CHAPTER FIVE
He should never have touched her. Aurelio knew it was a mistake, even as he reached for her hand.
Why had he done it? There was no need to seal their understanding with a handshake. Especially when he’d read Amber’s reluctance, swiftly hidden by that characteristically bold stare. Clearly she defied him to find any weakness in her beautiful, determined face.
He’d reached for her for the same reason she’d haunted him since her arrival at the vineyard. Or, if he was truthful, every night for the past six weeks.
Because he wanted to touch her.
He’d missed her.
The need to connect with her was a craving in the blood that even reason couldn’t vanquish.
Her handshake was firm and short. Businesslike. Yet the touch of her soft skin on his evoked memories that blasted his composure to smithereens.
Yes.
This.
The hungry beast within him woke in an instant, demanding more.
Usually he kept his libido under tight control, burying himself in work and the ridiculously long hours it took to turn a neglected old vineyard into a lauded state-of-the-art winery. When the need for release grew too much, he allowed himself a short liaison. A night or two with a woman who, like him, didn’t want more.
His mistake had been bedding Amber. For there’d been nothing simple about what they’d shared. No matter how often he told himself it was simple sex, part of him knew it wasn’t true.
This woman had the power to undo him if he let her.
Abruptly he released her hand and stepped back, fixing what he hoped was a smile on his face. It was probably a grimace, but it was the best he could manage, torn by competing impulses to retreat as fast as he could, or haul her close and kiss her till she melted against him.
It was as he pulled away that he saw something new in her expression. Something other than pride, challenge or impatience. In that moment as her hand dropped back to her side he read…hurt.
It was a flare, a widening of the pupils, a tightening of that lush, gorgeous mouth. It lasted only a second before she looked away, lifting her hand to shade her eyes and turning towards the sunlight spilling over the ridge to the east.
But Aurelio had seen it and he couldn’t unsee it.
He’d hurt her with his sudden withdrawal.
How much more had he hurt her earlier, when he’d ordered her away from the vineyard, demanding she leave the job she’d won on her merits?
Or when he’d turned his back on her in Rome? He’d left so abruptly, in the middle of a torrid affair that showed no signs of ending. There’d been passion and physical gratification but there’d also been laughter, tenderness and companionship, and it had been that which had sent him, literally, running for the hills.
How much had she hurt then?
He’d told himself Amber knew the score. He’d made it clear he only wanted a short fling.
But then he’d broken his own rules, hadn’t he? He’d stayed. He’d talked and shared himself in ways he hadn’t shared himself in a decade.
‘Just tell me one thing, Aurelio, then I’ll never probe again.’ She didn’t turn to look at him. Her gaze was still fixed on the rows of vines, vibrant in the early morning glow.
He squared his shoulders. ‘Yes?’
‘Why do you think you don’t want a long-term relationship?’
So he’d been right. Shehadwanted more. Or if not wanted, at least wondered.
Guilt was a bitter stew in his belly. He should never have seduced her. Even if the seduction had been mutual and all the more thrilling for that. And he should never have allowed it to last more than a single night.
‘I don’t think it.’ He paused, forcing his gaze from her profile, so pure and proud it made him ache inside. Instead he too surveyed the orderly rows of grapes that he’d made his work, his dream, his whole life. ‘Iknowit.’