to deal with it.
He held out a hand towards Serena and growled, ‘Come here.’
The flush on her cheeks got pinker. ‘Luca—’
‘Come here and I’ll tell you.’
He saw her bite her lip, the dart of her pink tongue. After a few seconds her hands went to her belt and she undid it and pushed herself up and out of her seat. As soon as she was within touching distance Luca had closed a hand around her wrist and tugged her so that she fell onto his lap with a soft ooph.
‘Luca, what are you—?’
He couldn’t help himself. He covered her mouth with his and stopped her words. A very dangerous kind of relief flowed through him. She would be his. She wasn’t leaving. Her arms crept around his neck after a moment of resistance. Her mouth softened under his. And when he swept his tongue along hers, and she sighed, he could have howled with triumph.
Before he lost it completely he drew back, his breathing laboured. He touched a hand to her jaw, cupping it, running a finger along its delicate line. He looked into her eyes and said, ‘Yes, I’ll give you a job.’
He could feel Serena’s breath making her chest shudder against him. The pressure in his groin intensified.
‘I want a signed agreement, Luca, that you’ll keep your word.’
Indignation made anger flare. ‘You don’t trust me?’ It had all been about him not trusting her. Luca had never considered her not trusting him, and it didn’t sit well.
Serena’s lush mouth compressed. She didn’t answer directly, she said, ‘A promise on paper, Luca, or I’ll leave as soon as we touch down.’
Any feeling of triumph or any sense of control slipped out of Luca’s grasp. His hands were around Serena’s hips, holding her to him, and as much as he wanted to push her back, tell her that no woman dictated to him...he couldn’t. The taste of her was on his tongue and, dammit, it wasn’t enough. Not yet.
So he finally bit out, ‘Fine.’
* * *
Serena took in the frankly mind-boggling three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of Rio de Janeiro outside the glass walls of the penthouse apartment. It was at the top of the building she’d come to that first day.
She turned to face Luca. ‘This is your apartment?’
He was watching her intently and inclined his head. ‘Yes, but I only use it if I’m working late, or for entertaining clients after meetings.’
Or for entertaining mistresses?
Suddenly she didn’t feel half as sure as she had on the plane, when Luca had pulled her into his lap to kiss her. Now her doubts and insecurities were back. Luca affected her...too much.
She crossed her arms. ‘I can’t stay here. It’s inappropriate.’
Luca stifled an inelegant snort. ‘This from the woman who was photographed at her debs in an exclusive Paris hotel in a bathtub full of champagne while dressed in a priceless gown?’
Serena flushed, recalling her father’s malevolent smile and even more malevolent tone of voice: ‘Good girl. We wouldn’t want people to think you’re becoming boring, now, would we?’
Serena chose to ignore Luca’s comment. ‘What about the apartment I was meant to stay in? The one for staff?’
‘It’s no longer available; someone else took your place there.’
‘Well, that’s hardly my fault, is it?’ she retorted hotly.
Luca’s jaw firmed. ‘It’s either here, Serena, or if you insist, the charity will be put to the expense of finding you somewhere else.’
‘No!’ she shot out, aghast. ‘But it’s just—’
He cut in coolly. ‘You’re staying here. I’m sure you can put up with it for two weeks.’
This was what she was afraid of. He made her emotions and blood pressure see-saw out of control.
Luca looked at Serena and narrowed his gaze. She was skittish, nervy. A million miles from the woman who had melted in his arms just a short time before.
‘Serena, what is it?’
She was angry, her cheeks growing pink. ‘I’ve agreed to sleep with you to get a job—how do you think that makes me feel?’
Luca’s conscience pricked but he pointed out, ‘You’re not sleeping with me yet.’
She went redder.
Luca felt something give inside him and ran a hand through his hair impatiently. ‘Look, I behaved like a boor earlier. The very least you deserve is a trial period. I would have given it to you anyway.’
She looked at him, surprised, and it affected him more than he’d like to admit.
‘You would? And what about a job?’
Luca schooled his features. ‘That depends on your trial period—as it would for anyone else.’
He moved closer then, and put his hands on her upper arms. ‘And you are not sleeping with me to get a job. You’re sleeping with me because it’s what you want. What we both want.’
She just looked at him, and something desperate rose inside Luca. He ground out, ‘The door is behind me, Serena. You can walk out right now if that’s what you want and you’ll still get your trial.’
For an infinitesimal moment she said nothing, and he was reminded of telling her where the door was before, willing her to use it. Now he’d launch an army if she tried to leave. He had to consciously stop his hands from gripping her arms tight, as if he could restrain her from walking out. He could see her throat work as she swallowed. Her eyes were wide, pupils as black as night.
She opened her mouth and he kept his eyes off the seductive temptation of those soft lips. He needed to hear this too badly. Needed her to stay.
‘Serena...’
Her tongue moistened those lips. Luca’s pulse jumped.
Her voice was husky. ‘I just want a chance.’
The tension in Luca’s body spiked. Damn her. ‘And? What else?’
She turned her head away and bitterness laced her voice. ‘You know I want you. In the tent...you made me show you. You humiliated me.’
Luca’s chest was tight enough to hurt. An alien sensation. He cursed softly and felt as if some layer of himself was being stripped away when he admitted, ‘Do you know how hard it was for me to stop myself from taking you that night?’
Those blue eyes locked with his. She whispered, ‘You made me feel as if you just wanted to prove your dominance over me.’
Luca tipped her chin up with a finger and felt her jaw clench. He smiled, and it was wry. ‘You credit me with far too much forethought. I needed to hear you say it...that you wanted me. You made me feel that much out of control.’
Instantly something flashed in those piercing eyes—something that made some of Luca’s tightness ease.
‘You’re so in control. It’s almost scary.’
Now Luca was the one to grit his jaw as he recognised that no one had ever said that to him before—certainly not a woman. Serena’s gaze seemed to see right through him to where he stood as a small boy, witnessing the awesome power parents had to rip your life apart. He knew his desire for control and respectability stemmed from that chaotic, messy, tumultuous moment. And here he was, skating far too close to the edges of losing it all again. And yet...he couldn’t walk away.
He said, with quiet conviction, ‘If I was to kiss you right now you’d see how thin the veneer of my control is,