s Venus.’

Georgia hadn’t even noticed that he had raised her hand, lifting it the final couple of inches to meet his lips. It was only when she felt the warm, soft pressure of his mouth against her fingers that reality broke through the golden trance in which she had been imprisoned.

The burning crackle of response that flared through her nerves from that one point of contact, blazing up her arm and radiating throughout her body, made her snatch her hand away sharply. She would have been unable to ascribe the small cry that escaped her either to delight or distress with any degree of confidence.

‘Stop it!’

Her voice was high-pitched and shaking, and she cradied the hand he had kissed against her as if it had actually been physically burned.

‘I don’t want this! I—I—’

She broke off sharply, stunned into silence as Lucas grinned broadly, his eyes lighting with a devilish, totally unrepentant gleam that mocked her response for the overreaction it was.

‘Just practising,’ he murmured. ‘You said you wanted someone who could make people think that you are the centre of their universe, the sun in the sky.’

That grin widened, became positively malevolent.

‘And if I can convince you, then I can convince anyone.’

‘Convince-—rs; The word cracked disastrously in the middle as the reality of just what he was saying hit home to her. ‘You—!’

She couldn’t say which was worse, the skill with which he had duped her, or the nagging ache around her heart that told her he had only been able to deceive her so easily because some weak, foolish part of her had actually wanted to believe his extravagant protestations. No, not wanted, she hastily corrected herself, but she had listened to them with more attention than was wise.

Instead of which, every ounce of common sense, every trace of self-preservation she possessed should have screamed at her to reject Lucas’s attentions out of hand After all, she knew it was the type of thing he must do to almost every girl he met, and as such it was the last thing on earth she wanted. But somehow, even as she formed it in her mind, the stern admonition didn’t quite ring true.