Unless her husband had never been home to tell her. If said husband had done the exact opposite, stayed away and had affairs, it was no shock at all that Lauren would have little awareness of her appeal.
Remorse moved through Paolo. He knew how it felt to be lied to. His trust in women was skewed to this day, nearly impossible to win. Apparently, Lauren was equally suspicious and he didn’t like how unsteady that made him feel.
Paolo tipped back his head for a cleansing breath before moving away from her to fetch two glasses from the cupboard. When he came back to use the ice machine on the door of the refrigerator, Lauren eyed him warily and sidled to make room.
He filled one with filtered water and handed it to her. For himself, he reached into another cupboard where the hard liquor was kept and poured something from the first bottle that came to hand. It spilled through him in a bracing burn, not cooling his blood, but clearing his mind enough that he could think.
And all he could think was that he had to have her.#p#????#e#
First, though, he had to erase that haunted, white-lipped look off her face. She looked dazed and shell-shocked. Tension outlined her eyes, keeping her gaze from meeting his, and she choked a little as she sipped her water.
“I knew you were a virgin before I spoke to you,” he told her.
She darted a confused look his way, her brow crinkling briefly with annoyance. “Don’t rub it in. I know I’m not sophisticated. Did you have a good laugh with Ryan?”
“Quite the opposite. I was afraid for you. That’s why I approached you. To keep the creeps in that bar from taking advantage of you.”
That’s what he’d told himself anyway, using it to justify a drink with a stranger when he was about to marry another woman. He thumbed the rim of his glass.
“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.