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‘No.’ She stared at him, shocked by how much she wanted to touch him. Wondering just what she would do if he touched her. ‘Just what are you doing here, Giovanni?’
He caught the blinding green question in her eyes, and a pulse began to hammer at his temple. ‘I think you know the answer to that very well, cara,’ he said softly.
There was silence, save for the deafening thunder of her heart. Yes, she knew. She had known ever since she had opened the door to him and seen the predatory glitter in his eyes. Just as she had known the last time, too.
And there didn’t have to be a repeat performance.
She lifted her chin and said with surprising calm, ‘You think I’m going to fall into bed with you again?’
He thought that bed had nothing to do with it. To do it right there where they stood would do fine to begin with. ‘Why not?’ He gave a slow, cold smile. ‘You know you want to.’
His assessment quite literally took her breath away. But only for a moment. ‘You rate yourself very highly as a lover, don’t you, Giovanni?’
The smile was now edged with ice. ‘You told me so yourself. In fact, you gave me the very highest recommendation— you said that I was the best.’
He spoke nothing more than the truth. She remembered her frantic little pleas, the sighed pleasure, and the indolent little murmurs of praise she had whispered into his ear just after she had…had…
‘I didn’t know then that you were engaged—’
‘Would you have cared?’
‘Of course I would have cared!’
He shook his head. ‘I don’t think so. You just wanted me,’ he taunted. ‘Very badly. As badly as I wanted you.’ Still want you. ‘You curled your fingers around my arm and I knew then that you would not have been satisfied until I had pleasured you as no other man had before.’
‘That was just a touch!’ she protested. ‘An innocent touch! I hardly started removing my clothes in front of you, like some kind of temptress!’
The ache intensified. ‘Don’t be so naïve! It is never “just” a touch. And never, ever innocent! How could it have been, when the chemistry between us was so strong? You were fascinated by me. Intrigued by me.’
‘You can’t know that!’ she said inadequately.
‘Can’t I?’ He paused. ‘I saw the print-out from your computer.’
She stared at him with a look of incomprehension. ‘What print-out?’ she said blankly.
‘You’d been doing your homework on me, hadn’t you, Kate?’
Still she didn’t get it.
‘And reading up about Sicily,’ he told her in a soft, taunting voice. ‘You clearly wanted to know something of my land and its people—presumably to learn a little more about me. You wanted as much background on me as you could and I cannot deny that I wasn’t flattered.’
‘I don’t believe I’m hearing this!’ she declared. ‘You’d been positively insulting about the fact that I knew nothing about Sicily—and just because I wanted to fill in a few gaps in my knowledge you make it sound like I had some kind of master-plan to ensnare you!’
‘You didn’t need a master-plan, Kate,’ he told her starkly. ‘Yo
ur eyes ensnared me from the first moment I looked into them.’
She was very nearly beguiled by the velvet caress of his compliment, until she reminded herself that he had betrayed his fiancée, and in a way he had betrayed her, too. If, as he had acknowledged, the chemistry between them had been so strong, then why had he asked to come in for a drink in the first place? He must have recognised that he was placing himself in a dangerous situation.
And her.
Unconsciously she tightened the belt of her satin robe around her waist, but the flicker of his eyes as he followed the movement of her fingers told her that it was entirely the wrong thing to do. He was staring at her as if he would like to undo what she had just done, and to…to…
‘I think you’d better leave now,’ she told him huskily.
Leave? An earthquake would not have budged him. He shook his head and moved towards her, and she was frozen with wanting and longing.
‘No,’ she whispered. ‘Giovanni, no.’
