A very feminine dampness was growing between her legs and she crossed them in a moment of self-consciousness. His eye immediately went to one pale thigh and Orla cursed her choice of dress. She put her hands on her leg and he looked back up, a smile making his mouth quirk again as if he knew exactly how awkward she felt.
He sat back. ‘So...tell me, you’re here on business?’
Orla nodded. She really didn’t want to get into anything that reminded her of the reality she faced. The inevitable takeover of her family business. So she said, ‘I’m in sales...’
Which was pretty much true. Along with marketing, management, PR, entertainment, travel, diplomacy...
The man grimaced and said, ‘I’m in acquisitions. It’s a grind, isn’t it?’
Orla regarded him suspiciously. This man looked no more like a banal businessman caught up in the daily grind than Santa Claus in full flight with all the reindeer. But she sensed intoxicatingly as if they’d both tacitly agreed to pretend to be something, someone, else.
She was about to respond when something unpalatable occurred to her. She glanced at his left hand and didn’t see a ring, but that didn’t mean anything. ‘Are you married?’
He shook his head and the faintly sick expression that passed over his features assured her even more than when he said, ‘No...’
Then he frowned. ‘Are you?’
Orla shook her head quickly and repressed a shudder. No way was she ever getting married so that some man could come and take half of the business she’d worked so hard to build up with her father. She’d seen the detrimental effects a marriage had on a business. ‘No,’ she said quickly, emphatically.
‘Well, as we’ve established that we’re both free and single...where were we?’
Orla repressed a shiver of awareness, of pure physical longing, and the feeling that she wasn’t in control of what was happening at all. She forced her mind to operate. ‘We were in sales and acquisitions, I believe.’ And why did that suddenly sound so...suggestive?
‘Ah, yes...’
The waiter returned then with their drinks. Whisky for both of them.
The man lifted his glass and tipped it towards her. ‘To chance encounters.’
Orla lifted her glass too, and said, ‘To very forward men with pathetic chat-up lines.’
He smiled. And so did she. They took a drink and Orla relished the smooth feel of the liquid running down her throat. Warming her up. She felt unbearably sensual all of a sudden. Languorous.
‘Perhaps we should exchange names?’
Orla’s chest tightened. Names were real. They would root this in reality and she suddenly didn’t want that.
Far more lightly than she felt, she said, ‘I think introductions are overrated. We’ll most likely never meet again. What’s the point?’
His eyes glinted in the dim light. A tiny smile tipped up one corner of his mouth. ‘We don’t have to divulge real names if you don’t want to. But I would like to call you...something.’
Orla went hot again. So that he could call her something in the throes of passion? The wicked thought made her pulse spasm between her legs.
He held out a hand then, a mischievous look in his eye. ‘I’m Marco.’
Orla put her hand in his and for a second her mind blanked when his big one enclosed hers completely. When she felt the calluses on his skin.
‘I’m...Kate.’
‘Nice to meet you, Kate...?’
Orla smiled at his obvious query as to her second name and pulled her hand free. ‘Just Kate.’
He nodded. ‘Kate Kate, it is. And I’m Marco Marco.’
Lord. No man Orla had ever met came close to this man. He enveloped her in sexual awareness. She felt energised. Alive.
‘You have a meeting here tomorrow?’
Immediately Orla rejected another reminder of reality. She shook her head. ‘Let’s...not talk about tomorrow.’
He went still and his eyes narrowed on her face. She could see him look at her mouth and she imagined she could feel it tingle.
He said with a rough edge to his voice, ‘No real names and no tomorrow. You’re right. The present is so much more interesting.’
He leant forward, glass in his hand. ‘I was about to leave when you walked in.’
Orla’s heart hitched. ‘You were?’
He nodded. ‘But then I saw you and I stopped.’
Mesmerised by his dark gaze, Orla asked faintly, ‘Why did you stop?’
‘Because you captivated me.’
‘Oh...’ For a long moment she said nothing, could only look at his mouth as a tight wire of need seemed to link to the insistent throbbing between her legs.
‘This is where you say you noticed me too...’ Marco supplied helpfully.
Orla’s eyes rose. She felt dizzy. She was losing it. No longer herself. ‘I didn’t see you at first.... I don’t know why.’
The man’s mouth flattened for a second. ‘I was hidden. In the shadows.’
Orla nodded slowly. Something touched her—as if what he was saying had a deeper resonance. ‘You were.... That’s why I didn’t see you. At first.’
Orla couldn’t stop talking. ‘And then when I did...I couldn’t look away.’
She blushed now and clasped her drink in two hands. ‘But I didn’t want you to think I was encouraging you.’
‘Don’t worry,’ came the dry response. ‘You gave a fairly frosty signal to stay away.’
She looked up, incensed. ‘I’m not frosty!’
He got all heavy-lidded. ‘I know...’
Orla went hot all over. Her nipples ached now they were so tight. Her belly clenched with need. She’d never been this turned on in her life.
The bar space was like a dark decadent cocoon. Orla glanced around and noticed that the table of men had left. So had the amorous couple at the bar. There was only one other remaining older couple, and she hadn’t even noticed. She felt a jolt of shock.
Marco lifted his glass and downed what was left of his drink in one go. For a second Orla had the wrenching sensation that he was going to leave and the feeling of rejection of that idea stunned her. She didn’t even know this man!
He put his glass down and Orla took a quick fortifying sip of hers. He looked at her for a long intense moment and she couldn’t even break the tension because it resonated within her. She wanted this man with an urgency that was completely alien. And thrilling.
His voice was deep. ‘I wanted you from the moment you walked in. I want you so much I ache with it. And I can’t remember the last time I wanted a woman this badly.’
Orla’s mouth went dry. The sum total of their physical contact so far had been his hand on her wrist to restrain her from leaving, but she knew that if he put his mouth anywhere near hers she would go up in flames.
Something about his brutal honesty connected with her. It was so much more seductive than if he’d insisted on some meaningless patter for another half an hour when they both knew that what was happening between them was crazy. Unreal. Unprecedented.
Feeling shaky at the thought of even contemplating what she was contemplating, Orla said, ‘I...I want you too.’
His eyes flashed and