to her lips, a touch which caused a hitch in her breath as her senses sizzled into high alert again. ‘Which means I find myself without a dinner companion tonight.’ He gave a very stiff bow. ‘Would you do me the honour?’
It was surreal. Whatever had transpired between them before, he was now a Mediterranean prince, bowing to a complete nobody and asking her to dine with him.
Unless he was merely desperate …
‘So Lady Genevieve turned you down and you expect me to pick up the pieces?’
Rafe’s hand slammed against the wall alongside her head, before he spun and strode away, his hands on his hips. And when he turned, it was a flash of fury she saw in his eyes.
‘This is nothing to do with Genevieve or anyone else. This is between you and me.’
‘Why?’ she asked, all too aware of the breathlessness that accompanied her question. ‘Why me?’
He moved closer, stopping only inches away before he raised a hand to her face and traced the curve of her jaw. ‘Because the moment I saw you emerge from that helicopter, I knew I wanted you again.’
She gasped, heat rushing through her on a tide. His brazen admission shocked her to her core, but already she felt the answering call of her body to his words in the tightening fullness of her breasts and the aching need between her thighs, and she knew without a shadow of a doubt that if she didn’t get out of here soon, she would once again fall victim to the sensual spell he cast around her.
‘Th-that’s too bad,’ she stammered. ‘I have to go.’
‘But that’s impossible,’ he told her, still in that mellifluous ribbon of a voice, a ribbon that seemed to be drawing ever tighter around her. ‘Because you see—’ he gestured out the window to where a catamaran could be seen rounding the headland and speeding away from the island ‘—that’s the last vessel to sail to Genoa today. And you’ve just missed it.’
His words blasted through the sensual fog more effectively than a dousing with a bucket of iced water. She watched the catamaran power into the distance, leaving behind twin trails of foaming water, feeling herself just as churned. ‘There has to be another way off! An airport. A private charter—’
‘Sadly, not today. And as you can see, we have no helicopter—’
‘That’s crazy. It’s barely six o’clock in the afternoon. There must be something—’
‘As I said, not today. Tonight there will be no moon, and Velattians are superstitious; nobody will risk travelling while the Beast of Iseo patrols.’
‘What the hell are you talking about?’
‘The Beast of Iseo. Surely you’ve heard of it.’ He pointed again out the window to where the massive jagged blade of rock thrust from the sea into the sky some kilometres from the island. ‘Iseo’s Pyramid, the remnants of the caldera of an ancient volcano, is its home. According to the ancient legend, The Beast of Iseo emerges on the blackest of nights, foraging for wayward travellers. It’s a charming legend, full of local colour, don’t you think? Although it does mean you will be forced to spend the night here.’
The full impact of what he was saying hit home like a sucker punch. She was trapped here for the night. With him.
‘I’m not staying here with you. I can’t. My employer will be waiting for me. I’ll lose my job …’
‘Your employer has been made aware of the situation and the fact you will be staying. Besides, you have no choice; there is no way of getting you off the island, even if I could help you.’
‘But it makes no sense. It’s just a legend. And yet you cease all transport to and from the Island because of it?’
‘You’re not superstitious, Sienna? You don’t believe in the Beast?’
‘Oh, I believe in the Beast of Iseo. Right now I’m looking at him.’
He laughed in a way that made it plain he was enjoying his role as captor all too much, and that got so far under her skin that there was no coming out. ‘You bastard. You planned all this, didn’t you? You kept me here, waiting for hours, knowing I’d be trapped and that I’d have no choice but to stay on the island.’
He shrugged, looking far too smug for her liking. ‘I fear you misjudge me. It was hardly my intention at all, merely an unfortunate result of Lady Genevieve’s stage mother’s inability to accept no for an answer. But maybe her recalcitrance was more fortunate than I gave it credit for.’
He gave another bow, this one a mere shadow of the one he’d given before. ‘Now that you have no choice, you might as well accompany me to dinner.’
Sienna shook her head, knowing that way could only result in misery for her, knowing she had to be strong for her pride’s, if not her sanity’s, sake. ‘No, thanks. Not a chance. I’ll find a hotel somewhere. I’ll stay overnight on the island if I have to, but I will not join you for dinner. Not after everything you’ve done today.’
One eyebrow raised, he turned a quizzical gaze at her. ‘All I’ve done is to want to spend more time with you.’
‘Without asking me? By risking my job? No, thanks. I don’t need that kind of intervention. I’ll stay at a hotel and leave tomorrow.’
‘You have money for this hotel? And for the fare you will surely need? Montvelatte might only be a small island country, but we are not so naïve as to extend credit to anyone who so asks.’ His eyes scanned her fitted uniform with the efficiency of an X-ray machine, making her skin prickle under the heavy-duty drill. ‘Your outfit is very practical for flying, but I do not see where you might have secreted away so much as a credit card.’
She burned with humiliation, wishing away her body’s inevitable reaction to his interest, remembering how once before in just one night that interest had succeeded in turning her from an under-experienced woman into a wanton.
‘If you were any kind of gentleman, you’d pick up the expense of my departure, given you’ve disposed of my means of transport behind my back and without my permission.’
‘If I were any kind of gentleman, you would not have found me half as satisfactory in bed …’
His eyes claimed victory; his mouth celebrated it in a smile.
Sienna spun away, her teeth biting into her lower lip as she battled to find a way out of this mess. Of course he wasn’t going to offer her the fare out of here. And, of course, she didn’t have a purse. All she had on her was her ID, a locker key and a few euros in change. But her purse and credit cards were locked away for safe keeping back at the base, the base she should have returned to hours ago.
Damn him!
‘In which case,’ he continued, obviously taking her silence as confirmation, ‘and seeing I have caused you such distress, I feel it is my duty to offer you accommodation here, in the Palace of Montvelatte. You will find the palace very comfortable, despite its great age.’
She glared up at him, knowing she was beaten but not prepared to show it in her face.
‘And I will leave the island tomorrow on the first
