‘No, you don't.' His voice was a soft, masculine purr. ‘I make you laugh and we understand each other, dolcezza, because we are so alike.'
It felt as if someone were squeezing her throat. ‘I'm nothing like you. And you drive me mad.'
‘You just think that because you're hungry. A hungry woman is always irritable. When did you last eat?'
‘Eat? I don't want to eat.' She just wanted to get out of the car. She wanted to wind the clock back and find another way of extracting herself from this mess.
She didn't do this. She didn't put herself in the way of temptation.
‘Of course you want to eat. You're permanently starving but for some reason you suppress every appetite you ever experience.' Without warning, he took a right turn, roared into a small village and cut the engine, oblivious to the stares he earned from the locals. ‘Wait here.'
He disappeared for a few moments and then reappeared and dropped a bag onto her lap. ‘Never let it be said I don't know what a woman really wants.'
The smell made her stomach rumble and Taylor opened the bag curiously. ‘A cheeseburger? You think that's what a woman really wants?'
He leaned towards her and for a terrifying, breathless moment she thought he was going to kiss her again but he simply smiled that maddening smile that made her stomach curl. ‘I'm good at understanding a woman's hidden desires, dolcezza.'
Pride kept her still in her seat. ‘Evidently not, because I have no desire for a cheeseburger.' Her stomach growled loudly and his smile widened as he pulled back from her and started the engine.
‘I'll leave you to argue with your stomach about that one. But while you're engaged to me, you'll eat carbs. Otherwise one of us will kill the other and that is not going to produce the headlines you're hoping for.' Eyes in the mirror, he executed a perfect U-turn and rejoined the main highway while Taylor stared at the cheeseburger, remembering the time she'd sneaked out with friends for a burger and been caught by her mother. She'd been twelve years old, excited by her first-ever invitation to join a group of girls and feeling almost normal for the first time in her life, when her mother had come storming into the restaurant and dragged it out of her hand, demanding to know why she was so determined to ruin her career.
Taylor closed the bag and gripped the top so that she wasn't tempted, but the smell wouldn't leave her alone.
Her mouth watered. Her stomach mewed.
She made an impatient sound. The day was turning from a bad dream into a nightmare. ‘You're cruel, you know that, don't you?'
‘Just eat it and spare me the drama.'
‘I can't.' Her fingers tightened on the bag. ‘It's on the forbidden list.'
‘Scusi?'
‘The forbidden list. The list of things I can't do.'
‘You're seriously telling me you have a list of things you can't do?'
‘I don't expect you to understand,' Taylor snapped, ‘but I can't eat this. For a start my character in the movie is supposed to be slender.'
‘Your character will be found strangled by her infuriated fiancée if you don't eat something substantial soon.' He pulled back onto the coast road. ‘Tell me more about this forbidden list. I think I might have one too.'
‘You? You have to be kidding.'
‘Well, I have a list-the difference is that mine is called my priority list. What else is on yours?'
Spending time with men like him.
‘Everything that is bad for me and will wreck my career.'
‘So it's also called the boring list. I suggest you flip that list and do everything on it, starting with eating food that's bad for you and tastes good. Open that bag and feed the real you. Go on. You know you want to.'
She did want to. She wanted to so badly.
Oh, hell, why not?
Tired and starving hungry, Taylor gave in to temptation. It wasn't as if one hamburger was going to kill her.
Trying to block out the sound of her mother saying ‘think of your career' she closed her eyes and took a bite. Flavour exploded in her mouth. She moaned. ‘I think that might be the best thing I've ever tasted. Find a bin, quickly. I have to throw it away before I'm tempted to take another bite.'
‘Take another bite. And then another. When your stomach is full and you're not behaving like a she-wolf stalking her prey, we'll talk.'
Flavour slicing through her willpower, Taylor took another bite. ‘OK, you win. When filming is over I'm going to buy a truckload of these. How do I ask for it in Italian?'
‘You ask for pane con la milza.'
‘Pane con la milza. That's Italian for cheeseburger?' She took another mouthful and chewed slowly, savouring every moment. ‘I know that pane means "bread," and con means "with." So milza must be-what? Beef? Ham?'
‘Spleen.'
Taylor stopped chewing. ‘Pardon?'
‘Milza means "spleen."'
At the point of swallowing, she choked. ‘I'm eating a spleen burger? You fed me spleen burger?'
‘Your translation is less than elegant but yes, the meat is spleen. Pane con la milza is a delicacy, particularly around Palermo. My grandmother used to make it in her kitchen when I was a little boy.'
She dropped the rest of the ‘burger' in the bag and put it on the floor of his car. ‘Pull over. Now.'
‘Why?'
‘I'm going to throw up.'
‘Throw up in my Ferrari and this engagement is off. Nothing is worth that. Cristo, Taylor, stop behaving like a wimpy female.' He flung her an impatient look before fixing his eyes on the road again. ‘What is that phrase you use? Put your big-girl pants on. But not literally-I prefer you in something more revealing. A thong works for me. Does that phrase exist? Put your sexy-girl thong on? Whatever-show some guts.'
‘Thanks to you I just ate guts.'
‘And even as we speak the nutrition will be flowing into your starved veins. Your starved body should be thanking me.'
‘You have a problem with my body? That's odd because it certainly didn't seem that way when you were ripping my clothes off a few days ago.' She had the satisfaction of seeing his hands tighten on the wheel.
‘I didn't see enough of it to judge.'
The atmosphere in the car had shifted dangerously and she wished she'd kept the conversation on the topic of food. Wiping her fingers on a napkin, she shuddered. ‘Do not ever mention this particular meal again. I do not want to even think about the fact I just ate a-never mind.'
‘I never would have thought you were squeamish. Meat is meat.'
‘I don't often eat meat and when I do I like to know what I'm eating before I eat it. Now I understand why all your relationships have been short. I don't think I can even pretend to love you enough to marry you. You drive me crazy.'
‘Anyone choosing to get married has to be crazy, so I don't see that as a problem.' He slowed the car, waiting as a pair of electric gates opened slowly, and then accelerated along a drive bordered by tall cypress trees.
‘Where are we?' She threw a glance at his profile, wondering why he was so firmly against marriage. She decided it was probably because he lived his life surrounded by gorgeous women.
‘We're somewhere exclusive where we can be assured of privacy.' The tyres crunched over gravel as he pulled up outside a beautiful building built from honey-coloured stone.
A woman appeared from nowhere. ‘Luca!' She burst into a stream of fluent Italian and Luca replied in the same language. Taylor glanced around her, trying to ignore the fact that hearing him speak in that beautiful, lilting language made her tummy tighten.
Impatient with herself, she reminded herself that any time her self-control weakened around him she just needed to think of him feeding her a spleen burger. Most of all she needed to remember that there was nothing romantic about this situation.
Which suited her just fine.
Never again was she trusting a man. Or any other person for that matter. She was using Luca Corretti, just as he was using her.
Having reminded herself of that, it was doubly unsettling when the woman walked across to her and took her hands, her eyes filling.
Taylor suppressed her natural impulse to back away. ‘Er, bueno, er … ' She glanced hopelessly at Luca, who rolled his eyes.
‘That's Spanish. What are you trying to say?'
Taylor felt her face turn scarlet with embarrassment. ‘I'm trying to be friendly and say hello.'
‘If it's after midday you can just say buona sera. This is Geovana. She speaks some English, although she might not be familiar with "spleen burger."'