A Pawn in the Playboy's Game

‘Seems an awfully long way to go for just a few days...’ She smiled weakly because Roberto and her grandmother were both staring at her as though she had taken leave of her senses. ‘Jet lag, you know...’

‘You’re young!’ Roberto barked, dismissing this half-hearted objection with a wave of his walking stick. ‘Leave the complaints about jet lag to old fogies like Edith and myself! We’re the ones who would suffer from jet lag after a long flight! Suffer from jet lag when I go to Edinburgh! Take yourself out there, my girl, and see a bit of the world! You...’ he looked at Laura from under his bushy brows ‘...need to get out of here for a little while before you start fossilising...remember that you’re still young! And you...’ he looked at Alessandro ‘...need a break from that computer of yours! Not to mention that I could do without having you under my feet all the time! Everywhere I look you’re there, nagging, nagging, nagging...’

* * *

Over the next twenty-four hours, Laura felt her panic level rise.

She no longer knew where she stood. Her grandmother had cornered her the second they were back at their house and had started making noises about engagements, marriage and babies. She had turned misty-eyed at the thought of a little great-granddaughter. Laura had been frankly appalled but had had to smile through the conversation while making sure to reveal as little as possible.

Yes, she could understand why Alessandro had said what he had said on the spur of the moment, but she still simmered with resentment because it was an added complication to a situation that had already been threatening to become complicated.

Involvement.

That was the dreaded word that hovered at the back of her mind like a nasty little thorn.

She had stupidly signed up for a bit of fun. She had conveniently overlooked the fact that she wasn’t a fun girl. She was a serious girl who wanted love, security and commitment. And while she had enjoyed every second of Alessandro’s raw physicality, she had also strayed into more dangerous territory, had allowed herself to become involved with him. She had done that because that was just who she was. Fighting her own nature would have been like trying to plug a leaking hole in a dam with sticky tape.

Which was why, now, waiting for him to collect her and take her to the airport, she just didn’t know what she had got herself into.

Her grandmother had been fussing since dawn and had made her a little packed breakfast to take with her in the car. Or on the plane. She had been repeatedly given strict instructions about sunblock, even though Laura couldn’t see how much damage could be done to her skin in the space of a couple of days. She had been warned several times about mosquitoes.

She heard the sharp ring of the doorbell and there was a flurry of goodbyes and then she was in the car with him. The snow had diminished overnight, but the fields were still thinly covered and the temperature was bitingly cold.

‘It’s not going to be a very enjoyable long weekend if you decide to give me the silent treatment,’ Alessandro drawled, casting a sideways look at her. He startled her by pulling over to the side of the isolated road and killing the engine.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Getting our relaxing break off to a good start.’

Laura’s eyes skittered over his potent, masculine body, idly leaning against the car door as he looked at her. She felt a rush of pure sexual craving and wondered why on earth she couldn’t just relax and enjoy the situation for what it was. After all, there wasn’t anything she could do to change it.

And it wasn’t as if they hadn’t already made love. They had. He knew her body as intimately as she knew his.

‘You’re overanalysing. You’re letting your mind run away with all sorts of erroneous detail because my father knows about us. So he knows. So he thinks that what we have is more than it actually is. That’s an unalterable fact, but,’ he said drily, ‘let me make this very simple for you. I want you. You want me. And we’re about to go abroad for three days of very hot sex.’

‘You’re very black and white.’

‘I’m a pragmatist.’ His lean face wore a wolfish expression. In one easy movement he leaned towards her and slowly raised her thick jumper, then the thermal long-sleeved vest underneath, until both were gathered above her breasts.