‘Just Bella will do fine. I’m your friend with benefits, remember, not your girlfriend.’
‘True. And might I say I’ve never had better benefits.’
Yes, this was the way to play it. Cool and casual. No way would he ever let her know his true feelings. Hell no!
Bella couldn’t understand why she was feeling so put out by Sergio’s attitude. He was only telling the truth, after all. It worried her that perhaps she was trying to put a romantic spin on her feelings for Sergio. Her mother had brought her up to believe nice girls only went to bed with men they loved. Which was why Bella had had only three lovers in over ten years. Of course, that had been long before her mother had confessed the truth about her marriage to Sergio’s father.
It was hard, though, to abandon such long-held beliefs. For a while there just now, Bella had started thinking there had to be something more between them than just sex. It seemed perverse that she’d experienced more pleasure with Sergio than she had with any of her so-called lovers. Perverse also that she should feel so bereft when he withdrew and rolled away from her. In the past, she’d always been relieved when her lover had been finished with her.
‘Is sex always this good for you, Sergio?’ she asked as he reached for his clothes.
Sergio wanted to weep. Instead, he somehow found a suitably nonchalant voice. ‘Not always.’
‘I’ve never felt anything like what just happened,’ she said.
Against all common sense, her admission thrilled him. But he dared not look at her, lest she see the light of love glistening in his eyes.
‘There’s no rhyme or reason to sexual chemistry, Bella,’ he lied as he drew on his shorts and T-shirt. ‘Sometimes it is better than others. I also suspect you haven’t been with a man for quite some time—is that right?’ he asked, finally glancing her way.
She was still disturbingly naked and made no attempt to cover herself.
‘I broke up with Andrei over a year ago.’
He already knew that, the news having made his day at the time.
‘And there’s been no one since?’
‘No.’
‘No one-night stands?’
‘I don’t have one-night stands.’
‘What? Never?’
‘No, never. I can’t think of anything worse than having sex with a virtual stranger.’
‘That’s very...um...’
‘Old-fashioned of me?’ she said.
‘I was thinking more along the line of unusual in this day and age.’
‘I suppose you have one-night stands all the time.’
‘Not very often. But there have been times in my life when some mindless sex with a virtual stranger fits the bill.’ Like when I was going crazy after seeing you with that French sleazebag. ‘Look, if you don’t mind, do you think you could put your clothes back on? Unless, of course, you want seconds.’
Bella just stared at him. ‘I’m not sure I could manage seconds. I feel a bit wrecked.’
‘You don’t look wrecked. You look beautiful.’
She flushed. ‘I think you’re a devil with the ladies too,’ she said, reaching for her clothes. ‘Just like your friend Jeremy.’
Sergio shrugged, thinking he was nothing like Jeremy. Jeremy didn’t fall in love. He always said falling in love was for fools.
Not that falling in love with a woman as unique and beautiful as Bella should make any man feel a fool. If truth be told, if he put aside his prejudices over whose daughter she was, Sergio could see Bella wasn’t a chip off the old block. If she’d been a ruthless gold-digger like her mother, she’d have already married one of her wealthy lovers. That Russian billionaire had been mega rich. Neither was she as promiscuous as he’d imagined. She was actually very sweet and sensitive, a woman worth loving. A woman worth marrying, even.
This last thought shocked Sergio to the core. It was one thing to fall in love with Bella. Another thing entirely to want to marry her. Now that was foolish. Aside from the fact that she didn’t love him back, Bella didn’t want to marry. She’d said so.
But was she telling the absolute truth? Sergio wondered as he started packing up the picnic basket. Maybe she just said that because no man had ever asked her. Maybe it was her pride talking. Sergio hoped so. Because now that he’d had time to accept the truth of his feelings, he realised that falling in love with Bella was a game changer. He would have been content with a month of her in his bed when he’d believed it was just lust he felt for her. But a mere month of sex was no longer on his wish list. He wanted a lifetime of loving Bella, wanted her as his wife and the mother of his children.