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Without warning he reached to brush the side of her face with his finger, and Sophie shivered at the hot trail left there. Her mouth parted and her eyelids fluttered, and when he placed a butterfly-gentle kiss on her mouth she responded by sighing into his, swept away on a tide of something that was irresistible.
Treacherous fingers laced into his dark hair, tugging him closer, and she felt his smile as he gently drew away—but only a tiny bit. His forehead touched hers, and when he spoke, his breath was warm on her face.
‘Who’s kidding who, Sophie?’ he queried softly. ‘This isn’t something that’s been concocted out of thin air to placate a questioning old man. It isn’t an arrangement that we’ve actively thought up to deceive him into believing in something that doesn’t exist.’
‘But...’
‘Shh...’ He briefly placed his finger on her mouth, before removing it, and then he held her head in his hands and looked at her gravely. ‘I wouldn’t deliver an outright lie to my father, however much it might help towards easing a thorny situation. I would never drag you into pretending something that didn’t exist...that was a complete piece of fiction...’
Caught between his hands, Sophie could scarcely breathe, so mesmerised was she by the intensity in his eyes, the warm sincerity in his voice and the urgency of his explanation.
She hated the way her brain seemed to take a holiday when she was near him, and she knew that she should be fighting harder to resist the soft persuasion in his voice. But when she tried to get hold of some vigour, she drew an unhelpful blank.
‘Wearean item, Sophie. We’re lovers. And I wasn’t lying when I told my father that you’re different from all the other women I’ve ever been out with.’
‘You weren’t?’ Sophie croaked.
Alessio shot her a crooked smile. ‘Youaredifferent. I’d say you’re unique...’
Sophie blinked, owl-like, and then recovered sufficiently to get hold of some much-needed common sense.
‘So unique that we’re not going to prolong this once we return to Planet Earth...’ she countered.
For a few seconds Alessio was shaken by the thought that he wasn’t entirely sure on that front.
Would they continue what they’d started?
He was so accustomed to having relationships that were defined by the very temporariness of their nature, that he was taken aback to discover that it was different with this one.
At least, itfeltdifferent.
Maybe he had accepted on some level that they would be destined to meet over time, whether or not they continued what they had.
Maybe in that respect he hadn’t got around to mentally predicting the parting of the ways scenario.
At any rate, it was disturbing that he hadn’t envisaged ending what they’d begun. At least not in any kind of conscious way. He’d assumed...What?What had he assumed? That this would continue indefinitely? Because he wasn’t ready to think about her not being there?
Alessio frowned.
‘I hadn’t thought that far ahead,’ he said smoothly. ‘Had you?’
‘Of course I had,’ Sophie answered. ‘I’d thought that this was good, but naturally it was going to come to an end. Nothing long term for either of us. A week or two of fun and then we go our separate ways.’
‘Well,’ Alessio said briskly, ‘that line of thinking will have to be put on hold for both of us.’
‘How is that going to work, Alessio?’
‘It seems relatively straightforward to me.’
‘How so?’
‘My father is under the impression that this is more than it is...’
He looked at her from under dark, sooty lashes. Her cool agreement with what he’d said should have pleased him. He hated histrionics, and had discovered that women frequently went down that road when it dawned on them that he wasn’t for taming. That he hadn’t been lying when he’d told them that longevity wasn’t in his DNA when it came to relationships.
‘That’s the problem,’ Sophie said, without the slightest inflection in her voice. ‘I know you didn’t want to stress him out, but I think he would have been okay if we’d been truthful.’
‘Not a chance I wanted to take.’ He flushed. ‘I know what you’re thinking, Sophie. You’re thinking that I jumped into a lie to protect a father I’ve barely visited for...for some time.’
