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She toyed with her earring, her face showing her discomfort. “I’m sorry, but I don’t see what that’s got to do with you.”
“Don’t you?” He scanned her face.
“No.”
His smile was mocking. “I think you do. I think you know why it’s my business and what I want from you. But if not, have a drink with me and I’ll explain it more fully.”
An invisible, unbreakable thread seemed to be weaving its way from her to him, pulling her closer, binding them in that moment. She ran the tip of her tongue over her top lip, an unconscious gesture she did when she was tempted by something. Luca followed its progress with a tightening in his gut and a hardening of his arousal. She was impossibly sexy, and yet he suspected she didn’t actually realise it.
“One drink,” she agreed finally, reaching out and wrapping her fingers around the wine glass. It was a mistake. The moment she touched the rounded vessel, their fingers connected. The thread that had bound them became a spark of electricity, so highly charged that it sent sparks shooting through her. She covered the gasp that had sprung to her lips, but her eyes clearly showed her surprise.
“Thank you,” he said with a nod of his head. With one hand now free, he put an arm around her waist and guided her back to the railing. She fitted perfectly to his side.
It was a strange thought.
Unworthy of him. No one person fitted another perfectly. No single woman was his perfect match. It was simply that she was short and petite, and he large and muscled. Her small curves seemed to morph into his frame. It was sexual attraction, nothing more. She was delicious, and the thought of possessing her filled him with a swirling pit of desire. He took a small step backwards.
“You don’t belong here,” he said, after a pause that served to stretch Rosie’s nerves to breaking point.
Despite her tension, she let out a short laugh at his statement. “So far as pick up lines go, that one is reasonably offensive.”
Luca angled his body to face her. They were so close they were almost touching. If he moved just an inch forward, they would be. But he didn’t want to scare her. Didn’t want the intensity of his desire for her to make her afraid. And so he remained where he was, and kept his face blanked of emotion. “It was intended as a compliment.”
“Really?” She arched her brows dubiously, lifting her wine to her lips and taking a sip. It was excellent, but that was not the reason her blood was pounding through her body. “In what way?”
“This place is full of people who value money above people. You don’t seem like that.”
A shiver of awareness ran down her spine. “How do you know? We’ve just met.”
“I’m a good judge of character,” he responded with a confident shrug.
She frowned. “Don’t you think I look the part?”
She hadn’t meant to draw his attention to her looks, but it was an invitation to drag his eyes up and down the length of her body. Her started with her feet, clad in sky high heels, then moved over her shapely legs, and the fitted dress that was warm and summery on a night that was not. He paused at the swell of her cleavage, and he longed to reach out and touch her gentle curves. Her décolletage was pale like porcelain. As for her face, up close, he thought she could have been a work of art. Hand crafted by angels to showcase their skills. He wanted to dispense with the small talk and make her his, but he also wanted to enjoy the slow, torturous game of flirtation. “You look the part,” he promised, his voice deep and gravelly. “In fact, I had already dismissed you as just another bored Lady someone or other, looking for suitable stock to breed in with your esteemed line.”
She hid her smile. His cynicism was in perfect accord with her own feelings on the matter. When she’d been forced to leave her prestigious school, she’d realised that her so-called friends had no time for her. They’d been young kids, so she couldn’t really blame them for their actions. But none of their parents had encouraged the children to keep in contact with her. She’d become a pariah, and all because her father had basically been robbed of their fortune. This gorgeous stranger was right. She didn’t belong in this world. Perhaps she never really had. “But now you think otherwise?”
His eyes had dropped to her cleavage again. She felt her nipples strain against the soft fabric and she flushed.
He lifted his gaze to her face with effort. “Yes. Your act of compassion with the waitress was completely spontaneous. A room full of people and you were the only one who took pity on her.”
“Including you,” she pointed out with a wry smile.
He tilted his head. “Si. Including me.”
“So what makes you different to the rest of them, then?” She wondered aloud. But she knew he was different. Even the way he wore his hair was a sign that he didn’t really belong to this world of money and title. Men and women who were fifth generation someone or others. She secretly thought of them as the Roman Numeral brigade, with long, unpronounceable surnames, often hyphenated, followed by numbers.
He was weak, apparently, where Rosie was concerned. He could no longer resist touching her. He lifted a finger and pressed it softly against her cheek. Her skin was even softer than he had fantasised. “I see something I want, and I take it. I don’t care who I offend or upset.”
“Oh?” She whispered into the cool night air. Her breathing was laboured, her whole body seemed to spark with recognition at the simple physical contact.
“Mmm,” he groaned in agreement. “You are a prize worthy of protecting. If I had been your date tonight, you wouldn’t be out on a balcony talking to another man.”
The shiver of awareness was a full-blown shake now. Her body was trembling with desire stoked by his darkly spoken words. There was something incredibly sexy, and slightly menacing, about the declaration.
Fortunately, he seemed to misunderstand the involuntary movement. With a sound of self-derision, he placed his wine on a nearby table, then shook out of his suit jacket. “I’m sorry. You’re freezing. I should have realised before this.”
He draped the jacket around her shoulders, immediately enveloping her with his warmth and fragrance. She breathed in deeply, wondering just what bra
