Maybe this was too much excitement for a teaching assistant from West London, because I was becoming light-headed.
He tilted his head to one side. ‘How do you know my name?’ he asked, confusing me even more.
‘S-some of the other guests mentioned it,’ I murmured. I knew his name hadn’t been on the invitation, because even Becca hadn’t known who was throwing the party until we’d arrived. But was his identity supposed to be a secret?
‘And how did you get an invitation to this event?’ he asked, his gruff tone cutting through the hum of sound from the DJ set below us…and my chaotic heartbeat.
The question threw me again. Probably because I was still struggling to draw air into my lungs. But then the significance of it hit me…and what that ‘look’ had really been about. My chaotic heartbeat sank into my killer heels, humiliation washing over me.
He had spotted me in the crowd and realised I didn’t belong.
‘B-becca. I—I mean Rebecca…’ I hesitated, racking my brains to recall Becca’s surname, even though I’d known her and Jessie since Evie was in primary school. ‘Garner.’Thank god.‘My friend Rebecca Garner got an invite. She’s here representing her brand marketing firm in London.’ Whose company name I could not have remembered right now if he paid me a billion quid.
One eyebrow arched. Then he leaned forward and placed his forearms on his knees, making his biceps and triceps bulge distractingly under his T-shirt. ‘And who areyouhere representing, Mia?’
The heat in my thong surged into my cheeks. And the humiliation which had been incinerated with everything else at the sight of those inked forearms came surging back.
‘My-myself,’ I said, because there was no point in pretending I knew anything about brand marketing. Or that I really had any right to be at his very exclusive party.
His lips quirked. ‘I see,’ he said, but I couldn’t tell whether he was amused or astonished by my gall.
I forced myself to maintain eye contact even though I was dying inside.
Was he about to kick me off the yacht?
I was crestfallen but also determined not to show it as my silly hopes and dreams for the night crashed and burned into a bonfire of embarrassment under that inscrutable gaze.
‘And what of the other women with you?’ he asked.
‘One of them is my sister Evie, the other a friend of ours,’ I murmured.
God, hewasgoing to kick us all out. While I was resigned to leaving myself, I felt sick for Evie and Jessie, who were having so much fun…and Becca. What if she lost her job? For bringing us along on her invite? From what she’d told us, this man was extremely powerful.
‘It’s okay, Mr Rocco. We’ll leave,’ I said, suddenly desperate to get us all out of here before this got any worse.
I turned, keen to get off the yacht. But before I could take a single step, a strong hand captured my wrist.
I swung back round, and my nose connected with a slab of muscle covered in black cotton. Rocco was no longer sitting on the couch but standing close enough to make the air back up in my lungs.
The panther has pounced.
He touched a knuckle under my chin to lift my gaze to his, then leaned in. I sucked in a lungful of his intoxicating scent—woodsy cologne, clean laundry detergent and a hint of orange from the negroni he must have been drinking.
‘And how will you leave, Mia?’ he whispered, so close to my ear lobe that sensation streaked down my spine and turned my thong into a vibrator. ‘Will you swim back to Naples?’
I drew my head back and saw his amusement at my expense. Had he been baiting me all along? That he had humiliated me intentionally had irritation replacing my embarrassment.
‘If I have to, yes!’ I announced, tugging my wrist free of his grasp. ‘I won’t stay where I’m not wanted. And I’m not here to be the butt of your jokes.’
Something flashed in his eyes which looked like admiration. ‘Who said you are not wanted here, Mia?’ he murmured.
My indignation increased at the mocking tone, even as the throbbing in my panties became catastrophic from the sparkle of approval in his gaze. ‘You did…or you implied it.’
He chuckled, the sound full of masculine arrogance. ‘You have spirit. I like this in a woman.’
Heat swelled in my abdomen. Embarrassing me. How could I be turned on—when he was making fun of me?
He murmured, ‘You are alsomolto bella, Mia.’ The compliment came so far out of left field, it stunned me into silence. ‘I like this, too, in a woman.’
