November Harlequin Presents 2(159)

‘You don’t know what I feel, Angelo.’

‘Oh, but I do.’ He relaxed back and crossed his legs. Sexy, elegant and composed. ‘Actions speak so much louder than words.’

‘What would be the point?’ Suddenly she couldn’t sit still any longer. Nor could she withstand the shuttered steadiness of his gaze. She walked jerkily across to the bay window and perched on the ledge, wrapping her arms around her. How could he sit there and discuss them sleeping together as nonchalantly as if he was discussing the weather? ‘You would want it to lead somewhere, wouldn’t you? Isn’t that what you said all those years ago?’

‘What happened years ago is an irrelevance. It’s what’s happening now that matters. We want each other. Sufficient for me to break off my engagement, sufficient for you to sleep with me when your head was telling you not to.’ He shrugged. ‘I’m looking for nothing from you and you want nothing from me. Beyond the obvious.’

‘It’s crazy.’

‘Come and sit back down.’

‘What difference will that make?’

‘Come and sit back down.’

She would have made for one of the chairs but that would have looked cowardly, so she stuck her chin up and sat next to him, face averted.

‘Look at me. Unless, of course, you’re too scared to do that.’

‘Scared? Why should I be scared?’ She faced him with a glare and sank straight into the fathomless depths of his black eyes. It really was a drowning sensation.

‘Feel it?’ he murmured, making no move to get closer to her, just watching her.

‘No! Feel what?’

‘That undercurrent that runs between us. It’s irresistible, Francesca. That’s why I think we should continue seeing one another, sleeping with one another, and this time we’ll both know the boundaries and won’t overstep them.’

‘And if I say no? Which,’ she added hurriedly, ‘I will.’

‘Then you leave. It’s as simple as that. You know where the front door is. But I hope you don’t.’ He reached out and lazily coiled one finger into her hair, twining it round into a spiral before letting it drop.

But I hope you don’t. She knew what she ought to do. Faced with a pool of quicksand yawning by her feet, she just had to turn around and walk away across solid land to safety. Nothing could ever come of anything between them.

But for just a little while she could have some stolen happiness. The past three years had been a wasteland. She had thrown everything into her career and enjoyed it, but the emotional side of her that had needed tending had been allowed to grow into a wilderness through lack of care.

‘What you’re proposing is…preposterous, primitive…’

‘I’m a primitive man but never preposterous. What I am proposing is a solution.’

He stroked his finger along her collar-bone and Francesca sighed.

‘And how long until this solution becomes redundant?’ she asked quietly.

‘Who knows? How long is a piece of string? All we know is that we will be able to satisfy our hunger for one another and then we will move on to find our proper destinies.’

‘I can’t believe I’m actually sitting here having this conversation with you, Angelo.’ She eyed the door. ‘I thought you were just making time to hear my gripes. Don’t you have important meetings to rush off to?’

‘Oh, nothing that I can’t put on hold if I need to. Consider the day yours if you’re brave enough to take the plunge.’

She stood up and he hooked his fingers around her wrist and with a little tug pulled her back down, in a tangle on his lap, laughing as she stared up at him with affronted eyes, laughing and sure of himself, of her.

She was clear-headed only for the length of time that it took for his mouth to find hers and, when it did, she sank into the kiss like a drowning man finding land. She felt the thrust of his tongue against hers and groaned when his hands curved beneath the formal white shirt, pushing it up until he was cupping her breast, feeling its weight through the lacy bra.

Then he was sliding down on the sofa, taking her with him and fumbling with the small buttons of her blouse. Now the shirt was finally off. Getting his own off was considerably quicker, especially as he didn’t give a hoot if he ripped a few buttons off in the process. He just wanted her naked and on top of him.

Although there was a lot to be said for watching her luscious breasts in that sexy, low-cut lacy bra. As if reading his mind, or maybe reading his mind was just something she could do, she raised herself up, dangling her breasts over him and smiling when, with a little growl of impatience, he scooped them out of their constraints so that he could lower one pouting nipple into his mouth.