‘I’m not everyone, Donato.’
Meeting his challenging stare, doubt assailed her. Was she wrong? Was she alone in thinking they shared something more than sex? Donato’s eyes had that horrible blank look and she knew he deliberately shut her out.
So...he’d confirmed it. She was just a sexual diversion. There was nothing profound about what they shared. She’d been misled by her own silly yearnings.
Her stomach swooped and she turned away.
‘Wait.’ He threaded his fingers through hers.
Ella stiffened. His power over her was scary. He just had to touch her. And Fuzz called her the practical one! If she had any sense she’d run, not walk away from this man.
‘I’m sorry, Ella.’ His hand tightened on hers and he laughed, the sound strained rather than amused. ‘There, two apologies in five minutes. I hope you realise that’s a record.’
Ella turned. Donato’s face was taut, his nostrils pinched and his mouth a harsh line that made something twist high in her chest. The sight of his pain did that to her. Her brain registered surprise that he let her read his feelings, but she was too caught up to think about that now. Impulsively she reached out, her palm cupping his jaw, sliding over his close-shaved chin.
Donato’s hand closed on hers, dragging it to his mouth. He kissed her palm and shivery sensations shot through her, making her tremble. The way he looked at her, the intensity of this connection, made her emotions well even higher.
‘What am I going to do about you, Ella?’ His voice was a low burr that furrowed through her insides.
She shook her head. ‘I wonder the same about you, Donato. I knew you were trouble the first time I saw you.’
‘That’s nothing new.’ His voice was harsh. ‘I’ve been trouble all my life.’ He smiled. ‘You, on the other hand, have always been a good girl.’
Ella’s chin jerked up. ‘How do you know?’
‘It’s not an insult, you know.’ Donato laughed. This time there was amusement in that dark-chocolate chuckle. ‘How do I know? Because you’re the Sanderson who works for a living instead of dabbling with other people’s money.’
‘My brother works.’
Donato shrugged. ‘That remains to be seen. He’s spent the last couple of years on your father’s payroll. Besides, you’re the one who’s here, holding the fort. You’re the one your father turned to. The one who’s made a career caring for people.’
‘That doesn’t make me a saint.’
‘Absolutely not. I’m not interested in saints.’ Donato trailed a finger from her jaw, down her throat to her breast. Instantly Ella’s breath stalled as her body softened, need rising.
It took far too long to break from his sensual spell and step away. Ella drew her hands from him so she could lean back against the clifftop wall.
‘You’re right. We need to talk.’ Yet his eyes held that slumberous blue heat that was like an invitation to sin. An invitation she’d never yet been able to resist.
Finally Donato moved to lean on the wall, his gaze on the horizon. Ella stared at his strong profile, still dazed by the upsurge of hormones jangling in her body.
‘You want to know about my past.’
‘I’m not after cheap thrills.’
‘I know. I shouldn’t have said that. I realised from the first you were different from other women.’
Different? How? Immediately part of her brain started cataloguing all the ways she didn’t measure up, with her less than svelte figure, her discomfort in society gatherings, her inability to charm—
Then Ella realised what she was doing. Fuzz was right. She’d listened to her father too much.
‘I want to know you, Donato, and I believe that means understanding some of your past. But if you don’t want to talk about it, I can respect that.’ She was getting to know Donato in other ways.
‘Didn’t I say you were different?’ But he didn’t look at her, just drew a deep breath. ‘I was born in inner city Melbourne. Our rooms were cramped and I played indoors or in back alleys. When I was tiny I always saw the sky in little slices between buildings. That’s given me a love of wide-open spaces.’
Ella nodded. He’d said as much before.
‘I lived with my mother. I never knew my father.’
‘That must have been hard.’ True, she’d have been happier without her father in her life, but that wasn’t the case for everyone.