“Thank you,” she murmured, turning another page of her book.
He had a very sudden, very strong urge to snatch the book from her hands and throw it out of the window.
Closing his eyes, he gritted his teeth and drew a long breath into his lungs.
Back at his desk, he sipped his coffee moodily and tried to force his concentration.
What the hell had he been doing, trying to draw her into conversation like that? Trying to goad her into refiring that annoying gene that pissed him off so much?
She turned another page of her book, then placed it carefully on the table and got gracefully to her feet.
His breath stuck in his throat.
Not looking at him, she slipped through the door and into the adjoining bathroom.
Oh, God, this wasawful, Francesca despaired as she sat on the closed toilet seat and held her head in her hands.
He’dwarnedher, and like a fool, she’d ignored him.
But he hadn’t warned her that having sex would make her awareness of him and her longing for him mushroom. If he’d told her that could happen, even she might have had second thoughts.
Everything felt so different from when the stupid idea to bet her virginity with him had first floated in her mind. Different in herself and different between them.
She kept imagining Gino’s stare on her, but didn’t dare look at him to see if it was just imagination or not. She was terrified to look at him. Terrified she would find only indifference in his stare. Even his efforts at small talk had tied her stomach into knots.
She should have gone back to her bed when she’d first said she would.
She should never have made the stupid bet in the first place.
It took all her courage to leave the sanctuary of the bathroom. Their lunch had been brought in. Gino was eating his bowl of gnocchi at his desk.
Guilt at wasting all the effort Carmita had put into making it spurred Francesca into forcing some of it down her tight throat and into her even tighter stomach.
The words of her book refused to put themselves in order. She could make as little sense of what she was reading as she could of her feelings.
Her throat dry, she went to the drinks sideboard. Carmita had replenished the jug of iced water. As Francesca poured herself a glass, she said in the steadiest voice she could manage, “Would you like a glass?”
“Please.”
God, even his voice sent ripples of longing through her. Her heart was hammering, and she had to use all her concentration just to fill a glass for him. All her concentration wasn’t enough to stop her clipping the glass with the lip of the jug when she pulled it away. In a split-second, the glass had toppled, water pouring everywhere even before the glass landed on its side and shattered.
Close to tears, Francesca swore, except it came out as more of a wail.
She’d barely registered Gino rising from his seat before he was by her side, his fingers around her wrists, examining her hands. “Are you hurt?”
Feeling like she was being scalded by his touch, her cheeks burning, she turned her face away and tried to wrench her hands out of his strong hold. “I’m fine. Just clumsy.”
“You’re upset.”
“I said I’m fine.” This time, her attempt to wrench out of his burning grip was successful, but such was her desperation to be free of his hold that she lost her footing, would have gone sprawling if his reflexes weren’t so good, an arm whipping out to catch her, and then her eyes were caught too, in the lock of Gino’s dark brown stare.
The longing that flew through her veins smashed into her heart as her breath smashed out of her lungs, and in an instant all the air was sucked out of the room.
Time came to a complete standstill. Francesca found herself shackled in it, trapped in a stare that pulsed, as if the dark chocolate of his irises had melted into a living thing. His firm, wide lips parted, just a little, and suddenly all she could think in the heated fog that was her brain was how badly she wanted those lips to kiss her again.
And then, in a blink, the moment was gone.
Gino’s jaw clenched, the pulsating heat in his stare vanishing as he unwound his arm from her and stepped back. His throat moved, but before he could speak, there was a knock on the office door.
