A Proposal to Remember

She gave a nervous shrug. ‘You could stay here.’ The minute the words had left her mouth she wrapped her arms around herself and bit her lip. ‘Forget I said that.’

‘What if I don’t want to forget it?’

She covered her face with her hands and shook her head. ‘I don’t know myself when I’m with you. I’m doing really strange things. Like inviting you up to my flat when you’re a total stranger and inviting you for Christmas. I’ve gone crazy.’

He couldn’t think of a better way to spend Christmas than moving in with Zan and being surrounded by her warmth and laughter and her incredible body.

But he couldn’t do it.

His life was just too complicated at the moment. Complicated and dangerous and he wouldn’t put her at risk.

And he could see that she was really confused about the strength of her own feelings.

Carlo stepped forward and gently pulled her hands away from her face. ‘As you said earlier, we probably need to slow the pace a little. Let’s see how it goes, shall we?’

She hesitated, and then gave a smile that was just a little too bright. ‘Good idea.’

He sighed and covered her soft lips with a finger. ‘I know what you’re thinking and you’re wrong. You’re thinking that when I walk out of this door that’s going to be it.’

Colour touched her cheekbones. ‘I’ve got four brothers,’ she muttered. ‘I know all the lines they use.’

Zan was incredibly brave and dignified, but he had enough experience with women to know that she was as attracted to him as he was to her.

‘I’m not using any of those lines,’ Carlo said firmly, ignoring the flash of guilt that exploded inside him.

He was deceiving her.

And he probably ought to walk away from her and never see her again because he wasn’t in a position to give this woman anything but grief.

But he wasn’t going to do that.

He had to see her again.

* * *

‘Where the hell have you been?’

Carlo glanced at Matteo Parini, his long-time friend and his father’s chief of security. ‘I went for a walk.’

He shrugged his shoulders out of his coat.

‘For five hours?’

‘Calm down, Matt, or you’ll have a stroke,’ Carlo said mildly. ‘I left a message on your mobile.’

‘Five hours ago!!’

‘So?’ Carlo gave a shrug. ‘I met a girl.’

A girl who had no idea who he was.

For possibly the first time in his life Carlo was sure that a woman was interested in him for himself alone, and he found the knowledge oddly satisfying. Zan didn’t know anything about his money.

There was an ominous silence and Matt stiffened with disbelief. ‘A girl? You’ve been in London for one evening and already you’ve met someone? That’s fast, even for you.’

Not just someone.

The one.