An Innocent, a Seduction, a Secret

She closed her eyes for a moment and sucked in a fortifying breath before turning around and praying for a convincing show of nonchalance. Sebastio was looking at her, and she rushed to fill the silence before he could say anything.

‘I’m sorry. I should have realised that—’

‘Edie, you don’t have to explain—’

‘I didn’t know the snow had melted.’

Sebastio’s chest felt tight. The expression of horror on Edie’s face in the hall was etched into his memory. Clearly she’d had no idea that normal service was about to resume. That she’d slept until almost lunchtime.

He hadn’t gone to disturb her because, selfishly, a perverse part of him had relished the thought of her still sleeping in his bed, naked.

When he’d seen her in the hall, wearing his clothes, barefoot and looking so deliciously rumpled, his brain had short-circuited. And then he’d realised that Matteo was also looking at her and that she was carrying a tray of food. For them.

He’d been as guilty as her of assuming—hoping?—the world hadn’t started to turn again. He’d only realised that the thaw had set in at exactly the same moment his phone had started ringing off the hook.

After stealing out of the bedroom and dealing with some calls he’d gone back upstairs and washed and changed, and as he’d looked at Edie sleeping in his bed, he’d selfisly left her there, her image burned onto his retina.

He’d wanted to take her back to her own room last night after the shower, but at the last moment he’d given in to a weak urge and let her sleep in his bed. He’d sat in a chair in the corner of the room and looked at her for a long time. Watching the soft rise and fall of her chest.

He should have felt angry at his lapse of control, for letting her see so much. But all he had felt was a curious kind of... He didn’t want to say peace. Maybe calm. A moment of catharsis.

And now it mocked him, because of the way he’d allowed the lines to become blurred thanks to a bit of snow and an over-indulgence of pleasure. He should have been more vigilant.

Now Edie had no expression on her face and that frustrated him. ‘I’m sorry. I should have warned you that everyone was coming back... I didn’t think you’d—’

She put up a hand. ‘Please, don’t say anything. I should have noticed myself...’

If I’d looked out of the window instead of superstitiously hoping nothing would change if I didn’t, Edie thought.

Sebastio ran a hand through his hair. Edie couldn’t fail once again to notice how put-together he was compared to her. In control. Not affected.

‘Look, what we had for the past few days...and nights...it was intense. But I should have been more careful to make it clear that this is just—’

‘Sebastio, stop...’ Edie cut in, horrified that he felt the need to reiterate what he’d told her before. ‘You don’t need to say anything. I know that it was...intense. Maybe not what either of us were expecting... But you don’t need to worry. I’m not falling for you or anything like that.’

Liar.

She could feel heat rising and she rushed on. ‘I will admit that four years ago...when I approached you and you rejected me...I might have harboured a fantasy that things had turned out differently. Well, now they have...and that’s all this is for me. The fulfilment of a fantasy.’

Edie held her breath. She was beyond mortified at having to spell out the fact that she’d thought about him for four years. But better that than his obvious suspicion that she was falling for him in spite of his warning.

And she wasn’t, she told herself fiercely. She couldn’t be. She was smarter than that.

Sebastio felt a mix of emotions. None of which he should be feeling. Edie looked so earnest he couldn’t not believe her. She clearly hated admitting it. And yet it wasn’t relief he was feeling to know that he’d simply fulfilled a fantasy. It was something closer to disgruntlement.

He hated to admit it, but to think he was just some kind of box she’d ticked was seriously irritating. And he didn’t like the thought that he would merely be the first in a long line of lovers.

Voices came from above. Staff returning.

Edie looked panicked. ‘I should go and get dressed. There’s a lot of work to do before the party tomorrow night.’

Sebastio stood back to let her pass. ‘Of course.’

Their scent reached his nostrils. The scent of them together. It was unbelievably erotic and had an immediate effect on Sebastio’s arousal levels, which were constantly raised when this woman was near. As much as he wished he had burned through his desire for her over the space of a weekend, clearly it wasn’t going to be that simple.

He caught her arm as she was about to walk past him. He felt the tension in her body. She looked at him. Eyes huge. Dark blue.

‘This isn’t over, Edie.’