She chewed her bottom lip, unsure what to do.
She felt wedged between two unpleasant alternatives, neither of which was going to leave her unscathed at the end of the evening.
CHAPTER THREE
“OUR reservations are for eight-thirty. We have to be on our way, piccola mia,” Luciano said, completely ignoring David.
“Are all European men so arrogant?” David asked her in direct retaliation.
She shot a quick sideways glance to see how Luciano had taken her friend’s insolence. His expression was unreadable. “Shall we go?” he asked her.
David expelled an angry hiss.
She laid her hand on his forearm. This was getting ridiculous and if she didn’t act soon, her friend would be well on his way to making an enemy of a very powerful man. David was too young to realize the long term impact on his future business dealings such an action might have. Though she was irritated by David’s behavior, she liked him too much to let him do something so stupid.
Besides, if she went with Luciano, she hoped David would get the message she wanted his friendship, but wasn’t interested in anything more. She couldn’t be. She might want to hate Luciano, but he remained the only man she could think of in that way.
She had no experience with brushing off a man’s interest and this seemed the easiest way.
“I’m sorry. Can we make it another night?” she asked by way of atonement.
“We won’t be in Athens another night,” he reminded her.
“I know.”
He would probably have said more, but the bus driver called the final boarding call, shouting specifically for David to get a move on.
“You’d better go,” she said, relieved the confrontation could not be prolonged. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“All right, honey.” He bent down and kissed her briefly on the lips.
Shocked, she stared at him speechless. He’d never even kissed her cheek before.
He smiled, not with his usual friendly grin, but with an implied intimacy that did not exist between them. “If you don’t want to wait for morning, you can come by my room tonight after your grandfather’s crony drops you off.”
The implication that Luciano was old enough to be in her grandfather’s generation was enough to make her lips quirk despite the unwelcome kiss and male posturing.
“Perhaps your young friend’s dates are used to going home unsatisfied and in need of further male companionship,” Luciano drawled silkily, “but I can promise you, bella mia, you will have no such need tonight.”
She gasped, all humor fleeing, and glowered at both men. “That’s enough. Both of you. I have no intention of letting anyone satisfy me.” She blushed even as she said the words and was irritated with herself for doing so.
“I do not appreciate this petty male posturing either.” She didn’t have to choose the best of two poor options, she could make another one. “I don’t think I want to have dinner out at all. I’d rather eat room service alone in my hotel room than be in the company of any arrogant male.”
With a triumphant glare at Luciano that did not endear him to her, David loped off toward the bus where the driver stood at the open door with obvious impatience. She started to follow him, determined to do just as she’d threatened. David might think he’d won, but he would find out differently if he tried to coax her out of her room tonight.
She’d gotten no further than a step when Luciano’s hands settled on her shoulder, arresting her in mid-flight. “We need to discuss your regrettable tendency to leave before our conversations are finished. It is not polite, piccola.”
He pulled her into his side and waved the bus driver off in one fluid movement.
She watched in impotent anger as the big vehicle pulled away. It was that, or scream like a madwoman for the bus driver to stop. She wasn’t even sure he would hear her with the door closed and the rather noisy air-conditioning unit running full tilt. And she had absolutely no desire to make a spectacle of herself in front of the tourists milling about the parking area. His highhanded tactics had effectively left her with no choice but to stay behind with Luciano.
She didn’t have to like it however and she tore away from his side with unconcealed contempt. “That was extremely discourteous, signor. I don’t appreciate being manhandled, nor do I accept you have the right or the reason to dictate my activities.”
He frowned down at her. “I may not yet have the right, but I do have the reason. I wish to spend time with you, cara.”
“And my wishes count for nothing?” she demanded while reeling inside from such an admission from him as well as the tender endearment.
“Your wishes are of utmost importance to me, but do you really prefer ordering room service to an evening spent in my company?”
That was very much in question. It wasn’t her preference, but her preservation she was concerned about. “You were insufferably rude. You implied you were going to…That we…As if I would!”
She could not make herself say the words aloud and that made her mad. Angry with him for implying he was going to take her to bed in the first place and furious with herself for still being such a backward creature she couldn’t discuss sex without blushing like the virgin she was.
His laughter was the last straw as far as she was concerned. She didn’t have to stick around to be made fun of. She’d suffered enough at his hands in that regard already.
She turned on her heel with every intention of finding some sort of public transport to take her back to the hotel. Once again he stopped her. This time, he wrapped his arms around her middle and pulled her back into his body with a ruthless purpose.
His lips landed on her nape in a sensual caress that sent her thoughts scattering to the four winds. “I have ached to taste you again for six long months. You must forgive me if my enthusiasm for your company makes me act without proper courtesy.”
Enthusiasm did not take six months to act, but she was too busy trying not to melt into a puddle of feminine need at his feet to tell him so. “Luciano?” she finally got out.
He spun her around to face him. “Spend the evening with me, cara. You know you want to.”
“David was right. You are arrogant.”
“I am also right.”
She would have argued, but he kissed her. The moment his lips touched hers, she was lost. His mouth moved on hers with expert effect, drawing forth a response she could not hide or control. She allowed his tongue inside her mouth after the first gentle pressure applied to the seam of her lips.
He tasted like she remembered. Hot. Spicy. Masculine.
When he pulled away, she was too lost in her own sensual reaction to his kiss to even notice he was leading her anywhere. It wasn’t until he stopped at the waiting limo and rapped out instructions to the ever-present security team, that she once again became aware of her surroundings.
Mary, mother of Joseph, it was just like at the party.
He could have done anything to her and she would have let him. She was also aware that while she’d been completely lost to reality, he had been in absolute control.
She tried to tell herself she was letting him hand her into the car because she didn’t relish riding public transport alone at night in a foreign country. But she knew the truth. If she didn’t sit down soon, she’d fall down. Her legs were like jelly and no way did she want him realizing that betraying fact.