Chapter Seven
THEY ORDERED LOBSTER SALADS. Fresh bread. Various cheeses and biscuits and wine, although she told him firmly that alcohol of any kind wasn’t recommended to someone with a cold.
‘More than a cold, I think.’
‘Okay, then, flu if you’d rather.’
‘You need to work on your Florence Nightingale persona.’ But he was smiling when he said that and, as their eyes met, Georgie felt a little ripple of awareness shimmer through her, light and feathery and reaching deep into all parts of her.
To distract herself, she glanced through the window. From where she was sitting at the little circular table, she could see the sky in all its radiant, dusky colours of pinks and purples and indigo blues reflecting on the calm waters of the lagoon.
The suite, the most expensive in the hotel, was on the very top floor of the main building and the panoramic view was extensive. Breathtaking.
When you were out and about, mingling with the crowds, the sights were almost too big to fully appreciate.
From here, the Cinderella castle was a distant silhouette, coming awake as it was lit up, and the monorail that she and Flora had ridden earlier in the day glided soundlessly by in the distance, ferrying guests through the various resorts.
She tore her gaze away and looked at Alessandro, who was reclining on the sofa, having made it out of the bed.
While she’d been checking on Flora and ordering food, he’d changed into some comfortable tracksuit bottoms and a black polo shirt and he looked stupidly handsome and not at all ill.
‘Did you work at all today?’ she asked curiously, swivelling the chair so that she was looking directly at him.
‘No. Not at all.’ He grimaced. ‘I can’t remember the last time I took a full day off work. I thought about opening the computer but I fell back asleep before I could do anything with that thought.’
Georgie hesitated.
‘If you want me to stop asking personal questions, then tell me, but right now…’
‘Look, this is a very different situation for me,’ Alessandro said heavily.
He looked at her with a thoughtful, assessing expression until she reddened.
‘I… I’m not in the habit of discussing anything personal with women, but this isn’t a relationship and never will be, so do I object to you asking me personal questions?
Oddly, not as much as I would normally.’
‘What do you talk about when you’re with…er…those women you date? If you never discuss anything personal? How far can you go chatting about the weather and world news?’
‘Am I picking up a certain amount of disapproval in your voice?’ His eyebrows shot up and she reddened a shade more.
‘Of course not.’
‘There’s a lot more to a relationship than talking,’ he murmured. ‘In fact, I find that the non-verbal part of a relationship is always a lot more satisfying.’
‘Um!’ Her mind filled up with images of Alessandro enjoying that non-verbal side of a relationship and threatened to implode from the hot, graphic nature of what she was thinking.
‘Have I embarrassed you?’
‘Of course not!’ She laughed dismissively. ‘Do I strike you as the sort who embarrasses easily?’
‘Yes.’
‘That shows how little you know me,’ Georgie said gently.
‘Which is understandable. Like you said, this isn’t a relationship so you’re really not going to know the first thing about me.
Truth is, I get along really well with guys.
Always have done, which is why I don’t embarrass easily.
You wouldn’t believe the stuff they’ve confided in me over the years. ’
‘Is that so?’
‘Yes!’
‘What sort of things?’
‘Oh…problems with girls…disappointment with being dropped from sports teams…hassle with friends…’ She rolled her eyes.
‘And that’s a good thing? Playing agony aunt to angst-ridden immature boys? Are you agony aunt to the grown-up versions of them as well?’
‘I never said they were angst-ridden or immature, and yes. It’s…
yes, of course it’s a good thing. Why wouldn’t it be?
It’s very rewarding to be empathetic. Actually, I’m not sure why we’re having this conversation.
Didn’t you want to have dinner with me so that you could find out what Flora and I did today? ’
‘I’m finding this topic of conversation more interesting at the moment.
Can’t say I’ve ever met a woman who’s found fulfilment in playing agony aunt to men.
I, personally, can’t think of anything more repulsive than pouring my heart out to a DIY agony aunt in the hope that she might come up with some hocus-pocus solution to my problems.’
Georgie’s mouth tightened.
In one fell swoop he’d managed to somehow put his finger on the swirling insecurities that were embedded in her dealings with the opposite sex.
