The Billionaire's Second-Chance Bride(24)

If Lucy was honest with herself, then she would know what the real obstacle was. Antonio Romero. She was going crazy out of her mind thinking about him every waking second. She just couldn’t flush his charm, the memory of his sweet kiss, his touch out of her mind. Oh, she tried. But she just couldn’t and because he was as emotionally detached as a slab of steel (hmm, speaking of abs of steel), she knew he was unavailable to her in the way that she would need him to be.

The truth was, as embarrassing as it was, Antonio hadn’t even called her since Monday. Not that she expected him to. Not that he told her he would but after such an intimate lip-locking session, she thought he would at least have tried to reach her or reach out to her.

Damn Antonio!

Why hasn't he called me?

He should have called me.

He should have tried to send me a text message or an email to see how things were going with his grandfather. Or maybe even make an excuse to drop by the office, just as he did last week.

What was it with him?

Was he seeing someone? No. He said he wasn’t.

Lucy then realized that Antonio was hot and sexy and bad in every sense of the word where raw physical attraction was concerned and although she almost went into cardiac arrest when he almost sucked her breath away with that sizzling kiss, it obviously meant nothing to him. At least that’s what Lucy believed. She anxiously bit down on her lip while thinking about Monday night.

“Come on, Maxine,” Lucy finally uttered. “We need to get going. We have a million things to do before the end of the week.”

“Oh, and we must get an appropriate outfit for the ball tomorrow.”

“I don’t think I’m going again. I’ve got too much on my agenda for our upcoming weddings.”

Maxine turned to her as if Lucy had morphed into a vampire or a zombie. “Are you feeling alright? You cannot miss the Diamond Ball, girl. We have to go!”

“Oh, you can go. You can represent the agency. I don’t think we both need to be there. In fact, why don’t you ask one of your friends to go? Or, you and Darla can go in my place,” Lucy murmured, her heart squeezed at the thought of not going but it was for the best.

There was only one solution to prevent Lucy from heartbreak again.

I’ve got to get Antonio Romero out of my system.





CHAPTER EIGHT





“You seem preoccupied, grandson,” Toni commented as he hobbled with his cane into the den. He didn’t always walk with a cane but at times when his arthritis acted up, he would use his walking stick on the advice of his physiotherapist to help stabilize him while walking and help to reduce the pressure on his ankle.

Antonio was gazing outside through the French glass doors in the room. He had his hands shoved inside the pockets of his dress pants. His tie was loosened at the neck and his blazer was opened up. He was leaning against the antique oak desk, just glaring as if his vision was fixed on an object. Only it wasn’t. It was his mind that was fixated with a subject.

Lucy Shillerton.

He loathed the fact that she was dominating his every thought since he’d met her. She was nothing but trouble and Antonio knew that. Yet his mind and body were not in unison where thoughts of her were concerned. A surge of heat raced through him just visualizing her in his mind. The rounded curves of her hips, her intoxicating fragrance and thoughts of what her slender legs would feel like around his waist.

He had kissed her. That was memorable. There was something about the softness of her lips. She seemed so inexperienced, yet a breath of fresh air at the same time. Antonio had admittedly kissed a lot of women in his time to know about the individuals. Much like James Bond, he could tell a lot by the way a woman kissed, including her sincerity. He didn’t know how but he was always spot-on.

There was something that was in sync with his body and soul when his lips touched Lucy’s. His mouth literally watered to taste her sweetness all evening before he finally kissed her. But why had he done it then? Was he just curious to see if she tasted as good as she looked? He had found her fragrance so damn intoxicating at the same time, it drove him wild.

Antonio was simply captivated by Lucy’s chaste beauty. And not just the physical beauty. The attraction to her was one thing but what the kindness that rested within her was what struck him. It wasn’t as if he’d met women like that every single day. There was always an agenda with other women, followed by emotional baggage attached to the ones he’d met.

So now he was hooked on Lucy’s taste and that was bad, very bad for him. He didn’t like the feeling of being hooked or dependent on anyone. Certainly not some hot-looking woman. He had too many negative experiences in his past with Velcro-women who liked to cling on for dear life to him. He didn’t want the responsibility or the emotional commitment they desired. They wanted what he could not, would not give them. All of him. Where his heart was concerned that was off-limits. Period.