Unbelievably, a shower of tingling sensations raced down her abdomen and into her loins, gathering into a knot of joyful anticipation. She clenched internal muscles, trying to resist what was happening, but her body knew what it wanted.#p#分页标题#e#
She was going to climax right here, fully clothed in the kitchen.
Aghast, she fought free of his kiss and covered his hand to still his fingers, gasping, “Paolo, stop. Now. Please.”
“I adore the way you feel when you’re aroused, cara.” His strong hand resisted the stilling press of her own while his breath stirred the hair at her temple, fanning the burning need inside her. “Dio! I’ve never known a woman so responsive. Let me take you to bed.”
“No!” She covered her face to hide that she was near tears and pivoted away, leaning her shoulder heavily into the cold wall of the fridge door, dislodging his touch so his hand fell to her waist. He continued to stand behind her, his grip twitching through degrees of strength on the sensitized skin of her waist, as though he wanted to grip her harder and was fighting the urge. Desire to turn back into him nearly overwhelmed her.
“Lauren, you want this. You want me.”
“But I don’t want to prove I’m the easiest woman you’ve ever met! What a horrid thing to say to someone. Shall I tell you how you rank in my vast experience?”
His hand dropped away and he retreated a step so cool air swirled down her back, making her shiver. “That isn’t what I was saying.”
“Yes, you were. You kissed me to prove I can’t control how I react to you, and that’s just mean. I’ve tried not to be attracted to you, Paolo. God knows I’ve tried. I know I behaved badly in Charleston. That’s why I don’t expect you to marry me. But taking advantage of my weakness so you can notch your belt is not nice. And refusing to admit Ryan was cheating was cruel. I could be divorced and married to a man who genuinely loves me, expecting his child, rather than wading through this mess.”
Paolo took everything she said like a series of heart punches, taken aback by her claim that he was only toying with her. Did she really not have any idea how powerfully attracted to her he was? He might have been a playboy once, but this wasn’t like that.
Yet he’d thought the same of her. He’d written off her signals of interest as deliberate flirtation, but as he looked at the back of her bowed neck, so vulnerable and conquered, he remembered the innocent who’d sat beside him in a bar five years ago, so uncomfortable with her own sexuality she’d never stopped tugging at her short skirt or low neckline.
He suddenly saw the truth. Lauren had been fighting this same attraction he’d been struggling against for the very same reason: they’d had spouses to consider.
That he’d been so successful in hiding the true depth of his attraction took him aback, especially today. She ought to realize by twenty-five how alluring she was.
Unless her husband had never been home to tell her. If said husband had done the exact opposite, stayed away and had affairs, it was no shock at all that Lauren would have little awareness of her appeal.
Remorse moved through Paolo. He knew how it felt to be lied to. His trust in women was skewed to this day, nearly impossible to win. Apparently, Lauren was equally suspicious and he didn’t like how unsteady that made him feel.
Paolo tipped back his head for a cleansing breath before moving away from her to fetch two glasses from the cupboard. When he came back to use the ice machine on the door of the refrigerator, Lauren eyed him warily and sidled to make room.
He filled one with filtered water and handed it to her. For himself, he reached into another cupboard where the hard liquor was kept and poured something from the first bottle that came to hand. It spilled through him in a bracing burn, not cooling his blood, but clearing his mind enough that he could think.
And all he could think was that he had to have her.#p#分页标题#e#
First, though, he had to erase that haunted, white-lipped look off her face. She looked dazed and shell-shocked. Tension outlined her eyes, keeping her gaze from meeting his, and she choked a little as she sipped her water.
“I knew you were a virgin before I spoke to you,” he told her.
She darted a confused look his way, her brow crinkling briefly with annoyance. “Don’t rub it in. I know I’m not sophisticated. Did you have a good laugh with Ryan?”
“Quite the opposite. I was afraid for you. That’s why I approached you. To keep the creeps in that bar from taking advantage of you.”
That’s what he’d told himself anyway, using it to justify a drink with a stranger when he was about to marry another woman. He thumbed the rim of his glass.