‘No.’
‘Oh.’ Her relief was purely because that meant she hadn’t lost her opportunity to do this. ‘Good.’
When his eyes met hers, the speculation in them was unmistakable. Oh, God. This was going from bad to worse. It was bad enough that she had imagined him naked, but that he might feel a similar curiosity about her...
‘I take it you are not leaving, either?’
‘I—no. Why?’
‘This is the exit.’ He nodded towards the garden.
‘Oh.’ She furrowed her brow. ‘I didn’t—no. I just needed space.’
He lifted a brow. ‘And now, bella? Have you had enough space?’
Bella?Beautiful? A shudder ran through her. She was not beautiful. At least, she desperately didn’t want to be. Not in the way any man might notice and praise her for. She was not going to be like her mother—praised for her looks, adored for them, and then resented for them and the power they wielded. It was one of the reasons she’d refused to dress up tonight, choosing to wear a pair of simple black pants and a cream linen blouse—nothing that could draw attention to her figure, nothing that could draw attention to her at all.
‘Olivia,’ she supplied quickly, stopping herself from revealing her surname by clamping her lips together.
‘Luca.’ He held out a hand, as if to shake hers, but when Olivia placed hers in Luca’s grip, he lifted it to his lips, placing a delicate kiss across her knuckles. Delicate it might have been, but the effect of her central nervous system was cataclysmic. She jerked her hand away, her blood pressure surely reaching dangerous levels now.
‘I know.’ Her own voice was croaky; she cleared it. Don’t be such a coward! Get this over with. ‘Actually...’ She dug her fingernails into her palms. ‘You’re the reason I’m here tonight.’
His expression didn’t change, yet she was aware of a tightening in his frame, a tension radiating from him now that hadn’t been there a moment ago.
‘Am I?’ There was dark scepticism in his words, and she wondered at that. ‘And why is that?’
‘I came to speak to you.’
‘I see.’
Was that disappointment in the depths of his eyes? She’d been wrong before. They were nothing like bark. Nothing so ordinary. These were eyes that were as dark as the sky, as determined as iron, as fascinating as every book ever written. She was losing herself in their intricacies, committing each spec to memory when she should have been focusing on what she needed to say!
‘Well?’ he drawled, and now his cynicism was unmistakable. ‘What would you like to discuss?’
Her heart stammered. Say it. But how in the world could Olivia Thornton-Rose stand there and propose marriage to Luca Giovanardi? It was so ridiculous that, out of nowhere, she laughed, a tremulous, eerie sound, underscored by a lifting of her fingers to her forehead. She ran them across her brow, searching for words.
‘There are two reasons women generally approach me,’ he said quietly. ‘Either with an investment “opportunity”...’ he formed air quote marks around the word ‘...or to suggest a more...personal arrangement. Why don’t you say which it is you have come to discuss?’
She sucked in a jagged breath, his arrogance wholly unexpected. But somehow, it made things easier, because he reminded her, ever so slightly, of her father in that moment, and that in turn made her feel just a little bit of hate for him—a hate that helped her face the necessity of what she’d come to do.
‘I suppose, if we have to place this conversation into one of those two categories, it would certainly be the former, and not the latter.’
His eyes probed hers for longer than was necessary, then swept down to her lips, blazing a line of fire and heat as he went. ‘Shame,’ he murmured. ‘I am not interested in any further business opportunities at present. However, a personal connection would have been quite satisfying to explore.’
Her stomach rolled and tumbled and her breath seemed to burn inside her lungs, making breathing almost impossible. Stars danced behind her eyelids. ‘Impossible,’ she managed to squeak out, wishing for her trademark cool in that moment. ‘I’m not interested in that, at all.’
His features showed that he knew that to be a lie. Was she so obvious? Of course she was. She had no experience. How could she conceal what she was feeling from someone like Luca? She was a lamb to slaughter.
‘Then I cannot see what we have to discuss.’
Do it. Get it over with. What’s the worst that can happen? That he’ll say no?
‘I know about the bank you’re trying to buy.’
He straightened, regarding her with a new level of interest. She’d surprised him, the words the last thing he’d expected to hear from her.
‘Everyone knows about the offer I have made,’ he hedged with admirable restraint, as though it were no big deal.