‘Thank you,’ she said stiffly as she got into the car, wishing she didn’t care what other people thought—but the truth was, she did. Maybe it was a consequence of having been jilted and those awful days when she’d been at rock-bottom and not sure who knew that Tom had gone and who didn’t. When she’d thought that people were talking about her behind her back and judging her. Wondering what was so wrong with her that a man could just walk away and marry somebody else. That rejection had deeply affected her behaviour; it still did. Clipping shut her seat belt, she stared ahead.
Climbing into the driver’s seat beside her, Ciro closed the roof of the car, his mind spinning. Suddenly he felt at a loss—he, who was never at a loss. There’d never been a situation with a woman which he didn’t know how to handle—except maybe for the time he’d lost his virginity, aged fifteen. Actually, even on the night he had bade farewell to his innocence, he’d taken to sex like a duck to water. Hadn’t his thirty-year-old lover lain satiated on the bed afterwards, stroking his balls and telling him that he was going to make a lot of women very happy?
The crude progression of his thoughts did little to sate his sexual hunger but it did have the effect of bringing him to his senses. Wasn’t it a terrible reflection of the life he lived, that he was shocked when a woman
actually behaved like a lady for once? And didn’t part of him actually admire Lily’s stern rejection of his sexual advances?
He glanced at her, seeing the stony set of her profile as she stared fixedly ahead of her. ‘I have a feeling that you might be expecting some sort of apology for what just happened.’
‘It was a regrettable mistake,’ she said calmly. ‘That’s all.’
Ciro clutched the soft leather of the steering wheel, scarcely able to believe his ears, and if he hadn’t been so frustrated he might almost have laughed aloud. A regrettable mistake? Was she serious? Judging by the look on her face, it seemed as if she was. And wasn’t that a little hypocritical? Why, she’d hardly behaved like the Madonna herself, had she?
‘And are you always such an enthusiastic participant when making “regrettable mistakes”?’ he questioned coolly.
‘Perhaps I was led astray by someone with considerably more experience than me.’
Doubtless, she had meant the remark to be a criticism, but Ciro found himself giving a nod of satisfaction as he realised its implications. Of course he was more experienced than she was! Only an innocent or a very experienced woman would have behaved with such heart-stopping passion and then acted outraged—and she certainly wasn’t the latter.
His thoughts began to race—and in a previously unexplored direction. He had found the evening surprisingly enjoyable, apart from its frustrating conclusion. He had actually enjoyed talking to her. She wanted to take it slowly—well, what was wrong with that? Wasn’t that the way that people always used to behave, before the women’s movement and freely available contraception led to the expectation of instant gratification?
Imagine what it would be like to actually have to wait for a woman to go to bed with you. To have to quash the urgent tide of sexual desire which was swelling up inside you. Mightn’t that produce the most sensational love-making of all?
His car swung into the long gravel drive which led to the Grange and he sensed her tension as she looked up towards the upstairs windows, where a light was still on. Was the greedy stepmother still up and waiting for her? he wondered. And if that was the case, then maybe it was best that he had brought her home. Not good for either of their reputations if he’d brought her back tomorrow morning, still wearing the same dress.
‘Stop just here, will you?’ said Lily quickly.
She had already unclipped her seat belt and was reaching for the door-handle. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to bite,’ he said wryly.
Lily thought how ironic it was that he should have said that, when not so long ago she’d wanted him to graze his teeth all over her aching nipple. ‘Thank you very much for the dinner,’ she said formally. ‘I enjoyed it very much.’
He gave a low laugh. She really was a one-off. She sounded so uptight. But despite his intense frustration, he felt an unfamiliar sense of exultance, too—because the novelty of this situation was exhilarating. How many times had a woman said ‘no’ to him and meant it—even though the chemistry between them had been sizzlingly hot? Never. It had never happened to him before. He saw a woman, he wanted her and then he bedded her—it was as simple as that. Except this time. This time it had been nothing like that. ‘So when am I going to see you again?’
There was a split-second pause before Lily turned to face him, steeling herself against his dark beauty and knowing that she’d be crazy to put herself in a similar position again. To open herself up to a vulnerability which she knew to be dangerous and to run the risk of being rejected again. She’d managed to hold him off because some shred of decency had arrived in time to stop her making a fool of herself, but she couldn’t guarantee being strong enough to resist him next time. Especially not if he used that abundance of Neapolitan charm to whittle away at her already weakened defences. When even now she was having to fight the urge to throw herself into his arms and lose herself in the fleeting passion of his kiss. ‘You’re not,’ she said quietly.
Ciro’s dark brows rose in disbelief. ‘Excuse me?’
She licked her dry lips. ‘You’re not going to see me again.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because I don’t really think I’m your kind of woman.’
Night-dark eyes pierced her with their ebony gleam. ‘And don’t you think I ought to be the judge of that?’
‘No,’ she said fervently, telling herself that she mustn’t let his persuasiveness influence what she knew to be the right decision. ‘I don’t. Because I don’t think you’re thinking straight—not at the moment, anyway. We… we live in different worlds, Ciro—you know we do. You’re an international hotelier from Naples and I’m… well, I’m a small-town girl who bakes cakes and waitresses for a living. Perhaps we’ll run into each other once you start work on making the house into an…’ she gulped down a lungful of air ‘… hotel. But if we do, then it’s probably best if we just smile politely at each other and go on our separate ways.’
Ciro shook his head. Smile politely? Go their separate ways? Did she have no idea about the kind of man he was? As if he would ever smile politely at a woman he was planning to take as his next lover. His masculinity had never been outraged—but, to his surprise, it was not anger he felt as a result, but a fierce sense of destiny. And of challenge, too. Did she really think he would take no for an answer, when he wanted her more than he had ever wanted any woman?
But Ciro knew the value of biding his time. Of waiting until the moment was right to strike—wasn’t that one of the reasons why he was so successful in business? He got out of the car to open the door for her and held out his hand to assist her. After a moment of hesitation, she took it and her lips parted as their flesh made contact, as if an electric current had just passed between them. And didn’t it feel exactly like that to him? It was so physical, this reaction between them, he thought. So uniquely chemical. He wanted to kiss her again, to sear his mouth against hers and remind her just what she was missing, before getting in the car and driving away.
But Lily was making him react in a way which was unfamiliar. He saw the small glance she sent towards the upstairs window and a fierce wave of something which felt like protectiveness washed over him.
‘Lily,’ he said softly.
She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. The last time he’d said her name like that she had just melted into his arms—and wasn’t she tempted to do it again? ‘What?’
‘You know I’m happy to move your belongings into your new home? You only have to say the word and I will help in any way I can. I told you that before and nothing has changed.’