‘That’s not what empathy is all about,’ she muttered with a surge of sour resentment. ‘Listening and being sympathetic is all it takes to make someone feel better about themselves and their situation.’
‘And what about the power of attraction?’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Sex. What about that?’
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about. I mean, obviously, I know what the power of attraction is all about! I’m just not sure where you’re going with that…er… observation…’
‘Where does animal attraction fit in with all these men you counsel? Doesn’t that reduce your relationships to platonic ones? You surely can’t find any man attractive when you’re done mopping up his tears and giving him a pep talk about squaring up to the playground bullies?’
He grinned and Georgie wanted to smack him because he was just so damned self-assured.
Self-assured and just so sexy. Hair tousled, dark stubble, dark eyes glittering with amusement. Stupidly, unfairly sexy and the conversation, instead of turning her off, had sparked something inside her that had ratcheted up every nerve in her body.
‘I like to think of myself as a nuanced person,’ she told him coolly and his grin widened.
‘What does that mean?’
‘It means that maybe we can decide on what we’re going to eat because it’s been a long day for me and I’d like to get to bed.’
‘Sure.’
He shrugged but he was still grinning.
‘I haven’t asked…how are you feeling?’
‘Decidedly better now that the tablets have kicked in and I’m having some human interaction.’
And a bit of fun, was what Georgie thought. He was a man who was accustomed to filling every second of every minute of every day with action.
He worked hard and he played hard and in between there was precious little downtime.
But, right now, ill health was in charge and he’d been forced into having some downtime and he was bored.
Hence, he was having a little fun at her expense because the devil played on idle hands.
‘Food should be here in a minute,’ she told him politely. ‘Do you good to eat.’
‘Yes, I think I’ve had your bracing advice about keeping my strength up by eating.’
‘It’s actually not my job to give you bracing advice about anything and I honestly don’t care whether you eat or don’t eat, but I do care that Flora would like to have your company and the longer you’re cooped up in here, the less time she’s going to have to spend with you.’
In receipt of this flatly delivered snub, Alessandro looked at her with a guarded expression.
He should have been turned off. Actually, he should have been livid. He was neither. He was intrigued.
Was that because this relationship was very different from anything he’d ever had with a woman before? Not exactly an employee but definitely not a love interest.
Was it the utter novelty aspect of her that made him want to get under her skin? Was she someone who had come along without warning, like a creature from another planet, managing to rouse the curiosity of his jaded palate because she was everything he wasn’t used to?
He could appreciate her without feeling the threat of someone who might want more than he was prepared to give. He could talk to her without thinking that any confidence shared would be stored and used against him at a later date.
He enjoyed the thought of getting inside her head, finding out a bit more about her for the duration of their time here.
He liked the way she blushed and looked discomfited by the tiniest foray into her personal life when, compared to him, she was as pure as the driven snow and as transparent as an open book.
Everything about her intrigued him and if he felt a feathery whisper of alarm at this, he swept it aside before it could even begin to register. He was the master of self-control and he was unshaken in his belief that no one could get past his defences if he didn’t allow them to.
There was a buzz at the door and he watched as she scuttled off to open it. She was so much at pains not to look at him as the food was brought in and the table laid with so much pomp and ceremony that he wanted to burst out laughing.
‘Shall I tell you what Flora and I got up to today?’
Georgie finally looked at him as they both sat at the table, which had been set to Michelin standards.
‘I would very much like to hear.’
She told him. In detail. It was called time filling and a welcome distraction from his amused, scorching dark gaze on her.
She ate and got lost in the retelling of the day.
‘Hence why I’m so tired,’ she finished, after her barely interrupted monologue.
‘Sounds like you both had a lot of fun.’
‘What do you do with her when you…take her out? Can I ask?’
‘What do we do?’
‘Where do you go? I guess you have houses all over the place? Do you do lots of travelling between them with her? I mean, during the school holidays.’
‘I…’ Alessandro frowned. ‘It’s been haphazard. And time isn’t always my friend when it comes to completely relaxing.’
‘I have no idea what that means.’
He pushed his plate to one side. He’d eaten but not much. Now he stared at her, giving her question consideration.
‘It means it’s been a game of chance trying to pin my ex-wife down to honouring dates that have been set in advance and when I have had Flora…no… I haven’t travelled with her.’