‘That’s not why I mentioned the feet,’ Alessandro drawled. ‘Although I’d be curious to see how flip-flops work with your navy suits...’
‘I did bring a beige one. It’s my summer suit.’
‘Oh, the levels of daring to which you’ve aspired... You forget: you can get rid of the suits. I’ve seen you in all your non-suited glory. You can actually feel free to dress down a little now when it comes to your work attire. I mentioned the feet because if you can’t walk then we might have to resign ourselves to being holed up in this suite for the next couple of days...’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You know what I mean. You can feel the chemistry between us. I can’t keep my hands off you.’
All her old principles rose to the surface but she fought them down—because hadn’t she wanted to embark on this challenge? She wasn’t going to get cold feet now.
‘But what about the client you wanted us to visit?’
‘He won’t be going anywhere. At least not for a couple of days.’
‘Is that the time limit you’ve set on this...er...situation?’
The sexy warmth on his face evaporated just like that. She could feel him pull back and knew that he was gauging the situation—weighing up the pros of having good sex against the cons of what might prove to be an awkward situation.
She hadn’t heard his warning speech about not getting wrapped up in him. Was he trying to work out how he could give it now, having had mind-blowing sex with her?
‘I know what you’re thinking,’ she said casually, lowering her eyes and trying to stanch the sudden pain twisting inside her.
‘Really? You’re a mind reader?’
‘I’m not a mind-reader, but I’m not stupid either. I’ve told you how I feel about meaningless relationships. I’ve told you that I’ve never seen the point of one-night stands and sex just for the sake of sex. So you’re probably scared stiff that we’ve slept together and now suddenly I’ll be trying to drag you down to the local jeweller’s to see what the rings there look like. But you couldn’t be further from the truth.’
‘No?’
‘No,’ Kate told him firmly. ‘I don’t know what happened here...things went down an unexpected road...but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re you and I’m me. For a start, I work for you. You’re my boss. And that makes this all wrong.’
‘Let’s get past the boss/employee situation...’
‘It’s all right for you to say that.’ Kate was suddenly angry at his complete self-assurance that he was entitled to do exactly what he wanted to do, without any repercussions whatsoever. ‘You can turn round and sack me if you decide I’m some kind of liability.’
‘And will you be? A liability?’ He hadn’t even thought of her as the sort to sell some tacky kiss-and-tell story to a newspaper—not that that would turn his world on its axis. He couldn’t care less what people thought of him. But the idea that she might go down the tawdry route of gold-digger, out to siphon off money after sleeping with him...well, that was a horse of a different colour.
And why hadn’t he thought of that possibility?
Because she’d struck him as a person of integrity. Was he about to be proved wrong?
But, no. He could tell instantly from the look of distaste that crossed her face that he had insulted her.
‘I had to ask,’ he said with cool detachment, rolling onto his back and staring up at the ceiling with his arms behind his head.
‘Of course you did.’ Kate’s voice dripped sarcasm. ‘It’s only natural after you’ve slept with a woman to ask her whether she’s about to phone a tabloid and spill the beans about sex with billionaire Alessandro Preda. If you think that I hopped into bed with you because I fancied my chances of fleecing you for money—’
He turned to her and stared her down unsmilingly. ‘When you live my life you don’t take anything for granted.’
‘Then you must lead a sad life.’ She sighed. ‘I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry. But I don’t know how to behave around you now that this has happened. Every time I say something a little too frank I remember who you are. And then I start wondering how we got into this...this mess...’
‘Situations like this are only a mess if they get out of hand—and they only get out of hand if one or the other becomes too involved.’
‘And that would never be you.’ She shot him a rueful glance, because whatever mess she had found herself in she was too greedy to want to get out of it just yet.
But get out she would. And before he gave her his lecture she thought that she might give him hers—set his mind at ease, pave the way for a dignified retreat when this little one-week working holiday was over. Because, as sure as the sun rose and set every day of every year, there would be nothing between them when they returned to London.
‘Don’t worry—it won’t be me either,’ she added quickly.
‘I know.’
‘You do?’
‘You’re looking for a soulmate, and it’s not me. What we have is a purely physical thing.’
‘It’s not like me to do a purely physical thing...’
‘Which makes me feel sorry for you.’ He coolly returned her criticism of him back to her and she blushed. ‘You look very fetching when you blush,’ he murmured, distracted. ‘And, just as an aside, don’t feel that you have to tiptoe round me as though you’re walking on eggshells. When you’re lying in bed naked you cease to be my employee...’
And when I’m no longer lying in bed naked...? When I’m back sitting at my desk, wearing one of my many suits...? Working on the deals you’re throwing at me...?
She had got caught up in a riptide, had lost all her prized control, and there was only one sure way she could think of regaining it—because if she didn’t then she would be lost. It was a terrifying prospect. If she got lost where would she be? How would she ever be able to find all the landmarks that defined her life?
‘You have to promise me something,’ she told him seriously.
‘I dislike making promises. Especially to women.’
‘Well...’ She drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. ‘You’re going to make this promise—if you don’t then I’m going to...to get dressed and hobble back to my room...’
‘Is that blackmail?’ Alessandro asked coldly. ‘Because that’s something I dislike even more than I dislike making promises.’
‘No, it’s not blackmail. Are you always so suspicious of everyone’s motives? No, don’t answer that. You are. You can’t help yourself. I want you to promise me that when we return to London this ends. And we never talk about it. Ever again. We pretend none of it happened and I go back to being your employee and nothing more.’
Alessandro raised his eyebrows, for this was the first time in his life he was being dismissed prematurely. Actually, it was the first time in his life he was being dismissed at all.
He shrugged and decided that it was a promise he was more than happy to make. He would have her for a week, and by the time the week was done he would be ready to move on. Kate Watson, stunning and sexy as she might be, wasn’t his type. She wanted more from a man than a passing fling, and he suspected that if they were to continue their liaison all her good intentions not to get wrapped up in someone who wasn’t her soulmate would be ground down—because that was just the way it was.
‘So it’s a deal?’
‘It’s a deal, and we can shake on it—but who’s to say that you won’t find it impossible to stick to your side of the bargain?’
‘I may have...given in...but...but...I see this as a kind of adventure. I mean, I’ve never allowed myself to get carried away. I never thought I would either. But I’m glad that I have. I suppose, in a weird way, I should thank you...’
She looked at him with shining sincerity and Alessandro looked back at her, amused.
She was complex. An ambitious professional who was endearingly inexperienced, a sensible suit-wearing employee who still blushed like a teenager. She was scrupulously honest, and seemingly unaware that scrupulous honesty was not part of the game when it came to sex and seduction. She spoke her mind and ignored the potential fallout.
All told, she challenged him.
Women generally didn’t.
He wondered idly whether he had just been looking in the wrong places. He wondered whether the time wasn’t drawing near for him to move on from hit-and-run romances with obliging but empty-headed supermodels. He was no believer in romance, but maybe the time was drawing near for him to test the waters for something more solid.
Kate Watson had shown him that a good brain certainly broadened the appeal. Tie that up with a woman who wasn’t searching for love and romance, who was as down to earth as he was when it came to relationships—a woman who could challenge him intellectually, could see marriage as something blessedly free from the vagaries of so-called love—and who was to say that it couldn’t work?
He had become jaded. This interlude had demonstrated that. The novelty of having someone out of his comfort zone had been telling. Hell, he could hardly think straight with her lying here next to him! He needed to move on...