‘Yes, you. If it was only a kiss why avoid answering? It’s a simple enough question.’
For a second, gazes locked, Ally felt the connection they’d shared mere moments ago. Even his hands on her arms softened, his thumbs stroking through the plush material of her robe as she canted towards him, feeling the thick fabric graze her bare skin.
Then, abruptly, Angelo let her go and stepped back. A long pace that put an acre of distance between them.
His eyelids lowered as if to conceal the expression glittering there as he surveyed her.
It did no good. Shefeltthe intensity of that stare.
If the connection between them had always been so strong, it must have taken something incredible to sever their marriage.
Slowly he shook his head. ‘I should never have kissed you. It was a mistake. Especially since you seem to have read too much into a simple kiss—’
‘No! Don’t lie.’ Ally folded her arms over her chest and tried to ignore the scratch of fabric across her nipples. ‘It wasn’t a simple kiss. You said it yourself before you kissed me. You said I couldn’t have come here by accident because of this...’ she waved her arm between them ‘this...thing between us.’
‘You can put that down to the emotional baggage we share. Our relationship is definitely over. Though by turning up here it seems you have trouble accepting that.’
‘It doesn’t feel over.’ She jutted her chin and dared him to deny it.
‘Okay.’ He lifted one shoulder as if trying to dislodge a little stiffness. ‘I admit I was curious after all this time. But it’s not an experiment I want to repeat.’
No, because you got burned. Because the fire between us is anything but gone, no matter what you say.
‘The past is the past,’ he insisted, and Ally wondered if he was trying to persuade her or himself. ‘There’s nothing here for you any more. I’m not interested in you. I don’t want you any more.’
Liar.
His unblinking stare and belligerent stance were a masquerade to hide the fact hehadwanted her just moments ago. She couldn’t have imagined that.
Anyone seeing him from a distance would be convinced by his show of disdain. Not Ally. She’d felt the need welling inside him. Heard it, experienced it at a primal level that left no room for doubt. She knew they shared something powerful. A longing he fought with all his considerable determination. Even now she felt the golden shimmer of anticipation in the air between them.
‘Maybe you’re right,’ she said finally. If she wanted answers she had to play his game. ‘But the emotions run hot and heavy between us.’ She watched his eyes flare but he said nothing. ‘Help me understand what’s going on so I don’t...misinterpret things again. Tell me what happened.’
Angelo looked into eyes the colour of lilac in spring and felt something shift within him. A momentary weakening, he assured himself. It had been a long, long time since he’d fallen for this woman’s lies. He wouldn’t do it again. He’d learned from his mistake.
So what was that kiss if not weakness?
And why was the compulsion not just to kiss her, but possess her totally, stronger than anything he could recall?
Surely he’d never felt like this about her before?
Alexa had been available and eager to please. She hadn’t loved him nor he her. He wasn’t even sure he was capable of that, because he’d never yet felt about a woman the way his parents had felt for each other.
He’d witnessed their love and assumed, one day, he’d feel the same about someone, until he’d seen his mother almost destroyed by her adored husband’s death. Since then he’d been wary of romance. He couldn’t bear to risk the shattering pain of losing his other half.
Losing his father had been grief enough, compounded by the need to fulfil his promise to care for his mother and sister as well as the family bank. That had stretched him so thin for so long he’d been almost glad to put barriers between himself and the women he dated. He’d had no emotional energy to spare for anything more than short-term affairs firmly anchored in sex with no other expectations.
Yet he remembered his mother’s romantic tale about locking eyes on his father and knowing instantly that he wasthe one.
The one!
If his ex-wife was the one, it was the one major disaster in his life.
The one mistake he’d never forget.
The one woman he’d never trust again.
Which made his actions totally bizarre. He’d kissed her out of frustration and found himself falling into... He had no word for it. Angelo refused to countenance ideas likeblissordesire. Not with her.