CHAPTER SEVEN
ALLTHEAIRevacuated his lungs at once. He felt as though her words were rattling through his ears like a freight train on a looped track. It didn’t make sense.
‘You said you’re twenty-nine.’
She fidgeted her hands at her sides, not meeting his eyes.
‘And prior to taking up your role at the London Connection you were a senior partner in a law firm?’
‘A top tier firm,’ she confirmed, in that habit she had of babbling a little when she was nervous.
He nodded anyway, taking the titbit of information and filing it away.
‘You are an intelligent, beautiful and kind woman. Twenty-nine years old. And yet you’ve never slept with a man?’
Her cheeks were bright pink and it was an unfortunate consequence of the situation that he found that mesmerising. His desire increased rather than doing what he wanted—and abating completely at her pronouncement.
But the way they’d kissed on the boat, the way her body had moved over his, her hips pushing down on his masculine strength, showing with her body how much she needed him... ‘So you’ve never had sex with a man,’ he said with narrowed eyes. ‘But you’ve obviously had some experience with other elements of lovemaking.’
Her throat moved in a delicate knot as she swallowed. ‘You want my dating résumé now?’
‘I think I’m entitled to some explanation.’ It wasn’t exactly the truth—he didn’t feel entitled to anything, but he wantedan explanation and he hoped she’d give one.
Her eyes lifted to his, her mouth parting on a small sigh before she bit down on her lower lip. ‘It’s not a big deal.’
‘I beg to differ.’
Hurt washed over her features; he regretted the words instantly. Hell, he was out of his comfort zone by about a thousand feet.
‘I didn’t intentionally mislead you. I didn’t go to Venice expecting anything to happen between us. It was just work for me, nothing more. The gondola ride...’ Her eyes assumed a faraway look as she tried to draw in breath. His gut rolled with a desire to kiss her. He stood his ground, his body like stone. He couldn’t—wouldn’t—give in to his instincts now. Not until he understood exactly what he was dealing with. A reformed nun? A runaway cult member? The idea of a twenty-nine-year-old virgin in this day and age beggared belief.
‘The gondola ride was a total surprise. Put it down to the magic of the moonlight or something.’ She laughed uneasily, awkwardly. ‘And, as you know, coming back here wasn’t on my agenda. You kidnapped me, remember?’
He remembered every detail of the evening they’d shared, and he knew this part would be forged in his memory banks in particularly vivid detail. ‘Was your intention to save yourself for marriage?’
Her face scrunched up in a visceral reaction to that statement, a reaction he would have found amusing under any other circumstances. ‘Don’t be absurd. I’m never getting married.’
‘That makes two of us. So what then?’
She closed her eyes, tilting her head towards the ceiling at the same time. ‘Do we have to talk about this?’
‘Help me understand and then I’ll let it go.’
He had no real right to make demands of her, and yet Ares knew himself well enough to know he wouldn’t rest until he understood. He liked things to make sense and this, quite simply, didn’t.
‘Is it really that big a deal? I just never met anyone I wanted to have sex with, that’s all.’
‘You didn’t go through puberty?’ he asked sceptically. ‘It’s my experience that at a certain point in everyone’s lives hormones take control.’
She spun away from him and his fingers tensed with the desire to reach out and grab her, to turn her back to him, to pull her against his chest and listen to the rest of her explanation with her breasts crushed to him, her breath warming his throat. He ignored those instincts, aware that they were part of what had got them here in the first place.
‘I was studying my backside off at an all girls school,’ she said stiffly, sounding ever so prim. ‘I didn’t have time for boys.’
Despite himself, he smiled. He could imagine her saying exactly that to any friends who’d tried to lead her astray at the time. ‘At university then?’
‘Same deal, Ares. I studied. All the time. Some people seemed to be there to socialise, but not me. I worked hard and in any spare time I did have, I was helping Priti with the baby. I graduated with a first, and was offered a graduate role to start that summer.’
‘And you didn’t date that whole time?’