The food was delicious. There were tiny melt-in-the-mouth lobster patties, crispbread bites with prawns and aioli, a colourful salad decorated with fresh mango, and an array of other delicacies.
Had Donato snapped his fingers and ordered a banquet? Did he offer such feasts to all the women he seduced?
Her breath shortened. He hadn’t needed to seduce anyone today, had he? She’d been primed and ready for him.
He refilled their glasses and Ella’s gaze fixed on his well-shaped hands and sinewy forearms, strong and dusted with dark hair. He was so blatantly enticing. Something dropped hard in her belly.
Fantastic sex as an antidote to life’s problems? If only it were that simple.
‘Are we going to talk about it?’ She pushed her plate away. ‘Or are we going to ignore the elephant in the room?’
A long dimple carved Donato’s cheek and a chord in her chest tweaked hard. So much for burning off the passion he’d aroused. Instead her susceptibility had increased.
Ella blinked, stunned but somehow not surprised. She’d never been into casual sex. And for her there’d been nothing casual about today, though she wouldn’t examine just what that meant.
‘You think of sex as an elephant?’ he murmured.
Her lips twitched despite her resolve.
‘Don’t be obtuse.’ She reached for her glass and took a sip. The crisp wine was delicious against her suddenly dry throat. ‘We’ve resolved nothing. I—’
‘Of course we have.’ His smile grew and he gave her that look. The one that made her feel as if she didn’t know her own body any more. ‘We’ve confirmed that you and I are every bit as good together as we’d assumed.’
His eyes didn’t leave her face but heat licked her in all sorts of hidden places. He lifted his glass in silent salute and drank. Ella was left wondering how the sight of that tanned throat working as he swallowed could create a squall of such hectic need in her.
She shook her head.
‘Don’t play coy, Ella. You wondered right from the start how we’d be together.’
Ella firmed her lips. ‘Don’t try to distract me, Donato. It won’t work.’
The glint in his dark eyes and the quizzically raised eyebrow told her he disagreed. She put her glass down with a click and sat straighter.
‘You said this morning you still want this marriage.’ She couldn’t bring herself to say marry me. It was just too far-fetched. ‘Why? There’s nothing you’d gain by it.’
His raised eyebrow shot even higher.
Ella put up her hand. ‘We’ve already demonstrated you don’t need marriage for sex.’
Would he make a quip about that? She’d laid herself open to it. But no, he merely sipped his wine.
‘How about an introduction to Sydney society?’ He tilted his head to one side as if sharing a confidence. She didn’t believe it.
‘You hardly need that.’
‘Don’t I?’ He leaned back further, lounging casually as if they discussed nothing more important than the ship passing far out to sea, or the rainbow lorikeets clustering in the ancient Port Jackson fig tree at the bottom of the garden.
Ella wanted to grab him by the collar and shake him till he lost that complacent look. Or kiss him. She shoved the thought aside. She was already in enough strife.
‘Of course not. You’ve got the money and influence to open any door.’ Just look at this house. Whether he owned or rented it, it cost a bomb.
‘But you know I also have a criminal record. I served time in juvenile detention, then prison.’ Did she imagine his mouth thinned on the words? Though his expression remained unreadable, his face looked somehow more severe.
‘So?’
‘It hasn’t occurred to you that someone with my background might find doors still closed to him? That some people are uncomfortable mixing with an ex-con? A dangerous ex-con.’
Dangerous. There was that word again.
Yet would a truly dangerous man have treated her as he had?
She’d disintegrated at his touch, thrown herself at him, behaved with a reckless carnality that even now took her breath away. Yet not once had he tried to force her, though it was obvious he wielded power as easily as she did a thermometer. Though he’d challenged her from the moment they’d met, she’d never relinquished the right to choose. If anything, he’d emphasised that, leaving it to her to bridge the gap between them.
Nor had he made her feel cheap. He’d reminded her it had been a mutual seduction.