Chapter 1 #3
Valentino smiled at her robotic question, glancing into grey eyes that were averted to a point beyond his shoulder.
That she could see over his shoulder was another first. Most women he’d dated, apart from Adrianna, had been shorter.
At six feet two, he still had a few inches on Peyton but the fact that it would take just a tantalising tilt of her chin to have her lips on his was an intriguing proposition.
‘Yes, Peyton,’ he replied, not bothering to hide the amusement in his voice. ‘Alessandro tells me you have a daughter who needs one?’
She mis-stepped then, her body bumping into his, and Valentino’s hand tightened in the small of her back as she clutched at his shirt. He expected her to step back immediately but, for long beats, she lingered, her face pressed to his chest, and Valentino’s blood rose sharply, thickening to lava.
Every muscle in his body cinched tight.
Then she eased back, pushing away with her hand and holding herself as erect as possible, putting as much space between them as she could. Unfortunately, with the dance floor filling they were only jostled closer together, hampering her attempts at distance.
‘That’s correct,’ she said, her hand slipping away as if touch was a bigger issue now than proximity. ‘She’s scheduled for two months’ time.’
‘She’s one of Harry’s patients?’
An almost immediate lightening of her features stopped the breath in Valentino’s throat. The difference was startling as she said, ‘Yes. Do you know him?’ She didn’t wait for him to answer. ‘You must. He’s a pioneer in the field.’
‘Of course.’ He shrugged. ‘Everyone knows Harry.’ In fact, it had been Valentino’s very great pleasure to finally meet the man a couple of months back during an interview.
She nodded. ‘I’m so lucky to not only have him as McKenzie’s surgeon but to also work for him. He’s absolutely gifted at what he does. So clever and such a fair boss. And great with his patients. He insists everyone in the audiology department knows how to sign so the patients are at ease.’
Valentino watched, fascinated, as she came alive.
Animated. Her face glowed, her frame relaxed, her grey eyes turning sparkly like fire flies in mist. If this was how excited she got talking about a nearly seventy-year-old surgeon who was old enough to be her grandfather, what would she look like excited in other ways?
Say, in the throes of an orgasm he’d just wrung from her body?
His hand tightened against her spine, inching her unresisting body closer as she chatted away, resting comfortably in his arms. So comfortable, in fact, she apparently didn’t notice that the song had ended and another had begun.
Or that they were now so close their bodies rubbed deliciously as they swayed to the tempo.
Valentino, on the other hand, had noticed. In fact, he could barely register anything else as his body responded to the subtle friction of her dress against the fabric of his trousers, and the waft of frangipani and woman lit a fire in his groin.
Someone from behind bumped into her, nudging them so close Valentino almost groaned out loud as his cock hardened to stone.
‘Dio abbia pietà,’ he muttered, praying for mercy, suppressing the urge to grind.
His low, throaty voice snapped her out of her prattle and she glanced at him, her eyes widening as if she, too, felt the sudden surge of heat between them. Their gazes locked and he knew she felt it. Her pupils dilated, her lips parted slightly, and everything around them faded to black.
For several long lustful moments, it was just him and her on the dancefloor, moving to a rhythm as old as time.
It was never destined to last long, of course.
Even in a haze of frangipani and lust, Valentino wasn’t foolish enough to believe it would go on, but he intended to stay right here while it lasted.
He spotted the moment she came back to her surroundings and realised how close they were standing. How public it was. He sensed the first coil of tension in her muscles as she opened her mouth to speak, as if there was something she could say that would erase those seconds.
‘Do you think,’ he asked, getting in before her, desire turning his voice silky, ‘putting words between us will really help you ignore what’s going on here?’
Her mouth clicked shut as a flair of panic stirred up whorls of grey mist in her eyes. ‘I… I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Peyton.’ Valentino ground out her name as he flattened his palm against her spine, bringing them even more intimately into contact. ‘I think you do.’
She swallowed then, Valentino’s gaze snagging on the bob of her slender throat before he lifted it again to see a fleeting flare of yearning in her eyes that reached hot hands inside his gut and squeezed.
But then the music stopped and people were clapping and jostling and moving, providing just the cover she needed.
‘No. I don’t,’ she said, her chin tilted, her eyes steely and determined.
Then she stepped out of his arms, letting the momentum of the dance floor exodus sweep her all the way back to her table.