Chapter 5 #2
A memory split through her and she made an audible gasp. “You said that on the night we met.”
His brows knit together; was he going to refute it? “Yes,” he said, after a beat. “I believe I did.”
“You remember?”
“I’m starting to.” He moved his finger to her shoulder, pressed it there before sliding it down her bare arm, towards her wrist. “We danced.”
“Yes.” A warm frisson ran down her spine as that memory burst through her, too. Being held in his arms, their bodies moving as one. It was like a night out of time, a completely foreign and unexpected experience for Ally, who had never felt that sort of physical draw to anyone before.
“And for some reason, decided to get married.”
She swallowed convulsively. “I wish I could remember.”
His smile was mocking. “As do I.”
“Maybe our drinks were spiked.”
“No, cara. I went out intending to drink myself into a stupor.”
She shivered. “Same.” She couldn’t pull her eyes away, no matter how hard she tried. “Not very responsible of us.”
He made a noise that sounded like agreement.
“You seem like the last person on earth who does irresponsible things.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You just have a…gravity about you.”
He lifted one brow. He was so close to her, and that was making her brain feel all kinds of scrambled.
“I do not generally drink to excess.”
That made sense. This man was all about measured control. She couldn’t say how she knew that either, but she had no doubt she was right.
“So why did you, that night?”
“I could ask the same of you.”
Her heart hammered. While her memory was hazy where Luca was concerned, she had no such difficulty remembering the events that had preceded their meeting.
The ick she’d been trying to process, the feeling that she was spiralling into a situation without end.
It wasn’t her fault, and yet, for some reason, something held her back from sharing the truth with Luca.
She didn’t want him to know about the indecent proposition, about how stupid she’d been to borrow money from people like that.
Not stupid. Desperate. But that hardly seemed to matter. She’d put herself in a situation that had left her vulnerable to a truly terrible outcome. Her dad would have been furious, if he’d known.
“Were you celebrating?”
She shook her head slowly.
He made another sound of agreement. “You were upset.”
“You remember?”
“Process of elimination. It’s an educated guess.”
She gnawed at her lower lip. “I’d had a difficult day.”
“Do you want to tell me about it?”
“Are you offering free therapy?” she couldn’t resist teasing.
“I suppose I’m asking if I need to know. Or if you want me to know.”
“No,” she said, hoping that was true. After all, she’d deposited a chunk of money into the loan sharks’ account.
She’d make good on her debt within the year.
Surely that freed her from that situation.
And she was all the way in Italy now, far away from their reach.
“It’s okay.” God, she hoped it was okay.
“That’s probably for the best.”
“I thought the goal was to get to know each other.”
“The essentials,” he said, frowning slightly. “Easier not to blur lines if we keep it to that.”
Blur lines, of course. Like the kind of lines they were blurring right now, by sitting so close, with his hand resting lightly on hers, their knees brushing. “Do you think it’s possible?”
His eyes roamed hers. “Do I think what is possible?”
“This. Not letting the lines get blurred.”
“What is your concern?”
Was she imagining this attraction? Was she complicating things unnecessarily? Her lack of experience made her uncertain, but she was better to ask and know than not. Wasn’t she?
“Before,” she said, dropping her eyes, then realising the folly of that when they landed between his legs, reminding her forcefully of how his arousal had felt against her belly. She squeezed her eyes shut instead, but that didn’t help. Sucking in a deep breath, Ally continued, “When we kissed.”
“Si?”
With her eyes closed, the husky, velvety tones of his voice were all the more compelling. She blinked and forced herself to look at him.
“Doesn’t that blur the lines?”
“We can’t do this without showing a level of physical intimacy, when we are with other people?”
She frowned. Was that all it had been for him? A performance? “So that was…just for your grandfather’s benefit?”
He grimaced. “It would be easier if I said yes.”
“I don’t want what’s easier right now. I want to understand.”
“I presume you’re familiar with sexual attraction,” he said, tone implying a joke.
But Ally was too stricken to smile. She felt completely out of her league, gauche and childish. She jerked to standing, moving to the edge of the terrace and staring out at the water without seeing it. The sun was warm on her bare skin but she barely registered it.
“Allegra?” Her name on his lips was a caress, wrapping around her, more present and appreciable than anything else. There was no longer any distance between them; he was standing at her side, studying her in a way that made her feel as though all her deepest secrets were on display.
“Is there a problem?”
She’d probably regret this. Then again, her dad had taught her many lessons in life, and one of them was that honesty was the best policy.
As an oldest, she understood that there was nuance to that—sometimes, honesty was better softened, such as with her father’s surgery, when she’d fibbed that he’d been accepted into a free trial.
If she hadn’t, he’d have refused the treatment, and there would have been no hope remaining.
But now? With Luca looking at her, and the obvious chemistry humming between them, Ally knew she had to level with him.