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She put her cup down on the table and looked at him. ‘Whyisit such a mess?’
There was a pause. ‘Because my stepfather is a bully who gets his kicks from humiliating people—women in particular, though he isn’t averse to hurting children.’
‘So why...?’ She bit her lip, wondering if he was talking about himself. ‘Why does she stay?’
‘Whydowomen stay? I’ve asked myself the same question all my life—only to come away with the same sense of incomprehension and frustration every time.’ His eyes glittered. ‘And now the visit for which you have prepared so carefully has been cut short and you find yourself in the unfortunate position of being marooned in the middle of the Italian countryside.’
‘That much is true,’ Nicola agreed slowly, wishing she could obliterate some of the pain etched upon his beautiful face. She glanced out of the window, where she could see the silvery wash of moonlight glimmering on a distant swimming pool. ‘I could think of worse places to get marooned in.’
‘What, even with a man you despise?’
Nicola met the taunting question in his eyes, knowing there was plenty about Alessio di Barinotto like. He infuriated her with his arrogance and high-handedness, yes, but she remained overwhelmingly attracted to him. She had taken on this bizarre job in order to help her feckless brother and his girlfriend, but something had happened along the way. Something she hadn’t planned. With a single kiss the Italian billionaire had changed her, just like that. He had put a match to the bonfire of her senses and set them on fire, branding erotic images on her mind which wouldn’t seem to go away.
The slow graze of his fingers creeping up towards her panties.
She swallowed.
The silken throb of her sex as she silently prayed for him to touch her more intimately...
Was it that blissful but ultimately frustrating experience which made her flirt with him, or just a desire to shake off all her responsibilities for once, and see what happened?
‘I wouldn’t say,’ she offered, as lightly as she could, ‘that I actuallydespisedyou.’
At first she thought he hadn’t been listening, or had chosen to ignore her words. But when he looked at her... Nicola’s heart missed a beat. When helookedat her, the pain in his face had become transmuted into something else. Something raw, and sensual and hungry.
‘I want to kiss you,’ he said, his voice thick. ‘That’s all I can think about right now. I want to blot out the world and ravish those delicious lips of yours. I want to carry on what we started this afternoon, Nicola—only this time I don’t want to stop.’
It was the boldest thing anyone had ever said to her and as the silken heat of sexual awareness whispered over her skin again, Nicola felt dizzy with desire. It was weird. She felt lost and found, all at the same time. But it wasn’t just her physical reaction which was so disorientating—it was the accompanying flutter of her thoughts. The absolute certainty thatthiswas why she had waited all these years before having sex. Had she known on some subliminal level that Alessio di Bari was going to walk into her life and there was no way she would have wanted anyone but him to be her first lover?
But that was crazy thinking, from a woman who should have known better. If she wanted him, she mustn’t frighten him away. She mustn’t behave like every other woman in her family by being needy, or desperate. He had said he liked her because she was cool. Wouldn’t he be appalled if he knew the real person who existed behind the serene exterior she had so carefully cultivated? The product of one of London’s roughest estates, who was still avirgin?
She mustn’t tell him that either, because she suspected that a man with his degree of experience would be horrified to learn how innocent she was.
But he’s going to find out anyway...and then how is he going to react?
She didn’t care.
She didn’t care about anything right then.
Nicola reached out to touch the hard curve of his jaw, revelling in the rough rasp of new growth which brushed against her palm. Let her—and him—cross that bridge when they came to it. Hadn’t she spent her whole life doing things for other people? The only reason she was here was because her brother had got himself into trouble yet again. Whyshouldn’tshe have something for herself for once, even if it only lasted one night?
‘So go ahead. Kiss me,’ she urged, hoping she didn’t sound like a faltering novice.
He took the hand which was still resting against his jaw and lifted it to his lips, taking each finger inside his mouth and sucking it. It managed to be innocuous and intensely erotic and Nicola gasped when he drew his mouth away. ‘Oh,’ she said, and he gave a slow smile as he heard the note of disappointment in her voice.
‘I want to undress you. Very, very slowly. But not here. Not on the floor, or on that undersized sofa like a couple of teenagers with no place to go. I want you upstairs, Nicola,’ he commanded. ‘Now.’
‘Okay,’ she agreed, as if she regularly received such propositions—trying to blot out her sudden rush of nerves. Her heart was pounding as he led her upstairs and she wondered why he was sounding almostmechanical. As if this were more about technique than feelings. As if he took part in this kind of detached seduction all the time.
Did he?
Nicola swallowed. Of course he did—and that was fact, not conjecture on her part. He might try his best to lead a private life but the Internet was full of stories about his conquests—women who were the polar opposite of her. The firecracker brunettes Lydia had spoken about. Women who had everything, while she had nothing.
Shouldn’t that be enough to make her have second thoughts?
Probably. Especially as they had now reached the bedroom and all it symbolised. She stood on the threshold of the room, uncertain what to do, staring across the room at the neatly made bed, covered with exquisite white linen. The sunset was nothing but a memory and bright moonlight was streaming in through the unshuttered windows, coating everything in molten silver. But Alessio’s expression was unreadable as he stared down into her face, and Nicola held her breath as she gazed up at him.
Had the journey upstairs been long enough to make him question the wisdom of what they were about to do? Had the billionaire financier suddenly realised he was about to have sex with ordinary Nicky Bennett and she was the last woman he should be holding in his arms?
