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His gaze dropped to her lips. She could almost feel the warmth of his mouth on hers, taste those remembered kisses.
“The hell you weren’t.”
His voice was husky. Hot with masculine warning. He was aroused. The hard ridge of his erection was against her belly.
Desire, urgent and primitive, shot through her blood. He was the enemy. He was everything she despised, a damnable aristocrat, a man who obviously thought he could treat a woman as if he owned her. He was her father’s and her mother’s enemy, for heaven’s sake …
But what did that matter when her body throbbed with need?
They could finish what had started hours ago.
Alone. Here, with no prying eyes to see them, no one to interrupt a joining of eager bodies.
Anna shuddered. A whisper of sound sighed from her mouth. Her lashes fell, veiled her eyes as she rose toward him …
His arms opened, dropped to his sides.
She blinked. Looked up. Saw that his face was stony, his mouth cruel.
“Now,” he said calmly as he took a step back, “now, signorina, you have been compromised.”
Her hand balled into a fist at her side. She wanted to hit him. Hard. Leave an imprint on that smug, cold, handsome face.
“You did that once,” he said coldly. “I would advise you not to do it again.”
Anna took a steadying breath. And laughed, though it took everything she possessed to choke out the sound.
“You’re so easy, Your Highness. Oh, sorry. Does the news come as a shock? Do you honestly believe one look from you turns my knees to water?”
Draco narrowed his gaze.
What he believed was that she was lying. To him. To herself. If he wanted her, he could have her. Now. Here. But he didn’t. Damnit, he didn’t. What he wanted was to get everything to do with Cesare Orsini out of his life.
“Enough of these games,” he growled. “What is your name? And what do you want?”
“I want you to face facts.” Anna’s voice was steady. Amazing, because her pulse was ragged. “No matter what you claim, I can make an excellent case for you knowing my identity all along.” She smiled brightly. “So if you want to talk about compromising one’s legal position …”
“An excellent speech. Unfortunately, it’s also meaningless. I didn’t know your name on that plane. I still don’t.”
Anna gave a
negligent shrug. “He said, she said. Stuff like that is bread and butter in courts of law.”
“Which brings me to the second reason your little speech is meaningless.” He smiled. “This would never get adjudicated in a court of law.”
“I’m an attorney.”
Another quick smile, this one pure venom. “Not in Italy.”
Damnit, he was quick, and he was right. She had no legal standing here. She’d tried telling that to her father. You want a lawyer, find one who’s Italian, she’d said, but Cesare had been adamant. This was a family matter. A personal matter. He didn’t need a stranger to speak for him, for Sofia. He needed her.
“So,” the Prince of All He Surveyed said, “we have a—what would you call it? A situation. I am the rightful owner of land your client would like to claim is his.”
“The land in question belongs to my client’s wife. She is the rightful owner.”
Draco shrugged, walked to his impressive desk, hitched a hip onto its edge.
“I agreed to meet with Cesare Orsini’s representative as a courtesy.”
