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Her gaze stayed on his for a moment before moving once more to the tree, her head tilting up to take it all in after she took a small sip of wine.
‘What are you thinking?’ Four innocuous words that shocked him to the core. Not once in his life had he asked a woman her innermost thoughts. Not once had he cared.
But he cared now, for whatever mystical reason. Hecared. Because she’d pulled the wool over his eyes. Andnotbecause of the shadows ghosting over her face.
‘It’s Christmas in two days. I can’t believe I won’t be spending it with my mother and...’ She stopped, blinked a few times, then dragged her fingers through her hair.
He tensed. ‘Your mother and...?’ he pushed, with a voice edged with emotions he didn’t want to investigate.
‘And whoever she’s decided will form part of her festivities this year,’ she responded. ‘She turns it into a competition, you see. Makes her friends vie for the privilege of spending the holidays with Renata in some exotic place of her choosing.’
Alessio was certain now that, while she wasn’t lying about her elaborate reply, she was holding something back. His thoughts leapt back to the report sitting in his inbox. The report he couldn’t access without an internet connection.
She set the barely touched glass on the table and dragged both hands through her hair. ‘Didn’t mean for this to get sodeep. Let’s liven it up a bit, hmm? Maybe some music? Or I can solve another fixer problem for you?’
She whirled, then self-consciously caught the bottom of the robe when it flared to reveal a flash of her shapely leg.
Alessio set his empty glass down. ‘We’ll continue this in my study. There’s an important report I’d like to access if the internet comes back.’
Her eyes searched his and she swallowed, attempting to hide her alarm. But then she nodded.
He motioned her forward with his hand, keeping his expression neutral.
With that fake smile still pinned in place, she fell into step with him as they exited the living room.
Alessio kept a tight grip on his emotions as they entered his study. From the corner of his eye, he watched her fuss with her belt, her gaze darting around the room. ‘Actually, do you mind if we pick this up later?’
‘Why?’
She stiffened, then immediately attempted to relax her body. ‘What do you mean why?’
‘You seem nervous. Why is that?’ he pushed.
She shrugged. ‘It’s been a long and unusually...revelatory day. I think I need a little peace and quiet to process it all.’
It was close enough to the truth for Alessio to marvel how many times she’d given just enough without going all the way. Without doubt, the incident in the sauna after their kiss had been one of them. He didn’t know whether to be angered or impressed at her cunning.
How ironic that she was exactly the sort of person he would pay a high premium to employ in a heartbeat. ‘Is that all?’
Wide grey eyes blinked at him. ‘What else could it be?’
He ventured closer, watched her throat move in another swallow. ‘You wouldn’t be running away from something else, would you?’
Did her breath catch? ‘Like wh—?’
He reached for her, all sense leaving his brain as neutrality vanished. Even as he sealed his lips to hers, he cursed the sensation...the emotions he’d condemned for so long. Without it, he knew he wouldn’t be feeling this chargedbetrayal. This potentneed.
He would’ve seen this coming a mile off. He most definitely wouldn’t have swallowed her husky moan as if it were manna itself, wouldn’t have craved more of it as he nudged her back against the closed door and plastered his body to hers.
Santa cielo,she was so soft. So addictive!
Before he could compute the wisdom of it, he wrapped an arm around her trim waist and lifted her off her feet. Pinning her delicious body to his, he stumbled towards the wall.
‘Alessio...’
Sense would’ve been restored if she’d pushed him away. But even as his name trembled from her delicious, duplicitous mouth, her fingers were digging into his nape, her eyes pools of pure temptation as she held onto him. As her legs parted and wrapped around his waist.
And while he was a strong-willed, ruthless man, there were some brands of temptation, he was discovering, that dissolved his control.‘Se...se...’
