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She shrugged. As if she didn’t care one way or the other.
His disgruntlement rankled again. Along with his reluctant admiration.
This woman had a thicker skin than he’d credited her with. What else lay beneath that satin-smooth skin? His tongue thickened in his mouth as other, more carnal, demands arose.
‘So are you going to?’
‘Cosa?’he asked in his mother tongue, his thoughts firmly mired in carnal filth.
‘Explore their weak spots on behalf of your client?’ Her tone still held a measure of judgement.
Yes, he wanted to reply. But the pang stopped him. Which was ridiculous.
He should have no reservations about dishing out retribution where it was deserved. ‘Ultimately, if that path is taken, it’ll be the client’s call.’ Her gaze stayed on him a fraction longer, and he gritted his teeth when the pang sharpened. Enough of this. ‘But whether I do or not shouldn’t stop you from finding alternatives—where are you going?’ he asked sharply when she pushed her glass away—still half full—and rose.
Her gaze darted to the window and the darkness that had encroached while they’d been eating. ‘I’m going to bed. If we’ve got all day tomorrow, I’d rather approach this with a fresh perspective in the morning.’
Another jolt of shock rocked him.
Shewas calling it a night?Shewas taking herself off to bed when he was wide awake?
Every single, sexually available woman he knew would’ve taken swift advantage of the hunger he knew blazed in his eyes and thrown herself at him by now. Curiously, this woman was almost jumpy with denial and nerves she was doing her utmost to hide, her gaze darting to then away from his as he stared in blatant disbelief.
She wasn’t playing hard to get.
Alessio had been well versed in that particular game since he was seventeen and navigating his way through boyhood into manhood under circumstances that would’ve felled a lesser man.
No, she was genuinely walking away, leaving him to cool his heels.
He wanted to deny her escape, to state unequivocally thathewould decide when she went to bed. But even in his head, it sounded churlish and borderline childish, the actions of a weak man, and he, Alessio Montaldi, was anything but weak.
Besides, he had a few dozen tasks demanding his attention. Tasks that would ensure he didn’t give this creature a single second more than he’d already wasted on her.
He’d barely managed a curt nod of dismissal when she stepped away from the island, that ridiculous boa trailing on the floor. He watched her nervously pluck at it as she stared at him, her lips moving but no words forming.
Was she rethinking her decision? Had she rightly realised she was letting an opportunity pass and was about to suggest the much clichéd and highly suggestive nightcap—?
‘See you in the morning.’
Another rumble of disquiet held him still and mute. But it didn’t stop his gaze from tracking her when she headed for the door.
Nor could he drag his gaze from the lush swaying of her hips, from the delicious curve of her ass and the sculpted legs he could imagine wrapping around his hips as he drove into her.
That was not going to happen!Remember who she is. Why she’s here.
‘Gigi.’ His voice was a touch untamed, echoing his feelings inside.
Did her shoulders hitch with tension before she faced him? ‘Yes?’
‘My property, it is safe?’ Alessio despised the throb of emotion in his voice, even more so when her eyes widened at hearing it. Perhaps that was why her gaze dropped. Why she slicked her tongue over her bottom lip.
His reputation was ruthless enough for people to believe he had no emotions. Maybe this creature had believed it too. Was he embarrassing her?
For some absurd reason, Alessio wanted to reassure her that he was human.
Thank God, he killed that notion quickly.
Her gaze rose again. ‘You have my word that you’ll be reunited with your property once we’re done here.’
