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‘Oh...’ She looked surprised, and then shyly pleased. ‘I don’t think you’d know it.’
‘Try me.’
‘All right.’ She smiled, and it felt like a ray of sunlight on his soul, disconcertingly bright, reaching too many dark corners. It was just a smile. ‘It’s the third movement of the Cello Sonata by Shostakovich. Do you know it?’
‘No, but I wish I did. I wish I could hear it.’
‘He’s not one of the most well-known composers, but his music is so emotional.’ Her grey eyes developed a pearly sheen; she looked almost tearful. ‘It moves me like nothing else does.’
‘Now I really wish I could hear it.’ The look of naked emotion on her face caught at him unexpectedly. He’d started the conversation about music as a way to invite her up to his suite, but now he found he genuinely wanted to hear the piece. ‘I have a suite in this hotel,’ he said. ‘With an amazing sound system. Why don’t you come upstairs and listen to the piece with me?’
Allegra’s eyes widened with stunned comprehension. ‘Oh, but...’
‘We can have a proper drink at the same time. The bar up there is much better than the plonk they’re serving down here.’ He whisked her glass from her fingertips and deposited it on the tray of a hovering waiter. ‘Come.’ He held out his hand, willing her to agree. The evening couldn’t end here, unsettled, unsated. He needed more. He craved the connection and satisfaction he knew he’d find with her, however brief.
Allegra stared at his outstretched hand, her eyes wide, her fingers knotted together. ‘I’m not...’ she began, and then trailed off, looking endearingly uncertain. Was it an act? Or was she really reluctant?
He didn’t want her reluctant. ‘I am,’ he said, and reached for her hand, pulling her gently towards him. She came slowly, with hesitant steps, her wide-eyed gaze searching his face, looking for reassurance.
And he gave it as his fingers closed around hers, encasing the spark that had leapt between them at the first brush of skin. He drew her by the hand, away from the circulating crowds. A few people gave them curious looks, a veiled glance of envy that Rafael ignored, just as he’d ignored the subtle and not so subtle come-ons of the various women there. There was only one he wanted, and he was holding her hand.
They walked hand in hand out of the room, across the foyer, and then to the bank of gleaming lifts. Rafael’s heart started to race in expectation. He was looking forward to this more than he’d looked forward to anything in a long time.
He pressed the button for the lift, holding his breath, not wanting to break the fragile spell that was weaving its way around both of them. Not wanting to let her entertain second thoughts.
The doors opened and they stepped inside, the lift thankfully empty. As the doors closed Rafael turned to her. ‘You have the most enchanting smile.’
She looked completely surprised. ‘Do I?’ she asked, and he nodded, meaning it, because her smile was lovely, a shy, slow unfurling, like the petals of a flower. More and more he was thinking she was genuine, that her air of innocence and uncertainty wasn’t an act. At least, not that much of an act. She must have had some experience, to be mourning Mancini, and yet she almost seemed untouched.
‘You do. And I think it is a rare but precious thing.’ He leaned back against the wall of the lift and tugged her gently towards him, close enough so their hips nudged each other’s and heat flared, a spreading, honeyed warmth that left him craving more. ‘I would like to see it more often.’
‘We have been at a funeral,’ Allegra murmured, her gaze sweeping downwards. ‘There hasn’t been much cause to smile.’
The doors pinged open before Rafael had to come up with a response to that thorny statement. He stepped out, directly into the penthouse suite he’d booked. Allegra looked around the soaring, open space, her eyes wide.
‘This is amazing...’
Was she not used to such things? Rafael shrugged the question aside, drawing her deeper into the room. The doors to the lift closed. At last they were alone.
CHAPTER TWO
WHAT WAS SHE DOING? Allegra felt as if she’d stumbled into an alternate reality. What kind of woman followed a strange, sexy man up to his penthouse suite? What kind of woman fell headlong under his magnetic spell?
