she echoed innocently.
‘There is so much you haven’t done, Gracie.’ The promise in his eyes was unmistakable. ‘You wanted that wildness in amongst the precious. Why not just live in the moment?’
‘Are you coming over all mindful?’ She chuckled, her gaze dropping to his knuckles again. Heat stole over her as she registered just how tense he was.
‘Don’t make this into anything more than what it is,’ he said with that roughness again. ‘That is your inexperience showing.’
‘But if it isn’t anything all that, why did you have to leave?’
He closed his eyes briefly, huffing out a strangled laugh at the same time. ‘Because it’s strong. And in my experience, that’s rare. I want you. I can’t think of anything else.’
She knew that problem. The frustration. The desire that was inexorably drawing her closer now that he was back. And she saw the resistance within him. He was holding back—not touching her. Not letting his natural dominance be unleashed.
‘Please, Gracie.’ He was asking nicely and she was lost.
Slowly she walked closer. ‘Who was the woman in Paris?’
‘Isabella. I’ve known her since college. She’s in a long-term relationship. We’ve never been lovers.’
Wow, so much information from one question. ‘Did you want to be?’
He shook his head. ‘She’s not my type.’
A model who wasn’t his type?
‘I’m not a walking hormone, Gracie.’ He glared at her. ‘I don’t want every woman I meet. Right now you’re the only woman I want.’
She was hit by another rush of primal satisfaction. It served only to melt the last of her rational resistance. ‘If we do this again, we’re exclusive. I won’t tolerate you sleeping with anyone else while you’re doing that with me.’
‘Doing “that”?’ He half laughed. ‘I’m insulted you’d think I would. I might’ve had a lot of lovers, but only ever one at a time. And when we’re over, you’ll be the first to know. For the record, I never use the next woman to end my relationship with the previous one. Don’t you use another man against me either. Not even a seventy-year-old.’
She smiled. ‘Alex is my friend and he cares about me. That’s different.’
She walked the last few steps and knelt up on the chair right in front of him. His knuckles whitened.
‘Gracie,’ he groaned, and leaned closer. ‘This isn’t going to be only one night again. It’s going to take more than that.’
‘What happened to short time frames?’
‘You want this,’ he whispered, not answering her question. ‘You want me.’
He was right. She’d been unable to think about anything else in these last few days. He’d completely dominated her thoughts. She couldn’t even enjoy Alex’s roses without thinking of him now.
‘Absolutely,’ she admitted. ‘I adore you.’
‘Adore?’ He cocked his head like he wasn’t sure what he was hearing.
‘Don’t panic.’ She laughed weakly. ‘It’s just a phase. Like a crush. It’ll pass and I’ll get over it.’
He breathed out. ‘You’ll get over it more quickly if we let it run its course. The more we try to ignore it, the worse it’s going to become.’
‘I don’t think it can get much worse,’ she whispered.
He kissed her. His hands lifted. Somehow she was on that big kitchen table and she was soaring with every sweep of his tongue.
‘Why are you wearing trousers?’ he muttered thickly.
‘I didn’t trust myself. I thought it might slow things down. I regret it now.’
He laughed and slid his hand beneath the waistband of her trousers. He drew in a deep breath. ‘You’re not ready for slow, Gracie.’
‘No.’ She arched breathlessly as he played her. ‘I’m not.’
So not slow.
When she could think again, she reached up to touch him, but he grabbed her wrists and held them from him. ‘Stay the night with me.’ He smiled winningly. ‘I’m asking nicely.’
‘While holding me captive,’ she teased.
He released her but stayed too close for her to think straight.
‘You’re saying no?’ he asked.
She sat up and trailed her fingers down his chest and then grabbed his lean hips. ‘Maybe we could do something more before I leave.’
He cupped her face gently. Too gently—it made her heart race unevenly.
‘Why do you have to leave?’ he asked. ‘Life is precious, right? Why can’t we be wicked and wild all night?’
She looked into his eyes and saw unspent passion blazing. Her bones trembled. He made her feel so good but this was more intense than she’d expected—which ought to have been impossible given what had happened between them the other day. She shouldn’t stay, she felt a vulnerability curling within. ‘I have an early start tomorrow.’
‘Call in sick tomorrow,’ he dared. ‘Spend the day with me. All night. All day.’
He was joking but it was actually so tempting she got angry with herself—but turned it on him. ‘You want me to ditch all my commitments? To drop everything else in my life to meet your sexual needs?’
‘Not just my needs,’ he pointed out, purposefully kissing her neck, apparently already confident of her surrender. ‘You want this too.’
‘I can’t. I have to go,’ she pleaded, but couldn’t help tilting her head to let him have greater access. ‘I can’t let Francesca down. I have work. I can’t just not show up.’
‘Move in with me,’ he said in a low voice. ‘I’ll work from here for a while and then we’ll have all night, every night. At the weekends, you’re mine. You do get weekends off, don’t you?’
She was too busy trying to process his first words to be able to answer that last question. ‘You want me to move in with you?’
He eased back and looked into her eyes. ‘Briefly.’
She half laughed, her suddenly strung-out nerves getting the better of her. ‘Well done on the clarification. Wouldn’t want me getting the wrong idea.’
She so didn’t want to get the wrong idea about this. But she couldn’t believe what he’d just asked.
He grinned. ‘I’ve been reliably informed honesty is the best policy.’
‘Been talking to someone wise?’ She desperately tried to maintain the teasing, but tension knotted her stomach. Staying with him—even briefly—was an alarmingly appealing idea and she instinctively shied from its strength.
‘Someone with a smart mouth.’
He was joking. Surely. She tried to focus on all the practical reasons why she should say no. ‘I start work very, very early.’ And cycling from the villa would mean she’d have to wake even earlier.
‘I’ll drop you there. I’ll have slept better with you beside me.’
Her innards melted at the thought of sleeping beside him night after night, of cuddling and curling close. Of being that intimate with him.
‘Because it’s still all about you,’ she tried to joke, tried to stall, tried to steady her trembling slide