Kate was ensnared in lassoes of desire, shimmering over her head, shivering down her skin and tightening, tightening, until all she could think about was Luke's mouth, Luke's hands the feel of his hard body.
Eventually they found themselves back at the hotel. They took the lift to the third floor without touching, without speaking, and walked down the thickly carpeted corridor that muffled ever their footsteps. Kate was sure that Luke must hear her heart pounding in the enveloping quiet.
Her hand shook slightly as she unlocked her door and turned to say goodnight.
Luke didn't reply. He just looked at her and then reached out to draw her slowly towards him
`I don't think this is a very good idea,' Kate managed to whisper, even though she didn't seem to be able to drag her eyes away from his.
`Why not?'
'We… we agreed to keep things strictly business.'
A half-smile lifted the corner of his mouth. `To hell with business!' he said, and jerked her into his arms.
His kiss was hard and passionate, and Kate was powerless to resist. It was what she had been thinking about all evening, his lips demanding, irresistible, evoking a deep, trembling fire that, once lit, burned quickly out of control.
Kate's arms crept up his arms, around his neck, as her lips sought his in reply. There was a breathless hunger between them, their kisses almost angry as they were swept along on a tide of desire that had been suppressed too long and now threatened to engulf them.
Luke was breathing heavily as he lifted his head and half pushed, half pulled Kate into the room. She collapsed weakly back against the door as he closed it and leant his hands on either side of her.
`I've wanted to kiss you for weeks,' he said, and the husky note in his voice seemed to vibrate through her. `Every time you came into my office and sat down primly with your notebook and looked at me with that cool look you have I'd think about kissing you.' His lips nibbled tantalisingly at the corner of her mouth until Kate turned her head to meet them with her own. `I'd think about kissing you like this,' he murmured against her parted lips, and pressed her back against the door.
His hands cupped her face, his fingers tangling in her hair as their kisses deepened hungrily.
For Kate-sensible, practical, capable Kate, the past was forgotten and the future abandoned. Nothing mattered but the here and now. She couldn't have stopped even if she had wanted to. Her blood was pounding in wild surges of excitement, her body tingling with the instinctive thrill of response.
Her arms slid beneath his jacket, and she spread her hands over the smooth cotton of his shirt. His back was broad and solid and she could feel his muscles ripple at her touch.
`Did you ever think about kissing me too?' Luke was demanding, mumbling provocative kisses along her jaw.
Kate quivered as he reached her ear, the very spot she had fantasised about as she had stood in front of the fromagerie. `No,' she gasped, tipping her head back with luxuriant pleasure.
`You're lying.' She could feel him smile against her throat. `Tell me you're lying. Tell me you wanted me to kiss you.' His hands tightened as he raised his head to look down into her eyes.
`I'm lying. Of course I'm lying,' Kate said with a slow smile as he bent to kiss her again. Her hands were busy pulling out his shirt so that she could slide her hands up and down his skin, warm and smooth and unyielding beneath her fingers.
`Kate!' Luke's breath was ragged as he pulled away slightly. His gaze dropped to the brooch, and he unfastened it with unsteady hands, laying it carefully to one side before turning back and pressing his lips to the shadowy cleft revealed between her breasts.
Arching her head back, Kate felt as if he were plucking at taut strings inside her that stretched and twanged with desire at his very touch. As his lips travelled slowly along her neckline, lingering on the sensitive hollows of her clavicle and the wild pulse in her throat, she pushed the jacket impatiently off his shoulders and fumbled with his tie and the buttons of his shirt.
Her hands were at his belt before he turned her round and undid her zip with agonising slowness, burning kisses down her spine as he went until her skin quivered uncontrollably. There was a rustle as the dress slipped off her shoulders and slithered to the floor.
Kate stepped out of it as if in a dream. The curtains had not yet been drawn and, though the room was in darkness, the moonlight through the window caught her eyes, gleaming with desire.
Her head dropped back as Luke pressed his face into the fragrance of her neck, and her hair brushed softly against him. He turned her back to face him and slid off her underwear to the accompaniment of long, hot kisses.
By the time Luke had discarded his own clothes and pulled her down on to the bed, Kate was on fire. It was heaven to be able to touch him like this, to forget everything in intoxicating abandon, knowing that there could be no stopping now Their bodies tangled together with increasing urgency and she gasped his name as he ran his hands in insistent exploration over her skin murmuring endearments against her warmth. His mouth followed the path scorched by his fingers, discovering anew the secret places that reduced Kate to arching, shuddering delight.
Rolling on top of him, she held his face between her hands and smiled down at him before lowering her head very slowly to explore his lips with her own. She lay over him, exulting at the feel of his hardness, of the sensuous thrill of skin against skin.
Luke's arms came up to tighten around hi but she slid downwards, teasing soft, tantalising kisses as she went, until with a groan he rolled her beneath him once more and thrust deep inside her, deeper and deeper until they both cried out in an explosion of release, a shattering of exquisite torment that left them trembling in each other's arms.
Afterwards he held her close. There was no sign of the brusque, arrogant Luke in the man whose warm hands gentled lovingly over her skin.
`Do you still think it wasn't a good idea?' he murmured, kissing the lobe of her ear.
Kate's eyes were closed, but a smile curved her mouth. `Perhaps it wasn't very sensible.'
`Who wants to be sensible?’
'You did.'
`I've changed my mind. I changed my mind as soon as Xavier took one look at you and saw the same warm, exciting woman as I did under that cool, sensible mask of yours. I could cheerfully have throttled him that night at the restaurant when you were flirting with him. And then, when he took you out and you seemed so different afterwards, I was nearly insane with jealousy.' Luke smoothed the hair away from Kate's flushed face. `I always thought of you as mine, even when I was pretending you were just another secretary.'
`But I am just a secretary,' she teased, but let her hand drift over his stomach in a gesture that was far from secretarial.
Luke shook his head. `You're different, Kate. You're the only completely honest woman I've ever met. How could I resist those clear eyes?' He kissed her closed lids and, although Kate smiled, her eyes when she opened them were troubled.
She hadn't been completely honest with him. Her hands slid around his back to hold him close while she hesitated. She knew that she ought to remind him about their brief encounter in the past, but he was so warm, so close. She didn't want anything to spoil this moment.
No, she really should tell him… `Luke,' she said hesitatingly.
`What is it?' Luke asked, nuzzling kisses against her throat. His eyes when he lifted his head to look down into her face were alight with a warmth that she had never seen there before, and, despite herself, Kate felt her resolution crumble. She didn't think she could bear to see that expression fade, not here, not now. She would tell him later.