Yet when she’d closed the door behind him and sagged back against it, Angelo didn’t speak, just stood, taking in the small room.
Her skin prickled from the crackling energy he radiated. It was as if her body came alive in his presence and that terrified her. How could she pretend to be immune?
‘Angelo?’ She found her voice. ‘What are you doing here?’
It must be something important for him to come so far. He must have spent a lot of money to track her down.
He swung around, his brooding gaze locking on hers. Ally felt it in the band of heat that tightened around her chest, impairing her breathing. And the leap of her foolish heart.
‘I’m not pregnant,’ she blurted, not sure where the words came from, or even if they were true, since it was too early to know.
Yet that was the only reason he could be here, to check if there wereconsequencesfrom their one night together.
Was it so important to Angelo to cross off that possibility? To ensure there was nothing left to bind them together? Her mouth turned down on the thought.
‘You’re not?’
He frowned and Ally told herself her imagination made him sound disappointed.
She hiked her chin up. ‘That’s why you followed me, isn’t it?’
Or could it be something altogether different? Maybe he wanted Alexa’s contact details. Maybe he’d finally realised it wasn’t hate he felt for her sophisticated cousin but love. That was why he’d been attracted to Ally and why he’d taken her to bed.
She took a deep, shuddery breath and saw his attention drop down her body.
Looking down, she saw her thin robe gaping open from neck to hem, revealing a swathe of pale skin. Fumbling, heat searing her cheeks, Ally covered herself, twisting the belt into a tighter knot.
Angelo’s gaze rose, slowly, and she felt it like the brush of his hand, warm, deliberate and arousing, from her belly to her breasts and up her throat. While at the apex of her thighs her pulse thrummed a heavy, needy beat.
She couldn’t take this any more. ‘I—’
‘That’s not why I came.’ If Angelo’s voice had sounded husky before, it was frayed now, a gravelly rasp of sound that abraded every nerve-ending and set her hormones jangling.
‘I’ll send you Alexa’s phone number when I’m in Australia. I don’t have it with me.’
Angelo looked blank. ‘Alexa’s phone number? Why would I want that?’
Ally gathered the lapels of her robe close, wrapping her other arm around her middle. ‘I thought...’
His eyebrows rose. ‘You thought I want to talk to her?’
He sounded horrified, or was that her imagination playing games?
Ally lifted one shoulder. ‘I know you feel strongly about her.’
‘Dead right. I never want to see her again.’
‘I don’t believe you.’ She met his stare and refused to be cowed by the frown gathering on his forehead. ‘There’s something about her you can’t get out of your system. Look at the way you were attracted to me. You even had sex with me because you thought I was her.’
‘Made love.’
‘Sorry?’
‘It might have started out as sex, but in the end we made love together.’
Ally’s brow scrunched in a frown. ‘I don’t understand what—’
‘Believe me,tesoro, there’s a difference.’ He took a step closer, his dark gaze pinioning hers. ‘Sex is a purely physical act but making love...’ He lifted his shoulders, spreading his palms wide. ‘It’s about much more than a physical act and it matters a whole lot more.’