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

She forced her eyes open wide enough to see that his own eyes were closed, his face...oh, his face. She was so going to regret this. One of her arms moved around so that she could run her fingers through his hair. ‘I don’t know. It would mean that you have to be around long enough to find out. Can you do that?’

He looked at her, his fingers pressing on her back.

‘I will be around long enough. Will you give me a chance?’

She looked at him so long her stomach knotted up, his eyes scanning her face as though they were begging her to accept him. There was something in those eyes that went through her skin and penetrated her heart, blowing away any chance of resistance.

There was a lot to be said for giving in to impulses.

Lottie found herself grinning back at him, suddenly drunk with the smell, the feeling of his touch on her skin, the power of his physical presence.

Her fingertip traced the curved fullness of this man’s lower lip, and his mouth opened a little wider at her touch.

Lottie stared up at Rob, into his sea-blue eyes, and knew that he wanted to kiss her again. She focused on his mouth as his long fingers stroked the sides of her face.

It terrified her. And thrilled her.

She wanted him to kiss her. To make the connection she longed for. There was no way that she could freeze this man from her life—it had gone too far now for that to happen. Her lips parted and she felt his mouth against hers as her eyes closed and she let herself be carried away in a breathless dream of a deep, deep kiss.

Tears welled up in Lottie’s eyes and she tried to turn away as a single bead escaped but it was too late. Rob wiped it away with his thumb, the gentle pressure stroking her cheek with such tenderness it took her breath away.

How could she have doubted that this man was capable of being gentle and loving?

Yes, loving.

Her gaze scanned the cheekbones of his face, the bumpy nose, coming to rest on the bow of his upper lip above the full mouth. She felt as though she had known him all of her life.

Her fingertip moved over the crease lines in the corners of his mouth and eyes, which she knew now were down to more than just laughter.

Life had not been easy for this man. His love for his mother had driven him to take risks. If he had become ambitious it was not for his own ego. He had made sacrifices for the people he loved and would do so again.

His hand slid from her cheek into her hair. Smoothing it back from her face as his lips pressed against her brow, closer, and closer.

Her heart was racing, blood surging in her ears and she forgot how crazy this was as she closed her eyes and sensed the raw moistness of his lips on one eyelid, then the other. One of his hands moved around the curve of her waist, drawing her body closer to his.

The delicious sensation of being wanted as a woman dulled any sense of control she might have had left.

There was only this moment in time. There was only Rob.

She needed him as much as he needed her. How had that happened? And why did it feel so absolutely right to be in his arms, feeling his fingers stroke her back and hair, his lips on the crook of her neck, his chin pressed against her jaw? She knew she would be powerless to resist if the heat of that mouth moved closer.