‘Don’t you go to parties very often?’
‘Usually I’m serving the food.’
She was a waitress? That fitted with the travelling. She certainly wasn’t a local with that softened English accent. Yet it surprised him. She had an unworldliness about her, as if her optimism and hopefulness hadn’t yet been crushed by the harsh realities of life. Most travellers he’d met had a few street smarts and sharper edges. Maybe she was new to it all. His body tightened inappropriately again.
‘What are we going to do about it?’ he muttered harshly, unable to hold back his runaway thoughts.
‘About what?’
Astounded, he turned her back to face him. ‘This chemistry.’
‘Nothing.’ She turned back to watch the launch arrive. ‘Do you think it’s someone famous?’
He didn’t give a damn if it was the Queen of England. He just wanted her attention back on him. ‘I don’t think this is something we can do nothing about.’
‘Of course we can.’ She laughed, but she didn’t meet his eyes.
‘You’re not in the least curious?’
She finally focused on him properly. ‘I’m sure you could make me feel amazing.’ That giveaway colour washed over her light golden tan again. ‘I’m sure you could make me want anything and everything. But I’m also positive you’d be bad news.’
‘Bad news?’ How could anything so explosive be bad news? ‘Do you take everything so seriously?’
‘Do you take everything so flippantly?’
‘Not everything. No. But life is for living.’ He tugged her closer. ‘You should live a little.’
She smiled at that. ‘That was a lame attempt at persuasion. I think you can do better.’
‘Lame?’ Was she critiquing his flirting skills? What had she said, that he was ‘appalling’?
‘You should stop trying to tempt me,’ she said with disarming solemnity.
‘Okay,’ he lied. It wasn’t okay.
That guileless look in her eyes was undermined by the knowing curve of her smile. ‘I don’t want to play games, Mr Vitale.’
He’d never met a woman who didn’t want to play games. ‘You calling me Mr Vitale is playing games.’
She drew a sharp breath. ‘Okay. Honestly? I don’t want to get hurt.’
‘I don’t hurt women.’
She sent him another look.
‘I don’t ever want to hurt women,’ he clarified. ‘I would never want to hurt you.’
He felt her shiver as he took her hand.
‘You’re cramping my style,’ she said a little breathlessly. ‘Step away, the nice guys aren’t going to approach when you’re circling me like a shark.’
‘There aren’t any nice guys here.’
Her nose wrinkled. ‘Not any?’
‘None. They’re all sharks. They all want the same thing I do.’
‘And what’s that?’
The lanterns cast a light glow on her fine features. She looked luminous and delicate and she’d melt against him in a delicious bundle of soft heat. One kiss wouldn’t end the world, would it?
She suddenly stepped backwards. ‘That would be a mistake.’
She turned to watch the crowds greet whoever had arrived on that launch.
She was very focused on watching what other people were doing. On not looking at him. Was that her way of trying to keep this chemistry sealed? Didn’t she realise that trying to bottle it would only cause a bigger explosion once the pressure grew too great? Smiling, he gently shook her.
‘What?’ She finally looked at him.
‘Most women don’t spend a date with me looking out for other men.’
‘Am I not paying you enough attention?’ She widened her eyes. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘No, you’re not,’ he growled. That apology had been the most insincere thing to fall from her lips tonight. ‘You’re deliberately avoiding looking at me. I wonder why.’
‘You have to wonder?’ she scoffed. ‘This isn’t a date. This is coercion.’
‘You don’t know what coercion is.’ He laughed. ‘I didn’t have to bully you so very much.’
She buttoned her lips and a small frown pleated that space between her eyebrows. ‘I wanted to see the fireworks.’
He laughed again.
‘It’s the truth.’
‘I’m sure it is.’ He framed her face in his hands so he could look into her eyes the way he’d wanted to from the moment he’d first seen her.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked in the gentlest whisper.
‘Getting closer.’
‘Why?’
‘Fireworks.’ He leaned close enough to feel her sweet breath on his face. ‘This still isn’t coercion, by the way. This is seduction.’
‘Is it?’ She shook her head ever so slightly. ‘You’re very...tall,’ she muttered weakly. ‘And strong. You picked me up—’
‘Easily, and the caveman in me enjoyed that. But I promise I won’t do anything you don’t want me to. What do you think?’
‘I think you’re a silver-tongued devil with decades of experience at making women feel good.’
‘Decades? How old do you think I am?’
‘In terms of experience you’re ancient, whereas I’m a mere babe in the woods.’
‘Are you? Why’s that?’ He watched her pupils dilate, filling with her secrets.
She didn’t answer.
‘Caramellina,’ he murmured again, lost in the warm depths of her gaze and the soft feel of her skin beneath his fingers. ‘You even smell sweet.’ An intoxicating combination of roses and vanilla.
He stared into her luminous eyes for a long time and for every moment of it she met his gaze. They stood, stilled in that silent connection until he saw it—that sensual curiosity that he felt, revealed and reflected in her. More than curiosity, it was a pull that could no longer be ignored. Her lips parted and the smallest of sighs escaped her.
‘Oh, all right, then, do your worst,’ she breathed.
He chuckled. ‘I think you mean my best.’
‘Whatever, just get it over with.’
Her breathing was a little quick and he paused.
‘I wouldn’t want to bother someone unwilling.’ He softened his hold on her.
‘I’m not unwilling.’ She almost ground her teeth.