‘You’re awake.’
His deep voice wrapped around her like his embrace. She felt the sound rumble through his body into hers and bit her lip as familiar, needy excitement stirred.
Just like that.
She’d gone to sleep grateful for simple human contact but in an instant she was aroused by this man. A coil of heat circled low in her body and her breasts felt fuller at the thought of what they’d done together and might do again.
Ally tried to tell herself it was because he was her only lover.
Yet surely it wasn’t so simple. She’d wanted Angelo from the first. Even when they were at daggers drawn there’d been a sizzling undercurrent of awareness, urging her to challenge him if she couldn’t understand him.
That sexual awareness hadn’t changed, even if her pride insisted she should distance herself. Because he’d bedded her thinking she was someone else. Common sense told her any attraction he felt for her was because she looked like the woman who still, obviously, evoked incredibly strong responses in him.
Ally gulped down a hot tangle of emotions and dragged in a breath that felt like shards of glass in her tight chest. Forcing her eyelids up, she was amazed to see bright daylight outside.
‘You stayed all night?’ She half turned, looking over her shoulder and meeting his enigmatic dark stare.
‘You needed me.’ The simple statement made her greedy heart tumble. ‘I didn’t like to leave in case I woke you.’
Unlike his hot body, Angelo’s voice was cool and detached. A reminder that he was here for her, not himself.
As she thought it he lifted his arm off her waist and rolled away. Ally stifled the cry of dismay that rose to her lips.
‘Thank you, Angelo.’ She pulled the bedding tight around herself and turned to him, but he was already getting up from the bed. ‘That was kind of you.’
That halted him in his tracks. ‘Kind?’ He paused, a wry expression on his face. ‘It was the least I could do after...’
He shook his head and her mood tumbled. It couldn’t be clearer that he felt uncomfortable about having sex with her. That he didn’t want a repeat.
Ally wrapped her fragile defences around herself and pasted on a smile that hopefully looked more real than it felt. ‘Of course. But, again, thank you.’
This time his gaze held hers and a frisson of connection crackled through her. Was she the only one to feel it?
‘Rest now. I’ll have Rosetta bring you breakfast.’
Under veiling eyelashes she watched him pull on his clothes, his movements quick, almost urgent. Because he had business elsewhere or because he didn’t want to be around her any longer? Maybe he feared she’d read too much into the sex they’d shared. Still, she couldn’t stop the question. ‘And what are you going to do?’
‘Start the search for your identity. With luck, and my resources, it won’t take too long to find out who you are and where you came from.’
‘Wonderful.’ She pinned on a smile that felt too tight across her cheeks. ‘Thank you.’
It would be a relief finally to know who she was, so she could resume her real life. Yet why did she feel desolate at the prospect of leaving the villa? No, not the villa. Leaving Angelo Ricci.
Realisation sheared through her like a dropping blade.
Angelo said he despised Alexa but hatred was close to love. He still felt incredibly strongly about his ex-wife and that was what Ally had tapped into.
But had she done more? Had she done something silly, like fall for a man who saw her only as a pale imitation of the woman he’d once cared for?
Suddenly Ally was terrified that was exactly what she’d done.
CHAPTER TWELVE
ALLYHADSPENTa week with the man she’d believed to be her ex-husband. Now, three days into her second week with Angelo Ricci, everything had changed.
Angelo was the perfect host, ensuring she was comfortable while he pursued his quest to uncover her identity.
He was considerate and supportive. Yet Ally longed for more. A spark of the emotion they’d shared. Of the passion that still twisted, like a slow-burning flame, deep within her. Even a flicker of anger would do if she couldn’t have his desire. Anything to indicate he feltsomethingfor her.