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‘I’ve been wondering,’ he remarked. ‘What made you choose nursing?’
Surprised by the topic, Poppy lifted and dropped her bare shoulders. ‘I like caring for people. Being needed makes me feel useful.’
‘Your family certainly needed you,’ Gaetano said drily.
The main course was served. After eating in silence for a few minutes Poppy said, ‘I’m thinking of doing something other than nursing when the time comes.’
‘Such as?’ Gaetano prompted impatiently.
‘Gardening,’ she admitted in a defensive tone.
‘Gardening?’ Gaetano repeated with incredulity.
‘I always discounted my interest in growing things because I come from several generations of gardeners. But I suppose it’s in my blood,’ Poppy opined wryly. ‘Of course if I’d ever mentioned it I would have found myself working for your family and I didn’t want that.’
‘I’ve never understood why not. We’re good employers.’
‘Yes, but working on the estate means real old-fashioned service.’
‘And what is bartending but service?’ Gaetano watched her turn to lift her water glass and his attention dropped to the firm, full, pouting curve of her breast revealed by her dress. He shifted tensely in his seat.
‘There’s not that same sense of inequality between employer and employee that there is on the estate. I can’t explain it but I’ve never accepted that you are superior to me simply because you were born into wealth and privilege.’
‘Have I ever made you feel that way?’
Poppy pushed away her plate and stood up. ‘You can’t help it. Your parents raised you like that.’
‘Where are you going?’
‘For a walk—it’s a beautiful evening. I’ll have space for dessert by the time I come back,’ she told Sean, who was hovering to remove their plates.
‘I’ll come too.’ Gaetano sprang upright.
Poppy was as restless as a cat on hot bricks, which was hardly surprising when she had set herself the objective of somehow seducing Gaetano before his flight to Paris. Sadly discussing her career aspirations and the class system wouldn’t get her any closer to him and she wasn’t very deft at flirting. If all else failed, she thought ruefully, she would simply slip into bed with him and pray that his libido cracked his detachment.
‘That’s a daring dress,’ Gaetano observed. ‘The split in the skirt shows me your thighs at every step and I can see the curve and shape of your breasts. Don’t wear it anywhere more public...’
Poppy was relieved that he had actually noticed the provocative outfit because it meant that she wasn’t yet fading into the wallpaper as far as he was concerned. Her high heels crunched through the gravel. A finger danced up her exposed spine like a flame licking at her bare skin and she shivered, snatching in a breath as he flicked the knot at the nape of her neck. ‘If I pulled that loose...’
‘The whole thing would probably fall off,’ she completed.
Gaetano groaned out loud. ‘Don’t tempt me.’
‘I didn’t think you could be tempted any more.’
‘Temptation runs on a continuous loop around you.’
Poppy glanced at him with disbelieving eyes. ‘Then why have you been keeping your distance?’
‘It should’ve been that way from the start, bellezza mia. I was a selfish bastard to insist on sex.’
‘So, tell me something new,’ Poppy invited.
After a moment of telling silence, Gaetano’s stunning dark golden gaze locked to her flushed face in near wonderment at that response before he burst out laughing. ‘Well, that’s telling me...’
‘If you wanted lies you married the wrong girl.’
‘Obviously,’ Gaetano conceded, lounging back against an aged stone pedestal table at the viewpoint where the land fell away to reveal the panoramic landscape beyond the garden. Poppy gazed out at the beautiful countryside, her hair glowing like a live flame against her ivory skin as the sun went down.
‘I’m not being fair to you,’ Poppy muttered with sudden awkwardness. ‘I wanted sex too!’
‘Maybe when we were actually having it but not before,’ Gaetano qualified.
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, Gaetano... I couldn’t wait to rip your clothes off!’ Poppy flung back at him in exasperation. ‘I didn’t stay a virgin until this age by not knowing what I wanted. I’m not some easily led little rag doll. Stop talking as if you took advantage of a naïve kid!’
‘But I did take advantage of you.’ Gaetano reached out to grip both her hands in emphasis and prevent her from her constant pacing back and forth in front of him. ‘You were a virgin and I’m a natural predator. What I want I take. And I very much wanted you.’
