She shook her head clear of thoughts that were useless. She could not help—not until there was something Mia actually wanted from her.
Luca Farnese was speaking again, and her attention went back to him.
‘Killane...’ he murmured. ‘No other links to Ireland?’
‘No,’ Ariana said shortly.
She knew nothing about her father, other than the fact that he’d been good-looking, feckless, and had readily accepted a pay-off from her grandfather to accede to a speedy divorce the moment she’d been born. Where he was now was of no interest to her. Just as she had never been of any interest to him. Nor to her mother either.
She gave a mental shrug. She was used to not being wanted—neither by her parents nor her grandfather.
But one day I will be wanted—one day there will be a special person for me.
Who it would be she had no idea, but he was out there somewhere...
Her gaze came back to Luca Farnese. Something was happening between them...something that was impossible to deny, but that had been there from that first electrifying moment. She felt a frisson go through her. What had seared through her when he’d watched her dance—what she was burningly aware of in her every moment in his company—was like nothing she had ever encountered before...experienced before.
Could this be...? Could this possibly be...?
The question was trying to form in her head, but she would not let it. Too soon, too difficult...and far too uncertain...
Yet she felt strange currents swirling inchoate within her, bringing to the surface thoughts, wonderings, questions...
Her eyes went to him again as she cleared her plate and pushed it away, replete after the rich, delicious food, reaching for her wine glass. Against her own expectations she had relaxed—partly under the stimulation of describing her line of business, partly because this was her second glass of wine, and partly due to a new awareness taking shape in her, because he wanted her to relax.
Her expression flickered now.It’s why he got me on to interior design. Knowing I’d let my guard down on a subject familiar to me, something I’m so involved with...
A question hovered in her head.And just why does he want me to relax...?
She didn’t need to answer that. It was in the way his eyes were meeting hers, the way he was reaching for his own wine glass, taking an answering mouthful. Holding her eyes just a little bit longer than the conversation between them warranted.
Beneath the surface something quite different is happening...
His unreadable dark gaze rested on her and she felt a sudden hollow open up inside her. It was not unreadable at all. She felt her stomach clench, her throat tighten. Her pulse quickened and her eyes widened. It was impossible to prevent the tell-tale revealing dilation of her pupils.
As if a switch had been thrown, the rest of the restaurant disappeared and all the people in it. They simply vanished. Only this man was here—Luca Farnese, sitting opposite her, his long body lounging back, setting down his wine glass with a click on the table, leaning forward, reaching a hand out...
In a slow, leisurely manner, he traced across her cheek with one fingertip, from her cheekbone to the corner of her mouth.
‘Stay with me tonight,’ he said.
His voice was low. Husky.
His dark eyes were neither hard nor soft.
Only desiring...
CHAPTER THREE
LUCAFELTHISgaze narrowing, pupils flaring. An instinctive, unstoppable reaction. As instinctive as the lift of his hand as he’d reached forward and made contact with that soft-sheened skin across which he had drawn the tip of his finger, to touch lightly...so lightly...on the swell of her lower lip. Then drop away.
He reached for his wine glass. Took a slow, leisurely draft, never dropping his eyes from her. He watched her face, watched the expression in her deep smoky eyes change. Saw her full, lush lips part slightly, heard an almost inaudible inhalation of her breath. Giving him the only answer he needed.
He felt his body quicken. Yielding to what he’d been keeping supressed—leashed—as he’d reverted with calculated determination to business, the subject he found easiest to talk about, even applied to a sector he was unfamiliar with.
It had served its purpose. Got them to this point.
To the decision he’d just made.