‘Look, I’ve wasted enough time talking. I’d…I’d better leave you to get on with your work,’ she said reluctantly, though she noticed that he hadn’t produced a tape measure. Why, he didn’t even appear to have anything to write with!
Xaviero studied her. The most sensible thing in the world would be to come clean—to disclose his real identity and tell her that he wasn’t some painter and decorator at all. But he wasn’t feeling in the least bit sensible. In truth, he was feeling reckless and more than a little wild—a feeling which had only been intensified by recent events on his island.
His mouth hardened. Except that it was not his island any more, was it? It lay firmly under the rule of his elder brother now—it was his domain. The moment the crown had been placed on Casimiro’s head Xaviero had felt as if he no longer had any real role there.
The year of official mourning for his father had left him feeling strangely hollow and empty—and wasn’t that one of the reasons he was here? To swap his bustling New York existence and make a new life for himself—by purchasing one of the most famous polo grounds in the world, and realising a long-cherished dream to build up a training school?
He stared down into the face of the blonde, mesmerised by her pale beauty. She was so tiny, so delicate and light that he thought he might be able to pick her up with one hand, and hold her—like a small trophy. He imagined his big, dark body contrasted against her pale fragility. Could a woman this small accommodate a man as large as him?
He felt the recklessness transmute into desire—and the sheer and potent power of desire after so long an absence took him off guard. His gaze drifted over her lips and their rose-pink softness only increased his sudden yearning. Lips as luscious as rain-swollen petals and slightly parted as she gazed up at him. Lips that were born to be kissed; begging to be kissed. Would she let him? No woman had ever resisted him—because there wasn’t a woman alive who would refuse the advances of a prince. But he had never kissed a woman under the guise of anonymity before…
How would he fare as an artisan? Did small-town country girls let painter and decorators take immediate liberties whenever lust coursed through their veins? He saw her eyes darken. Saw the sweet, almost wary way she stared up at him. It seemed that they did.
‘No,’ he said suddenly. ‘Don’t leave.’
Cathy’s eyes widened. For a moment she thought that she had misheard him. ‘I’m sorry?’
‘I don’t want you to go anywhere,’ he said unevenly, and his smile was complicit. ‘Any more than you do.’
There was a split second before the fantasy she’d been nurturing ever since he’d walked in began to come true. As he began to move towards her Cathy felt she should protest, but no words came—despite the certainty that he was about to kiss her and that it was both inappropriate and unprofessional to kiss a man she had only just met.
But Cathy’s ego was bruised—she had been left feeling bitterly hurt by Peter’s rejection. The future she had imagined for herself was no longer an option and she felt empty and undesirable. When her fingers had tightened around her fiancé’s letter, hadn’t she imagined that no man would ever desire her again? And yet, now—out of the blue—came this.
‘You don’t want to go anywhere, do you?’ he persisted, on a murmur.
‘I’m…I’m not sure.’
‘Oh, I think you are, cara. Just as sure as I am.’
Leaning forward, he brushed his mouth over hers and felt the corresponding tremble of her lips.
‘You like that?’ he questioned unsteadily.
‘Yes,’ she whispered back as the lips came back and this time lingered—and Cathy knew she was lost as he pulled her into his arms and began to kiss her in earnest. Because it felt as if her life had been on hold until that moment. Peter’s letter had left her feeling empty and aching and worthless. Yet all her fears and insecurities—all that hurt and rejection—were wiped away by the sheer, simple power of this man’s amazing kiss.
Xaviero felt her instant capitulation—she gasped when he deepened the kiss still further. He felt the instant and glorious response of his own body, and his mind began doing rapid calculations. How long before his security bleeped him? Time to lock these doors and push her to her knees and have her pleasure him with those incredible lips of hers? She was too easy, he thought despairingly as desire now became mixed with disgust—for Xaviero freely admitted to having the double standards of many men where women were concerned. But that did not stop him guiding her hand to the hardness at his groin.