and take cover until this crazy love had blown over—except she knew that it never would.
She might no longer be able to keep her heart intact, but she felt she could try and keep her dignity intact—and to do so she would have to guard her expression and never allow him to see just how much he had finally ended up getting to her.
She wondered if this was the fate that had befallen all those women he had dated in the past. Having heard him give them his warning speech about not getting involved, had they, like her, found themselves being sucked into something that was bigger than them?
Had that been the fate of the striking blonde who had confronted him in that restaurant?
Alexa could only hope that, however hard she had fallen for him, she wouldn’t be one of those women who kept trying to grab his attention whenever they happened to bump into him—who let him think that what he had once taken from them was still on offer should he decide to pay them another visit.
She had seen the way he had looked at that blonde, with veiled contempt in his eyes—the same contempt that had been in his voice when he had talked about her.
There was no way Alexa would allow herself to become someone like that.
‘I think we should do some sightseeing,’ she said lightly. ‘I’ll just grab a shower and then we can think about heading out...maybe have breakfast at one of those bagel places by the hotel... Or we could go to Central Park... There’s still so much to see... The earlier we leave, the better, don’t you think?’
Theo inclined his head to one side, his antennae picking up invisible signals and trying to decipher them. ‘Don’t rush,’ he told her with a little shrug, ‘I’ll have to wrap up these documents. It’ll take at least half an hour...’
Alexa took longer than that, and emerged fully dressed an hour later. Theo, likewise, was in a pair of black jeans and a cream polo shirt that did amazing things for his athletic, muscular body.
She licked her lips and tried not to stare. Staring had been permissible when it had been about lust. Now that it was about love, staring was a weakness she could not afford.
Her heart was still beating fast and she frantically wondered how she could carry on sounding normal when everything inside her felt so abnormal.
She need not have worried. Theo’s charm and the breadth of his knowledge proved irresistible.
She had, of course, travelled—but not nearly as extensively as he had, and he didn’t allow her to be introspective as they had breakfast in a noisy bagel café before jumping on the subway—something she had to persuade him into doing—so that they could explore Williamsburg.
At one point he grabbed her hand and continued holding it. She knew that it was just one of those throwaway gestures of his, but also knew that would be one more thing she would store in her memory bank, to be extracted for examination at a later date.
She couldn’t resist.
And she couldn’t resist when he pulled her towards him and casually dropped a kiss on her parted lips.
She couldn’t resist the way he took it for granted that her body belonged to him. Every passing touch was like the heavy brand of possession, but if he’d known the effect he had on her he would have been quailing at the thought of their year-long pretend union.
She hoped she’d kept everything on a light level, and by the time they’d headed back to the hotel and begun packing for their trip back to Italy she even managed to ask the question that had been uppermost in her mind for the past few hours.
‘Should we discuss how we...er...move forward now...?’
About to fling the last of his clothing into his suitcase, Theo paused and stared at her. Something was off, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
‘Come again?’
‘Well, the week is up,’ Alexa pointed out nervously. ‘And I know that was the time limit we both agreed for us to...er...get this thing between us out of our system...’
‘I don’t recall agreeing to any such thing,’ Theo pointed out.
She had come to him a virgin and yet now it seemed that she was keen to draw her experiences with him to a close. He clenched his jaw as it was brought home to him how little they had in common, aside from the obvious bond of their similar backgrounds, and how much, fundamentally, she still disapproved of him. He had the feeling that he’d been used, and it wasn’t a feeling that he liked.
His cell phone buzzed and a text message popped up, saying that their limo had arrived to take them to the airport.
She had certainly started a tricky conversation at the right point in time, he thought drily. Did she think that he would be too embarrassed to continue in the back of a taxi?
‘Taxi’s here,’ he said curtly.
He phoned through to Reception to ask for their bags to be taken down to the limo and then waited until they were inside the spacious car before he picked up their conversation.
‘Well...I know we didn’t exactly set a time and a date,’ Alexa said, when he lazily asked her to finish what she had started saying. ‘I mean, I do understand that it’s hard...impossible...’
‘To set a time and a date when it comes to lust?’ he interrupted smoothly. ‘You’re right. It is.’
‘But,’ she persisted valiantly, ‘I do think we need some kind of clarification here...’
‘Why?’
They did. He knew that. However, for some reason he had a perverse desire to dig his heels in. He wasn’t ready to give up what they had, and there was nothing worse than unfinished business, as far as he was concerned.
True, when it came to women that was pure conjecture, but he couldn’t see the point of self-denial and that was precisely the road she was trying to head down right now.
‘Because this marriage of ours isn’t going to be real,’ Alexa mumbled. ‘And if it’s a business arrangement—’
‘You can try.’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘You can try to fight this thing between us, but you won’t be getting any help from me.’
‘What—what do you mean?’ Alexa stammered.
‘I mean that I’m not ready for this to end yet. And don’t forget—we may have had a little respite from the cameras but we’re heading back into the lions’ den, and with our engagement those pesky reporters are going to be snapping away to capture the happy couple. I just want you to know that when I kiss you it won’t be for the cameras...’
‘I’d forgotten about them,’ Alexa said in dismay.
He grinned wolfishly at her. ‘Don’t worry. It’ll soon come flooding back...’
‘So in other words,’ Alexa said tightly, ‘you want this to carry on until you get tired of it?’
‘In
