Nikki Logan - British Bachelors - Fabulous and Famous - The Secret Ingredient / How to Get Over Your Ex / Behind the Film Star's Smile

The overall effect was so totally intoxicating, that suddenly she felt light-headed and bent forward to rest her brow on his chest.

This was her dream, her fantasy. For a few precious seconds she could pretend that she was just like any other girl out for a stroll with her boyfriend. Pretend that this man cared about her, had chosen her, wanted to be with her.

A strong bicep flexed next to the thin fabric of her dress, and her eyes closed in pleasure. It had been so long since she had been held like this!

Drat Rob. Drat. She couldn’t do this. Why had she agreed to walk with him? He would be flying back to his real world, and she would be back to square one. On her own, holding it together.

‘Are you okay?’ Rob asked, with enough concern in his voice to bring a lump to her throat again.

His hands slid down as she pulled back and smiled up into his face, but instead of stepping away he simply linked his hands behind her back, holding her in place as she recovered.

‘Yes. I think so.’ She glanced down at her shoe. ‘How clumsy of me. Thanks for stopping me from falling flat on my face.’

Lottie leant back so that she could focus only to find him smiling down at her, his eyes scanning her face from side to side, as though looking for something before speaking.

His lips curved back into a wide, open-mouthed smile, so warm, so caring that she was blinded by it. The warm fingers of one hand slid up her back as he dropped his head forward and nuzzled his chin against her hair. ‘I’m pleased that I was here at the right time.’

Some part of her brain registered that she should make a response, and she forced herself to lift her chin.

Bad mistake.

Because at that precise moment Rob shifted his position and as she whispered, ‘Thank you,’ she felt the heat of his breath on her cheek. Lottie dared to slowly slide the palms of her hands up onto his chest. She could feel the hard planes and ridges of his body beneath her fingers. Emanating enough heat to warm deep inside her, melting away the last remnants of icy resistance that might have lingered there.

A young couple walked by, then a cyclist, but Lottie could hear nothing except the sound of Rob’s breathing as his lips pressed against her temple, and the stubble on his chin rasping against her cheek for a second before he released his grip on her waist and slowly, slowly, slid his hand up inside his jacket, and onto the bare skin of her back above her dress

The sensation was so unexpected, so delicious that she inhaled sharply, gasping in air.

It was as though she had given him a signal of approval.

As his fingertips stroked her skin his soft, sensuous mouth slid slowly and tenderly against her upper lip in the sweetest, most gentle of kisses. It was so brief that Lottie had only seconds to close her eyes and enjoy it before he pulled away from her, his fingers sliding down from the small of her back.

Leaving her feeling bereft.

‘Would you like some coffee? I know the perfect place.’

EIGHT

‘I could never get tired of this view,’ Lottie murmured as she looked out from the patio outside the luxurious apartment over the rooftops of London in the fading dusk.

‘Remarkable.’

Lottie looked over her shoulder at Rob, who was leaning on the kitchen-area worktop. Staring at her as though she were the most fascinating thing in the room instead of the view from the patio. Taunting her with one glance. How did he do that? She had met international bankers who could take lessons on how to make people squirm from Rob Beresford.

She felt like rolling back her shoulders and squaring up to him but somehow she suspected he would enjoy seeing how uncomfortable his ogling was making her feel.

The look he was giving her at that second could be classified as a fire risk.

For the first time since she walked out of the hotel elevator a quiver of alarm crossed Lottie’s mind, making her breath catch in her throat.

What was she doing here?

She had worked with predatory sharks in banking and through her family most of her life and was well used to their tactics of luring the little fish into a shallow pool where they could not possibly escape.

This time she was the one who had voluntarily decided to enter the shark’s territory with nothing more than her brain and her wit as protection. To do...what, exactly? Had she completely lost her mind?

Blinking away the butterflies of doubt and something close to alarm, Lottie watched as Rob broke his stare and strode over to the open-plan living space and shrugged off his dinner jacket, casually draping it on the back of a sofa.

The muscles underneath the fine fabric of his dinner shirt strained taut against the tug and flexed enough to make the hairs on her arms perk up.

And just like that the attraction she had felt towards him in the park sizzled and caught flame, making her inhale sharply and turn back to the patio.

By turning into the gentle breeze Lottie could feel the cool air calming the heat of her skin, and, reaching back, she lifted her long hair from her neck and let it fall onto her shoulders.

‘Have you always lived in London?’ Rob asked as he joined her at the metal railing, so close that their elbows touched for a second before he braced himself.

The heady muskiness of his aftershave blended with the coffee aromas and something on his skin that was so uniquely Rob to create a fragrance that was so addictive it should be banned. Lottie’s chest lifted and fell as she indulged in the pleasure before she managed to pull together a reply.

‘I spent some time in management school in America but apart from that, yes, I suppose I have.’ Her gaze scanned the lights laid out before her. ‘I love this city. I always have.’

‘Then that is something else we have in common.’

Lottie let go of the railing and half turned to face him. The light from the living room created a mosaic of shadows on his face, which added to the hard planes she knew were there.

London?

‘I thought that you couldn’t wait to get out of this city and your business was based in California? Your mother was telling me all about her wonderful studio home on the beach and...’

Understanding flooded in to replace disbelief and Lottie turned back to face the panorama in silence.

Now she was getting a clearer picture of this man. Remarkable award-winning chef moves to California to be close to his mother when she needs him. And in the process starts a new career in TV. Still a player. Still someone interested in what was in it for him...but...

‘She seems very happy there.’

‘She is. The exhibition is a hit and my mum is heading back to California as soon as it closes and the next lucky artist takes over. Which means that it is back to work for both of us. I probably won’t be back in London for a good few months.’

‘Wow. Do you have a home of your own to go back to?’

‘If you mean bricks and mortar and a welcome mat? Not exactly. I’ve claimed the penthouse in the Beresford Plaza and my mum has a loft packed with boxes of my old stuff. Is decaf okay for you?’

‘Perfect. Thank you.’

Rob strolled back into the kitchen, topped up his elaborate coffee maker with water, and added two large scoops of ground coffee from a canister, before pressing several buttons.

‘Well, I can see your barista skills are just fine, but do you still find time to cook, Rob? You must miss running your own kitchen.’

His hands stilled on the worktop. ‘Cooking as in chopping veg and making stock? Not for years.’ Then he grinned. ‘I have the fun of bringing new chefs into the hotels and seeing them learn and grow and do amazing things. Every one of them is so desperate to impress me they give us their all. Now that is magical.’