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‘What are you used to?’
His unexpected question caught her off-guard and dashed her indignation. ‘What
do you mean?’
‘I mean, what do you do with yourself when you’re not studying or working as my intern?’
Poppy shrugged. ‘I work, like anyone else.’ And she ran around after her brother during those brief moments she had off.
‘Work where?’
‘I clean offices during the night.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘During the night? Why?’
Uncomfortable to be talking about herself, Poppy made to shrug out of his jacket. ‘Look, you’re cold now, so—’
Sebastiano grabbed the lapels and kept the jacket in place. ‘I’m not cold. Why do you clean offices at night?’
She gave a short laugh. ‘For the love of it. Why do you think?’
‘Okay, I deserve that,’ he acknowledged impatiently. ‘But why night in particular? Is it to fit in around your lecture times?’
‘No, it’s to fit in around my brother. I like to be there when he gets home from school.’
‘I assumed your brother was still in the foster-care system.’
‘No way.’ She shuddered. ‘I would never leave him in foster care when I’m perfectly capable of taking care of him myself.’ Well, she was now.
She didn’t like the way Sebastiano was studying her and made to put some distance between them.
Frustrated, Sebastiano gripped the lapels of her jacket more firmly, and didn’t realise he had drawn her closer until her sweet scent caught on his senses, making him burn.
For some reason the idea of Poppy working hard and lugging heavy cleaning equipment around during the night while he slept bothered him immensely.
Previously he had always been coolly indifferent to a woman’s needs outside of the bedroom, not wanting to encourage them to think he wanted anything more from them than the physical. Previously, until Poppy.
He scowled. He couldn’t even put his interest down to the fact that he had made her off limits, because he’d felt the pull of her right from the start. No, this wasn’t about his ego, it was about heat and desire and, while he might not be able to explain this compulsion to have her, he knew the only way to get rid of it was to have her. Have her naked, spread out and on fire for him, as he was for her. And he damned well knew she wanted him too. He’d seen the way she’d stared at his naked torso last Sunday morning, and felt the way she stiffened with awareness whenever he got too close.
Not her type?
He was more her type than whomever that Simon was who had given her the Mickey Mouse watch she treasured so dearly.
‘Who’s Simon?’ he asked curtly. The man had been a burr in his side since he’d heard her tell him she loved him and it had become imperative that he find out more about him. So much easier to shoot an adversary down in flames when you knew who you were firing at.
Adversary?
He was getting in way over his head and he knew it.
Poppy blinked up at him. ‘Simon?’
‘Si,’ he said gruffly. ‘The one who gave you the watch. You were on the phone to him when I arrived at your apartment, and every time his name flashes on your damned phone you jump to respond, as if it’s a fire you need to put out.’
Poppy frowned. ‘You seem surprised by that.’
‘I have to confess that I am.’
‘I don’t know why. You’re obviously close to your own family. Would you not respond to a text if Nicole or Giulietta sent one?’
