An Invitation to Sin(31)

As he caught up with her he took her hand in his.

Her eyes widened. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Playing the part of your devoted lover,’ he drawled softly, ‘only my leading lady appears to have forgotten her lines. If I have to be engaged, then at least let it be to the woman who yesterday had her legs wrapped round me in the maze. Don’t give me this bland, vanilla version.’

She blinked. Frowned slightly. ‘This is who I am.’

‘If I thought that for a moment this engagement would be off. I’d die of boredom before we hit our first anniversary and you’d burst from suppressing all that emotion.’

‘Signor Corretti!’ A man approached them and Luca felt Taylor tug at her hand, trying to free herself.

He tightened his grip and greeted the owner in Italian. ‘I need a table.’

‘Somewhere private?’

Distracted by Taylor’s glossy lips, Luca lost concentration. ‘Of course.’

‘No, not private.’ Taylor flashed her eyes, trying to transmit a message, but he was too busy deciding if those eyes were green or blue to translate the unspoken communication.

‘I don’t want an audience.’

‘But I do.’ She slid her arms around his neck and gave him a feline smile. ‘Don’t you want to show off our love to the world, honey?’

Luca, who had never been called ‘honey’ in his life, remembered belatedly that the purpose of being here was to be seen. ‘You’re an exhibitionist, angelo mia.’

‘Says the man who just parked a red Ferrari in a no-parking zone.’ Laughing, she trailed a purple fingernail across his cheek and he turned his head and caught her finger gently in his teeth.

Clearing his throat subtly, the owner of the restaurant beamed at them. ‘I have a table by the water. So romantic and, on that topic, may I offer our congratulations. We are all delighted by your news.’

Determined to demonstrate that he could play his part as well as her and remembering what she’d said about conjuring up the emotions from deep inside her, Luca tried to imagine how it would feel to be engaged. Deciding that ‘freaked out’ wasn’t going to help his performance, he swiftly ditched that advice and instead thought about the article he’d read. ‘I am happy, excited and can’t bear to be parted from her even for a moment.’

Smiling at an astonished Giovanni, Taylor urged Luca towards a prime table situated at the edge of the water. ‘Your performance was terrible,’ she hissed in an undertone. ‘You should have let me give you acting lessons.’

‘I don’t need acting lessons.’

‘You sounded as if you were reading from an autocue.’

‘An autocue might be a good idea. I’m definitely not fluent in the language of love.’ Luca sat down at the table and ordered champagne.

‘Yes, about that.’ She paused as the waiter fussed around them, waiting until they were on their own to finish her sentence. ‘From now on, I don’t want you to touch me.’

‘Scusi? Are we or are we not supposed to be engaged?’

‘We are, but I’m not into public displays of affection.’ She kept her eyes down, adjusting her cutlery while Luca stared at her in disbelief.

‘I’m Sicilian. We’re an emotional, physical race.’

‘Then hold it in.’ Her eyes lifted to his and he saw something there he didn’t expect to see.

Panic?

For a moment he was baffled by it, then he remembered the way she’d responded to him in the maze. ‘Ah—now I understand. Enjoying sex is on your forbidden list too, and you are finding it hard to resist me, no?’

‘No.’ She answered just a little too quickly and then covered her glass to stop the waiter pouring champagne. ‘Just water, please.’

Luca rolled his eyes and removed her glass, handing it to the waiter. ‘Fill it up. She needs help to relax.’

‘I do not need help to relax. I’m already relaxed.’ He waited for the waiter to leave them alone. ‘I’ve seen steel cables more relaxed than you. You’re such a sexual woman, and you hate that about yourself, don’t you? You’re trying to lock that part of yourself away and pretend to be something you’re not.’

‘I do eat. I drink if I want to, and our relationship is not about sex so that’s irrelevant.’

‘Let’s hope no one was lip-reading when you said that.’ He lowered his voice. ‘Trust me, if we’re engaged, there’s going to be food and champagne and, most of all, sex. Lots of hot, steamy, very dirty sex so if you want this to appear genuine you’d better stop suppressing that side of yourself.’