‘I doubt if you could,’ she dared him.
The next moment his arm was across her chest, preventing her going any further, urging her gently but firmly back against the wall.
‘Listen to me,’ he said softly, his hot breath flickering against her skin. ‘I will not be played games with, do you understand? Don’t try to tease me. I’m not some callow boy to come begging.’
‘How dare you accuse me of teasing you?’ she demanded in a shaking voice.
‘You’re up to something. I’m not a fool, Circe.’
‘And neither am I. You set Gino on to me, remember? How stupid do you think I am? Now, will you let me go?’ She tried to push his arm away but it was like steel across her chest, not pressing her, but implacable.
‘Not yet. We have things to talk about,’ he said, speaking in the same low voice that sent warmth scurrying across her skin.
‘I can’t think what.’ She tried to keep calm but the powerful body holding her still was communicating its heat to her, and that was mingling with the rising excitement inside herself.
‘You did very well tonight,’ he murmured.
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Yes, you do. You were subtle, very subtle. Nothing obvious. Just be nice to the brute and watch him melt. And you came close, until you over reached yourself.’
There was a sudden fierce note in his voice.
‘Every man has to want you, doesn’t he? Gino satisfies your vanity, the man in London satisfies your ambition. And me? What would I satisfy?’
His words were like hot lava pouring over her, illuminating the world, so that for a searing moment she knew the answer to his question. He would satisfy a deep, aching need that had been there, unacknowledged, in her loins, from the very start.
How long could she have gone on refusing to see it if he hadn’t forced it on her?
But hell would freeze over before she would let him suspect.
‘You flatter yourself,’ she snapped. ‘If you weren’t so conceited you’d remember I didn’t say a word to you that I couldn’t have said in front of Gino.’
‘I’ve already admitted that you were clever. Far too clever to be blatant. Circe weaves her spells and has a different face for all of us. Subtlety wouldn’t work with Gino,
She didn’t answer. Words would no longer come. A warm languor pervaded her, making her limbs heavy and her senses vague. Yet she was burningly aware of the faint touch of his lips against the skin of her neck.
Pride made her turn her head away but there was no escaping him. Putting her hands on his shoulders she tried to push him off, with no success.
He didn’t try to kiss her mouth, merely rested his lips against her throat, then just beneath her ears, causing a storm inside her that was almost alarming in its violence.
He was warning her not to take him on, because if she did, this was what he could do to her. He could make her flesh defy her mind, defy her very self. He could make her want him when she was determined not to. He was daring her to risk it.
Either the heat of the night or her own feverish urgency was making her react in a way she didn’t recognise. It took all her strength not to yearn towards him, seeking new and more deeply intimate caresses.
She could not allow this to happen, but it was happening anyway. There was danger everywhere, but suddenly danger was her natural element. The hands she’d raised to push him away changed course and curved, almost touching him but not quite.
But then-yes-her fingers just brushed his neck of their own accord. There was no stopping them. And his lips were on her face, not kissing her mouth, kissing everywhere else, driving her wild with soft, teasing caresses that left her unsatisfied because she they made her want so much more.
They were no longer alone in the street. A laughing, singing crowd swirled by, but nobody took any notice of them. One more pair of lovers among so many!
He drew back a few inches and stopped, breathing hard, his mouth close to hers. He could see her reaction, she thought desperately. There was no hiding the rise and fall of her breasts under the thin red silk, or the pulse beating in her throat. He must be able to feel her breath against his face, as heated as his own.
He did so, stepping back sharply. She saw his face, one instant before the shutters came down, and saw it ravaged, burningly intense.
And afraid. It was too late for him to lock her out and he knew it.
He turned and strode away toward the main street, leaving her leaning against the wall, trying to calm down. After a moment Alex followed him slowly.
When she had nearly reached the Piazza, Gino came flying to meet her, flowers in his hair, not entirely sober. He embraced her eagerly.
‘There you are,
Alex never forgot the journey home, with Rinaldo driving the car and herself and Gino in the back. Gino was too sleepy to talk, which was a relief, but left her staring out into the darkness, accompanied by thoughts that she didn’t want to think.
As soon as they reached the house she bid the brothers a brief goodnight and went upstairs. She needed to be alone to control her feelings, and to understand exactly what those feelings were.
There was anger, partly at him and partly at herself for being caught off guard.
It had been there all the time. Desire. Basic, brutal, almost uncontrollable desire, not connected to any sympathy of mind. Uncivilised. Alien to her well-ordered world. The kind of feeling that she had never really believed existed, waiting to spring out and make a fool of her.
And what a fool! She could have screamed as she realised how evident her excitement must have been. He had made her want him, and he’d known it.
She closed her eyes, fiercely willing herself to hold onto the anger, so that it might defend her from the other feeling, the shattering awareness that tonight she had been alive in every part of herself, truly alive for the first time.
She didn’t want to feel like that about Rinaldo, and she would resist it with everything in her power. She pulled herself together. It would be over soon. This was an aberration, that would be forgotten when she returned to England and reality.
A freezing shower made her feel a little better. Then, as she wrapped a towel around her, she grew suddenly alert, wondering what had happened to her wits. The date of the carnival had always seemed familiar, and now she knew why. This was the day of the partners’ meeting, at which David would arrange for her to be offered a partnership.
It must have happened this afternoon. He’d probably been trying to get through to her ever since.
She could have laughed aloud at the way Italy had hypnotised her into forgetting something so important. She had even left her mobile phone behind to go to the festival. All she had to do was check her messages.
She did so, and stared at the result.
There were no messages from David.
But there were four from her secretary at her home number.
She thought of Jenny, a motherly woman and a tireless worker, of whom she was very fond. Why was she making such attempts to contact her when David was silent?
Perhaps the other partners had been awkward about accepting her, and even now David was arguing with them, defending her.
She dialled Jenny’s number quickly, and was answered at once.
‘Thank goodness you called,’ Jenny said in a relieved voice. ‘You’re not going to believe what I have to tell you. Are you sitting down?’
‘Sure. I’m sitting on the bed. Now, tell me.’
‘This afternoon David announced his engagement to Erica.’
In the first moment of shock Alex said the only words that came into her head.
