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Not even out of breath, he glanced at her in amusement. ‘I’ve never met anyone as determined as you.’
‘It’s one of my biggest faults. As a toddler I was determined to climb out of my cot and I didn’t give up until I managed it—and broke my arm.’ She flopped down onto the top step and tried to suck air into her screaming lungs. ‘I need to start using the gym or something. I’m full of good intentions but something always gets in the way.’
‘You think being determined is a fault?’ He sat down next to her, his leg brushing against hers. ‘I see it as a quality. Life is hard. Without determination it’s almost impossible to achieve anything. You have tremendous drive and focus.’
Izzy realised that despite all the empty space, they’d ended up sitting close together. He was staring down into the arena where the team was working but she sensed that he was no more engaged with what was going on than she was and the raw chemistry terrified her because she’d never felt anything like it before.
He looked at her at the same time she looked at him and that single wordless exchange intensified the feverish burning inside her.
Izzy’s limbs trembled. However powerful the attrac
tion, this was a man who didn’t give anything of himself emotionally and she’d be foolish to forget that.
‘Tell me about your relationship with this Katarina woman.’ The words blurted out of her before she could stop them.
‘How do you know about Katarina?’ His tone lowered the temperature between them by several degrees and she made a mental note that if she wanted to defuse the heat all she had to do was throw in a personal question.
‘I read something.’ She kept her answer purposefully vague and his jaw tightened.
‘You should know better than to believe what you read.’
The fact that she was desperate to ask if it was serious really unsettled her because she knew it shouldn’t matter. ‘Look—they’re waving at you. You’d better go down and see what they want. I’ll stay here.’
The next few hours passed in a whirl of technical preparations, most of which Izzy just observed from a distance. She imagined how it must feel to sing here in front of a crowd of tens of thousands of people. She imagined the darkness, the lights and the excitement of having that many people listening to her.
One day, she promised herself. One day she’d write something so brilliant that it was impossible for people not to take her seriously. And then she felt horribly shallow thinking only of herself and her own career when Matteo’s whole life appeared to have been dedicated to duty and responsibility.
She had no idea how long she sat there lost in her thoughts, but suddenly she was aware that he was back by her side and that the light had faded.
The tourists had long since left the arena and only the lighting technicians remained, preparing for the light and sound show that would take place the following night.
His knee brushed against hers and she gave a little shiver because even that minimal contact was enough to destabilise her.
‘Cold?’ His voice was rough and Izzy shook her head.
‘No.’ This time she kept her eyes forward. ‘Just imagining how it will be with a crowd of fifty thousand.’
He didn’t answer immediately and she knew he wasn’t thinking of the crowd any more than she was.
The urge to touch him was so powerful it was almost painful.
Hidden in the shadows of darkness while the lights played beneath them, Izzy couldn’t help herself. She reached out a hand towards him and was just a millionth of a second away from touching him when common sense gave her the red light. She was about to pull back when her hand was captured by warm, male fingers. And his touch felt so spectacularly good that she couldn’t pull away.
Crazy, she thought. Crazy to feel this way when the man was just holding her hand.
He pressed her hand to his thigh and her palm was trapped against hard male muscle. She felt warmth and power and excitement, and awareness slammed into her.
Suddenly she was holding her breath, wanting desperately for him to kiss her again.
And then his fingers captured her chin and he turned her face to his. For a brief moment she saw the blaze of raw passion in his eyes and then his head lowered to hers. The anticipation was so sharp it was almost painful. His lips touched hers gently, teased and tasted, and she gave a low moan because this had been what she’d wanted since that first night in the turret bedroom.
Her arms slid round his neck just as a beam of light tracked towards them, dazzling them both.
His head jerked back and he was on his feet. ‘Cristo!’
Izzy was dazed. How had they—? ‘That was your fault,’ she croaked, and he jabbed his fingers through his hair.
‘Maybe, but—’
