‘And we were just starting to get back on an even keel. Why did you have to spoil it?’ she demanded with a tense laugh. ‘Except, of course, I know you’re teasing.’
‘Who said I’m teasing?’
‘You are. You have to be. Unless you’ve gone completely crazy.’
‘Portofino tomorrow,’ he stated evenly. ‘There’s a fiesta. That should lighten things up.’
Samia’s tolerant sigh said it would take a lot more than a party to persuade her that his suggestion was anything more than a joke.
CHAPTER NINE
‘THEFIESTAWILLbe hectic,’ Luca had warned her as he stood up from the table that night. ‘You’ll need a good night’s sleep...’
She was supposed to sleep after what he’d said?PrincessSamia? It didn’t even sound right. Turning over in bed for the umpteenth time, she punched her hapless pillow into submission. As she did so, she saw the glorious emerald-green gown, discarded where she’d stepped out of it. The beading glistened in the moonlight as if mocking her attempt to turn into an irresistible siren overnight. ‘Well, that fell flat,’ she muttered, flopping over so she didn’t have to look at the gown. She’d had more success with a cotton dress!
A smile crept onto her mouth at the thought. Wasn’t that a point in Luca’s favour? He didn’t even have to try. Snug-fitting jeans, and a shirt caressing his immensely powerful shoulders—why, even his feet looked sexy in a pair of cheap sandals he’d probably picked up at a market. But it was his eyes that really did the damage. They shot heat straight to her core. It was as if he’d cast an erotic net and she had swum right into it, she mused as she snuggled lower in the bed. Every part of her body had responded with approval, whether he chose to be pleasant or not. And they had got heated last night. Though, they’d mellowed out after he’d told her she would live fear-free from now on. That was worth everything. But then he’d had to go and spoil it with that ridiculous suggestion. Princess indeed! And he’d probably be sleeping like a baby...
That was all she remembered until someone hammered on her door.
‘Get up, if you want to visit Portofino,’ Luca called out.
‘Give me half an hour,’ she called back groggily. ‘I’ll see you on deck.’
‘Ten minutes,’ he called back, ‘and then we’re leaving with or without you.’
The day was young and undecided, but the sound of Luca’s voice was the only encouragement she needed to leap out of bed and rush to the shower. She didn’t even bother to dry her hair. Having towelled it, she raked it with her fingers and heaped it on top of her head. Shoving a clip in to hold it in place, she turned to the sink, where cleaning her teeth took a lot longer than doing her hair.Well, you never know...
Yes, she did, Samia lectured her inner voice patiently. Luca was indulging her with this invitation to visit Portofino, but that didn’t mean there were kisses in store.
Worse luck, she mused wryly as she slicked on some lip gloss. She’d been dreading all contact with men, but Luca had succeeded in filling her with a simmering hunger, as well as a desperate need to discover if things could be different—ifshecould be different—when it came to full-on sex.
Perhaps it was just as well she had no time to progress those thoughts.
Slipping on another sundress from the hoard in the box at the back of the wardrobe, she grabbed a purse that sighed mournfully, rather than chinked merrily. It couldn’t be helped. At least she didn’t have to pay for the lift to and from shore.
Shoving her feet into a pair of flip-flops she’d found alongside the box of sundresses, she headed out, by which time she was bubbling with excitement at the thought of spending the day with Luca, and exploring a new place together.
Luca was cool. His crew was around, she reasoned, and he hadn’t exactly fussed over her last night. Which was how she liked it, she told herself firmly. What he’d said about keeping her safe was far more important. And it meant she didn’t have to face her greatest fear. It was one thing fantasising about Luca introducing her to a better kind of sex, and another thing actually doing it. Anyway, he didn’t seem interested in exacting that sort of payment for the voyage, which was a relief.
Was it?
The Pirate Prince looked hotter than ever this morning in a pair of black surf shorts and a form-fitting, sleeveless top that showed off his muscles to perfection. One day, maybe she’d find the courage to forget the humiliation of failure as far as the bedroom went, and find something fulfilling in the experience with someone she really cared about...someone who understood her fears. She could only dream that might be Luca. But reality was never that kind.
As before, he took charge of making sure she was safely transferred over the churning sea from theBlack Diamondto the rolling powerboat. He steadied her with his hand on her forearm while she made the transition, and his touch was like an incendiary device to her senses. It made her pulse race and her breathing quicken—which he noticed, of course.
‘Are you scared or excited?’ he asked as she staggered to the prow on the bucking boat under his guidance.
‘I’m neither scared nor excited. Well, maybe a little excited,’ she conceded.
‘Only a little?’
Her body heated instantly at the sight of a glimmer of a smile on his mouth. Luca only had to look at her like that for years of doubt and dread to melt away, to be replaced by a throbbing yearning. Her dress was thin, and her body was a notoriously unreliable keeper of secrets, so, however much she tried to brazen it out, the brush of his arm against hers caused her nipples to tighten, while her lips felt swollen and tender beneath the tip of her tongue.
Clearing her throat, she told him briskly, ‘You must tell me if I can be of any help on shore.’
‘Fetching and carrying? Or did you have something else in mind?’
‘I don’t care so long as I’m earning my passage.’
