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Yet, unfortunately, she was right. He had work to do. He could have sworn he’d met everyone in the room, but Etta was soon there, dragging him off somewhere else. He took what felt like a hundred more selfies before he could beg off and go back to the podium.
The announcement of the winners was just for bragging rights. The winners would stand in their seats, accept applause, maybe pump the air in victory. Alessandro’s props got gasp-inducing donations. Kane got a cheer when he won the TV. Megan won a spa weekend in the Berkshires, which she was going to give to Etta. Alessandro wondered what he looked like when he read her name. He was a good actor, but his own personal stake in what made Megan happy must have shown on his face. He couldn’t resist blowing her a kiss, and the audience ate it up.Sdolcinatobe damned.
Susie had been frantically calculating the numbers from the auction sheets and now came up to the podium in tears. “Three hundred thousand dollars!” she sobbed. Alessandro had to hold her to help her stay standing. The audience freaked out, the stage got mobbed, and he barely had a chance to grab the mic and thank everyone before he was buried in backslaps and handshakes.
♦
Chapter 13
“Goodbye! Yes, goodbye! Yes, it was wonderful. Yes, I’m so glad. I know! So much money! Yes, we’ll talk tomorrow. Okay, okay. Goodbye!”
Megan lost count of how many times she said goodbye—to the same people—before she and Alessandro finally got out of the hotel and into the waiting car. Alessandro had the same problem, only he did it in two languages, so it sounded way better. He handed her into the back seat, followed her, and the driver closed the outside world on them.
There was a moment of silence when they just panted a little and looked at each other. “That was fun,” she said.
He laughed and dragged his hand down his face. “So much fun. So much fun I could sleep for a week.”
“When’s the last time you gave a speech?”
He thought about it. “Never.” He scratched his beard. “The salon convinced me to put something in this, and it itches.”
Megan took his face in her hands and felt his beard with her fingers. “Mm,” she said. “Maybe you used a touch too much.” She scooched closer to him. “Let me see.”
God, she wanted to be close to him. His PDA at the event had been a giant tease. He hadn’t put his jacket on until they were about to leave, so she’d had to look at those forearms, the gentle play of tendons and muscles when he held her hand or even took a drink.
She had it bad.
She’d told him she wanted to get to know him a whole lot better before she let him into her bed.
Yeah, forget that. She knew what she needed.
She kissed his lips slowly, tantalizingly, not deep, just playing with him. Then she used the tip of her tongue to touch each of his lips in turn, making him groan. The partition window was closed, so Megan felt not the slightest embarrassment. She felt powerful.
Continuing to tease him with her mouth, she grazed her fingernails along the edge of his beard, feeling the cord in his neck tense and harden. “Meg,” he begged.
“’Sandro,” she replied against his lips. He groaned again. She kept her fingers exploring his hot skin, fluttering under his loosened collar, feeling the rigid muscles under his shoulder. She pushed aside the collar and touched the skin with her tongue. Alessandro gasped, but she laughed and captured his lips again, still light, still teasing, but he had no ability to do anything but what she wanted.
Thank God her skirt was full so she could straddle him on the deep car seat and work on the other side of his neck. The prickle of his beard on her hands, the contrast between that and his lips, made her want to open a window to cool her heated cheeks. But she wouldn’t because this was where they could be entirely themselves. No one else could come into their world for now. For tonight.
He put one hand on her hip to hold her on his lap, and then it was Megan who gasped as he began to knead her butt, squeezing and releasing, rocking her into him and away so that, in the end, she couldn’t help but drop her head back and grind down on him.
Now he had the control, and he knew it. He took her hips and pushed them down harder before feeling for the hem of her dress and grabbing at her calves, then her thighs. Megan moaned and tipped her hips up to let him get even closer, and—
The car stopped. And didn’t start again.
“Gesù, that was quick,” Alessandro growled.
“Are we home already?” Her voice seemed to come from very far away. But when Alessandro began to remove his hand, she sat down harder on him.
Despite the darkness of the shaded car, she could see his impossibly light eyes, melted with desire and frustration.
“This hairstyle,” she said.
“What about it?” he asked gruffly.
“I might need some help taking it down.”
“Meg.” He tipped his head forward until their foreheads touched. “Don’t kill me. Don’t, please, don’t.”
