Skye described her.
‘That sounds like Alessandra Basanti. She’s a model.’
Skye felt nauseous. ‘Was she a lover of yours?’
Lazaro shook his head. ‘No, and I don’t think she took my lack of interest well.’
‘Oh...’
A wave of relief flooded Skye. A wave of relief she shouldn’t be feeling. Because it shouldn’t matter to her who Lazaro had been with before. Because she shouldn’t care. Because that meant emotions were getting involved.
He came over to the couch and sat down. Close. Too close. But not close enough.
Skye was full of conflicting thoughts. She wanted him, but she was afraid he would see how much.
‘That’s not all, though, is it?’
Skye looked at Lazaro, hating it that he could read her like this. ‘Since when did you become a mind-reader?’
‘Since I met someone who shows everything she’s feeling as it happens.’
He tucked a wayward piece of hair behind Skye’s ear and she had to fight hard not to turn her face into his hand. She was losing it. Flutters were erupting all over her body—not just near her heart or in her belly.
She said, ‘I’m not good around negative people. I’m not naïve enough to expect everyone to be nice, but she threw me. She was so...bitchy.’
Lazaro said, ‘She is a bitch. And so are many more in this kind of environment, where the stakes are high.’
Skye shook her head. ‘The woman I was talking to before I went to the bathroom—she was lovely.’
Lazaro smiled. ‘Because you’re about forty years younger than her and not a threat.’
Skye scowled. ‘So cynical.’
He smirked. ‘So true.’
Impulsively, she asked, ‘Do you think I trapped you?’
He went still. ‘I have to admit at first...when I was angry...it was one of my first thoughts. But then I had to acknowledge I was as much to blame for not protecting us. And since getting to know you... No, I don’t think you trapped me.’
Skye didn’t like how emotional that made her feel. ‘Thank you.’
He leaned forward. ‘How would you like me to restore your faith in humanity?’
Skye looked at him suspiciously. ‘How?’
‘A very clever distraction technique I know...’
Skye knew even before Lazaro’s mouth touched hers that she was in big trouble. And she knew it for sure when he pressed her back on the couch and took their kiss to a deeper level. She was falling for him. And all the kissing in the world couldn’t distract her from that very unwelcome revelation.
She’d broken every one of her own rules the moment she’d locked eyes with Lazaro Sanchez in Dublin. She’d let hi
m in. And now it was only a matter of time before she faced the kind of hurt she’d spent her whole life avoiding.
* * *
‘Where is she?’
Lazaro’s head of security answered him. ‘She’s in Piazza San Marco.’