Then she realized…
She was alone with Talos.
Nervously, she glanced around the lavish suite. Beneath the frescoed ceiling, a crystal chandelier sparkled over the old paintings, marble fireplace and gilded furniture. Thick, tasseled curtains parted at the wide windows to reveal a veranda that overlooked the canal. Multiple rooms graced the suite, including a living area and elegant bathroom.
But there was only one bed.
The enormous four-poster stood at the center of the suite. Eve couldn’t take her eyes off it.
“Shall we go to dinner?” Talos purred from behind her.
Red-faced, she whirled around to face him, praying he wasn’t able to read minds.
“Dinner? Out?” Thinking of all those leering masculine eyes, she shook her head desperately. “I don’t really feel like going out tonight.”
“Perfect,” he said with a sensual curve of his lips. “So we’ll stay in.”
He came another step toward her, larger and more powerful than any man had a right to be. This royal suite was the size of a house, and yet he somehow filled every inch of the space, filled it to a breaking point. And if he did that to a four-thousand-square-foot suite…
She could only imagine what he’d do to a woman.
No! she wouldn’t think about that. Her cheeks flushed with heat. Nervously, she turned toward the window, feeling for all the world like a teenage virgin. She looked out the window across the sparkling water toward the Venetian island on the other side of the lagoon. She could see hotels, palazzos, ferries. She could see parked black gondolas rise and fall in the water in the wake of each passing speedboat bringing tourists to St. Mark’s Square.
She felt him touch her shoulder.
“Is this the same hotel we stayed at before?” she stammered. “When we first met?”
“I stayed here alone,” he said, looking down at her. “You refused to come up to my suite.”
She whirled around to face him. “I did?”
“I tried to change your mind.” Reaching down, he caressed her cheek. She took a deep breath at the gentleness of his touch, of his woodsy masculine scent that caused such shivers down her body. He said softly, “You resisted me.”
“I did?” she blurted out. “How?” Then she blushed.
He gave a low laugh. His featherlight fingertips moved down her cheek toward her lips. He touched her so softly that she had to strain to feel him, almost as if he weren’t quite touching her—forcing her to rise to meet him, whether she willed it or no. His fingers ran softly above the length of her tender bottom lip.
He leaned forward to whisper in her ear.
“You made me chase you. Harder and longer than I’ve ever chased any woman. No woman has ever been—will ever be—your equal.”
As he pulled away from her, Eve’s heart was pounding, each rise and fall of her breath shallow and quick.
His dark eyes gleamed down at her as if he knew exactly the tumult he’d created inside her. He was only maybe ten years older than her, and yet he somehow made her feel as though he had twice her strength and about a thousand times her experience!
“So. Shall we go out?” He glanced back at the bed. “Or stay in?”
Stay in this penthouse suite, which for all of its square footage suddenly felt tiny? Spend the evening alone with this powerful man, who made her feel such strange things, knocking her world off-kilter?
“I changed my mind. Let’s go out!” she blurted, then blushed at her own nervousness. She felt like a shy young girl, a million miles out of her league.
“So you’re hungry after all.” At his low laugh, she knew she’d betrayed herself again, but she couldn’t help it. Casually, he took her white trenchcoat from the closet, slinging it over one arm. He placed his other hand possessively against the small of her back, and his light touch made her sizzle all over.
Eve almost sighed with the relief of leaving the gorgeous suite—with its enormous bed—safely behind them.
As she followed him out of the hotel into the dusky streets of Venice, she didn’t know it would be a classic case of out of the frying pan, into the fire.
CHAPTER FOUR