to know. I am the last person a woman like you should get involved with.’
She didn’t even flinch. ‘A woman like me? What does that mean?’
‘You’re a doctor. You do not belong in my world.’
‘I just want one night in your world, that’s all. One night. I don’t care what’s been written about you. I know you would never hurt me.’
‘You think?’ Where had she got this ludicrous faith in him from? He had to eradicate it, make her see enough of the truth to scare her all the way back to the safety of her hospital.
He straightened to his full height, an act capable of intimidating even the hardest of men. He breached the inches between them to reach into her thick mane of hair and tug the rabbit ears free. They were connected by some kind of plastic horseshoe that he dropped onto the floor and placed a foot on. He pressed down until he heard the telltale crunch.
She stared at him with that same serene look in her hazel eyes.
‘Tell me,’ he said, gently twisting her around so her back was flush against him, ‘how, exactly, do you want me to take your virginity?’
He heard an intake of breath.
Good. He’d unnerved her.
Gathering her hair together, he inhaled the sweet scent of her shampoo. Her hair felt surprisingly soft. ‘Do you want me to take you here and now?’
He trailed a finger down her exposed slender neck, over the same collarbone that had been broken less than two months before, and down her toned arm before reaching round to cup a breast flattened by the leotard she wore.
‘Or do you want me to take you on a bed?’ He traced his thumb over a nipple that shot out beneath his touch.
‘I...’ Her voice came out like a whimper. ‘I...’
‘You must have some idea of how you would like me to perform the deed,’ he murmured, breathing into her ear and nuzzling his nose into a cheek as soft as the finest silk. ‘Is foreplay a requirement? Or do you just want to get it over with?’
‘I...I know what you’re doing.’
‘All I’m doing is ascertaining how, exactly, you would like me to relieve you of your virginity. I can do it now if you would like.’ He pressed his groin into the small of her back so as to leave her in no doubt how ready he was. ‘Right here, over the desk? Up against the wall? On the floor?’
Much as he hated himself for it, his body was responding to her in the basest of fashions.
He would control it, just as he controlled everything else.
He would not give in to temptation.
He would make the good doctor see just how wrong she was about him.
Hannah Chapman was one of the few people in the world who made a difference.
He would not be the one to taint her, no matter how much he desired her or how much she wanted it.
He was better than that. He was better than the man who had created him, who would, no doubt, have already relieved Hannah of her virginity if he’d been in Francesco’s shoes.
He would not be that man. And if he had to come on heavy to make her run away, then that was what he would do. Reasoning clearly didn’t work with her.
‘You’re trying to scare me off.’
Francesco stilled at her astuteness.
Although her breaths were heavy, he could feel her defiance through the rigidity of her bones.
It was with far too much reluctance that he released his hold and turned her back round to face him.
Hannah’s hair tumbled back around her shoulders. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes wide. Yet there was no fear. Apprehension, yes, but no fear.
‘You are playing with fire, Dr Chapman.’
She gave a wry smile. ‘I’m trained to treat burns.’
‘Not the kind you will get from me. You’ll have to find another man to do the job. I’m not for hire.’
His mind flashed to the man who’d been groping Hannah earlier—who, he imagined, would be more than happy to accede to her request. He banished the image. Who she chose was none of his concern.
All the same, the thought of that man pawing at her again sent a sharp, hot flush racing through him. She was too...pure.
A shrewdness came into her eyes, although how such a look could also be gentle totally beat him.
She tilted her head to the side. ‘Do I scare you?’
‘On the contrary. It is you who should be afraid of me.’
‘But I’m not scared of you. I don’t care about your reputation. I’m not after a relationship or anything like that—the only thing being with you makes me feel is good. After everything you’ve done for me, how can I not trust that?’
He shook his head.
This was madness.
He should call his guards and have her escorted out of his club. But he wouldn’t.
Francesco had heard stories about people who saved lives being bound to the person they’d saved, and vice versa. And while he hadn’t saved her in a technical sense, it was the only explanation he could think of for the strange chemistry that brewed between them. Total strangers yet inexplicably linked.
Something had passed between them, connecting them.
It was his duty to sever that link. His duty. Not his guards’.
He would make her see.
‘You think I’m worthy of your trust?’ Unthinkingly, he reached out a hand and captured a lock of her hair.
‘I know you are.’ Reclosing the gap between them, she tilted her head back a little and placed a hand on his cheek. ‘Don’t you see? A lesser man wouldn’t try to scare me off—he would have taken what I offered without a second thought.’
His skin tingled beneath the warmth of her fingers. He wanted to clasp those fingers, interlace his own through them....
‘I’m not cut out for any form of relationship—my career matters too much for me to compromise it—but I want to feel.’ She brought her face closer so her nose skimmed against his throat, her breath a whisper against his sensitised skin. ‘I want one night where I can throw caution to the wind. I want to know what it’s like to be made love to and I want it to be you because you’re the only man I’ve met who makes me feel alive without even touching me.’
Francesco could hardly breathe. His fingers still held the lock of her hair. The desire that had been swirling in his blood since he’d nuzzled into her neck thickened.
When had he ever felt as if
