An Invitation to Sin(17)

He’d left another message on her phone but this time she hadn’t even opened it.

It was a relief to be in Sicily, far from California.

Far from him.

Luca was watching her curiously. ‘So you are afraid to show it. You really need to get over that. Who you choose to kiss in your own time is no one’s business but your own.’

She felt like telling him it wasn’t that simple. That a kiss could be used and used again. ‘I didn’t choose to kiss you. You grabbed me.’

‘I don’t remember you struggling.’ He was maddeningly cool. ‘It takes two people to make a kiss look like that, tesoro.’

‘I never would have started it.’

‘But you finished it.’ His voice was low and threaded through with a sensuality she found off-the-scale disturbing. ‘Don’t be too hard on yourself. It was an understandable slip.’

‘You’re so full of—’

‘Now, now, Miss Carmichael—’ he placed his fingers over her lips ‘—you don’t want to give the press another quote, do you? I’m sure they have a lens trained at this office even as you shriek.’

‘You’re finding this funny. I don’t even know why you did it—why did You do it? Why the hell did you kiss me?’

He gave a careless shrug. ‘You were there.’

‘That’s all it takes for you to kiss a woman? She just has to be there?’

‘Unlike you, I don’t try and deny my true nature.’

‘Nice to know you’re discriminating.’

‘Have you played Katerina?’ One dark eyebrow lifted. ‘Taming of the Shrew? Because you’d be a natural. Do I need to remind you that you kissed me back?’

‘I was stressed out. I hadn’t eaten for two days.’

He smiled. ‘So that was why you were so hungry for me.’

‘Don’t flatter yourself.’

‘Why not? A moment ago you were telling the world you intend to spend the rest of your life with me.’

‘I didn’t know what else to say.’ Taylor paced over to the window of his office, her heels tapping on the floor. ‘I don’t need all the adverse publicity right now. It was a spur of the moment thing. I didn’t even think people would believe me, but they did. Apparently people are captivated by the thought of us together.’

‘Of course they are. I’m the man who has publicly said on numerous occasions that he never intends to settle down and you’re the wild child with a bad attitude. It’s a match made in hell. How can the public not be fascinated? If you’d kept quiet the story would have died by tomorrow. As it is, you’ve ensured it’s kept alive.’

‘Stories don’t die.’ The words tumbled out of her mouth along with years of anxiety and pressure. ‘They never die. Sometimes they lie dormant and that’s even worse because you have no idea when they’re going to explode in your face.’

He stared at her in bemusement. ‘I have no idea what the hell you are talking about.’

Of course he didn’t. And she had no intention of enlightening him. ‘This is all your fault.’

‘You kissed me back.’

‘I wasn’t talking about that, I was talking about the fact that you treated that woman badly and she sold her story to the press! If you were more sensitive, this wouldn’t have happened.’

‘You kissed me back.’ His voice was dangerously soft and suddenly her mouth was dry and her heart was thundering.

‘Or if you’d just paid her—’

‘You kissed me back.’

‘Yes, all right, I kissed you back!’ Her head full of images she didn’t want to see, her voice rose. ‘But I wasn’t thinking at the time.’

‘I know. You were stripped down to the most basic version of yourself. The real you. I like that version much better, by the way.’

‘Well, I don’t,’ Taylor snapped. ‘I’ve left that version behind.’

‘You might want to look in the maze. I’m sure I had my hands on that version yesterday.’

And that version of her wanted to grab him and haul his mouth back against hers. That version wanted to rip at his clothes and explore those parts of his body she hadn’t already explored. That version was burning up with sexual awareness and a need so strong it took her breath away.