Page 42 of Unveiled As The Italian's Bride
She’d been wrong.
Every nerve in her body was ablaze with something powerful and frightening as she continued to quietly wriggle away from his heavy embrace.
She had no idea what the time was but the snow was still falling and it was inky-black through the windows.
She felt his arm tighten around her and, when she inched her head to take a look, she started because he was looking right back at her.
‘Where are you going?’
Dante, who slept as lightly as a cat, had awakened before Kate had even begun her tentative withdrawal. But, instead of pulling back from the highly unnatural position in which he’d found himself, he had stayed put, enjoying the feel of her against him, as slight as a reed and as delicate as an orchid.
She smelled fragrant. Half-asleep, half-awake, he had breathed her in, enjoying the flowery, clean scent and absently linking it to her absolute lack of artifice.
Dante did not share his bed with anyone. Even when he’d been married, Luciana had had her own quarters. Twenty-four-seven intimacy had never been on his agenda. Towards the end of their short, disastrous marriage, intimacy had become an abstract concept bearing no relation to real life, because the very sight and sound of his ex had made him grind his teeth in frustration and despair.
‘Dante, this isn’t working.’
She flipped over and he drew back, although it was a small bed and he was still so close that she could feel the warmth of his body. He also still had his arm lightly draped over her, resting in the dip of her waist. She tapped it with her finger and then nudged it away.
‘It’s a small bed. Some physical contact is probably going to happen. Are you bothered by it?’
‘No! But...’
‘Then why do you say it isn’t working?’ He paused and, in a voice thick with pseudo concern, asked, ‘Have I unconsciously done anything during the night to provoke your concern? I haven’t made a pass at you,have I?’
‘No!’
‘Good! I thought that perhaps, in the dead of night and half-asleep, I might have...’
‘Nothing of the sort!’ Kate was wildly flustered and fast regretting that she had opened the conversation at all when she could simply have shifted away from him and fallen back asleep.
‘That’s a relief although, as I’ve already assured you, I’m an intensely disciplined man. Plus, as you’ve quite rightly pointed out, we’re destined to share a bed at some point in time. It’s inevitable, and foolishly something I hadn’t factored in.’
‘Yes...’
‘There will be work-related events...family situations... Something as straightforward as staying with my uncle might very well require us to share a bedroom, and not all those bedrooms will have sofas large enough for me to occupy. I don’t think it’s going to be feasible to issue a short questionnaire on the contents of other people’s guest quarters every time we accept an invitation that requires an overnight stay.’
‘Granted, but...’
‘The key question I feel I must be asking is whether I make you nervous. Do I? I wouldn’t want you to feel unsafe with me lying here next to you.’
His voice was low and soft with the dark, velvety smoothness of the finest chocolate and it brought her out in a delicious cold sweat.
‘Unsafe?’Kate was swamped by images of him lying next to her with those sexy boxers and tee-shirt off, images of her hands scrabbling over his chest, her body hot and willing, opening up to him like a flower slowly unfurling. ‘Of course I don’t! You’ve been the perfect gentleman.’
Because you don’t find me attractive...
Why, oh why, had she embarked on this excruciatingly awkward conversation?
‘Good. Because you might be a very desirable woman but, as you’ve correctly pointed out, I’m the perfect gentleman.’
‘Desirable?’ Kate squeaked.
‘I hope I haven’t embarrassed you but honesty, I feel, at all costs.’
‘That’s...ridiculous.’
‘Interesting way to respond to a compliment...’
