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Was still occurring.
His scent was subtle, yet its notes were already familiar, and she felt an odd craving to move closer to him. And although his eyes never left her face, the effect of his silvery gaze set off an internal cascade, as if plump velvet dominos were quietly falling. She felt each pump of blood in her veins and the spread of warmth beneath her damp clothing, as well as a choking awareness that she had never encountered before.
Until him.
‘However...’ Costa broke into her dangerous thoughts ‘...I am certainly not paying for sex.’
‘Oh.’
She felt suddenly and most curiously deflated. As if every fizzing cell that had been happily bounding towards unknown and uncharted territories had suddenly ground to an abrupt halt.
‘And you don’t have to worry,’ he continued blithely. ‘I loathe PDAs, so I won’t be all over you. We would have to dance, of course, and they would expect that we’d kiss now and then, but that would be all.’
‘And no sex?’
‘I didn’t say that.’
He looked right at her then, and the look was so potent that it stripped her. Not just of her clothes; she felt suddenly translucent—as though he could see right inside her and witness her tightening desire.
‘I’m not sure I know what you mean...’ Mary croaked.
‘Then I’ll make it very clear: apart from when we have an audience present, I won’t lay a finger on you.’
‘And when the audience is not present?’
‘The same,’ Costa said. ‘You either want me or you don’t.’
‘And if I don’t?’
‘I have a guest suite in my villa.’
‘Wouldn’t the maids think it odd...?’
‘I don’t give a damn what they think. Maybe that I snore?’
‘And if...?’ She felt a little giddy, baffled that she was even attempting to say what she was about to. ‘And if I do...?’
‘Then you come to me.’
Her throat squeezed tight on the breath she tried to drag in, for Mary could not fathom ever being so bold.
And yet...and yet...
‘Any other questions?’ he demanded, perhaps a little sarcastically.
Hiring an escort should surely not be so complicated, he thought. Still, he had done his best to put her at ease, but now he really did need to get on.
‘I can arrange an airport hotel for Thursday, and you’d depart early Friday morning.’
‘We wouldn’t fly together?’
‘Fly together?’ He gave a bemused frown. ‘No. I’m heading to the airport now.’
‘But you said you were here all week.’
‘Mary, if we do meet to get our stories straight, there is one thing you should know about me: I don’t run my plans, nor any changes I make to them, by anyone.’
‘Poor her, then,’ Mary said to his departing back as that awful bell jangled when he opened the door.
