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CHAPTER TWELVE

HANNAH HAD JUST put Jamie to bed and changed into comfy yoga pants and a fleece hoodie when the doorbell rang. She was exhausted, emotionally spent from having been on high alert with Luca in the office, and she wanted to do nothing more than kick back with a glass of wine and maybe some ice cream and watch several hours of soothingly mindless reality TV.

Suspecting her elderly neighbour needed help opening a jar or reaching something on a high shelf—Hannah was called on for these kinds of services several times a week—she opened her front door with a sunny smile pasted onto her face and felt it slide right off when her stunned gaze took in the sight of the powerful form filling her doorway.

‘Luca...what are you doing here?’

‘I want to talk.’ He bent his head so as not to hit the low stone lintel. ‘May I come in?’

Hannah had a kneejerk reaction to refuse. She didn’t want him in her house, overwhelming her life with his presence, his power. She glanced behind her, as if looking for assistance but none was forthcoming. ‘All right.’

She led Luca to the small sitting room, which, after a quick post-tea tidy-up, was free of any evidence of her son. ‘Is something wrong?’

‘Not exactly.’ Luca’s perceptive gaze took in the little room with its worn sofa and coffee table, the small TV in the corner. With framed prints on the walls and bookcases overflowing with paperbacks, it was homey and cosy but a far cry from the luxury Hannah knew he was accustomed to.

‘I’m not pregnant,’ she blurted. ‘If that’s why you came. It’s certain.’

‘Oh.’ Luca looked surprised, and then discomfited. ‘No, that’s not why I’m here.’

‘Oh. Okay.’ Flummoxed, she gestured to a chair. ‘Would you like to sit down?’ It felt surreal to have Luca in her little house, taking up all the space and air. She sat on the sofa and he sat in a chair opposite, his hands resting on his muscular thighs.

‘This isn’t working, Hannah.’

Her stomach lurched unpleasantly. She couldn’t pretend not to understand what he was talking about. ‘I’ll get over it,’ she said a bit desperately. ‘It can work—’

‘It’s not just you,’ he interjected. ‘I feel it too.’

Her heart somersaulted at that admission but she still felt wary. She couldn’t lose her job. ‘So what are you suggesting? I need my job—’

Luca grimaced in distaste. ‘Do you actually think I’d fire you over this?’

‘You might think of a convenient reason to let me go or at least shift me to another position in the company.’ The latter wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, even if she’d miss the status and salary, not to mention the challenge, of being the CEO’s executive assistant. And, she admitted painfully, she’d miss Luca.

‘That’s not the kind of man I am,’ he answered stonily, and Hannah thought she detected hurt underneath his hard manner.

‘I’m sorry, I’m just paranoid, I suppose.’ She spread her hands. ‘You hold all the cards, Luca.’

‘Then let me play one now. I want you, Hannah. I want you in my bed. Properly, and not just for a few mindless minutes.’

Hannah stared at him in shock, the blood draining from her head, making her dizzy. She could not think to string two words together.

‘I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t have an affair,’ Luca stated. ‘We’re obviously attracted to one another, and those feelings are not going away. I think it would be far better to explore this mutual attraction to our satisfaction, and then part on good terms.’ His eyes glittered as he pinned her with his stare. ‘I’m a very considerate and generous lover, Hannah.’

‘I know you are,’ she answered numbly. The shock was dissipating, replaced by anger, and, far worse, hurt. ‘I’ve arranged the courier from Tiffany & Co. enough times to realise,’ she added tartly.

Luca didn’t look remotely abashed at this statement. ‘Then you agree?’

‘To what, exactly? Being your mistress?’ Her voice rang out, making him blink in surprise. Hannah held on to her rage. Better to be angry than to break down into tears, bitterly disappointed that this was what he was offering her. No-strings sex. How could she even be surprised?

‘“Mistress” is an outdated term,’ Luca observed. ‘And not one I’m entirely comfortable with.’

‘But isn’t that what you have? Mistresses?’

‘Lovers,’ he corrected swiftly. ‘And one at a time. You’re an independent woman, Hannah. I’m not suggesting I take that away from you.’

‘But what are you suggesting? Because I’ve seen you with other women enough to know what you want.’

Ire flashed briefly in his eyes. ‘I had no idea you were so knowledgeable of my desires,’ he remarked. ‘What is it that you think I want?’

‘Availability,’ Hannah answered. ‘You like your women to drop everything when you crook your little finger. Yet at the same time you like them not to fuss when you don’t reciprocate.’

‘I’m a busy man.’

‘And I’m a busy woman,’ Hannah snapped.

Luca raised his eyebrows in eloquent disbelief. ‘Is that your only reservation? Because I feel quite confident that we can work something out.’

‘I bet you do.’

‘Why are you so offended?’

‘Because I don’t want to be your bit on the side,’ Hannah cried, rising from the sofa and pacing the confines of the room in her agitation. ‘I don’t want to be anyone’s bit on the side.’

‘You wouldn’t be. To say that is to suggest I’d be entertaining other women at the same time, and I assure you I am always faithful to my current partner.’

