‘You only need to start thinking for two if this marriage survives the first week,’ Jo murmured wryly. ‘And so far, we’re not ripping up any record books here. When you tell me that you see me as some prim and proper prude with whom you have nothing in common—’
‘Aside from a very strong attraction,’ Gianni cut in. ‘I’m trying to be honest,cara,but you finding fault with that honesty isn’t any encouragement to continue in that vein.’
Jo paled. ‘I didn’t mean—’
‘Yes, you did. You’re still angry with me, which is perfectly understandable. Do you remember the first time I asked you out?’
‘Vaguely,’ Jo lied in a face-saving excuse because, even though six years had passed, she still vividly remembered that day. ‘It seemed very random. One day I saw you at that music festival and the next—’
Gianni groaned and pushed his plate away. He leant back in his seat. ‘It wasn’t even slightly random. I saw you dancing at the festival with your friends.’
Jo lowered her lashes and continued to savour her tender steak. It had beentotallyrandom because Gianni had had a gorgeous girlfriend with him, a famous fashion model with titian curls and incredibly long porcelain limbs, who had complained throughout his attempted introduction that she was burning in the sun.
Gianni, in comparison, was recalling Jo at eighteen, sheathed in worn denim shorts and a floaty blouse, her blonde fall of sun-streaked hair bouncing at her slender spine as she danced. At the time, she had been the sexiest sight he had ever seen, the very picture of glowing health with her curvy hips shifting to the beat of the music and every inch of her unenhanced and natural. He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her and the following morning he had shown up at Ladymead, drawn by a powerful need to see her again.
Sheer lust, he labelled in retrospect. Her grandmother had directed him out to the barn where Jo had been helping Sybil to feed her rescue animals. As he’d spoken, she had stared at him as if he had taken leave of his wits and then those beautiful sapphire-blue eyes had glimmered with warmth and pleasure. He had been so sure that she was about to say yes and his conscience had twanged accordingly, because although she had finished school, he had been very much aware of her youth and inexperience in comparison to his own. And then she had said no, sorry, and a crazy mix of anger and relief had swept through him.
‘I’ve never wanted a woman as much as I wanted you that day,’ he confessed grudgingly. ‘But you weren’t ready for someone like me.’
‘No,’ she agreed reluctantly. ‘Panic made me turn you down. I didn’t think I could handle you either.’
As she connected with glittering dark golden eyes fringed with a lush canopy of black lashes, her heartbeat stuttered and made it hard for her to breathe. ‘I’ve never wanted a woman as much as I wanted you that day.’Could that possibly be true? Even with that beautiful redhead vying for his attention? Had she underestimated her own powers of attraction to that extent? Apparently, she had.
‘You made the right move,’ Gianni told her disconcertingly. ‘I wasn’t looking for anything serious.’
‘You were only twenty-two...why would you have been?’
‘I had just come out of a long relationship, and I was enjoying my freedom that summer,’ Gianni explained flatly, his lean, strong face shuttering.
Well, that was Gianni, Jo reflected helplessly. He shot her up to the sky one moment and dropped her down to below ground level the next. Sex appeal was something, but it wasn’t worth quite as much if a woman knew from the outset that she wanted more. Gianni had got badly burned in that long relationship he had no wish to discuss. Was that why he only seemed to indulge in superficial affairs? Or was that too neat an explanation? After all, Gianni had always seemed to revel in his freedom. But she couldn’t forget him saying that loving anyone just got you hurt.
‘And the second time I asked you out, you were wearing a stupid hat with bunny ears and singing Christmas carols,’ he reminded her.
‘You do pick the worst moments,’ Jo teased, her cheeks warming at the recollection. ‘I was shocked.’
‘You looked like an angel when you came inside to persuade my guests to contribute to your charity. I was hooked all over again.’
‘So hooked that you forgot that your latest lover was sitting at the same table?’ Jo scoffed with wide, wondering eyes. ‘I knew you were together because I’d read it in the gossip columns.’
‘Which just goes to show that you can’t rely on gossip. She was with another man.’
‘I got it wrong. I thought you were shameless.’ Jo lifted her spoon to taste the lemon sorbet that had been brought to the table for dessert. It was delicious and refreshing.
‘I am.’ Gianni watched her licking the spoon, the pink tip of her tongue skimming over the metal, and every muscle in his long, lean body went rigid. She could wind him up like a clockwork toy, he acknowledged reluctantly.
He questioned that she even understood how the sex embargo had affected him. He already suspected that sex wasn’t that important to her. She didn’t understand how much he wanted her, and he didn’t understand how she could be impervious to the electric tension between them. But even so, he knew that he wasn’t about to quibble over her terms.
‘Everymember of your family phoned me while I was away,’ Gianni told her over coffee.
Jo leant back in her seat and stared at him in horrified disbelief.
Helpless amusement slanted Gianni’s expressive mouth. ‘First, your grandmother to assure me that there wasn’t a word of truth in that nasty woman’s story.’
Jo cringed. ‘And then?’
‘Sybil breathing fire on your behalf. Enraged by my father’s interference and stupidity and even madder than your grandmother about that article. Trixie was much more low-key and full of advice about the current full moon...and us needing to take advantage of it.’ Brimming laughter dancing in his golden eyes as her gaze evaded his, Gianni grinned. ‘I didn’t like to tell her that there wasn’t much chance of that...’
Jo’s creamy skin had flamed pink. ‘I’m sorry. I have embarrassing relatives. When did they phone you?’