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‘It’s beautiful, isn’t it?’
She looked up at the man beside her. His face was transfixed, totally relaxed. Her breath was taken all over again, as much with her rogue imagination as anything else. ‘Yes.’ And she knew she wasn’t talking about the lake.
He looked down at her and she coloured, mortified to be caught staring. A mocking glint in his dark eyes drove her away from the wall and she chose a single seat behind them. She was burningly aware of the way the fabric of the top felt against her bare breasts. It felt … bold, but also sensuous, like going skinny-dipping. Dante kept looking at her, she could feel it as she resolutely looked the other way and crossed her arms over her chest to disguise the betraying steepling of her nipples.
Julieta appeared with coffee and Alicia helped her with the tray, relaxing for a moment in the other woman’s easy presence. When she handed Dante his cup, he came and took it with a funny look on his face.
Alicia quickly took a big gulp from her own cup and winced, gasping in pain as the hot liquid burnt her still sensitive mouth from where she’d burned it only that morning. She put down the cup with a clatter. Dante was beside her instantly.
‘What is it?’
Alicia shook her head, her eyes smarting. ‘I burnt my mouth this morning and just got it again … I’m fine, really.’
Dante was hunched down beside her, looking up, a hand on her knee. The pain faded in Alicia’s mouth as all she could seem to feel was her heart thumping heavily, loudly, in the silence. He was looking up at her with a dangerous glint in his eyes, his hand heavy on her leg, burning through her clothes. Alicia’s heart clenched. Oh, no, please …
Dante stood with lithe grace and pulled her up with him. Their bodies were very close. Both his hands went around the back of her head, her jaw. She couldn’t breathe. Her hands were clenched by her sides. Arms rigid.
‘What … what are you doing? I’m fine.’
He shook his head softly, the burning light in his eyes drowning out any coherent thought in Alicia’s head. ‘Just checking. Open your mouth.’
Stupidly, Alicia did. She felt foggy, heavy.
‘Show me your tongue.’
Stupidly, she did that too.
It was the sight of that small pink tongue that drove him over the edge. His thumb snagged her lower lip, her tongue darted back in and a flush stained her cheeks. He could feel her breathing change, grow more rapid. The pulse in her neck beat frantically against his wrist.
‘Dante … really, I’m a nurse. It’s nothing.’
‘This … is not nothing.’
Alicia knew he wasn’t talking about her mouth being burnt. She was valiantly clinging on to the hope and belief that he was, though, clinging on to it right up until his head descended and his mouth settled over hers.
At the moment their mouths touched Alicia felt a sigh move through her—a sigh of inevitability. And a fierce exultant force that terrified her. So here was the evidence—he did find her attractive. One arm was wrapped around her back pulling her into him and the other hand threaded through her hair to cup the back of her head, tilting and angling her so that he could plunder her mouth. And that was what it felt like. She was being plundered right to the tips of her toes.
Her hands had to hold on to something and she found herself clasping his waist, the trim lean lines. His belly was hard and taut against her breasts which seemed to swell in direct response. It was as if she were literally flowering beneath this man’s touch. His tongue touched hers, stroked and danced. Drawing back, he nipped gently on her lower lip before returning and making her feel so boneless with mounting need that she couldn’t stop herself trembling uncontrollably.
He drew back and looked down. She found it hard to look up, her head heavy. It was as if she were drugged, incapable of moving, thinking, could hardly open her eyes.
Then a gust of slightly cooler evening air danced between them and it was as if a bucket of cold water had been thrown in her face. She stiffened and pulled out of his arms and, taken aback with the suddenness of her movement, he let her go. It was all very clear to Alicia right now. What she needed to remember, what she’d forgotten in a shockingly short amount of time.
She looked up to Dante’s face and willed herself to stand tall, strong, when everything in her wanted to hurl herself back into his arms and beg him to kiss her again.
‘I don’t know what just happened there—’
He advanced with a dangerous look on his face. ‘I can show you if you like.’ He clearly didn’t like the direction things were going. Alicia retreated around the back of the seat and gripped it. Her top slid off her shoulder again.
‘That won’t be happening again. Just because you have me here as a result of extenuating circumstances, just because you’ve dressed me, does not mean that I am available sexually. I am not interested, do you hear me? I will not be used like this just because it’s … it’s easy or convenient.’
Dante regarded the woman in front of him. Two spots of high colour marked her cheeks, her mouth looked like a ripe, moist fruit. Her hair was coming undone, tendrils of curls falling in sexy disarray. He felt anything but easy or convenient right now. He felt hot and wanted very much to take her back into his arms and slake that sizzling in his veins. Dio. When he thought about that night with Alessandra Macchi, the desire he had felt for her wouldn’t even register a blip on this radar.
He had no doubt in his mind that he would indeed be taking Alicia Parker to bed. She was here now, his for a month. Plenty of time. She wouldn’t last more than a week with this heat burning up the air around them.
So he ignored the rampant pulse in his trousers and smiled urbanely. ‘Please forgive me. Of course I wouldn’t want you to feel anything but a happy guest while you’re here.’
Alicia looked at him suspiciously. A happy guest? Hardly. More like an executive prisoner. He was up to something. The silk of the top chafed against tight nipples and she fought against looking down to see if they were as prominent as they felt. She had to get out of there. Now.
