‘If you like me so much, why did you ask me to leave?’ I managed, even as I could feel my resistance losing ground fast.
His scarred eyebrow quirked, but the sensual smile oozed confidence. ‘This I did not do, Mia, when I want to touch you very much.’
My indignation dissolved in a heartbeat as I stood under that startlingly intense gaze, mesmerised by his compliment. And the glitter of approval in his eyes. The surge of validation—that feeling of being seen and wanted by this man, the way I’d never really been wanted by Dave—was so intoxicating, I felt as if I had just chugged five tequila slammers in a row.
‘Do you want to be touched, Mia?’ The question was delivered with mocking arrogance, because he already knew the answer.
But even so, I couldn’t prevent myself from giving him the permission he sought as my answer popped out in a heady rush of breath. ‘Y-yes…’
His smile turned feral, but it only made him look hotter as he lifted his hand to glide his thumb over the thundering pulse in my neck.
I gasped and trembled, his touch like a lightning rod to senses too long denied.
‘Brava ragazza,’ he murmured as he caressed my collarbone—watching my reaction, intently—then slid his thumb under the strap of my mini-dress. My nipples swelled into tight peaks, and I sucked in a shallow breath, already yearning for him to move his roaming thumb lower, the shockingly possessive touch intoxicating.
‘I am returning to my estate in Naples. Would you like to come with me for tonight?’
Wh-what?
Was he saying what I thought he was saying? And how did I feel about it? Shouldn’t I be insulted? He’d made me feel like nothing a moment ago.
But the truth was, I was too shocked by his bold invitation and my live wire reaction to his touch to focus.
I blinked, stalling for time, until I could regain the power of speech—and critical thinking. Not easy when the hottest guy I had ever laid eyes on had just propositioned me. My usual caution was struggling to play catch up with my over-stimulated libido.
This wasn’t me… I’d never been reckless. I didn’t like anything to be out of my control. I was a micro-manager, a planner, a plotter, an over-thinker, someone who always had to be sure of her next move before taking it. All thanks to my mum—a nineties wild child with daughters by two different deadbeats—whose philosophy of life had been, ‘Everything will work out in the end if you don’t take responsibility for anything.’
Newsflash: It won’t.
If you don’t pay your rent, the bailiffs will turn up at your door. And you and your daughters will end up climbing out the window in the middle of the night.
I had never wanted to return to the endless chaos of my and Evie’s childhood, but this trip…and the Dave debacle…had forced me to realise I might have over-compensated.
Because hadn’t my play-it-safe strategy led to a long, boring relationship with the first boy to ever ask me out? And all my over-planning and never making a move before I was one hundred percent sure of a positive outcome had not prevented me ending up engaged to a man who had not only turned out to be a rat but had never come close to satisfying me in bed.
Sometimes life threw you curveballs, which you couldn’t plan your way out of.
Evie was right. It was time I kicked myself out of my comfort zone. Time to take a risk and have the wild night I had been aiming for when I’d agreed to come on this trip and spent a fortune on this dress, so my life never got so boring again. Then maybe I’d be better prepared for the next curveball.
I was just debating, though, whether it would be fair to jettison Evie and her friends for the evening, when he placed his hand on my hip and drew me close enough to press my breasts against his chest. My nipples hardened even more and my frantic heartbeat slowed to throb painfully between my thighs as he clasped my neck and pressed his forehead to mine.
‘You are fierce, Mia,’ he said. ‘Taming you will make this night all the sweeter. But first I must kiss you.’
Heat charged through my body. His confidence as hot as his demand.
The fact he had found my attitude a turn-on was addictive—and surprisingly validating.
I’d never been able to let my badass side loose before, but it had always been there, seething beneath the surface, every time my mum made another selfish decision, or Evie did something reckless, or Dave left me unsatisfied…
‘You are the most arrogant man on the planet,’ I murmured.
He let out another gruff chuckle. ‘Si, naturalmente,’ he announced without an ounce of shame.
Then, without waiting for an invitation, he slanted his lips across mine—taking my mouth in a demanding kiss as if it were his right. His lips were firm and warm, his tongue coaxing but insistent. I opened for him instinctively, and he thrust deep as his other hand slid under the hem of my mini-dress.
I gasped, clinging to him now, my whole body vibrating with want, the desire to feel his hands on me as intoxicating as his kiss.
He explored the naked flesh with scalding entitlement, his thumb hooking under the string of my thong. He gave it a sharp tug, rubbing the lace against my aching clitoris. I rose on tiptoe, desperate to ease the pressure, even as his tongue continued to command my mouth, demanding my surrender.
