“Well, this isn’t the least embarrassing,” she murmured ruefully once she and Matteo had walked through the congratulations and back-patting to stand near the bar.
Matteo had never danced with any woman who was as graceful and sensual as Grace. He’d been right about her having a dancer’s body rather than that of a model.
He kept his arm tightly about her waist. “Come to my hotel suite with me.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re really staying here? Atticus mentioned it,” she explained as Matteo frowned.
“In what context?”
“In the context that if we didn’t want to go to the bother of going to your hotel suite, there are plenty of empty rooms down the hallway with locks on the door.”
“That sounds like Atticus,” he drawled.
Grace smiled. “I like him.”
“All of Bryce’s brothers are likeable. They are also all married or about to be,” Matteo added harshly.
Grace looked at him searchingly. “Are you jealous?”
Matteo’s jaw tightened. “You are here as my guest, not theirs.”
“You are jealous,” she murmured incredulously.
He looked down the length of his nose at her. “I don’t share.”
“I didn’t for a moment think that you did,” she derided. “But what’s with the staying at the hotel?”
Matteo continued to frown for several long seconds before accepting that Grace was attempting to change the subject. As he was currently behaving like a jealous idiot over a woman he had known only a matter of days, Matteo decided to go along with it. “Bella had the idea she wants all the family to stay here overnight and then have breakfast together in the morning before she and Bryce fly off on their honeymoon in the early afternoon.” And Matteo was Bella’s only family.
“That sounds nice.”
Was that a wistful note Matteo detected in Grace’s voice? “Do you have family? Parents? Brothers and sisters?”
Her expression became closed and her gaze distant. “I think it’s time for me to leave after that very public display.”
His arm tightened about her waist. “You’ve only been here for an hour or so.” Nor had he missed the fact Grace hadn’t answer his questions about her family.
She grimaced. “I think it was a mistake for me to have come here at all. I…I don’t know why I did.” Her frown was pained.
“Don’t you?” Matteo drew her closer so that their bodies were once again molded together, his arousal long and hard against her abdomen. “Don’t you, Grace?”
Color warmed her cheeks, her gaze avoiding meeting his. “I don’t understand what’s happening between us.”
“Neither do I,” he acknowledged ruefully. “But I’m not willing to let it go, whatever it is.” Not yet, at least.
Because that choice would be taken out of his hands when Leonardo Brunelli and his daughter, Natalia, arrived in London in two days’ time.
“Matteo?” Grace cut in on the darkness of his thoughts.
He forced a smile. “I’m not willing to let you go, Grace.”
“Maybe long enough for me to go to the powder room and tidy up after all that exertion?”
Matteo wanted to say no, to keep Grace pinned to his side and never let her out of his sight again.
And that really isn’t obsessive or stalkerish, Matteo, he mocked himself.
He released her, his arms falling back to his side. “I’ll be waiting right here for you.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
Matteo watched the gentle sway of her hips as she walked toward the double doors opening out into the hallway, a sigh leaving his lips once she had moved out of his sight.
“We are all entitled to change our minds.”
Matteo swung round to face Gregori Markovic, the dark-haired Russian every bit as tall and imposing as Matteo. “Change my mind about what?”
“Whom, not what,” the older man drawled. “You and Miss Morrissey dance well together. As if you have done so dozens of times before?”
“We haven’t,” he clipped.
Gregori shrugged. “The tango is making love to music.”
Matteo glared. “We haven’t done that either.” He straightened. “We might have a business agreement, Gregori, but that doesn’t give you the right to speak to me this way or Nikolai the right to question Grace.”
“She is a very beautiful woman.”
“And you and Nikolai are both very happily married men and totally faithful to your beautiful wives, so don’t try to imply Nikolai’s conversation with Grace was anything other than an attempt on his part to warn her off.”
Gregori gave a hard smile. “If that was his intention, then he obviously failed.” He sobered. “It is not me you should be wary of, Matteo.”
No, he knew that honor went solely to Leonardo Brunelli.
Matteo released a heavy breath. “I apologize for snapping at you, Gregori.” Something he seemed to be doing far too much of recently. “I know all the arguments against getting involved with Grace.” He should do. He had been tormenting himself with them since the moment he met her. “But I can’t seem to stay away from her.”
“I believe she came to you this evening, so obviously, the feeling is mutual.”
“Do you think so?” Matteo immediately winced at how needy he sounded. “Sorry,” he muttered self-disgustedly.
“Our alliance will stand whatever you do, because you are now Bryce’s brother-in-law and his friendship with Nikolai makes him family,” the Russian reassured him. “Just be aware Brunelli might not be quite so understanding where a slight to his daughter’s honor is concerned.”
Matteo was aware of that, but it made no difference to how much he wanted to see and be with Grace.
Speaking of which, she had been gone much longer than he would have expected. She already looked perfect to him, so he couldn’t imagine what was taking her so long.
Unless…
Chapter Ten
“So you see, Mr. Darcy, I really had no choice but to leave.” Grace sat in one of the armchairs in the lounge of her apartment, stroking her purring ginger tabby cat behind his ears. She had changed out of the green dress she’d worn to the wedding reception earlier, and into loose gray sweats and a white vest top, leaving her feet bare. “I just
