point, hadn’t all those scenarios sprung back into instant life the second she had laid eyes on him again? Common sense had wrestled with what she considered her stupid weakness, because he was as out of bounds now as he had ever been, despite the fact that Shaun was no longer on the scene. But common sense was failing to win the battle. She knew she looked at him , wondered...
‘Are you going to tell me that I’m not yours?’ Alessandro asked softly. Two adults, he thought, who wanted each other and this time no hidden obstacle lurking in the way. On top of that, so much for her to get out of it. So where was the problem? He had never had the slightest curiosity to plumb the hidden depths of any woman, yet now he had a sudden, urgent desire to reach into her head and discover what was going on behind that beautiful, enigmatic facade. The thrill of the unexplored was heady and erotic and it took a surprising amount of will power to remain where he was, holding on to silence as a weapon of persuasion.
‘It feels...odd. Just not right.’
‘But you can’t deny that what I’m saying makes sense. If we cut through all the redundant emotion, if we leave bitterness and the past aside, don’t we still fancy the hell out of one another?’
Chase thought of his hands on her body, touching her. She had stayed far away from the opposite sex over the past eight years. Offers had been plentiful, some of them horribly insistent, but there was no way she was going to get involved with any man ever again.
So here she was, nearing thirty, unattached, with barely any social life to speak of. Wasn’t it time for her to re-join the human race? And wouldn’t she be able to do that once, as he had put it, business between them was finally finished? If she were brutally honest with herself, hadn’t Alessandro been as much a reason for where she was now with her life, as Shaun had been? He had had such a dramatic hold on her all those years ago and the way things had ended between them had scarred her to the extent that she had just simply withdrawn.
‘It just feels so...cold and detached. So businesslike.’ She rubbed her lightly perspiring hands along the soft cotton of her jogging pants.
‘You’re looking for flowers and chocolates and courtship?’ His mouth curled into a cynical smile. ‘I believe I fell into that trap once before. I don’t repeat my mistakes twice.’
Chase thought she could detect the rapid beating of her heart as he stared at her broodingly. She felt as though she had one foot raised over the edge of a precipice as she made her mind up as to whether to jump or not. Yet, she knew that that was a fallacy. She was older, wiser and tougher and, if this felt like a business arrangement, then it had to be said that business arrangements came with definite upsides. For starters, she would know all the parameters. She would not be hurt. She would be taking from him just as he would be taking from her and, when they walked away from each other, she would be freed from the strange half-emptiness of regret that had been her companion for the past eight years.
It was a tantalising thought.
As though she had opened a door to a gremlin, she was suddenly released from the constraints of having to fight the attraction that had been gnawing away at her. She imagined... and the images were so vivid that she felt faint.
‘I can’t think of anything I would want less than a courtship,’ she informed him with as much cool detachment as she could muster. Certainly not flowers or chocolate. He had given her those once before. He must have realised, in the aftermath of her dumping him, that those tokens had hit the bin before she had had time to make it back to her flat. Thank goodness she had bluntly refused to accept anything else. At least he would never be able to add ‘gold-digger’to all the other bitter insults he had heaped on her.
Watching her closely, Alessandro knew that he had won. She was going to be
‘Are you going to tell me that I’m not yours?’ Alessandro asked softly. Two adults, he thought, who wanted each other and this time no hidden obstacle lurking in the way. On top of that, so much for her to get out of it. So where was the problem? He had never had the slightest curiosity to plumb the hidden depths of any woman, yet now he had a sudden, urgent desire to reach into her head and discover what was going on behind that beautiful, enigmatic facade. The thrill of the unexplored was heady and erotic and it took a surprising amount of will power to remain where he was, holding on to silence as a weapon of persuasion.
‘It feels...odd. Just not right.’
‘But you can’t deny that what I’m saying makes sense. If we cut through all the redundant emotion, if we leave bitterness and the past aside, don’t we still fancy the hell out of one another?’
Chase thought of his hands on her body, touching her. She had stayed far away from the opposite sex over the past eight years. Offers had been plentiful, some of them horribly insistent, but there was no way she was going to get involved with any man ever again.
So here she was, nearing thirty, unattached, with barely any social life to speak of. Wasn’t it time for her to re-join the human race? And wouldn’t she be able to do that once, as he had put it, business between them was finally finished? If she were brutally honest with herself, hadn’t Alessandro been as much a reason for where she was now with her life, as Shaun had been? He had had such a dramatic hold on her all those years ago and the way things had ended between them had scarred her to the extent that she had just simply withdrawn.
‘It just feels so...cold and detached. So businesslike.’ She rubbed her lightly perspiring hands along the soft cotton of her jogging pants.
‘You’re looking for flowers and chocolates and courtship?’ His mouth curled into a cynical smile. ‘I believe I fell into that trap once before. I don’t repeat my mistakes twice.’
Chase thought she could detect the rapid beating of her heart as he stared at her broodingly. She felt as though she had one foot raised over the edge of a precipice as she made her mind up as to whether to jump or not. Yet, she knew that that was a fallacy. She was older, wiser and tougher and, if this felt like a business arrangement, then it had to be said that business arrangements came with definite upsides. For starters, she would know all the parameters. She would not be hurt. She would be taking from him just as he would be taking from her and, when they walked away from each other, she would be freed from the strange half-emptiness of regret that had been her companion for the past eight years.
It was a tantalising thought.
As though she had opened a door to a gremlin, she was suddenly released from the constraints of having to fight the attraction that had been gnawing away at her. She imagined... and the images were so vivid that she felt faint.
‘I can’t think of anything I would want less than a courtship,’ she informed him with as much cool detachment as she could muster. Certainly not flowers or chocolate. He had given her those once before. He must have realised, in the aftermath of her dumping him, that those tokens had hit the bin before she had had time to make it back to her flat. Thank goodness she had bluntly refused to accept anything else. At least he would never be able to add ‘gold-digger’to all the other bitter insults he had heaped on her.
Watching her closely, Alessandro knew that he had won. She was going to be
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