“Si, absolutely.” He angled his body back to hers. “I don’t do relationships, Maddie. I’m not interested in anything beyond casual sex. It’s important that you understand that from the outset, because I’d hate to hurt you.”
“You wouldn’t.” Her eyes sparked to his. “I mean, I don’t want a relationship either.” And not with this man! If it weren’t for their connection through Michael, she’d likely feel completely differently. But it was too complicated, too entangled.
“Then it’s simple.”
“It’s not,” she shook her head, but how could she explain? How could she tell him what she’d been through and at whose hands?
“Did you enjoy sleeping with me?”
Heat rushed her face. “Yes.”
Pleasure showed in his eyes. “Do you want to sleep with me again?”
Hell, yes. She swallowed back her instant response. “It’s not that easy.”
“Why not?”
Great question; how to answer it? She knew she couldn’t tell him about Michael. And admitting that to herself showed her how much she did, in fact, want to keep doing what they started that afternoon. Because if she didn’t want more time with Nico, why wouldn’t she just throw the truth at him? It was a solid reason for avoiding any further encounters.
And yet…
“You had a bad break up?”
She nodded slowly.
“So let me help you forget the bastardo who hurt you,” he grinned, closing the distance between them. “Let me make love to you over and over again until you barely remember his name…”
How tempting it was! Especially when he brought his body to hers and took a step forward, pushing her against the wall so she was trapped within the strength of his frame.
He was going to kiss her and she was desperate for that, but before he did, she needed to make some kind of sense of this. Because her head and body were completely at war with one another. The smart thing to do was to run, far away from Nico at least, if not from Ondechiara. But there was her body, her heart, her desires. She wanted him simply for him, but it was more than that. Didn’t she deserve this? Michael had taken so much from her and here was a man who was offering her a few weeks of blissful, heady, no-strings fun. Why shouldn’t she enjoy that? No strings, just light-hearted, mind-blowingly sexy fun…
Because there was risk there, the kind of risk she’d worked hard to free herself from. Could she mitigate that?
“I would have rules.”
His smile made her tummy twist. “Bene. What are they?”
“No one could know about this.” She fixed him with a steely gaze. “I mean, no one.”
“Besides Dante, who else would I tell?”
“Who’s Dante?” Alarm bells sounded in her brain.
“My dog.”
“You have a dog?”
A growling noise of assent. “He hides during storms. If you’d stayed around longer, you’d have met him.”
She lifted her hand and punched him playfully but he caught her fist and lifted it to her lips, kissing her lightly so her stomach swirled.
“Fine, other than Dante, you don’t tell anyone and nor do I,” she murmured.
“Do you think I plan to shout our affair from the rooftops?”
His reference to their ‘affair’ spread goose bumps over her body, because it spoke of such a foregone conclusion. “My ex is…it’s so complicated. I prefer to keep my private life very, very private.”
“Me too.” He nodded crisply. “Consider it done.”