Sunday Smooch - The Greek's Forbidden Princess

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!

Today we have a smooch from Annie West but first 


... the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is Pam Swain!


Can you please contact Stefanie London at stefanie(at)stefanie-london.com to receive your copy of 'What She Wants'.


And now for today's Sunday Smooch from Annie West's THE GREEK'S FORBIDDEN PRINCESS.

Illicit nights with the billionaire… 

News of a tragic accident plunges Princess Amelie's life into turmoil. To escape the swarming press, she takes her newly orphaned nephew and runs, seeking the protection of one man. 

Lambis Evangelos desires Amelie beyond all reckoning, but refuses to taint her radiant beauty with the guilt of his past. For years he's resisted his longing for her luscious body—until Amelie's arrival at his doorstep draws him too close to her forbidden temptation… 

His secluded Greek island is a refuge from the world. There, Amelie and Lambis have no choice—they must yield to their fiery, uncontrollable passion! 

Scene set-up
Lambis and Amelie are together at his Greek villa, both trying to help her traumatised nephew. But despite their common purpose, they're at odds because both are fighting the attraction that has simmered between them for years.

Smooch  -

She was on her feet and turning away when she heard the scratch of his chair on the paving.

‘Wait, don’t go.’ A big hand closed around her upper arm.

For a millisecond Amelie’s jagged nerves eased at the reassurance of that touch. Till she heard Lambis’s hiss of indrawn breath and his hand dropped away.

Amelie stood, blinking at the view of garden lights and the dark bay beyond, telling herself it didn’t matter. Truly. She’d had plenty of time to accept he didn’t want her.

But that instant reaction told her more. It told her she actually repelled him.

What was wrong with her? Twice in her life she’d reached out to a man, believing they shared something special. Twice she’d been pushed away.

She blinked again, horrified by this curious stasis gripping her. She couldn’t lift her feet. It was all she could do to repress the wild tumble of emotions churning inside.

‘Why, Lambis? What is it about me?’

She hadn’t intended the words. Heaven knew she’d worked for years to put on a bland, unconcerned face on the few occasions she and Lambis had met since that fateful summer. Pride dictated she say nothing, just accept she was flawed in some way that made her attractive from a distance, to the adoring crowds and the press, but not up close. Not to a man she cared about.

‘What do you mean?’

Amelie counted to five, telling herself to forget this and walk away. She had enough to contend with without opening up this too. Yet how could she fix whatever was wrong with her, if she didn’t know the problem? Was she forever doomed to repel rather than attract?

On a spurt of defiant courage she spun on her heel. He stood close behind her. So close she had to hike up her chin to meet his unreadable gaze.

UK cover

‘Why don’t you want to touch me? It’s not that you’re afraid I’ll misinterpret and think you’ve changed your mind about…us.’ She swallowed hard but kept going, determined to have this out. ‘What is it about me that’s so…’ she waved a hand, searching for the word, ‘wrong?’

‘Wrong?’ His brow wrinkled. ‘There’s nothing wrong with you, Amelie.’

Yet she read strain in the tendons of his neck that stood proud. In the flare of his nostrils and the pulse racing at his temple. Amelie looked down and saw his hands bunched into fists.

‘Isn’t there?’ She lifted her hand and lightly touched his cheek. Silky heat and just a touch of abrasiveness met the pads of her fingertips.

She’d wondered how it would feel to touch him.

But his instant step back told her everything she needed to know.

‘Actually, don’t bother answering.’ She’d been wrong. She didn’t need to know the answer. Tonight, with so many other insurmountable problems, she didn’t have strength to wrestle with another.

She was turning when his arm shot out, barring her way. Again, he didn’t touch her, yet it felt as if the air between them snapped and sizzled with electricity. How she deluded herself.

‘You want to know why I don’t touch you?’ His voice sounded different, raw and hard. ‘It’s because I don’t dare.’

Amelie frowned. ‘What are you saying, Lambis? I don’t understand.’

‘No, you don’t, do you?’ His voice was husky. His hands closed around her shoulders, turning her to face him, pulling her so close she shivered as the heat of his big body encompassed her. ‘I’ve tried to resist you, Amelie. I thought I’d succeeded, but I can’t do it anymore. Not when you’re so close, so…’ He shook his head. ‘Every time I see you I want to touch you, more than touch you.’

Amelie’s eyes widened. Her breath caught as he lowered his head. His eyes, the colour of a storm cloud shot with lightning, captured hers.

‘There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you, Amelie.’ His breath feathered her cheeks. ‘The problem is me. And the fact I want to do this.’

He hauled her up on her toes, wrapping powerful arms around her, then slanted his mouth over hers.

 

Amelie begins this story sure that Lambis doesn't care for her, more, that he doesn't like her. Boy, was she wrong!

Have you ever believed something and then found out you were completely wrong? Maybe it was a first impression of someone that proved false, or a discovery not about a person but a thing. How did you react?

Leave a comment and you'll go in the (international) draw to win a signed copy of  'The Greek's Forbidden Princess'.

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced and a smooch from Liz Fielding will be posted!

Smooch Graphic by WebWeaver