An Invitation to Sin

He chose to ignore the tiny part of his brain that was telling him the kiss had nothing to do with role play.

Infuriated that she wasn’t putting more effort into it, he sprang from the car. ‘Taylor!’ Aware someone might be listening, he clenched his jaw and forced himself back into fiancé mode. It was as ill-fitting as a secondhand suit. ‘Mi amore—’ He’d never said those words to anyone before and even knowing that they weren’t genuine didn’t make it any easier. ‘Where are you going?’

There was a brief pause and then she spun on her heel and gave him an easy smile that probably seemed genuine to all but him. ‘I was leaving you to park the car.’

He sensed her tension but didn’t understand it. Hell, he was breaking his neck here to act like the devoted fiancé. ‘It’s parked.’

‘You call that parked?’ One eyebrow raised, she looked at the Ferrari. ‘You can’t seriously intend to leave it there.’

‘They’re lucky I choose to park my car outside their restaurant. People will pause, admire it and then want to dine in their restaurant to catch a glimpse of the man who owns such a cool car.’

‘Or the woman.’

‘This is a man’s car, tesoro.’

‘So defined by the idiot driving it?’ Those beautiful green eyes narrowed in challenge and he was pleased to have broken through that seemingly impenetrable wall of control.

He decided to push a little harder. ‘There is no way you’d be able to drive it. This baby has a six-point-three-litre V-12 engine with four valves per cylinder—’ he glanced lovingly at the car ‘—and it hovers on the borders of legal. It can shift from car to beast in less than four seconds.’

‘A bit like its owner.’ Without waiting for him she strolled into the restaurant, those long bare legs drawing more admiring glances than the Ferrari.

She looked good and she knew it. He was fast discovering there was no greater aphrodisiac than a woman aware of her own appeal.

His own gaze fixed on those legs, Luca tried to cool the heat burning inside him and decided she and the car had more in common than she ever would have admitted. Both were high maintenance and both were eye-catching.

As he caught up with her he took her hand in his.

Her eyes widened. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Playing the part of your devoted lover,’ he drawled softly, ‘only my leading lady appears to have forgotten her lines. If I have to be engaged, then at least let it be to the woman who yesterday had her legs wrapped round me in the maze. Don’t give me this bland, vanilla version.’

She blinked. Frowned slightly. ‘This is who I am.’

‘If I thought that for a moment this engagement would be off. I’d die of boredom before we hit our first anniversary and you’d burst from suppressing all that emotion.’

‘Signor Corretti!’ A man approached them and Luca felt Taylor tug at her hand, trying to free herself.

He tightened his grip and greeted the owner in Italian. ‘I need a table.’

‘Somewhere private?’

Distracted by Taylor’s glossy lips, Luca lost concentration. ‘Of course.’

‘No, not private.’ Taylor flashed her eyes, trying to transmit a message, but he was too busy deciding if those eyes were green or blue to translate the unspoken communication.

‘I don’t want an audience.’

‘But I do.’ She slid her arms around his neck and gave him a feline smile. ‘Don’t you want to show off our love to the world, honey?’

Luca, who had never been called ‘honey’ in his life, remembered belatedly that the purpose of being here was to be seen. ‘You’re an exhibitionist, angelo mia.’

‘Says the man who just parked a red Ferrari in a no-parking zone.’ Laughing, she trailed a purple fingernail across his cheek and he turned his head and caught her finger gently in his teeth.

Clearing his throat subtly, the owner of the restaurant beamed at them. ‘I have a table by the water. So romantic and, on that topic, may I offer our congratulations. We are all delighted by your news.’

Determined to demonstrate that he could play his part as well as her and remembering what she’d said about conjuring up the emotions from deep inside her, Luca tried to imagine how it would feel to be engaged. Deciding that ‘freaked out’ wasn’t going to help his performance, he swiftly ditched that advice and instead thought about the article he’d read. ‘I am happy, excited and can’t bear to be parted from her even for a moment.’

Smiling at an astonished Giovanni, Taylor urged Luca towards a prime table situated at the edge of the water. ‘Your performance was terrible,’ she hissed in an undertone. ‘You should have let me give you acting lessons.’