He’d been a damn fool.
Things would change and not a minute too soon.
He looked at Georgie, who had spotted them and was smiling, and he felt such a powerful tug of intense attraction that he sucked in a sharp breath.
He watched the way Flora detached from him and skipped over to her, slipping her hand into Georgie’s as though that was its natural default position, turning to look up at her as she laughed and chatted about something or other.
‘Ready for this ride?’ Georgie smiled as soon as he was standing by her. ‘We’ll be in a honeypot. Have you ridden in any of those before? Might not be the same as your private jet. Think you can handle it?’
Alessandro met her eyes.
She was cheerful and friendly when Flora was around, but the minute there wasn’t a six-year-old chaperone, her guard was back in place, keeping him at a distance.
He didn’t want to be kept at a distance any longer.
They had a few days left here and he knew,with complete certainty, that if they walked away from one another without acknowledging this powerful sexual connection between them then he would regret it and so would she.
Whether she was aware of that or not.
He wanted her. He was sick of pretending that there was nothing going on between them when they both knew that there was. He wanted her in a way that felt different from any otherwantinghe’d felt for any woman in his life before.
He held her gaze for a fraction too long and noted the slow tide of pink that coloured her cheeks.
‘I can handle everything,’ he assured her. ‘And that includes honeypots.’
‘Really? But not germs.’ She smirked from under her lashes. ‘Because, and I hate to point this out, I didn’t catch whatever you had.’
Alessandro burst out laughing. He looked at her over Flora’s head.
‘You make me laugh,’ he murmured, leaning into her so that he was whispering into her ear. ‘I like that. You go where no woman has ever gone before.’
Alessandro felt the soft tremor that ran through her and half smiled with satisfaction. He’d wanted zero complications.
Sex equated to complications times a thousand.
But he couldn’t get her out of his head. Being in the same space as her was a constant tug of war between temptation and willpower.
Self-denial had moved quickly fromcompulsorytoopen to debate.
They were both adults. They wanted one another. Things didn’t always have to lead down the aisle. He was sure he could convince her of that because hefelther response to him when he got close to her.
She couldn’t control it. That was called lust, not love, and why shouldn’t she see the wisdom of giving in to it?
Georgie heard those amused, softly spoken words and shivered. She was trying her best but it was agony being in the same space as Alessandro.
She saw the way he sometimes looked at her, as if waiting for her to do the inevitable and succumb, like a cat waiting for a skittering mouse to come to a standstill and admit defeat.
If only she had the right defence mechanisms!
‘Really? I go whereno woman has gone before?’ she said when nothing witty sprang to mind. ‘I’m afraid I don’t believe that.’
She gazed down at Flora’s dark, bobbing head but was keenly aware of her father gazing across ather.
‘Tell me about the guy who broke your heart.’
The question was lobbed at her out of the blue and her eyes opened wide as she looked at him.
He laughed.
