‘For what it’s worth, I’m mad with you too, and my diet is fine. My taste has never run to women who suppress their real selves. And now let’s get to the point.’ The snap of his voice raised the tension in the room several more notches. ‘Why the hell did you announce that we’re engaged?’
‘Because, thanks to you, I was about to be fired from the job I haven’t even started yet!’
That drew a frown from him. ‘Why would you be fired?’
‘Because the director refused to work with someone with my reputation.’
He looked bemused. ‘That’s crazy. So you like sex and you’re not afraid to show it. What’s wrong with that?’
Her cheeks burned. ‘What’s wrong is that I want the focus to be on my skills as an actress, not on my ability to make a fool of myself with a man.’
She’d done that before and she’d lived with the mistake ever since.
He’d left another message on her phone but this time she hadn’t even opened it.
It was a relief to be in Sicily, far from California.
Far from him.
Luca was watching her curiously. ‘So you are afraid to show it. You really need to get over that. Who you choose to kiss in your own time is no one’s business but your own.’
She felt like telling him it wasn’t that simple. That a kiss could be used and used again. ‘I didn’t choose to kiss you. You grabbed me.’
‘I don’t remember you struggling.’ He was maddeningly cool. ‘It takes two people to make a kiss look like that, tesoro.’
‘I never would have started it.’
‘But you finished it.’ His voice was low and threaded through with a sensuality she found off-the-scale disturbing. ‘Don’t be too hard on yourself. It was an understandable slip.’
‘You’re so full of—’
‘Now, now, Miss Carmichael—’ he placed his fingers over her lips ‘—you don’t want to give the press another quote, do you? I’m sure they have a lens trained at this office even as you shriek.’
‘You’re finding this funny. I don’t even know why you did it—why did You do it? Why the hell did you kiss me?’
He gave a careless shrug. ‘You were there.’
‘That’s all it takes for you to kiss a woman? She just has to be there?’
‘Unlike you, I don’t try and deny my true nature.’
‘Nice to know you’re discriminating.’
‘Have you played Katerina?’ One dark eyebrow lifted. ‘Taming of the Shrew? Because you’d be a natural. Do I need to remind you that you kissed me back?’
‘I was stressed out. I hadn’t eaten for two days.’
He smiled. ‘So that was why you were so hungry for me.’
‘Don’t flatter yourself.’
‘Why not? A moment ago you were telling the world you intend to spend the rest of your life with me.’
‘I didn’t know what else to say.’ Taylor paced over to the window of his office, her heels tapping on the floor. ‘I don’t need all the adverse publicity right now. It was a spur of the moment thing. I didn’t even think people would believe me, but they did. Apparently people are captivated by the thought of us together.’
‘Of course they are. I’m the man who has publicly said on numerous occasions that he never intends to settle down and you’re the wild child with a bad attitude. It’s a match made in hell. How can the public not be fascinated? If you’d kept quiet the story would have died by tomorrow. As it is, you’ve ensured it’s kept alive.’
‘Stories don’t die.’ The words tumbled out of her mouth along with years of anxiety and pressure. ‘They never die. Sometimes they lie dormant and that’s even worse because you have no idea when they’re going to explode in your face.’
He stared at her in bemusement. ‘I have no idea what the hell you are talking about.’
Of course he didn’t. And she had no intention of enlightening him. ‘This is all your fault.’
‘You kissed me back.’
‘I wasn’t talking about that, I was talking about the fact that you treated that woman badly and she sold her story to the press! If you were more sensitive, this wouldn’t have happened.’
‘You kissed me back.’ His voice was dangerously soft and suddenly her mouth was dry and her heart was thundering.
‘Or if you’d just paid her—’
‘You kissed me back.’
‘Yes, all right, I kissed you back!’ Her head full of images she didn’t want to see, her voice rose. ‘But I wasn’t thinking at the time.’