Chapter Five #2
Her gaze slid from his. ‘I’m on holidays but yes, sometimes it’s hard to switch off.’
‘Is that why you were distracted yesterday? Because of work?’
She seemed to find the view of the piazza enthralling. ‘Partly. Partly family stuff.’
Gio stifled a grimace of understanding. In her case work and family were intertwined since she worked for her father. Had Barbieri pressured her for a progress report?
He thanked the waiter who brought his coffee and took a sip, enjoying the sharp, rich flavour. ‘What do you do when you can’t sleep, Stella? Do you have tried-and-true remedies?’
She turned, smiling slightly and, even knowing what he did about her, he found it hard to reconcile this woman with a corporate spy. Her eyes were warm, her expression easy and open as if she had nothing to hide.
It infuriated him that if he hadn’t been warned he might have been taken in. He regarded himself as a savvy judge of character!
‘Exercise. When I can’t sleep I exercise.’
Gio had an instant recollection of her on the security footage—glowing with exertion, skin damp, hair tousled, breathing heavy—and imagined the sort of exercise she might enjoy in the night. In his bed.
His body reacted instantly, groin growing heavy and tight, fingers flexing as if remembering how she’d felt naked in his arms, even if it had only been in his dreams.
Damn her! He knew who and what she was, yet that didn’t obliterate his yearning.
Sitting at this small table, so close he could see the amber flecks in her velvety gaze and inhale her fresh flower scent, he realised his mind and body were at war.
His mind decreed she be unmasked and sent on her way. His body wanted…her.
‘Gio, are you all right?’
She leaned in as if concerned and it took everything he had to push down his reactions and tilt the corners of his mouth up. ‘I’m fine. Tell me more, what sort of exercise?’
She sat back, twisting her empty cup in its saucer. ‘Sometimes I put on a headlamp and go running.’
He sat straighter. ‘At night? That’s not safe.’
‘It depends where I am. I wouldn’t do it at night in a big city like Rome.’
Gio released a sigh of relief, then wondered at his ability to worry over his unscrupulous opponent. ‘So when you can’t go running in the city?’
Once again her gaze dropped, her expression a little furtive. He leaned in. ‘I couldn’t run the streets so I walked the hotel instead, up and down the corridors.’
‘You couldn’t just use a treadmill? The hotel has a well-equipped gym.’
She nodded. ‘It does and I did. But running on the spot isn’t the same as really moving. Running outdoors or walking helps me clear my mind.’
Gio sat back, surveying this woman with her clear eyes and innocent expression.
She was good, even better than he’d thought, admitting she’d been up and about in the hotel when everyone slept.
A clever move, providing an alibi in case she was confronted by hotel security.
Was she trying out her excuse on him in case his security staff warned him about her?
There’d been times yesterday when he’d been almost convinced she didn’t know his identity. He’d worked hard over the years to keep his image out of the press. Now he was back to assuming she knew exactly who he was.
The question was whether he’d convinced her he was clueless about who she was. After this morning’s revelations he wasn’t content to wait for her to make a move. He needed to accelerate the process, get her to reveal her intentions and turn the tables on her. Make her pay.
‘I should try that next time I can’t sleep.
Meanwhile I thought I’d go out and brush the cobwebs away.
What do you think, Stella?’ He let his voice slow invitingly on her name and watched her lips part.
She might be a spy but she was still a woman, and Gio knew a bit about female weaknesses.
‘Would you like to come out with me again?’
Her response was so eager she didn’t even pause to fiddle with her bangle. Her eyes shone before she looked demurely at her empty cup. ‘I would, Gio. Thank you.’
Don’t thank me, Ms Barbieri. I’m going to see you get the comeuppance you deserve.
Stella planted her hands on the railing and surveyed the view of Rome. ‘You really are remarkable.’
In her peripheral vision she saw Gio turn. ‘Remarkable sounds good. What have I done to deserve that?’
She liked the amusement in his deep voice and how it warmed her, almost like an embrace. Yet she shut down the idea. Gio was different today, sometimes funny and charming and at others almost distant.
