Chapter Seven #3
Very telling because he hadn’t believed a word of it.
He wasn’t interested in making a complicated situation even more complicated. He would follow her lead and relegate that brief, disturbing frisson between them to the bin.
Made sense.
He gritted his teeth as he battled with his suddenly lively libido and took a few deep breaths.
She wasn’t even his type! He’d never gone for slender girls who asked too many questions and ignored his keep out signs.
Weird how sexy Georgie was…no make-up…hair everywhere…boyish figure when he usually went for the voluptuous ones…
She beamed at him and Alessandro instantly had to steady himself because it lit up all of her face and knocked him for six.
‘I… I should get to bed now, Alessandro.’ Georgie stood up and, as she did so, he reached out to circle her slim wrist with his hand.
‘Don’t think I don’t appreciate you being here,’ he said with rough sincerity. ‘I do.’
Georgie stared at him, mouth parted. She registered his eyes as they dropped to her mouth and lingered there for a few heart-stopping seconds.
The atmosphere thickened and she drew in a sharp breath as he rose to his feet to tower over her.
‘Well, thank you very much.’ She half laughed but her skin was burning where his fingers touched it. ‘A prison sentence is a surefire way of getting a girl to do what you want…’
‘You were never facing a prison sentence.’
This was a dangerous place. The ground was giving way under her feet and the curiosity she had backed away from had morphed into something darker and more powerful, a mad, incomprehensible hunger to touch that wasn’t like anything she’d ever felt before.
Her eyes widened when he released her but only to stroke her cheek with the back of his hand.
‘Alessandro…’
Just for a few electric seconds, she felt that he was going to kiss her and she wanted that so badly that it was terrifying.
He stepped back abruptly and dropped his hand.
‘Georgie…’ He raked his fingers through his hair and seemed as shocked as she was by what was happening, had just happened. ‘Think it might be time to reclaim the bed.’
‘Yes! You should get some rest! You’ve already been up for way too long! Wouldn’t want to set back the healing process! I’ll get rid of this stuff! Stick it outside the door so that it can be collected in the morning!’ She sounded hysterical.
‘Good idea.’
He remained where he was, looking down at her, and she could feel his eyes boring through her as she began stacking stuff.
Her cheeks were burning and she didn’t glance his way as she began ferrying the dishes from the table to the trolley, which the waiter had wheeled outside.
‘Right!’
Job done, she finally looked at him, making sure to keep some healthy distance between them.
Alessandro tilted his head to one side and debated saying something.
He’d touched her. He’d touched in a way that was clearly sexual and nothing to do with a gesture of thanks for the day she’d spent with his daughter.
He’d brushed her cheek with his hand, which was the least physical thing he could have done and yet it had felt impossibly erotic and very intimate and now she was flustered and could barely look him in the face.
‘Tomorrow,’ was all he could say.
‘Yes! Tomorrow!’
‘Hopefully I’ll be back on my feet.’
‘That would be good!’
‘But should I wake up feeling the way I did this morning…’
‘Understood!’
‘What are you understanding?’
‘That I’ll repeat the routine tomorrow. Flora and I will have our little adventures and then get back here in time for her to fall into bed. That’s fine. I’m enjoying it!’
Somewhere, in the dim recesses where a bit of common sense still held sway, something clicked and he said, perfunctorily, ‘Just so long as you’re not enjoying it too much.’
‘Don’t worry.’ Georgie got the message immediately. ‘I’m not.’
‘Good. And about what just happened between us.’
‘Nothing happened between us.’
‘Actually—’
‘I don’t want to talk about it. Nothing happened.’
‘I touched you in a way that was unacceptable and for that you have my apologies.’
‘Why do you think it was unacceptable?’
It was out.
Georgie was so appalled that she covered her mouth with her hand and her eyes widened as the implications of what she had said settled between them in the thick silence.
‘What I’m saying…’ she continued into the lengthening silence, ‘is that I know the rules so you don’t need to remind me by harping on about what…actually didn’t happen, just then.’
‘Right.’
‘Actually, you have nothing to fear from me. I had a very bad experience with a guy at my last posting at Val d’Isère. Enough to have warned me off a certain type of man.’
‘And I belong in that category?’
She heard outrage in his voice. For the guy who’d hauled himself up the ladder, starting from nothing, the thought of being lumped in a category with other mere mortals was obviously not to his liking.
‘I’m afraid so.’
‘What did the guy do to you?’
‘He didn’t have the sort of moral compass I’m interested in seeing in a guy.’
‘You caught him cheating.’
Georgie shrugged.
‘I can assure you that I have never cheated on any woman in my life before,’ Alessandro said coldly.
‘I don’t know how we got to this point and I’m not saying that you’re anything like Hans. I suppose…’ Honesty drove her to qualify what she had said even though it felt as if the hole she was digging was getting deeper with every passing word.
‘I’m listening.’
‘I could never be tempted by any guy who wasn’t serious when it comes to relationships.’ She thought back to Hans and realised that the most hurtful thing about that kiss under the mistletoe she’d seen was the fact that he’d found it a bit of a laugh.
‘What about fun?’
‘Fun, for me, is serious. Serious fun. Anyway. You should get some sleep. Should I wake you in the morning or will you come out if you’re up to it? Flora would be thrilled if you could make it out.’
‘I’ll see.’
His dark eyes were still on her flushed face but then he lowered them, which was the signal for her to go.
Everything she’d said to him made perfect sense and yet something about the man drew her like a magnet.
Which meant that she had to be careful around him. He made her want to swoon, but swooning was out. Lustful thoughts were out. Encouraging heart-to-hearts also out.
He would be back on his feet in no time at all and she would keep her distance by reminding herself and him why they were there, and it wasn’t about them, it was about his daughter.
Involve him in everything…force him to throw himself into the thick of it and she would be able to take a step back and put things into perspective.
She would keep it light and stick to the brief.
It would do her good, anyway, to see him shorn of all that crazy self-confidence that was so sexy. Great big guys sitting on a mechanical horse on a merry-go-round could never be sexy.
Plus, once he was up and running, she would make sure that he spent every available minute with Flora, which would give her plenty of opportunities to sneak off on her own.
Downtime away from the man would also put things in perspective.
‘Serious fun,’ he murmured with amusement and Georgie made sure to keep her voice polite and her eyes safely focused on the picture hanging on the wall behind him. Amused dark eyes could do a lot to her nervous system, too much. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever come across that concept.’
‘That’s right. Serious fun. Romance. Love. Courtship and a marriage proposal followed by children in very quick succession. After Hans, that’s all that could ever work for me.’
She folded her arms and raised her eyebrows, challenging him to continue the conversation.
She had plenty more descriptions up her sleeve when it came to her perfect guy and she was pretty sure they would all be anathema to the commitment-phobe staring at her with that annoying half-smile still on his face.
‘On that note,’ he said with a grin, utterly unfazed, ‘I’ll go get some beauty sleep.’
And with a brief nod and a mocking little salute, off he disappeared into his bedroom, shutting the door firmly behind him.