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And on another level entirely, she felt utterly disorientated. Nothing made sense.
Why had she warmed to him during the long afternoon as he'd shown her around his island forgetting why she was here the depth of her own deceit? Why had she relaxed enough to enjoy every single moment of it? Why couldn't she blank out that refusing-to-budge memory of exactly how she'd felt when those long tanned fingers had caressed her arm or the way he'd slipped a protective arm around her waist as they'd stood on top of the cliffs above the cove nearest the cottage, looking down to the white sands far below. 'Tomorrow we will bathe,' he'd told her, stake a picnic, spend the day.'
She'd felt dizzy. Not because the narrow zigzagging track down to the secluded beach looked hair-raising but because the warmth of his strong hand clamped to her waist had sent a quiver of heat across her breasts rippling and stinging there until it had arrowed down to the pit of her stomach with devastating accuracy, making her go weak at the knees and catch her breath.
Now he said, 'You are tired? You would like to go to bed'?' His low, husky drawl made it sound like an invitation. A slow burn ignited her skin. If it had really been an invitation would she have had the strength of will to turn it down? Or would she, like her poor betrayed sister have accepted it with open arms, giving him her love only to have it tossed aside? But it had been nothing of the sort, she decided shortly. What had he said earlier? That she would spend a sleepless night wondering if he would give in to his baser instincts and seek her bed.
Meaning he would have to overcome his fastidious distaste for having sex with a woman he believed to be a thief! But he'd been her sister's lover before. Was he still in lust with her? Lying sleepless-nerves screaming-and wondering! No , thank you !
‘I'm fine,' she said, glossing over her raging internal turmoil. ‘1'11 sit awhile. It's so peaceful.'
And it was. Despite his presence.
Darkness was closing in. They'd eaten supper outside. There was a candle in a glass bowl on the table and she could hear the mesmeric whisper of the incoming tide. If it weren't for worrying about his intentions agonizing over the way she was drawn to him she could have believed she was in Paradise.
‘Fine' Cesare scoffed silently. She was nothing of the sort. Tension came off her in almost tangible waves. Worrying about the prospect of his probable sexual demands? As he'd intended her to, he conceded toughly. A small easily justified revenge for the way she had set out to deceive him.
A contrary impulse to rise go to her massage the taut muscles of her neck and shoulders until she relaxed, leant back into him while he gave in to temptation and slid his hands down to slip beneath the top that left little to the imagination to caress her inviting breasts was slapped down hard before the erotic wanderings of his imagination could do any real damage.
Initially he'd fully intended to hit her with what he knew this evening, demand she tell him the whereabouts of the twin she was impersonating so badly. But during the day something had changed.
He didn't know how or why or even what, but changed it had.
He needed more time to find out what she was really like. He grimaced. More time to analyse his own ambivalent reactions to her was probably nearer the truth.
As he settled back into the shadows his long mouth curved with hastily manufactured cynicism as he watched her reach for the wineglass he'd refilled. Her hand shook. She set the glass down again.
Fearful of spilling the contents, betraying herself:? He'd have to be brain dead to have missed the signs. The way her soft flesh had quivered whenever he'd touched her, the tell-tale huff of indrawn breath, the unmistakable peaking of her tight nipples against her silky top.
So would she welcome him if he went to her bed? The unbidden thought had shattering appeal, set his skin tingling with the slow burn of desire.
Dio miol His tough jaw-line hard, Cesare shot to his feet. Male lust was taking him places he didn't want to be. The object of this exercise had been to punish her, not himself!
‘Finish your wine.' His voice emerged coldly. He didn't look at her, didn't trust himself to see the look of soft vulnerability she seemed incapable of hiding and not do something about it. Something he'd bitterly regret. ‘1'11 see you in the morning.'
As Cesare swept back into the cottage Milly expelled a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She heard an inner door slam. The door to the ground floor sleeping quarters he'd talked about? Whatever. He was suddenly riven with anger, that much she did know. But didn't know why.
She passed a hand over her forehead in an attempt to rub away the tense frown lines. He was angry with Jilly, not with her, she had to remind herself. Keeping up with her dual identity was really getting to her.
She was finding the deception more than distasteful but at least it bought time she consoled herself as she hauled herself to her feet and began to stack the used dishes. More time for her to somehow figure a way of tracking her twin down more time for Jilly to get over her going-nowhere affair with the charismatic far-too-sexy Italian tycoon so that she'd be in a stronger emotional state to argue her case convince him that there had been some dreadful mistake.
And more time for her unwilling fascination with him to develop into a deeper phase? was the utterly disquieting thought that popped into her head.
Thrusting it aside as brutally as she knew how, she carried the dishes through and washed them at the deep stone sink and, drying her hands, listened to the silence until she felt calmer.
A door on the far wall tucked between the dresser and a painted closet a door she hadn't noticed before must lead to the bedroom he was using. Annoyingly, her eyes would keep straying to it.
As if she were expecting Cesare to emerge, black hair damp from the shower droplets glistening on the golden skin of his perfectly crafted torso a towel slung low on his narrow hips?
Expecting? Wanting?
Ashamed of the burning heat, the sullen ache, that was claiming the most private part of her anatomy, she dragged in a shaky breath turning her back on the door and carefully folded the towel she'd been using, naming herself for the worst kind of fool.
At least his manner of leaving her-anger because of what he thought Jilly had done taking precedence over what she the imposter guessed was his callous decision to exact sexual part payment for her perceived wrongdoing meant that she'd be safe from his desire to carry on from where he and her twin had left off.
Safe, too from her own emerging weakness? Even so, if there had been a key to her bedroom door she would have locked it.
'The sea is waiting. Remember'?' The soft drawl brought Milly out of her troubled sleep at the speed of light, as if every nerve in her body had been hit by a bolt of lightning. Jerking up against the pillows, she belatedly tugged the sheet up to cover her breasts bitterly regretting her decision to slip naked between the cool crisp sheets
