‘Another evening, then.’
‘No.’
‘Are you married?’
‘No.’
‘Boyfriend?’
‘No.’
‘Girlfriend?’
‘Not my thing.’
‘Then why not?’
She gave the door a shove to open it and marched in. ‘Do I have to have a reason?’
‘Don’t you?’ he said, sounding genuinely curious and at the same time impossibly conceited.
Well, no, of course she didn’t have to, although obviously she did. Rico’s invitation to dinner might be shockingly and appallingly tempting, despite her attempts to convince herself otherwise, but she knew first-hand the risk confident, self-assured men like him posed. How all-consuming and seductive they could be. She knew what it was like to succumb to the power and charm until you no longer knew what was right and what was wrong. To lose your identity along with your inhibitions. To be persuaded to make unwise choices and to believe that you were happy about making them.
She had no intention of making the same mistake twice. She was more than content with the steady, careful, safe life she’d created for herself. She would allow nothing to upset it. Never again would she be rendered powerless, vulnerable and helpless by a man. Never again would she be manipulated into willingly giving up her freedom and her independence, things she hadn’t had the maturity then to value.
‘Does anyone ever turn you down?’ she asked, having no intention of telling him any of that and determinedly suppressing the memories of the distant but nevertheless frightening and confusing year she’d been groomed.
‘No,’ he said, closing the door behind him and easily keeping up with her as she strode through the house. ‘But that’s irrelevant and I’m not into games. You find me as attractive as I find you, bellissima. Dinner could prove interesting.’
His compliment made her shudder, as compliments from men—so often used with the expectation of something in return—always did, but she suppressed that too and focused. Dinner could prove disastrous and it wasn’t going to happen. She would never be up for the sort of fun Rico offered, no matter how tantalisingly packaged. ‘Find someone else to seduce.’
‘I don’t want to seduce anyone else. I want to seduce you.’
‘I’d have thought you’d have other things on your mind at the moment.’ Like, say, a new-found brother.
‘I excel at multitasking.’
This time, thank God, she did manage to stifle the images of exactly how he might excel at multitasking that instantly tried to muscle their way into her head. ‘My answer is still, and always will be, no.’
Without missing a step, he reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out his wallet. He extracted a card and handed it to her. ‘Here’s my number just in case you change your mind.’
‘I won’t,’ she said, taking it to dispose of it later, since there wasn’t a bin to hand.
‘You wound me.’
‘You’ll recover.’ She stopped at the study, opened the door and stood back.
‘Here we are,’ she said, practically drowning with relief at finally being able to escape the dangerously sensuous web he was spinning around her with the intensity of his focus and the persistence of his pursuit. ‘Wait in there. I’ll go and find Finn. Once he’s got over his shock, he’s going to be thrilled you’ve turned up. He’s been looking for you for months. Family is everything to him. This is going to be life-changing. So don’t you dare go anywhere.’
* * *
As he listened to the sharp tap of Carla’s heels marching across the polished oak floorboards of the hall, loud at first but fading with every step she took away from him, Rico had no doubt that he would indeed recover from her declination of his invitation to dinner.
Whatever it was that was slashing through him would ease soon enough. Pique, most probably, since generally he barely had to make any effort at all when after a date. It certainly couldn’t be disappointment that he wouldn’t be getting to know the stunningly beautiful, incredibly sexy Carla Blake better. He didn’t do disappointment. Or regret. Or any kind of emotion, for that matter. It was of no concern to him why she’d chosen to ignore the chemistry they shared, even though she hadn’t denied that she found him as attractive as he did her when he’d mentioned it.
Besides, she wasn’t that intriguing. Stunning, yes, but their conversation, while mildly entertaining, had hardly been scintillating. He knew plenty of women who would be only too happy to while away the hours with him without engaging in any kind of conversation at all.
So it wouldn’t take long for the sting of her rejection to fade, or the impact of her on his senses. Or the curve of her mouth that made him ache to know what she tasted like...the magnetic pull of her heat and her scent...the prickly obstinacy that fired his blood in a way it hadn’t ever burned before...