Until his hand slipped down to cup her buttocks. What was natural and instinctive for him was frightening for her. It was too intimate. It was everything she craved, yet feared, and, having lost her confidence, she pulled back.
‘Eva?’ Roman’s lips brushed her mouth, fogging her brain.
A woman of her age afraid of sex?
‘Why are you frightened of me?’
‘I’m not—okay, maybe I’ve heard things—’ Desperate lie, and she hated herself for it.
‘Do you believe everything you hear, Eva?’
He looked at her slender shoulders, pale and vulnerable in the moonlight. He felt strangely protective towards a woman who had done nothing but fight him. He wanted her, but only if Eva came to him because she wanted to, and without the doubts that seemed to dog her. Eva wasn’t just another notch on his bedpost. She already connected with some deep part of him that no one else had ever reached. He wanted to bring her pleasure. He wanted to hold her in his arms and—
‘Stop!’ he yelled as she wandered towards the edge of the cliff. He knew this path like the back of his hand. She didn’t. He didn’t need a grudging shaft of moonlight to tell him that was she far too close to the edge. Catching hold of her, he drew her back. His voice gentled. ‘Are you going to swim from here? Seriously, don’t wander off. Not here. It’s too dangerous.’
They had left the party lights a long way behind. There was just the sea in front of them spread out like a glittering cloth touching a star-frosted sky. And one step away from Eva’s feet was a yawning void leading to a boulder-strewn beach.
‘I...’ She turned her face up to him and swallowed awkwardly. She’d clearly had quite a shock. He wanted to kiss her but this time held back.
‘What do you say to someone who just saved your life?’ she asked him.
‘I think we should take it slowly from here?’
Pressing her lips together, she sighed with exasperation, and then said, ‘Agreed.’
‘Don’t sound so worried, Eva. I’ll keep you safe—so long as you don’t wander off again.’
They stood in silence for quite a while. They had both said more than they had intended to, she guessed, and then Roman’s idea of safe was to lead her on towards the palazzo. She had always thought herself in charge of her own fate, but tonight that wasn’t going so well.
‘I do have to thank you for saving me.’
‘However annoying you are, I’m not going to let you fall over a cliff, Eva.’
There was a smile in his voice. She was relieved to hear it. She enjoyed the light banter with Roman, and wanted to tell him that she did trust him, but that she didn’t trust herself not to make a mess of things. Stepping off a cliff was the least of it.
‘Just one more request,’ he said.
She glanced up.
‘Can you stop sighing like that? I can’t tell if those sighs mean you’re excited, reluctant or just plain exhausted.’
‘All that dancing and kissing?’ she mocked lightly. ‘I think I can handle it.’
She knew where this was leading; she’d always known. She could have pulled back at any time. But had she? When they reached the palazzo she’d tell him the truth. It really was that simple. She’d tell Roman frankly that she wasn’t going to have sex with him, and that for all her talk she just wasn’t that type of girl.
So what type of girl was she?
‘Where are you now, Eva?’
‘Right by your side.’ But she knew what he meant, and Roman was a big man who no doubt had an appetite to match. Her stomach tumbled at the thought of what she’d done. He’d taken her at face value—the kiss and her response to it. Eva Skavanga was notoriously passionate, so why wouldn’t she be passionate in every area of her life? Perhaps it would be better to tell him now—
‘Eva—’
Her heart lurched as Roman turned to face her. She took a step back and found her spine pressed up hard against the smooth rock face with Roman’s fists planted either side of her, boxing her in. There was no escape. His stare was keen and all the more compelling lit by moonlight.
‘How about you tell me the truth before we get any further into this?’
‘How did you—?’
‘How did I know? Are you serious? Like I’ve said before, Eva, I can read you. It isn’t that hard. And now I want to know the truth from you—all of it.’
‘The truth?’ Was this really going to be the moment when she explained that she wasn’t the girl everyone thought she was?
Relaxing his arms, Roman stepped back with a shrug. ‘Coming here to the island to see me has everything to do with Skavanga, and nothing to do with our meeting at the wedding?’
‘Nothing at all,’ she said, turning away. ‘Can I go now?’ She sidestepped him with a smile.
‘Be my guest...’
They were only yards from the gates of Roman’s palazzo and the gulf between them had never seemed wider. She’d done it again. She’d messed everything up. She didn’t know what she wanted, or what she didn’t want.
Roman stood back at the gate to let her in. He was so sure of himself, so relaxed. He made no attempt to move aside, which forced her to brush against him. His machismo scorched her. Every nerve in her body fired at once. Her physical self cried out for pleasure, while the old Eva shrank back, already tasting failure.
‘Come on...’ Putting his arm around her shoulder, Roman led her forward. He opened the door and took her inside, across the hall and up the stairs, and along the elegant landing. He backed her into his room, his dark stare holding hers. He leaned past her to shut the door.
Her heart went crazy. ‘I can’t do this.’
‘Can’t do what, Eva?’
‘Whatever it is you expect of me, I can’t do it.’
‘You’re sure of that?’
‘I’m certain.’
‘How do you know what I want you to do?’ The shadow of a smile hovered around his lips. ‘I promise not to tell anyone that Eva Skavanga lost her nerve, if you promise not to tell anyone I had to trick you into kissing me.’
‘You mean...’
‘Do I want to kiss you? What do you think, Eva?’
Dipping his head, Roman kissed her slowly and thoroughly as he backed her towards the bed, and, in spite of all her promises to get herself out of this, her grip on him tightened with every step.
‘IS THIS WHAT you want?’ Roman whispered, transferring his kisses to her neck. ‘And this?’ He teased her ear lobe as she trembled uncontrollably in his arms.
She couldn’t speak. Her legs were shaking beneath her. Roman was holding her up while she floated in sensation, and when his big hand found her breast and his skilful fingers got to work, the fact that he could be so delicate, so intuitive, and that he could instil such confidence in her, brought the last of her barriers crashing down.
A sigh shivered out of her as his hand found a warm home between her legs.