‘Well…’
‘Come, come—don’t quibble. Australians are well known for being straight shooters. Tell me what you think of me as a boyfriend.’
Veronica straightened her spine. ‘I would say you weren’t a very good bet in that regard. Not if a woman wanted commitment.’
‘That would depend on the woman,’ he countered. ‘I have no objection to commitment when the time—and the woman—is right. But then, not every woman is looking for commitment. Take you, for instance…’
‘What? Me?’
‘Yes, you.’
‘What about me?’ she demanded to know, angling her head to one side as she glared up at him.
He smiled. ‘You are in your late twenties and have no one serious in your life. Yet you are a very beautiful woman. I can only conclude that you have chosen to stay—what is the term?—footloose and fancy free.’
Veronica hadn’t blushed in years and she didn’t blush now. But she felt quite hot inside her body, the kind of heat which came from being turned on. He was turning her on, this devilishly handsome Italian, with his verbal foreplay and his suggestive smiles.
All of a sudden she thought about what it would be like to have sex with him. Would he be as good a lover as he obviously thought he was?
Yes, she decided, a decidedly erotic shiver rippling down her spine.
Sex wasn’t something that had ever been that important to Veronica. It was the romance she enjoyed. The love. Orgasms for her had always been in short supply, even with Jerome, who’d been more than competent in bed. But he hadn’t been all that passionate.
Naturally not, she thought bitterly. His passion—and his love—had lain elsewhere.
Veronica stared up into Leonardo’s dark, sexy eyes and just knew he’d be passionate in bed. Passionate, uninhibited and extremely imaginative. There wouldn’t be a form of foreplay or a sexual position he hadn’t tried and revelled in. Any man who could have offered a threesome so casually was into anything. Orgies as well, no doubt.
Such thoughts made it difficult to speak at all, let alone find the right reply. Veronica licked her dry lips, then swallowed.
‘I haven’t been lucky when it comes to men,’ she said quite truthfully.
‘That is sad. But you are still young. There is no need to panic yet.’
Now it was her turn to laugh. ‘That’s a matter of opinion. It seems only yesterday that I was twenty. Now, in two years, I’ll be thirty.’
‘You wish to get married and have children?’
Veronica shrugged. Once upon a time, she would have said yes in a heartbeat. Now, she wasn’t so sure. Marriage didn’t seem as straightforward as it once had. She suspected that falling in love again would be difficult for her, for starters. And, without love, marriage was out of the question.
‘Only if I meet the right man,’ she said. Which certainly won’t be someone like you, she thought, despite the desire Leonardo could evoke in her with shocking ease.
‘When you sell me this villa,’ he replied, ‘You will be rich. And men will be chasing you like mad. Possibly not the right kind of man, though, so you will have to be careful. Come,’ he said, and retrieved a key from one of the large pots full of geraniums that sat along the sunny edge of the veranda. ‘Time for you to see your inheritance from the inside.’
CHAPTER NINE
‘DON’T LOOK SO WORRIED,’ Leonardo said as he inserted the key into the lock of one of the sliding glass doors. ‘We don’t have a crime problem on Capri. Perhaps a little pickpocketing, occasionally, but not serious crime. Laurence always kept a key in that pot so that Carmelina could get in when he wasn’t around.’
‘Carmelina?’
‘One of my sisters. She used to clean for Laurence. And shop. I asked her to go through the place this week and stock up with food. And, no, you do not have to pay her. She was happy to do it.’
‘That was very kind of her. Do you have her number? If she speaks English I would like to thank her.’
‘Everyone in my family speaks English. And you don’t have to ring her. You can thank her when you see her tonight. At dinner.’
‘Oh, yes. Dinner…’
Dinner tonight with his family was going to be a trial, she thought. But not as much of a trial as handling Leonardo’s disturbing presence right here and now. She needed a break from his overwhelmingly attractive persona so that she could get a grip on her treacherously excited body. Veronica had the awful suspicion that if she let him stay with her any longer she might do something foolish. Once they went inside together, they would be alone. In this gorgeous house. With bedrooms and beds. She didn’t trust herself. Or him. Not that he would force himself upon her. She didn’t think that. But it was obvious Leonardo would not waste time when he fancied a girl.