An Invitation to Sin(12)

‘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."'