in love…’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Relationships aren’t all about falling in love,’ she asserted, glancing away.
‘That’s not what you’ve always maintained,’ Candice told her drily. She paused and delivered a searching look to her sister. ‘I don’t want you to get hurt,’ she said quietly. ‘And I’m very much afraid that you will. I just don’t think you’re tough enough to handle a guy like Matteo.’
Into the brief silence came the last voice either of them expected to hear.
‘Maybe that’s what I find so charming about your sister.’
They both looked up to see that Matteo had silently pushed open the kitchen door and was now lounging in the doorframe.
How long had he been there?
Rosie tried to remember if she had said anything incriminating and was certain that she hadn’t.
He’d showered and changed into a pair of faded jeans and an old tee shirt and he looked drop-dead gorgeous—easy, relaxed, wildly sophisticated and with that edge of danger about him that made her whole body go on full alert.
‘Maybe,’ Matteo continued, ‘It’s a breath of fresh air to be with a woman who isn’t as tough as nails and doesn’t want to spend every minute of her time discussing the state of the world and how it should be fixed.’ He strolled towards Rosie and then remained standing behind her, his hands on her shoulders, lightly caressing her neck and feathering shivers of pleasure through her body.
He leant to brush his lips on the nape of her neck and she nearly passed out.
She had never seen Candice out of her depth but Matteo unsettled her, Rosie thought. It was his self-assurance, his bone-deep confidence that his opinions carried weight. He didn’t allow anyone to take advantage of him and, before they thought that they could try, he made sure to establish the lines of command.
‘And what makes you think that your sister will be the one to be hurt?’ he enquired coolly.
‘Exactly.’ Rosie finally entered the conversation but her usual spirited response was seriously compromised by the continuing, caressing motion of his fingers on her neck. ‘Candice, please don’t worry about me.’
‘I intend to take very good care of your sister.’ Matteo’s voice was still cool.
‘Really?’ Candice’s eyebrows shot up. ‘I mean, I hope so. We all do.’
‘Why would I say it if I didn’t mean it?’
‘But,’ Rosie interjected, ‘It’s only been a couple of weeks so…we’re taking each day as it comes.’
‘And you were always the impulsive one, Rosie,’ Candice teased. ‘Is love changing you already?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ Rosie spluttered. How much deeper could the hole she had dug for herself go?
‘I know it’s not wedding bells yet!’ Candice laughed and stood up, her movements graceful as she strode towards the door. ‘But please don’t forget to give me ample warning so that I can start planning my outfit!’
Rosie managed to stammer out something, grateful that Matteo seemed to be taking it all in his stride, and it was only when the kitchen door was shut and her sister well and truly gone that Rosie looked at him with alarm.
‘You should never have encouraged my sister to think that there was more to this than there is!’ was the first thing she said, leaping to her feet, irritated at Matteo’s composure as he helped himself to a bottle of water from the fridge.
‘We should head up,’ was all he said.
‘Why on earth did you come down here, anyway? I thought you said that you had a mountain of emails to get through!’
‘The prospect of working suddenly didn’t seem quite so enticing.’ He circled her and stared down at her for a few seconds until she reluctantly lifted her eyes to his.
‘I was trying to ease the way to us breaking up,’ she confessed. ‘Until you came along and demolished all my efforts. Why couldn’t you have just taken the lead from me and backed me up when I started insinuating that this was probably just a fling?’
Matteo shrugged. ‘Maybe I’m so arrogant that the thought of being written off as a fling dented my ego.’
‘I don’t believe you,’ Rosie muttered.
‘Maybe…’ he murmured.
Rosie didn’t know what was going through his head, but his expression wasn’t the expression of an arrogant alpha male with a sore ego.
‘Just maybe it got on my nerves hearing your sister assume that a man like me could never look twice at someone like you.’
‘I’m not asking for your pity.’
‘If you don’t assert yourself, you’ll be walked over.’
‘Thank you very much for the words of advice.’
‘You’ve stood up to your sister once. You can do it again. Try it a few times and you might find that it becomes a way of life.’
‘You don’t like me prying into your private life, Matteo, and I don’t like you thinking that you can analyse me.’
‘But you’ve set a precedent. Don’t get me wrong,’ he grated. ‘Your life is none of my business but it affronts something in me when I hear you being treated like a kid who needs other people to look after her. You’re not a kid.’
‘I know that,’ Rosie muttered grudgingly. She sneaked a glance at him from under her lashes. ‘I did actually stick up for you when she told me that it was strange for you to be working when you should be desperate to spend time in my company.’
‘Did you, now?’
Rosie could see the speculation in his eyes at that admission. ‘I thought it might be a good idea to let her know that work came first with you.’
Matteo burst out laughing, his grey eyes darkening with appreciation. ‘More of those foundations being laid down.’
‘It might have been if you had got on board with me instead of branching out and doing your own thing.’
Matteo shrugged, the smile lingering on his lips, and began heading towards the door. ‘I’m hitting the sack. Coming?’
‘I’ll… I think I’ll stay down here and finish tidying the kitchen,’ Rosie told him. For a while she’d forgotten the prospect ahead of sharing her bedroom with him but it was all coming back to her now at great speed. On the spot she decided that she would stay out of harm’s way in the kitchen, at least long enough for him to fall asleep so that when she finally joined him he would be dead to the world.
She couldn’t picture him being dead to the world, though. In fact, she couldn’t imagine him sleeping. More lying still with his
