“You don’t have a clue how striking you are, do you? That men want you? That backpacker, for instance?” He jerked his head in the direction of the village.
She snorted, shaking her head in dismissal. “He wanted a shower and a clean bed. He wanted to use me for that.”
“Case in point,” he muttered, letting her see his mild disgust, not the least bit reassured by her faint blush and frown of suspicion.
“You’re teasing me.”
“No, Lauren, I’m being as honest as I know how. Did you hear the part where I said I was trying to get away from you at your wedding? I’ve always wanted you.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
LAUREN HELD HIS gaze until the dark centers of his eyes seemed to glow with heat. Her toes curled and emotion welled up in her, bursting for release.
Alarmed, she looked away and reminded herself to draw a breath. With a dry swallow, she escaped by crouching to pick up the scattered groceries.
“I find that hard to believe. For starters, you’re a man who enjoys a challenge and I don’t present much of one. As you pointed out, I was the one chasing you at the wedding.” Cringing at the memory, she squinted her eyes shut. The cloth bag rested in a heap on her thigh. “I didn’t go out there to kiss you, though. Please believe that, Paolo. You were just so angry and upset and I felt like it was my fault you had to witness a wedding when it was the last thing you believed in anymore. I just wanted to see if you were okay.”
“I wasn’t.” The husky edge on his voice fluttered her nerves with disturbing sensuality.
“I know. It was stupid of me to ask.” She shook out the bag and filled it with the produce she gathered.
“No, it was kind, Lauren. It was sweet and I repaid you by kissing you and asking you to leave with me. That was stupid.”
She stayed on her knees, tilting only her eyes up to the man towering over her, his broad shoulders heavy with self-recrimination.
“You didn’t want to be there. It was an imposition. You wanted to be left alone and I didn’t respect that, so you gave me a mental shake.”
“No,” he contradicted very gravely. “I was serious when I asked you to leave with me. I went outside to cool my head because I’d been watching you all day. When you followed me, I gave in to temptation. If you had slapped me, I would have backed off, but—”
“I know. I’m—” She curled hands that rose to cover her face, leaving her fists against her hot cheeks while she stared up at him in hypnotic chagrin. To this day she remembered every second of the way he’d turned, his expression pained and defeated. She’d instinctively reached out and he’d caught her hand and drawn her inexorably into him.
She hadn’t recognized they were going to kiss. It had just happened. He had covered her mouth with his and pulled a response from her that shattered everything she’d known about herself. Still hovering between the girl who wondered about sex and the young woman awakening to her own sexuality, she’d suddenly glimpsed the raw power inside herself and it had scared her. Truly scared her.#p#分页标题#e#
As she’d pulled back, he’d feathered a masculine command across her lips. Vieni con me.
She’d understood the Italian words as though it was her primary language and the desire to comply had been dangerously thick in her blood. Leave with me.
And then Ryan’s chilly voice had asked, “What are you doing?”
For one heartbeat Paolo’s grip on her had tightened. She’d understood what it meant to be a kill between two hungry wolves.
Or a female between two alphas.
Her domestic breeding had kicked in at that point and she’d suddenly seen what this looked like from the outside, from Ryan’s perspective and the handful of family who’d gathered behind him. A bride in her lace regalia embracing another man, her lips still swollen from the pressure of his kiss, her cheeks flushed with arousal.
She’d been appalled with herself and quickly done everything in her power to excuse and minimize what had happened. Paolo was drunk. He was angry at marriage and her, and was expressing it by messing with her.
And she had moved back to Ryan’s side because he was the safe choice. When he kissed her, she felt a warm glow, not like she was falling into the lava of an erupting volcano. Ryan only came as far into her heart as she let him; Paolo would steal it and own it and probably break it.
Lauren lowered her gaze, trying to believe she’d made the right choice that day even though it smacked of severe cowardice.
“I’m trying to quit apologizing all the time, but I really didn’t mean to behave like that.” His ego didn’t need to hear that yet another female was gaga over him. “I don’t know what came over me, letting you kiss me like that.”