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‘But secretly you know you want to,’ Raffaele purred, leaning down to steal a tiny kiss from her pink pouting mouth, lingering to nibble on her full soft lower lip, sending a shattering flood of sensation snaking right down into her pelvis. ‘One kiss...that’s all... I promise not to try to take it any further.’
‘OK...one kiss,’ Maya conceded in a deliberately bored tone. ‘Then you let go of me and youdon’tforget about thosehealthchecks.’
He kissed her and the world fell away. She hadn’t believed that could happen, but it did. Her fear surged beneath the drowning electrifying pleasure that consumed her when his tongue licked against hers, unexpectedly subtle, incredibly sexy in technique, like nothing she had ever experienced before in her life, and for the first time ever she wanted more, arms travelling round him, hands smoothing over a broad, warm, strong back before sliding down to curve to lean hips.
‘I won’t forget about the health checks,’ Raffaele breathed, lifting his head, dark eyes flaming bright as the sun with hunger. ‘Stay the night with me,’ he urged. ‘I’ll use protection.’
Maya returned to planet earth again, unnerved by his physical effect on her, trembling, all hot and flustered in a way she wasn’t used to being. ‘No, thanks. I want to go home, please,’ she said as tightly as a little girl trying to show that she could be polite even in trying circumstances.
‘Stay the night with me. I’ll use protection.’
Raffaele had knocked her straight back down to reality again. Nothing romantic or special there, she mocked herself for the quivering hunger still tugging at her unrepentant body. Raffaele was just like all the other men she had met, wanting more what he couldn’t have. Reluctance only heightened her appeal with such men.
‘As you wish...’ Raffaele gritted his teeth. ‘But I don’t understand you.’
‘Of course, you don’t. I’m not the type of woman you’re used to,’ Maya pointed out drily as she opened the door to leave. ‘I’m not anyone’s one-night stand.’
Raffaele breathed in so deep that he thought the top of his head ought to go flying off. ‘We’re getting married within the next week.’
Beneath his disbelieving gaze, Maya grimaced. ‘I wasn’t expecting it to be quitethatsoon—’
‘Let’s move,’ Raffaele urged, planting a hand to her rigid spine, watching male heads turn to watch her progress, those endless perfect legs, that shimmering cloud of naturally fair hair. The whole time he was thinking, She may not know it yet butshe’s mine, will be absolutely totally mine. He marvelled at that thought, smiled with amusement at it, could not get over quite how invested he was becoming in the project to acquire her grandparents’ company.
CHAPTER FOUR
RAFFAELELIVEDINa breathtaking penthouse apartment with a fabulous view of London at night.
Maya, concentrating on the need to escape his company, spared it barely a glance, wincing in her tight shoes as she walked down a tiled corridor to the bedroom he had indicated and shutting the door firmly in his lean bronzed face.
Kicking off the shoes with relief, she scrambled to get into her own clothes again and walked into the adjoining bathroom to do what she could to scrub off the cosmetics she rarely wore. She did not want her family to suspect anything was amiss. Luckily, she had not yet got around to mentioning the job she had already found in London and she would tell them instead that she had got a fabulous job in Italy with Raffaele Manzini. Her story would all tie in nicely together then, with Raffaele starring as the kind and generous guy he, most certainly, wasn’t. By the time she finished telling them that he was also writing off their debts, her parents would be extravagantly happy, and it was many months since she had seen them in that state and she couldn’t wait to see their faces. That was the pay-off, she reminded herself firmly, her family’s security and contentment would be her reward for what she was doing but, no, she wasn’t planning to act the martyr even inside her own head.
But she didn’t feel the same about lying to her sister because she had never lied to her sister before; she’d possibly told the odd fib to save Izzy from hurt feelings but never anything more than that because, as twins, they were so close. She winced, reckoning that this time around she didn’t have much choice.
Raffaele felt a little like he had as a child when he had tried to capture a summer dandelion clock floating through the air and signally failed. He didn’t understand Maya. She didn’tlikehim. She might be as hungry for him as he was for her, but she wouldn’t break evenoneof her doubtless lengthy list of rules to have him. For that reason and for the unavoidable truth that Maya’s liking and acceptance were important to him for the foreseeable future, he would make an effort with a woman for the first time in his life, only there was just one small problem: he hadn’t a cluehowto do that. He frowned, exasperated by the uncharacteristic uncertainty engulfing him.
‘What sort of clothes do I like?’ Maya echoed dimly, several days later, stretching back on her bunk bed with her phone cradled close. ‘I’ve never really thought much about it. Students only dress for important interviews. I like elegant and feminine, not fussy and frilly, though, and never ever short, tight or revealing. Why on earth are you asking?’
‘I have a wedding dress to choose since you said you don’t care what you wear.’
‘I wasn’t being awkward,’ Maya said apologetically, wondering why she got on with Raffaele so much better on the phone than she did in person. ‘I mean...it’s not arealwedding, that’s what I meant.’
‘But we want it tolookreal,’ Raffaele countered. ‘Aldo’s coming, so are some of my friends.’
That was all news to Maya, and it disconcerted her. ‘Oh...er...well—’
‘Want to join me today?’ Raffaele pressed. ‘You could pick your own dress.’
His dark deep voice purred down her spine like a caress and she rolled her eyes at the thought. He had rung her every day, asked her out every day while chattering about completely inconsequential things. What on earth was he playing at? Why was he bothering? What nefarious purpose was his uncharacteristic niceness supposed to achieve for him?
‘I’m taking my brother out to the British Museum...sorry—’ She would have loved to see her sister, Izzy, but knew that would be unwise with all that was going on and the fictions she had had to tell her family. Besides, Izzy had gone strangely quiet herself recently.
‘You spent yesterday with him as well,’ Raffaele reminded her with an edge.
‘I’m going to be parted from my family for months.’
‘I’ve already assured you that you can fly home and visit them any time you want. It’s all in the pre-nuptial agreement. Didn’t you read it?’
‘I read it cover to cover.’ Maya set her teeth together before she found herself arguing with him again about the allowance he was insisting she would receive after their marriage terminated, and the even bigger fortune she would walk away with should they have a child. It all seemed so cold and dry and shoddy to her, raised as she had been to look on marriage and child-bearing as something you only did with someone you loved. Only she could hardly say that to Raffaele when she had agreed to those terms, could she?
