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Without even thinking about it Cristiano strode on to the floor and claimed her lean brown hands closing to the elegant curve of her hips to urge her momentarily close. Her head fell back, her full pink lips parting, excruciating tension gripping her. She wanted him to kiss her. Never in her whole life had she wanted anything as badly as she wanted that kiss. He flashed her a dangerous smile and freed her again in an effortless dance move that took her by surprise. Taut with disappointment she mirrored his steps, but such precision demanded real effort from her and she soon learned that her limbs were slow to do her bidding.
In fact it was a relief when Cristiano finally closed a hand over hers to walk her off the floor.
‘Time for us to leave, bella mia’ he murmured thickly, and her tummy gave a wild little flip of anticipation that destroyed her pride.
CHAPTER FOUR
STEPPING out into the cool night air made Lydia feel dizzy-and concealing that reality was a challenge. The barrage of cameras on the pavement outside the club provided a welcome distraction, and Cristiano’s security team cleared a path to the limo.
Subsiding breathlessly into the opulent vehicle, Lydia focused on Cristiano. His lean, darkly handsome features were achingly familiar. He was still so gorgeous ! A lump formed in her throat because, for the space of a heartbeat, she was the dreaming teenager who had fallen madly in love with his champagne was responsible but her reasoning processes were too muzzy to think it through.
‘l’m sorry about tonight… Socially, it was a washout,’ Cristiano sighed, dense black lashes screening his gaze and then flicking up to add sizzle to his charismatic smile. But 1 now own a controlling percentage of IFS and l’m in the mood to celebrate.’
|IFS…how thrilling’ Lydia told him, without a clue what IFS was.
‘You are more of a thrill.’
Burnished golden eyes connected with hers. His aura of power had never been more in the ascendant, and the delicious tension she had experienced earlier that evening gripped her all over again. He closed a hand over hers and tugged her closer, turning her round to face him so that she was half-kneeling on the seat. Her heart felt as if it was beating at the base of her throat, and she was on such a high of expectation she could barely breathe.
He rested a fingertip on the pulse going crazy below her collarbone, moved on to smooth it over the pale alabaster expanse of her skin beneath. She quivered, her breasts lifting and stirring, the sensitive crowns pinching into painfully taut buds.
‘I want you so much, cara mia’ he murmured in a dark deep voice |of intimate intent.
‘But you know that. You’ve always known that.’
Her lashes dipped, her lovely face betraying no change of expression. She was accustomed to hiding her thoughts from others, fitting in for the sake of peace, soothing more demanding personalities. Briefly pain broke through the numbing effect of too much champagne. She had once naively believed that she meant more to him than her predecessors, and had soon discovered how very wrong she was.
Lydia snatched in a desperate breath to swell her lungs, loving his voice, revelling in his proximity, her mind controlled utterly by her physical senses. He cupped her cheekbone to hold her steady while he tasted her | pink mouth, using his tongue to dart a more erotic exploration between her readily parted lips.
Primitive excitement roared through her. Her hands swept up to his shoulders to steady herself, and a split second later he tumbled her down into his lap to kiss her. Her eyes were starting to feel very heavy, and she left them closed.
‘l’m so sleepy’ she shared when he pulled her back up into a sitting position as the limo had come to a halt.
Cristiano laughed huskily. ‘Not tonight’ he teased, urging her to climb out of the car, for the door beside her had been opened without her noticing.
The combination of sudden movement and fresh air was too much for Lydia in the state she was in. Her legs crumpled and she had to seize the car door to stay upright. ‘oops! ‘ she gasped.
Cristiano observed her across the roof of the car. ‘oops,’ he said, very drily.
Mortification almost swallowed her alive, for, by the sound of it, he had guessed what was wrong with her. Inspiration struck her, however, when she glanced down and saw that the strap on her shoe had broken as she stumbled. Flipping off the high-heeled sandal, she dangled it by the busted strap and fought to speak with clarity.
‘Lucky 1 didn’t break an ankle! ‘ Cristiano ditched his icy demeanour and instead came to her assistance. ‘Are you hurt’?’ ‘1‘11 live’ she told him bravely, hobbling pitifully in the direction of the lift.
‘l’m sorry…for a moment 1 thought you’d had too much to drinks’ Cristiano admitted. ‘Drunkenness offends me… ‘ Clutching the bar on the wall to stay steady, Lydia ducked her head down and nodded in vigorous agreement even while guilt assailed her. But it was true. She totally agreed with him.
