Free Heiress's Defiance by Lynn Raye Harris

did he have to be so unbelievably beautiful for a man? “I’m glad to hear you admit it.”
    The lights flickered again, longer this time, and she looked up at the fixture. Christos was looking, too. “It’s quite a storm,” she whispered.
    “Yes.”
    “You don’t even have an umbrella.”
    “Do you care if I get wet?”
    She shrugged. “Not really. And if you could manage to get struck by lightning, that would really help me out.”
    His eyes widened. And then he laughed. “Bloodthirsty little thing, aren’t you?”
    She gripped his forearm. “I’m kidding, Christos. I’d like you to go away, but alive and well and unharmed.”
    “Well, thank you for that. I think.”
    “It’s definitely a compliment. A month ago, I wouldn’t have cared how you went away so long as you did.”
    “Then I’ll count my blessings.” He bent and kissed her on the cheek and her heart kickedhard. It was a sweet gesture, nothing sexual, but she found she missed the sexual.
    He opened the door and the lights popped out. All the sounds in her apartment—the hum of the refrigerator, the electronic buzz of several appliances—went completely silent.
    “You can’t leave,” she said after a long moment.
    He made a movement and a light flared. His phone. “I have a light. And I’ll call a cab.”
    “You didn’t drive?”
    “No.”
    “The traffic lights might be out, too. It’ll be chaos until they get the power restored.” The Chatsfield wasn’t far from here, but it had a generator and protocols in place to make sure the guests were not inconvenienced. Her building, however, did not have backup power.
    “Are you asking me to stay, Lucilla?”
    “Until the power is restored, yes.”
    “Are you afraid of the dark?”
    She snorted. “Hardly.” She wasn’t afraid of it, precisely, because she’d always made a game of it when they’d lost power at Chatsfield House. But then she’d been surrounded by children and servants. Here?
    It wasn’t her first power outage, or likelyher last, but no, she didn’t like being alone when everything was so bloody still.
    Christos shut the door again. His phone still gave off a warm glow and she could feel his heat. It was comforting, in a way.
    “Well, I’m afraid of the dark,” he said matter-of-factly.
    “You are not.”
    He put an arm around her and guided her back toward the kitchen. “No, not really. I just thought it would make you feel happier if you thought I was.”
    She rolled her eyes. “You don’t care if I’m happy or not.”
    “Maybe I do.”
    “Please.”
    “Or maybe I just like it when you smile.”
    “I smile. A lot.”
    “Not at me.”
    “You don’t do anything to deserve it, Christos. Now hold the phone up while I check the drawers for candles.”
    She found candles and a lighter. She lit those and set them on the island, and they returned to the stools they’d occupied not so long ago.
    “I like it when you smile,” he said, and her heart turned over.
    “You
are
smooth. No wonder you’ve bedded half of London so far.”
    He snorted. “Half of London? I wasn’t aware you’d noticed.”
    Heat prickled at the back of her neck. “It’s impossible not to. If you aren’t showing up at Chatsfield functions with a new woman on your arm, you’re in the gossip pages with them.”
    “I have no control over what those rags print.”
    “None of us do,” she said softly.
    “You are trying to make a point, I assume?”
    “Just that I know the Chatsfields haven’t given a good showing lately, but the papers often exaggerate just to make sales.”
    “I am aware of that.”
    She felt a pinch in her chest. “Cara is troubled, Christos. But she’s not bad. She’s not a disgrace.”
    “I never said she was. I merely sent her where her shenanigans would do the least harm.”
    “Vegas. Yes.” She pictured Cara in Sin City and wondered what the child she’d raised would be getting up to there. It worried her, but Cara was an adult now and not