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‘You can’t? Not even for an honoured client?’ Smiling faintly, he lifted a brow. ‘You’re far too busy?’ he suggested dryly.
For dancing with Dante? Yes. She should have remembered that every year after the parade her brother kept the party going by hiring one of the best samba bands in the city to entertain his guests. ‘I really don’t have time for dancing,’ she excused herself, pinning an expression of regret to her face.
‘Why not?’ he asked. ‘One dance with me can’t hurt you, surely?’
One dance with Dante could do more damage than he knew.
‘We’ve had a lovely day, a useful day, but now I’ve got so much to do.’
Her breath seemed to have taken on a life of its own as she stared at the dancers, closely packed...couples entwined...hands reaching, seeking, touching, stroking. Her chest was tight with panic and her breath was short at the thought of being pressed up hard against Dante. That was one risk she couldn’t afford to take.
But Dante was determined. Taking her hand in a firm grip, he steered her onto the dance floor.
Her heart was going crazy as all the potential consequences of a simple dance swept over her. The last time she had danced with Dante had been at her eighteenth birthday party and that had led to catastrophic consequences. A harmless dance, her friends had called it, while she had laughed. She hadn’t a care in the world at that time, and hadn’t needed much persuasion to get up and drag Dante onto the dance floor.
She’d been up for anything then. And had fallen down a slippery slope faster than she would have ever believed possible. She stiffened now as he drew her close, and then relaxed a little because his hands were in a safe place. So long as he kept them there... She let out a tense breath when he showed no sign of moving them. He towered over her, and there was a faintly mocking and, oh, so confident expression on his face, and however hard she tried to resist him his familiar scent and strong, hard body worked its magic on her and she was lost. Dante was a rock against which her soft frame yielded all too easily.
‘The perfect end to the perfect day,’ he murmured in a whisper that brushed her ear. ‘Now I just need you to relax.’
That was never going to happen. She came to her senses just in time, but turning to give him some smart retort she found herself staring into those mocking black eyes, and their faces were close, so close their lips were almost touching...
And then he brushed her lips with his.
Jerking her head back, she broke contact.
‘For goodness’ sake, Karina, what’s a kiss between friends?’
Friends?
‘I don’t want Luc to see us,’ she told him frostily.
‘Luc? You care what your brother thinks?’ Dante’s black eyes blazed with disbelief.
‘I don’t think it would be very professional for him to see me kissing a client in the lobby of his hotel. It would be hard to pass that off as a business discussion, don’t you think?’
Dante’s massive shoulders eased in an accepting shrug, but suspicion had returned to his eyes. As well it might. There had been something so natural about their two bodies coming together. The way they moved as one would make anyone suspicious. Her body responded to Dante whether she wanted it to or not, making a dance with him more like a prelude to sex than a series of technical moves to music.
‘You dance well, Karina,’ he said, when the band fell silent. ‘I should have remembered just how well.’ She looked away from those mocking eyes. ‘No, you don’t,’ he said, tightening his hold on her when she tried to pull away.
‘I’m sure if I leave you, you won’t be short of partners.’
‘There’s only one partner I want, and that’s you.’
Dante’s expression had hardened, making that a command.
‘This has to stop,’ she cautioned softly.
‘Or we can’t work together?’ he suggested, with an edge of warning in his voice.
‘Is that a threat?’
His answer was to dip his head and rasp his stubble against her neck, making her shudder out a gasp of indignation.
‘You’re shameless!’
‘I’m curious,’ he argued. ‘Curious about you, Karina, and why you’re so tense.’
She couldn’t retaliate as they had attracted quite a crowd. When the national hero danced with the hotel owner’s sister it was hot news and cameras on phones were flashing. There was no escape for her. She had to see this through. This was carnival season when people expected excitement and passion and, yes, hot news.