After all, she was not in the habit of over-indulging in alcohol, and there was no reason why he should ever find out if she was careful. It was a question of mind over matter, she told herself feverishly as they entered the huge hall of his apartment.
‘Stop here.’ Cristiano turned her round in the circle of his arms.
Lydia almost rested her swimming head down on his shoulder. It took a mighty effort to resist the urge. ‘I‘11 just go and…er…freshen ups’ she framed carefully, plotting a line in the direction of the bedroom.
Freshen up into what? she wondered, striving to enter femmefatale mode while smothering a huge yawn and swaying.
Discarding her clothes, she trudged into the bathroom to remove her make-up. Every step was a terrible effort. She pulled down the white cotton wrap hanging on the back of the door and dug her arms clumsily into it. By that stage she was feeling so light-headed she was afraid she was going to faint.
Absolutely miserable, and ashamed of her condition, she sank down on the floor, struggling to breathe in deep and get back in control of her own body again. She closed her eyes-just for a moment, she promised herself heavily…
Someone was talking in a foreign language. Reluctant to be dragged from sleep. Had that same someone shaken her shoulder? Or had that been part of a dream? Her head was aching. Her lashes lifted on a sunlit room that made her blink. Even as her pupils adapted to the brightness she recognised that the huge contemporary bedroom was entirely strange to her. She jerked taut. Her head turned on the pillow to widen her field of vision and zeroed in on the male back view silhouetted against the window. Tall, broad of shoulder, narrow of hip, long powerful legs braced slightly apart in a typically masculine stance.
Shock grabbed her by the throat and shook her inside out, provoking a slight gasp from her lips. Cristiano, effortlessly stylish in a beautifully cut dark beige business suit, swung round to look at her. Still talking in liquid Italian on his phone, he strolled over to the bed and sank down beside her. With a disturbingly confident hand, he gently pushed her tumbled hair back from her cheekbone. She stopped breathing altogether, wildly aware that she was naked beneath the sheet.
This had to be his bedroom-the one room that had not been included on her official tour the day before, Lydia registered in a panic. She had slept with him and she didn’t remember it! Shame and embarrassment and disorientation seized her all at once.
Flipping shut his phone, Cristiano surveyed her with steady incisive golden eyes.
‘Buon giorno, gioia mia, ‘ he drawled softly.
Her cheeks hot, Lydia made a strangled attempt to return the greeting.
She pronounced the unfamiliar syllables to his satisfaction.
‘Excellent’ he pronounced with approval. ‘1 would like you to acquire the basics of my language, so l’ve arranged for you to have lessons in ltalian.’
Although she was utterly taken aback by that announcement, she said nothing while her strained gaze sidled uneasily to the dented pillow beside her own, and her heartbeat raced at that confirmation of fact. She had definitely been
with Cristiano all night, and she did not even recall getting into his bed, never mind what they had done there! She was appalled at the blankness of her memory, and deeply ashamed.
Even this early in the day, you look enchanting.’ Seemingly impervious to the tense atmosphere, Cristiano skimmed a lean brown forefinger along the soft rosy fullness of her lower lip with a devastating familiarity that sent little nervous tingles of heat zinging through Lydia’s quivering length. ‘Iwould very much like to get back into bed with you, but 1 have a meeting.’
Lydia nodded with as much natural cool as a robot. Wild horses could not have forced her to meet his gaze.
Cristiano pushed up her chin with his thumb, enforcing the eye contact that she would have denied him. A razor-edged smile tilted his beautifully shaped mouth. ‘You were amazingly affectionate last night.’
Absorbing that assurance, Lydia flinched, her mind running riot on what she might have said or done. Oh, goodness, was it possible that she had told him she loved him, or something stupid like that? How could she tell what she might have said under the influence of too much alcohol? Suddenly she wanted to die a thousand deaths.
His stunning dark eyes looked down into hers.
‘I enjoyed the exotic dance you performed-‘
Hauling herself up against the pillows, her shadowed blue eyes luminous as sapphires, Lydia gasped in horror. ‘Exotic dance?’ Cristiano shook his handsome dark head slowly and sighed with regret.
‘You don’t remember anything, do you?’
She shook her head in stricken acknowledgement.
‘So 1 could tell you whatever 1 liked and you would know no difference’. Cristiano pointed out without pity.
‘That is why a woman should never get that drunk and out of control.’