He had something on his mind. For him this outing was simply about getting fresh air. It wasn’t the beginning of anything between them.
Stella nodded at the vista before them. The deep cliff drop to ancient ruins below.
Beyond that, tall buildings of yellow and ochre, topped with roof gardens.
Then a jumble of venerable public buildings, including the Vittoriano and the domes of Roman churches.
It was a splendid view yet they had the place to themselves.
Most tourists had stayed below in the ancient forum.
‘I don’t know anyone else who’d happily spend their time strolling through historic ruins, even for a view like this.’
‘No one? Not even your family?’
Stella couldn’t contain her laugh. ‘Absolutely not. None of them are interested in history.’ Enzo’s sole entertainments were putting his sports car through its paces or watching car racing.
Rocco enjoyed good food and wine and had a taste for gambling.
‘Once I suggested to my father that we visit a famous castle. He said his only interest was in new buildings, ones with all the modern conveniences.’
‘Did he take you there anyway?’
Her amusement faded. ‘He didn’t have time. I should have known better than to ask.’
It had been during her first couple of years in Italy, before she’d learned what her father would or would not countenance. The only points of interest he took them to were his own hotels or those of rivals.
‘Well, I’m glad to win such praise. I confess I’ve never been up here.’
She turned to him. ‘You’re not a history buff?’
‘Not really, though it was fascinating seeing where the emperors lived. They had an eye for prime real estate.’
‘What sort of things do interest you?’
He shrugged. ‘Like you, I enjoy exercise.’ Did she imagine a sharp glint in his eyes as he looked at her? It must have been a trick of the light, for now it had gone. ‘Yachting, waterskiing, snow skiing too. But lately it’s been mainly work.’
They turned their back on the view and began retracing their steps, walking across the pavement towards the path over the hill.
‘What sort of work?’
Stella hadn’t asked before. By unspoken agreement their conversations had avoided business. But it was time to head back to the hotel and this was probably the last time she’d see Gio.
Strange how hollow that made her feel. Strange and ridiculous. She was in Rome to make the single biggest decision of her life, one that would dictate her future. Saying goodbye to a chance-met stranger should be easy.
Yet her short time with Gio had made her more than ever aware of how often she’d accepted second-best in her life. Was that what she wanted for herself? And if she didn’t, what were her alternatives?
‘I invest in property. Careful, it’s uneven here.’
Even as he said it, the toe of her sandal caught a crack in the old stone. Her momentum jerked her off balance, tipping her forward, arms out to save herself.
Large hands grabbed her, pulling her up.
Her breath escaped in a silent oof as she collided with a solid form, her hands splaying across Gio’s ink-blue shirt. Beneath the fabric she felt incredible heat and a cushioned hardness that spoke of taut, honed muscle.
Dazed, she swallowed and sucked in air scented with the heady fragrance of virile male. Trails of tingling fire spread through her body, from palms to soles, breasts to groin.
She closed her eyes and breathed deep, telling herself she was gathering herself to move. If she also happened to imprint the sense memory of Gio in her brain, no one needed to know.
There. She was ready to move. She opened her eyes and straightened her spine. ‘Thank you—’
‘Stella.’
In all her life no one had said her name like that. So resonant she felt it vibrate from his broad chest into her hands almost more than she heard it. Yet the sound was there too, rough and rumbly, utterly enticing.
Her head tilted back as she watched his mouth move, mesmerised. His lips were sculpted. She wondered if they were soft or hard.
‘I…’
Whatever she was going to say disappeared as her gaze locked on silver eyes under slashing black eyebrows. She saw surprise there. Awareness. Invitation.
Mouth dry, Stella swallowed and moistened her lip.
Something flashed in Gio’s eyes and she quivered, her knees so unsteady she grabbed his shirt to steady herself.
‘I want to kiss you, Stella.’
Yes! Please.
‘Okay.’
One sleek eyebrow quirked up as if in amusement but his stare was serious, so intent she felt its weight as if he’d lifted a hand to stroke her cheeks, her lips, her throat and down to where her heart hammered.
