Andreo surveyed her with burnished golden eyes framed by black spiky lashes. He looked incredibly handsome and her heart raced so fast she felt giddy and breathless.
‘So now you’re mine on request, bella mia…’ he breathed, savouring the syllables in the most impossibly sexy style.
As he urged her into connection with his big powerful frame, she blushed at the reality that she could barely wait for him to touch her. He meshed one long-fingered hand into her bright hair and claimed her lips with hungry, driven urgency. She shivered and pushed up against him, temporarily so bereft of anything but her own overwhelming need to connect with him again that the move was instinctive.
‘We have business to discuss,’ Andreo groaned, drawing back from her.
‘What sort of business?’
But the limo had come to a halt and the dialogue was shelved until they were seated at a corner table in a fashionable restaurant.
‘You’ve suffered an injustice at Venstar. If that was—indirectly—my fault, I can only apologise. Unfortunately, the company’s choice of candidate, however inappropriate, cannot be deprived of the job without good reason and establishing grounds takes time,’ Andreo murmured dryly. ‘In the short term it makes more sense for me to find a better position for you in another company.’
Pippa had grown very tense. ‘I don’t need your help—’
Andreo expelled his breath on an impatient hiss. ‘I’m not offering help. I’m trying to redress a wrong. There’s a subtle distinction.’
An uneasy flush had lit her cheekbones. She was convinced that he only felt he ought to intervene on her behalf because she had slept with him and that belief mortified her. ‘What’s done is done…I can look after myself—’
‘I’d also like to see you achieve a status commensurate with your abilities—’
‘Don’t you think that I can manage that on my own?’ Pippa was angry at being patronised. ‘You’re not responsible for me—’
‘Maybe I feel responsible.’ Andreo surveyed her with brooding dark eyes. ‘But naturally I’ll respect your wishes.’
Unexpectedly, amusement afflicted Pippa and melted her annoyance. ‘Will you really? Even thoug
h you think my wishes are rubbish and you really hate people disagreeing with you? Will I have to grovel to get back in with you again?’
Andreo’s appreciative gaze narrowed to a blazing sliver of raw gold. ‘Just share my bed, amore. I’ve thought about nothing but you for thirty-six hours.’
Her mouth ran dry, a wanton flame lighting low in her pelvis.
‘Are you hungry?’ Andreo asked thickly.
‘Not really but…’ Her voice faded for Andreo had already sprung upright.
Three minutes later, he had swept her back out of the restaurant and settled her back into the limo. Without hesitation he had shown her that he would not allow conventional expectations to come between him and what he wanted. The atmosphere between them sizzled. She felt dizzy with wicked anticipation.
CHAPTER SIX
ANDREO had taken a penthouse apartment for the remainder of his stay in London.
He opened the door on the vast impressive hall, linked his lean fingers with Pippa’s and walked her down to a bedroom as big as the entire ground floor of her home. She hovered in the centre of the carpet, suddenly desperately shy, realising that alcohol had blunted her inhibitions on the night of the party.
‘Every time I look at you, I want to take your clothes off,’ Andreo confided, shedding his tie and his jacket and tossing both aside with flattering enthusiasm.
She blushed to the roots of her hair. ‘I’m glad I didn’t know that at the meeting today. You seemed so distant.’
Andreo laughed huskily, strolling forward with easy assurance. ‘Now you know why…I have a very active imagination. All guys are the same, cara mia.’
He untied her wrap top, took it off and tugged her closer. She kicked off her shoes, felt her skirt give at the waist as he unzipped it. When she stepped out of the skirt, he flipped her round, clamped her to his all-male muscular frame and crushed her mouth with passionate hunger below his.
That first sensual onslaught blew her away. His tongue delved between her lips in an elemental imitation of a much more sexual possession. Clinging to him, she shivered in the circle of his strong arms like a leaf in a high wind.
‘I never knew I could feel like this…’ Pippa whispered helplessly.
His lean, strong face was taut with intent. His shirt hung unbuttoned and loose to reveal a bronzed wedge of hair-roughened chest. He tasted her swollen mouth again while he reached behind her to undo her bra. When he lifted his proud dark head to look at her, her hands whipped up to cover herself but he caught them in his and drew them down again.