When She Fell for the Billionaire(4)
Her lips dropped open just a fraction. She seemed momentarily bewildered. Just when Luca thought his “smolder” was having no effect, the unexpected happened and surprised the hell out of him.
Sabrina Connelly began turning pink. It started on her slim white neck then crept upwards to her cheeks. The tips of her ears were not spared.
Luca was riveted. He had never seen a woman blush since…ever.
She clapped both hands to her face, and Luca could have sworn he heard her say, “Oh, shit.” She ran her eyes all over him, from the top of his head down to his sandals, inspecting him openly. “I was warned about men like you.”
On other women, it might have sounded flirtatious. Sabrina Connelly sounded earnest.
“Men like me?” When she appeared reticent, he cajoled, “Tell me what they said.” He crossed his arms over his chest as if they were having this conversation inside the hotel and the rock he was sitting on was not digging uncomfortably into his ass. Luca found the combination of her directness and her blush intriguing. “I like knowing more about myself, especially when they involve vague, sweeping generalizations.”
Her eyes narrowed, as if to say he was being clever but maybe it was just the sun. “That there were men out to prey on women who were traveling alone.”
“Do I look like a predator?”
She laughed without humor. “All men are until proven otherwise.”
He saw she regretted her statement by the flattening of her lips.
“If I were a predator, strega, I would have snapped you up the minute you admitted you were alone.” His voice became hard. Even Chiara knew not to cross him when he sounded like that. Luca had never taken advantage of a woman, and it galled him to be thought of as such. “You shouldn’t have volunteered that information. You placed yourself in danger.”
“I don’t think anyone with a pair of eyes can miss out on the fact that I’m by myself on a deserted beach.” She shrugged, as if what he said was of no consequence. “The lifeguard’s looking on.”
“The lifeguard who’s too far away to do anything and thinks we know each other because we have been chatting it up for some time now?”
“What would you have me do?”
You should have walked away the minute you saw me. But it’s too late, strega. I’m bewitched. “Did your mother never tell you not to talk to strangers?”
A tiny flinch. “My grandmother did.”
He filed that away for future reference. “Next time, Little Red Riding Hood, if cornered, invent a boyfriend or a husband you left in the hotel who’s arriving in a few minutes.”
“For some men, that’s not a deterrent.”
And apparently for some women too, he thought darkly, now suddenly remembering that the Hollywood executive she had been rumored to have an affair with was married. “Then run screaming like hell.” He couldn’t help adding, “You’ve been keeping company with the wrong kind of men.”
Her chin went up a notch at his provocative declaration, just as he expected it to. He liked getting a little rise out of her. And he needed the reminder of other men. That they too had fallen under her spell. It made his attraction to her seem…more manageable. Less singular.
“The hotel staff can vouch for who I am,” he said, a tad too arrogant and slightly annoyed that his legendary charm was not working. “The hotel owners and I are business associates.”
“Business associates,” she repeated, frowning, then her demeanor underwent an abrupt change.
Her tone lost a little of the frost, though it sounded a bit forced. “I meant no offense. I’m sure it works every time.” Had the fact that he was a “business associate” and would be presumed rich influenced this sudden change of attitude? Or more accurately, was the connection with Markos making her re-evaluate her attitude towards him?
“What works?”
She flung a hand in front of her in an abrupt, palm up gesture then quickly dropped it. “This whole flirtation, vacation fling. I’m deeply flattered−“
Luca saw she was anything but.
“−you’re a very attractive, panty-dropping, sexy man, but I’m just not in the mood for a holiday romance. Too much going on right now.”
He choked. He didn’t know whether to be flattered or insulted. Being described as “panty-dropping” and then being rejected in one breath was a confusing first. No female alive had ever said no to Luca Argenti. Well, maybe his sister Chiara was the exception, so he had to qualify it. No female non-relation alive had ever said no to him. There was a time in kindergarten when a little girl named Isabela had refused to kiss him, but that was due to the fact that he hadn’t refined his technique yet. He thought pulling on her pigtails was the surest way to get her attention. He’d come a long way since.