overstepping the mark in giving an opinion.
‘In an ideal world—’ Stefano thought that this might be the perfect opportunity to get a few things straight ‘—Flora would have a delightful and adoring mummy, but it isn’t an ideal world. A delightful and adoring mummy would necessitate me having a wife and that’s a country I’ve visited once and have no intention of returning to.’ He drained his glass, stood up, strolled towards the wide windows that overlooked the extensive back lawns before turning to face her. ‘I’ve been married once,’ he said flatly, ‘and it was an unmitigated disaster. That’s something I need not tell you, but it might explain why there is no Katherine on the face of the earth who could entice me back into thinking that marriage is anything but a train wreck waiting to happen.’
‘That’s very cynical.’
‘You think? I’m surprised we don’t share the same sentiment.’
‘You mean because of...my background?’
‘Yes.’ Stefano was curious enough to prolong the conversation. ‘Surely you can’t tell me that you believe in fairy stories and happy endings when your mother was, from all accounts, a failed and unhappy woman and your father...was a bloke who did a runner before you were born and never looked back...?’
Sunny flushed. He wasn’t pulling any punches, was he? But there was nothing disdainful or pitying about his remarks. He was saying it like it was and, weirdly, she didn’t seem to mind that.
‘I’ve never thought about it one way or the other.’ She felt the nervous beat of the pulse at the base of her neck. His eyes resting lazily on her seemed like the whisper of a promise of things to come and every nerve in her body was on full alert, throbbing with barely contained excitement.
‘Are you asking me that because you want to warn me not to get involved with you?’
Stefano shot her a curling smile because there was unspoken acquiescence in that question, although he was certain that she barely realised that herself.
‘I’m not looking for involvement with anyone,’ Sunny dismissed. She glanced jumpily at him and licked her lips, which were dry and tingly. ‘And maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m not really interested and haven’t actually thought about it because of my background.’ She gave him a sad, twisted smile. ‘Maybe it’s because I don’t exactly have the right role models to fall back on. How could I believe in fairy tales and happy endings when I never knew what that sort of thing was like in the first place? Maybe you just can’t crave what you’ve never had or experienced.’ She wasn’t sure whether she really believed that or not. She knew that when she’d thought she’d found her soulmate she had desperately wanted the happy-ever-after ending except the soulmate hadn’t quite worked out as planned.
Since then, had she toughened up? Turned into the sort of cynical career woman who had no time for love and romance?
She’d thought she’d given up on having the sort of capacity for a physical response that was necessary for any sort of relationship, but she was wrong, wasn’t she? Turned out she did have the capacity for a physical response...
So was she kidding herself that she never thought about the future and what it might hold for her with a guy? Should the right guy come along one day?
If Stefano was warning her off getting ideas about him, as if that would ever happen in a million years, then to tell him that, for all the chaos and heartache of her background, she still believed in the enduring power of love would be a mistake.
He’d get cold feet and run a mile and—why kid herself?— she didn’t want that.
‘You don’t have to warn me off,’ she said huskily, daring to step into the unknown and feeling a shiver of molten excitement, ‘because, like I said, the last thing I would want would be involvement...’ She laughed, heady with the sensation that she was no longer talking to the formidable, feared and respected Stefano Gunn, the man who could make heads of finance quake in their shoes, whose ability to close deals and predict the stock market swings was legendary, who could command immediate attention with the snap of his fingers...
She was talking to a man who fancied her and right now she was no longer the junior in a law firm in the presence of the toughest guy in the concrete jungle. They were both adults working their way towards sleeping with one another.
It was...thrilling. It made her realise how predictable her life was. She had spent so long making sure to impose order and control, so that she would never have a runaway future, that somehow the present had become lost in the process, as had fun.
‘And especially involvement with a guy like you,’ she completed with utter honesty.
Stefano, relieved as he was to know that they were both singing from the same song sheet, was a little irked by the speed with which she had established her distance and he was particularly irked by her statement that there was no way she could become involved with someone like him.
Of course he could understand it. If she happened to be someone on the lookout for a committed relationship. But she wasn’t and he believed her. Experiences shaped people and hers had been frightful.
‘Because I would be unable to return whatever involvement you wanted?’
Sunny laughed and then looked at him with narrowed, amused, speculative eyes. ‘You’re really arrogant, aren’t you...?’
Stefano frowned, taken aback by her blunt criticism. It was rare for him to meet a woman who wasn’t either intimidated by him or else desperate to impress him. With the exception of his mother.
‘I don’t mean to be offensive,’ Sunny hurriedly expanded, ‘but there’s no way I could ever get involved with someone as rich and powerful and driven as you...’
‘Since when are money and ambition turn-offs?’ he asked incredulously.
‘When I was thirteen,’ she mused, looking back into the past, ‘I got a scholarship to go to one of the top boarding schools in the country. I met lots of girls there who...came from gilded circles, probably just like you. They talked very loudly in cut-glass accents and laughed a lot and flirted like mad with all the boys. What they would have wanted to end up with would have been someone rich and powerful and driven. If I ever find my soulmate, he probably won’t have much money and he’ll be kind and thoughtful and measured...’ And he’ll have to be able to do what you’re doing now...he’ll have to be able to fire me up until I feel like I can’t breathe for the excitement...
‘Forgive me while I stifle a yawn.’
Sunny wanted to be angry at the casual way he had dismissed her heartfelt dreams but when she caught those dark, amused eyes she felt her lips twitch.
‘Thoughtful and kind can be very sexy traits.’ She lowered her eyes, while the heat of their mutual chemistry sizzled around them.
‘Maybe,’ Stefano murmured. ‘But in the meanwhile...’ He tugged her to her feet and she bumped against his hard, muscular body.
She knew this was what it must feel like when swooning women said that they went up in flames.
Her whole body was burning, on fire. Her nipples, scraping against her bra, felt insanely sensitive and the dampness between her legs was hot and slick, making her want to reach beneath her underwear so that she could rub herself out of her wet discomfort.
