‘Are your fingers tingling because you want to reach out and touch me?’ His voice dropped low. ‘Mine are, Ida. I want to touch you. All over.’
She swallowed and clenched her hands, telling herself she didn’t feel the same. Refusing to think of Cesare’s long fingers stroking her flesh. Stroking places where no man had ever touched, except him in those restless erotic dreams.
She wanted to tell him to stop but feared her voice would betray how he affected her.
‘What else are you feeling, Ida? You’re flushed. Did you know that? Flushed with desire. Is your pulse thudding hard and fast, down low in your body?’
Snatching in a sharp breath, she finally found the willpower to move. She stepped back, telling herself his persuasive words were just that, they couldn’t actually affect her.
Except they had. Ida felt everything he’d said and more. Her pulse drummed hard and fast, and she felt it at her feminine core. At the juncture of her thighs where moisture bloomed.
She might not have been with a man, but Ida understood what that meant.
Why, oh, why did it have to be Cesare Brunetti of all people who turned her on, ripening her body so that all she could think about was how it would feel to surrender to him?
‘You have a marvellous imagination, Cesare.’ Her voice was husky, so she swallowed and tried again. ‘But if you want sex, you need to look elsewhere.’
He shook his head, his eyes never leaving hers, the knowledge in them holding her captive.
‘If only things were so simple.’ He drew in a breath and her attention snagged on the rise of those powerful shoulders. ‘You complicate my life, Ida.You’rethe one I want. Not some nameless woman.You.’
Ida stared, dumbfounded, as that needy being inside her leapt into eager life.
He made it sound like no other woman would do. Surely that was admitting to weakness. If she’d learned anything from her grandfather it was not to reveal weakness, especially before your enemy.
How did Cesare view her?
‘Careful, Cesare, I might be tempted to think you care.’
He laughed. It was over almost as soon as it started but that deep-throated chuckle scythed through taut muscles and every protective bastion, leaving her adrift.
She liked his laugh, she realised in astonishment. So much that she wanted to hear it again.
Don’t go there.
‘You’re not as I remember you, Ida. You’ve changed.’
‘It would be nice to think that was a compliment, but you know, Cesare, I don’t care what you think of me. I don’t like you.’
Once she’d hung on his words and his rare smiles. She’d imagined a future for them that was full of promise. So when he’d turned on her, throwing her grandfather’s crimes at her and judging her guilty too, she’d crumpled. Ida was stronger now.
‘Liking isn’t necessary for what I’m suggesting.’ His mouth lifted in a slow smile that, despite her determination to be unaffected, curled her toes and planted heat deep in her body. ‘In fact, the tension between us will add spice. You know I’m not suggesting we embark on a meaningful relationship.’
‘Oh, I gotthat.’ Her tone was as dismissive as she could make it. ‘You want sex. I can see it in your eyes.’
‘And I can see in your eyes that you do too.’
His voice was soft, like a velvet ribbon trailing across her shivery skin before wrapping around her insides.
‘Looks are deceptive.’
It was a blatant lie, but she’d crawl over broken glass before admitting it. Instead, she shrugged and fought the impulse to take another step away. Cesare would see that for what it was, proof that the force field he radiated made her body spark and tingle.
‘Anyway, I’m leaving.’
‘That’s your prerogative. Where will you go that he won’t find you? Your grandfather knows now that you left with me. He’ll have people keeping an eye on my homes. People who’ll follow you once you’re out of my protection.’
It made sickening sense. Of course they’d be looking for her. Ida’s hope of disappearing among the tourists of Florence before moving on died. She hadn’t thought further than that, apart from knowing that she couldn’t return to her flat, or to her cousin in Scotland. Both would be under surveillance.