His own body was too hot, too hard. Too prepared for something that had grown more and more tempting as the kiss went on. Oh, he’d planned on seducing her. He’d told himself their chemistry, as it was, might allow him to enjoy it.
Now, he could admit that he was a little concerned it might end in a mistake. Committed byhim.
Impossible. Unthinkable.
They regarded each other in the short distance they’d created, wary and aroused. A dangerous tightrope. One Luciano realized in a strange way he was as new to as she was. He doubted very much that Serena had ever been buffeted by something as base as physical spontaneous combustion as he had, but he’d never dabbled inunwanteddesire before. He rarely drew lines like that. If a woman was willing, and they usually were, he slaked whatever desires they both had.
To hold back was new, and he didn’t like it. That lust and concern fused with irritation at himself, at their fathers, at the entire damn world for throwing him into a gray area he had never wanted.
“I think that should suffice for tonight,” she said coolly. And he might have believed she was cool inside and out, but her hand shook as she reached up to smooth it over her hair.
He wished she were the ice princess he’d once believed her to be. It would be so much easier to set aside that kiss as a one off. But there was something underneath all her veneer, and he’d gotten another intriguing peek at it.
Damn her.
“Indeed,” he managed to grit out.
“And you will take the window seat tonight,” she said firmly, an order, then marched into the gardens, leaving him behind in the dark.
Hard and aching for a woman he wanted nothing to do with.
CHAPTER NINE
SERENA FOUND THAThaving her own bed back had done nothing to help her sleep, with Luciano stretched out on her window seat. She had tossed and turned and…throbbed and ached for half the night.
She hated to think what she might have done with herself if she’d been alone. The thoughthauntedher, no matter how she tried to set it away. She had not known that pretending could be…
Well, it didn’t matter what it could be. What mattered was how she was going to deal with it. In reality, it was agood thing,part of the plan. He’d kissed her for the cameras, and ideally, she’d fooled him enough that he’d gone to sleep thinking she’d enjoyed it.
You did enjoy it.
And that was the disturbing fact she kept coming back to. She had wanted more. Giving into any kind of seduction last night would not have been part of anyplan.
Not that he’d tried to seduce her. He’d eased away from that kiss, stepped away from her as if he’d…tasted something bad. But for a while, for the majority of that kiss, he had not.
She had nothing to compare it to, but it hadseemedlike he’d had a physical reaction somewhat on par with hers.
An act. Of course it was an act. Everything they did except hate each other was an act. And the act was important. Which was why she slipped out of bed, shrugged on her robe and grabbed her phone. She had an order of business to get over with.
She stepped quietly out of the room and took the door out onto the balcony that overlooked the sea, the colorful buildings crowded along the shoreline. And her, alone and isolated on her castle on the hill.
Just where she wanted to be. What she did not want was to do what must be done, but she could hardly put it off if pictures of last night started to circulate. She took in steadying breaths of air, let it wash through her and fill her with calm.
She would need it.
She dialed her mother’s number, watched the morning sunlight dapple across the water. Part of her hoped her mother wouldn’t answer, and she couldn’t help feeling ashamed of that hope. Even if her mother didn’t deserve her devotion, she was not anevilwoman. Just a self-centered one, who didn’t realize how words could hurt.
“Serena.” The greeting was tinged with disappointment. “Haven’t we discussed how busy I am in the mornings and how little I like to have conversations before lunchtime?”
Serena didn’t sigh. “I apologize, Mother.”
Angelica Valli—she’d kept her ex-husband’s last name despite many romantic partners since because she liked the cache it gave her and the opportunity to discuss what a terrible husband he’d been—sighed heavily.
In her youth, she’d been an actress, and she still missed the stage so played whatever role she could whenever life gave her the opportunity. She liked attention in whatever ways she could get it, and she was very good at getting it.
The one role she’d never played well, from Serena’s point of view, was mother.
But that was neither here nor there.
