rods through the atmosphere.
‘Perhaps that would be best,’ Luciano riposted very drily.
Her face flamed and she roamed restively over to the tall windows that overlooked flower beds surrounded by low box hedges and an ancient mossy fountain. ‘I came down to speak to you about the new clothes you bought for me.’ In emphasis she lifted a foot to show off the shoe she wore and very nearly fell over. All dignity abandoned, she grabbed at the back of an armchair to stay upright and hastily put that foot back on the floor. ‘Er...these shoes are gorgeous... In fact it’s all gorgeous, but with the possible exception of these shoes I can’t possibly accept an entire wardrobe.’
‘Why not?’ Luciano shot back at her, startling her with that blunt comeback. ‘And turn round and face me when you’re speaking to me.’
With great reluctance and carefully slow movements, Jemima turned and straight away registered why she preferred talking to him without looking at him. Face on he was too much of a distraction. She lowered her lashes, blocking him out to some extent, her soft mouth unusually taut with nerves. ‘Well, I’m very grateful for your generosity but I don’t believe in accepting expensive gifts from people—’
‘I’m not people!’ Luciano cut in with ruthless bite. ‘And I would hazard a guess that you have often accepted such gifts from men—’
‘Yes...er...but that doesn’t mean it was right. Having done it before, I don’t have to keep on doing it,’ Jemima pointed out, gathering steam in her argument. ‘Maybe I think it’s time for me to change my ways?’
‘Maybe there are two blue moons in the sky,’ Luciano incised with ringing derision.
‘Being with Nicky has changed me,’ Jemima argued, setting off on another tack. ‘It’s made me appreciate what’s really important in life.’
‘Within hours of his birth you had already decided what was really important to you...more money,’ Luciano reminded her cruelly.
Jemima lifted her chin. ‘But that doesn’t mean I can’t develop a different outlook. And I have changed. If you must know, I’m trying to turn over a new leaf.’
His dark eyes glittering like polished jet, Luciano vented a laugh of unholy amusement. ‘I assume that’s your idea of a joke...’
‘No, it’s not actually,’ Jemima told him tightly, thinking sadly of the number of times her late twin had spoken of that same ambition to her. ‘Everybody has to start somewhere when they make changes. I mean, why would you give me all those clothes anyway, for goodness’ sake?’
‘You’re not that naïve.’
Her colour heightened. ‘So, obviously it was a gift made with certain expectations, and if I’m not prepared to meet those expectations, I can’t possibly accept it.’
‘Of course you’re prepared to meet my expectations.’ Luciano surveyed her with galling assurance, smouldering dark golden eyes roaming over her with a potent sexuality that made her tremble. Her nipples prickled below her clothing and a tiny burst of heat ignited in her pelvis, starting up a nagging throb of awareness.
‘I’m only here for a few weeks of summer for your son’s benefit,’ Jemima reminded him stubbornly. ‘His benefit, not yours.’
Luciano said a rude word in English that made her flinch.
‘I’m trying to be reasonable and honest here to avoid misunderstandings,’ she told him in growing frustration.
Luciano stalked closer, silent and graceful as a night-time predator, and said an even ruder word in dismissal of that statement. What did such a woman know about honesty? What had she ever known?
He was so close now that Jemima could have reached out and touched him. Her heart was thudding out a staccato beat of apprehension and her breathing had ruptured into winded audible snatches.
She stiffened her spine and tilted her head to one side. ‘I don’t like your language.’
‘I don’t like what you’re saying. I get very irritated when those around me talk nonsense or tell lies,’ Luciano told her grittily, his Italian accent liquefying every vowel sound. ‘You’re trying to say that you don’t want me and that is a huge lie!’
Her pale blue eyes widened. ‘Are you always this sure of your own attraction?’
Long brown fingers lifted her braid from her shoulder and detached the tie on the end. He began to unlace the long golden strands. ‘I want to see your hair loose...’
A new leaf, he was ruminating in disbelief. Could she really believe that he would be impressed by such drivel? How could she look at him with those luminous ice-blue eyes that seemed so candid and continue to lie and lie to his face? She was a completely shameless and stupid liar. Anger, bitter and jagged as a knife edge, cut through Luciano, burning and scarring wherever it touched. He was all too familiar with the cunning cleverness of female lies.
‘This is getting too...too intense,’ Jemima muttered uncertainly.
Luciano wound long fingers into the golden mane of her hair to tug her closer. ‘You shouldn’t lie to me. If you knew how angry it makes me, you wouldn’t do it.’
Her nostrils flared on the scent of him that close. Some expensive lemony cologne overlaid with clean, husky male and a faint hint of alcohol was assailing her and her tummy performed a nervous somersault. ‘I’m going back home in just a few weeks,’ she reminded him shakily. ‘I’m only here for Nicky.’
‘Liar...my son was not your primary motivation,’ Luciano derided in a raw undertone, thoroughly fed up with her foolish pretences. ‘You came here to be with me. Of course you did.’
Her brows pleated in dismay. ‘Luciano...you’re not listening to me—’
‘Why would I listen when you’re talking nonsense?’ he demanded with sudden harshness.
Jemima looked up at him, scanning the dark golden eyes that inexplicably turned her insides to mush and made her knees boneless. As he lowered his head her breath caught in her throat and her pupils dilated. Without warning his arms went round her, possessive hands delving down her spine to splay across the ripe swell of her hips and haul her close. His mouth crashed down on hers with hungry force and in the space of a heartbeat she travelled from consternation to satisfaction. That kiss was what she really wanted, what her body mysteriously craved.
He kissed her and the world swam out of focus and her brain shut down and suppressed all the anxious thoughts that had been tormenting her. It was simultaneously everything she most wanted and everything she most feared. To be shot from ordinary planet earth into the dazzling orbit of passion and need by a single kiss was what she had always dreamt of finding in a man’s arms, but Luciano was by no stretch of the imagination the male she had pictured in such a role. After all, Luciano wasn’t for real. She might be inexperienced but she wasn’t stupid and she knew that sex would only be a game with him and that he would only play with her without any intention of offering anything worthwhile. A woman needed a tough heart to play such games as an equal and she knew she wasn’t up to that challenge.
‘You want me,’ Luciano grated against her red swollen mouth, his breath warming her cheek and bringing the faint scent of alcohol to her awareness.
Jemima
