It didn’t mean she didn’t want them to. It just hadn’t really happened for her for many and varied reasons. A huge reason being she was too afraid to let a moment like that happen. Because she was afraid to acknowledge she wanted it, for fear of it all being a joke again.
“Good. You’re also going to have to work on not blushing like a schoolgirl every time I get near you.”
“I don’t blush.” She could feel the heat creeping into her face, calling her bluff.
“You blush more than any woman I’ve ever seen.”
“I’m very pale. It’s hard to hide when you have no pigment to disguise it.”
“I imagine,” he said. “Even so, if we were truly engaged we would be well past the point where I could make you blush with just the casual brush of my hands. Unless…” he said, rounding the desk, coming to stand near her. “Unless you were thinking of all the things my hands have done for you.”
His voice changed, became rougher, more ragged. Something in his expression changed, too. Hardened. Never, ever, ever had a man looked at her like that before. Not even close.
She wanted to say something to defuse the tension. Something funny, or random, something to break the spell. But she couldn’t. A part of her didn’t want to. She wanted to stand there, and have Dante Romani look at her like she was the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen. She wanted to get closer to him, see if he was as hot as he looked. To see if the fire smoldering in his eyes would burn her.
“I…suppose that could be a possibility.” She looked down, trying to catch her breath. But her eyes connected with his hands, and that did not help her regulate her breathing. “Subtext, right? Like when you’re acting? You make sure that even your thoughts match those of your character. And…stuff.”
“Something like that,” he said.
Of course to really have good subtext she would have to know exactly what he could do with his hands, and frankly, some of that information was a little hazy for her. And she was in no position to change it. Not now, not with him. And, given that she was going to be single mother of a small child for quite a few years, maybe not anytime soon.
That had never really been her plan. But she’d been too afraid to put herself out there after the way she’d been treated. Too afraid of rejection.
Dante picked up his phone and dialed a number. “Trevor, I need you to hire some movers. Send them to Paige’s apartment. The address is on file. Personal items only, no furniture, all of the baby supplies. It needs to be done by the end of the day.” He hit the end button on the phone and put it back in the holder on his desk.
“Did you just…evict me?”
“You’ll keep the apartment, for later. I assume that’s the place you’ll go back to.”
“Yeah, I think I’ll need my home. But what’s going to happen with it in the meantime?”
“There’s no reason to do anything with the apartment. I can handle the rent for you for the duration of your stay at my home.”
“I pay the rent. I’m not having trouble with the rent—there’s no reason for you to pay it for me!”
He shrugged. “But I can, so I don’t see why it’s an issue.”
“Because I can,” she said.
“Don’t be stubborn.”
“Me? You’re telling me not to be stubborn? That is funny, Dante, real funny.”
“This ruse really ought to be easy. In fact, they may assume we’ve been married for twenty years given the way you argue with me.”
“I argue with you? Hmph.”
“Yes, you do. Just like that.”
“Well, I’m annoyed with you.”
“Then you had better get un-annoyed, cara. Remember, this whole thing is of your making. I never would have sought you out.” His words made her flinch internally. “I will take advantage of the situation, yes, but I would not have sought you out. You’re completely unsuitable, obviously, and if I had felt the need for a wife pressing I would have one already.”
Stupidly, a little pang of hurt hit her square in the chest, knocking the wind out of her, making her eyes sting. “I’m…unsuitable? Wh-why?”