‘Would you like something to drink?’
‘No,grazie.’
Erin shrugged, the careless gesture so foreign on her body, he clenched his jaw. Something was wrong.
She poured herself a glass of wine and held it in loose fingers as she turned a considering gaze on him, her head cocked to one side, the smile off somehow.
‘I think I’m ready,’ she said, taking a mouthful of her drink.
‘Ready?’
‘Yes. Ready to have sex with you.’
The cough of shock lodged in his throat, before it escaped in a punch of breath from his lungs.
‘What?’
She put the drink on the bar and closed the distance between them, looping her arms around his neck and pressing against his chest and torso. Brain short-circuited by the sudden and shocking feel of her, his hands automatically went to her hips, anchoring her to him or away from him, he wasn’t quite sure.
‘Let’s have sex.’
Madonna mia, why did she keep saying that? And saying itlikethat?
This was as far from the Erin of earlier that afternoon as she could have possibly got.
‘Erin—’
She pressed a kiss to his lips, teasing his mouth open with the seduction of her tongue. His body reacted on instinct rather than desire, making a mockery of what Erin wanted. The kiss waged a war between desire and disinclination, Erin only breaking the kiss when he refused to let it spin out of control.
The moue of dissatisfaction on her lips was almost cruel.
‘What’s wrong? Didn’t I do it right?’
Something fisted his gut and the warning he’d ignored until that very moment screamed so loud in his ears, he flinched.
‘What is this, Erin? What’s going on?’
He looked at her, staring intently into her glittering eyes. Was it alcohol that made them shine so bright? No, he realised with a shock. It wastears.
‘Dio, Erin, what the hell is going on?’
‘Surely I’m only giving you what you want, Enzo,’ she said as if she were offering him pocket money.
‘I don’t...
‘What? Don’t you want me?’ she asked, her voice quivering.
‘Of course I want you. But not like this,’ he stressed.
‘Really? Howwouldyou want me, then?Broken?’
‘Broken?’ he asked, revolted by the thought. ‘What the—’
‘Humiliated?’ she asked. ‘Left withnothing?’
His words echoed on her lips sent a shiver of sheer horror down his spine.
‘At the top of the aisle. In front of the media and your friends.’