Slowly, so slowly, he bent his head. She watched those burnished eyes come nearer, felt his breath on her mouth. Her eyes fluttered closed as his lips touched hers and she sighed, sinking at the knees and clutching at his shoulders.
For from that first instant there was magic.
The sort she’d hoped for in her teens. That had been banished by her history of ill-fated romance.
Because of fumbling boys who’d viewed her as an outsider and therefore fair game.
Then self-interested men who’d seen her as the key to a fortune, not a prize in herself.
Shock ran through her as Gio’s mouth cast a spell with its gentle caresses.
There was sorcery in the slide of his tongue against hers.
Enchantment in the way his body shielded her, one arm wrapped around her waist, the other supporting her head as if she were incredibly precious.
His long fingers cupped her skull as he angled his head to draw out the kiss into something beyond a meeting of mouths.
Something welled inside her. A craving for more. A sense of absolute rightness. A bone-deep sigh, as if she’d waited her whole life for this moment, this man.
Maybe she had.
Spellbound, Stella gave herself up to him, capitulation an exquisite hum in her blood.
But she didn’t just take. She demanded too, pushing high against him as if to climb his powerful body.
She delved further, her hunger acute as his honed musculature provided delicious friction against her breasts and belly.
Her hands dug into thick hair, cupping his skull and drawing it down, holding his mouth to hers as if fearing he’d stop.
He shifted, moving his legs wide and drawing her against his enticing heat. Excitement and arousal spiked as she shuffled to stand between his legs, his bunched thigh muscles testament to the power he possessed but leashed. For she knew that if she chose, she could break his hold and move away.
She didn’t want that. Stella wanted more, so that when she pressed closer and discovered the solid ridge of his erection against her belly it felt only right.
The tempo of their kiss altered, becoming heavy and almost languid but there was nothing languid about the hammer beat of her pulse or the drag of her lungs as she fought for air, not wanting to lift her mouth from his for a second.
In the end it wasn’t her choice. Gio lifted his head, straightening to his full height and gripping her arms when she would have pulled him back.
A searing breath into aching lungs, a flash of his storm-dark eyes and abruptly Stella was back on solid ground, physically and mentally.
His broad chest rose before her, proof that he, too, had been carried away.
Carried away as she’d been? His nostrils were flared as he dragged in air and his proud features seemed sharper, as if pared to the bone. But his eyes were unreadable, except that they were no longer silvery but a dark, enigmatic grey.
Her gaze dropped to his mouth, his reddened lips. A rough pulse of possessiveness jerked inside her. She wanted his mouth on hers again. Wanted to kiss him until he groaned with pleasure and gripped her with those strong hands and gave her more than just a kiss.
‘Are you okay?’
‘Why shouldn’t I be?’ Was he intimating there’d been something wrong with that kiss? Her forehead knotted. Surely he’d felt what she had.
But then she’d been disappointed many times before.
What was it they said? A girl had to kiss a lot of frogs before she found a prince.
She wasn’t after a prince, just someone genuine.
What they’d just shared had felt genuine, but looking into those darkened eyes she wondered if she’d made a mistake.
She slipped from his grasp. ‘Don’t apologise for kissing me.’ She couldn’t bear that.
He frowned. ‘I wasn’t going to. Should I?’
Stella shook her head. ‘No. I enjoyed it.’
The taut lines of his face eased as his mouth curved. ‘Good. So did I. But it was time to stop.’
His gaze flicked past her and for the first time she registered voices approaching. She turned and glimpsed a party of people picking their way through the trees and ruined stonework towards them.
That was why Gio had stopped? Relief was a buzzing in her ears and lightness in her chest.
‘It’s time to get down to the city,’ Gio said as he reached for her hand.
Warm fingers closed around hers and her heart leapt. She wasn’t seeking romance and the last thing she needed was anything to complicate her already complicated situation. But she didn’t care. The problems weighing her down had been banished, replaced by a feeling of rightness.
It was an illusion, she knew. Only temporary. But she’d take that reprieve. ‘Yes, let’s go.’