A gasp escaped her throat at the same time Alessandro tore his mouth away. His pulse ricocheted around his head as he stepped several paces back. Julian’s voice had come from the other room but it might as well have come from beside them for the galvanizing effect it had had.
What the hell was wrong with him?
He had his head in the cleavage of someone he barely knew when his wife hadn’t even been dead a year. Julian’smother. What kind of a person did that make him?
‘Sure,’ she called, her breathing as uneven as his, her level of confusion about the same too before she spun back to face the cooktop.
Flo in his arms, Julian entered the kitchen oblivious to the tension between the adults. ‘She ate up all her fish and milk but I think she wants to play.’
‘Of course she does.’
She turned back again to face Julian with a fixed smile that was enough to fool a four-year-old but not Alessandro. She was clearly as flummoxed as he. ‘Flo loves the great outdoors.’
Alessandro gripped the bench at her blatantly husky tone.He’ddone that to her. ‘Not too long, Julian,’ he said brusquely, distracted by his stupidity. ‘Dinner isn’t far away.’
At the look of hurt in Julian’s eyes, Alessandro realised he may have come across unintentionally terse and gave himself a mental kick up the ass.Idiot. But Nat – who he’d crossed a very big line with – stepped in to assure his son.
‘It’s okay,’ she said gently. ‘I’ll call you when it’s ready.’
Julian nodded, looking deflated and uncertain as he slumped off and Alessandro hated himself a little bit more.Damn it to hell. Why hadn’t he thought before he spoke? Anger and disappointment rode him hard and he couldn’t bear seeing the judgement he knew would be in Nat’s eyes as she slowly turned his way.
So, he did the only thing he could think of – he turned on his heel and left the room, her gaze like a brand between his shoulder blades as he strode through the archway and out of reach of her reproach.
Nat stayed in the sitting room till late that night, watching television, too keyed up to sleep. Julian had long since gone to bed, and Alessandro, after a brief appearance to eat his dinner, had taken his laptop into his equally barren study and stayed there.
A boring movie was on and Nat had a headache from forcing herself to concentrate on it and not on what had happened in the kitchen earlier. On how her skin still flamed where Alessandro’s mouth had been. But force herself she did. Because it was better than thinking about how his voice had oozed over her like warm treacle and how she hadn’t bothered to stop him because she’dwantedhis mouth on her skin.
Wanted to bury her fingers in his hair, hold him there. Arch her back. Beg for more.
God… this was madness. Madness that shouldn’t have happened. Because she knew her heart, knew how easily it got in too deep, how prone it was to building castles in the air. And that was plain stupid with a man who was obviously still so messed up over his wife’s death that he hadn’t even been able tolookat her after.
Hell, he’d run away to his office rather than face her.
She needed to remember that. No matter how much he stirred her pulse and her senses and every feminine instinct she had. It was time to rely on other instincts – survival instincts.
The movie ended and she reluctantly made her way to bed. Alessandro’s door was open at the end of the corridor but, doggedly, she diverted her attention, checking on Julian instead. Flo, who’d been on his bed last time she checked, was no longerthere and Nat vaguely wondered where she was as she pulled up Julian’s covers and turned out his lamp.
Wandering into her bedroom, she expected to see Flo stretched out on her bed. But, no, the cat wasn’t there, either and she knew she wasn’t downstairs because she’d just come from there.
‘Flo?’ she whispered into the darkened hallway, sticking her head out of her doorway.
A distant meow turned her head until she was staring at the open door at the end of the hallway. Well, crap… Flo was in Alessandro’s bedroom.
Just keep it out of my room.That’s what he’d said. And given how much she’d screwed up today by not pushing Alessandro away, by groaning and practically arching her back as his tongue hadlicked sauce off her boobs, she needed to take action here.
She needed to get Flo out.
She was sure Alessandro was still in his study, so it was just a matter of sneaking in, grabbing Flo then getting the hell out of Dodge. Tiptoeing down the hallway she was grateful for the snowy white carpet. It muffled her footsteps to perfection.
Now, if only it could do the same for the erratic hammer of her heart.
As she drew level with the doorway she whispered, ‘Flo,’ again. An answering meow came back from the bedroom and Nat thought seriously bad thoughts about her pet for a moment or two. A low lamp threw a small glow around the room as she poked her head around the corner to find it empty of a large Italian male but definitely containing one small tortoiseshell cat.
Crap.Flo was sitting in the middle of Alessandro’s bed like an Egyptian cat goddess, licking her paws like she was the rightful owner.
‘Flo,’ she hissed as she took a step inside, absently noting the minimalist quality of the rest of the house carried through to hisbedroom. ‘Come here – now!’ she demanded, keeping her voice low as she sidled up to the bed.
Alessandro’sbed.