‘Oh, well, then.’ Hannah rolled her eyes. ‘That’s a relief.’

Luca pressed his lips together. ‘What, exactly, is your objection?’

Hannah stared at him, knowing she was being emotional and unreasonable. This offer was exactly the sort of thing she should have expected from Luca. It was what she’d been contemplating herself over that fateful weekend. So why was she acting all outraged now?

With a sigh Hannah ceased her pacing and sat back down on the sofa. ‘I’m sorry, Luca, but I find everything about your offer objectionable. It’s tempting, of course it is, because you’re right. I am attracted to you, very much so, and it’s hard to ignore that.’

Luca’s eyes glittered starkly in his set expression. ‘Then don’t.’

‘But I don’t want an affair,’ Hannah explained, even though at the moment she was questioning her own sanity at turning down the most desirable and compelling man she’d ever known. ‘At least, I don’t want just an affair.’

‘Ah.’ Comprehension dawned on Luca’s features and his lips gave a cynical twist. ‘So that really was a “maybe”.’

Hannah laughed sadly. ‘I suppose it was.’ She took a deep breath, needing to explain herself further. ‘I know what it’s like when a man wants you to simply slot into his life, and that’s not what a relationship is about.’

‘The boyfriend of six years ago?’

‘Yes.’

‘But you miss him.’

‘Yes, although it isn’t as simple as that. But a relationship, for me, is give and take. Wanting to be with a person no matter what comes your way, not only in a set of circumstances arranged to your liking. And frankly, Luca, I don’t want to be dropped when you’ve burned through this thing between us.’

Luca’s mouth quirked upwards even as his eyes remained hard. ‘Maybe I’d be the one to be dropped.’

‘Considering how quickly you’ve worked through women, I think that’s unlikely,’ Hannah answered. ‘You’re only the second man I’ve ever been with. Perhaps I’m responding more emotionally because of that. But the answer has to be no, Luca.’ Her heart twisted in protest but Hannah remained firm. ‘I want more from a relationship, if I ever choose to have one. I’m not even sure I would. It is risky. We both know that. You clearly don’t want to take the risk and I’m not sure I do, either.’

‘So you want more than I’m offering, except you’re not even sure you’d be willing to risk it?’ Luca surmised tersely. ‘You can’t have it both ways, Hannah.’

‘I’m not having it any way,’ Hannah answered with wry sorrow. ‘But I’m definitely not interested in the kind of arrangement you’re suggesting.’ She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. ‘It’s not for me.’ Even though it hurt, more than she’d ever admit, to turn him, and her only offer of happiness and companionship, down.

It wouldn’t end well, she knew that. She’d start to care too much and Luca would get bored with her. He’d treat her like any of his other women and that would shatter her confidence and break her heart. It was better this way, to end it before it began, even if it felt as if she were being torn in two.

Luca stared at her for a long moment. ‘If you’re sure,’ he said quietly.

‘I’m not sure,’ Hannah admitted on a despondent laugh. She couldn’t keep the yearning from her voice or the desire from pooling inside her. ‘All you’d have to do is touch me, Luca,’ she admitted, and she knew she wasn’t warning him; she was asking him.

Knew Luca realised it as well as heat flared in his eyes, turning them nearly black, as he eased off his chair, coming to kneel before her. She could see the light glinting on the blue-black strands of his hair and wonderingly she reached out and touched the rough-smooth stubble on his jaw. She shouldn’t do this. She really shouldn’t do this, and yet she had to.

‘Hannah, do you know what you do to me?’ he breathed.

‘Tell me,’ Hannah answered. She felt transfixed, almost drugged, by the desire that stole through her veins at the mere thought of Luca touching her. Wanting her.

‘You drive me crazy,’ Luca muttered as his hands slid under her hair, cradling her face and tilting her towards him so their lips were a whisper apart. ‘You make me lose my mind. All I’ve been thinking about for the last week is this.’ And then he kissed hers, his lips slanting across hers in blatant, primal possession.

Hannah opened herself up to his kiss, yielding everything under the delicious onslaught of his mouth and hands, her body arching towards his as her hands tangled in his hair.

‘How can you say no to this?’ Luca demanded as he slid his hands under her hoodie, his bare palms cupping her breasts, the friction of skin on skin making her shudder with longing.

‘I’m not saying no, am I?’ she muttered thickly as Luca tugged the zipper down her hoodie.

‘Don’t ever say no,’ Luca commanded as he pulled her hoodie off. ‘I can’t bear it. Don’t ever say no to me, Hannah.’

Hannah knew she was powerless to say anything at that moment. Her hands roved greedily over his chest, tugging his shirt out of his trousers, for she longed to feel his skin against hers. With a groan Luca tore at his shirt and Hannah was about to tug her own shirt over her head when some distant, desire-fogged part of her brain registered the creak on the stair.

Her hands stilled and Luca glanced at her, his breathing ragged, a question in his eyes.

No, Hannah thought. No, please...

The door creaked open. ‘Mummy...?’