Francesca had moved to the sofa and he joined her there. His fingers still tingled from where hers had been touching them. Crazy, the sexual chemistry that still existed between them.
‘I meant what I said about…both of us having changed and I have a proposition for you.’ He leaned forward, arms resting lightly on his thighs, and linked his fingers together.
‘What kind of proposition?’
‘The kind that acknowledges what we have and what we can’t fight against.’ His voice was calm, cool and controlled. Francesca fought to follow suit. ‘An arrangement of sorts,’ he said conversationally. ‘One of a passionate nature. Passion with no strings attached. I never expected us to run into each other again and I certainly never expected that I would still be attracted to you, but we did and I am and you feel the same way.’
‘You don’t know what I feel, Angelo.’
‘Oh, but I do.’ He relaxed back and crossed his legs. Sexy, elegant and composed. ‘Actions speak so much louder than words.’
‘What would be the point?’ Suddenly she couldn’t sit still any longer. Nor could she withstand the shuttered steadiness of his gaze. She walked jerkily across to the bay window and perched on the ledge, wrapping her arms around her. How could he sit there and discuss them sleeping together as nonchalantly as if he was discussing the weather? ‘You would want it to lead somewhere, wouldn’t you? Isn’t that what you said all those years ago?’
‘What happened years ago is an irrelevance. It’s what’s happening now that matters. We want each other. Sufficient for me to break off my engagement, sufficient for you to sleep with me when your head was telling you not to.’ He shrugged. ‘I’m looking for nothing from you and you want nothing from me. Beyond the obvious.’
‘It’s crazy.’
‘Come and sit back down.’
‘What difference will that make?’
‘Come and sit back down.’
She would have made for one of the chairs but that would have looked cowardly, so she stuck her chin up and sat next to him, face averted.
‘Look at me. Unless, of course, you’re too scared to do that.’
‘Scared? Why should I be scared?’ She faced him with a glare and sank straight into the fathomless depths of his black eyes. It really was a drowning sensation.
‘Feel it?’ he murmured, making no move to get closer to her, just watching her.
‘No! Feel what?’
‘That undercurrent that runs between us. It’s irresistible, Francesca. That’s why I think we should continue seeing one another, sleeping with one another, and this time we’ll both know the boundaries and won’t overstep them.’
‘And if I say no? Which,’ she added hurriedly, ‘I will.’
‘Then you leave. It’s as simple as that. You know where the front door is. But I hope you don’t.’ He reached out and lazily coiled one finger into her hair, twining it round into a spiral before letting it drop.
But I hope you don’t. She knew what she ought to do. Faced with a pool of quicksand yawning by her feet, she just had to turn around and walk away across solid land to safety. Nothing could ever come of anything between them.
But for just a little while she could have some stolen happiness. The past three years had been a wasteland. She had thrown everything into her career and enjoyed it, but the emotional side of her that had needed tending had been allowed to grow into a wilderness through lack of care.
‘What you’re proposing is…preposterous, primitive…’
‘I’m a primitive man but never preposterous. What I am proposing is a solution.’
He stroked his finger along her collar-bone and Francesca sighed.
‘And how long until this solution becomes redundant?’ she asked quietly.
‘Who knows? How long is a piece of string? All we know is that we will be able to satisfy our hunger for one another and then we will move on to find our proper destinies.’
‘I can’t believe I’m actually sitting here having this conversation with you, Angelo.’ She eyed the door. ‘I thought you were just making time to hear my gripes. Don’t you have important meetings to rush off to?’