LITMIR.BIZ

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mind the staff who would come in the next morning.

      ‘You could have warned me about your friend,’ Hannah said after a tense silence when Luca had been willing the desire coursing through his body to fade.

      ‘My friend?’ he asked, nonplussed.

      ‘Daniela. She obviously knows you.’

      ‘We’ve met.’

      ‘You mean you’ve slept with her.’

      Luca was silent, considering the assumption. He hadn’t slept with Daniela, although the Russian model had made it clear she’d wanted to. And considering what he was asking Hannah to do, he supposed she deserved to know the truth. ‘We went on a date,’ he said. ‘About a year ago. But nothing happened.’

      ‘I suppose she wished something did.’ Her voice was slightly muffled.

      ‘Maybe,’ Luca allowed.

      ‘Judging by the burning looks she was giving you over dinner, I’d say definitely. And she wasn’t impressed with me either. Not like that’s too surprising, though.’

      Hannah’s words ended on a sigh and surprise flickered through him. ‘Why do you say that?’ he asked quietly.

      Hannah didn’t answer for a moment. In the darkness he couldn’t see her features, only the taut shape of her body under the duvet. He heard the soft draw of her breath and it felt weirdly intimate. He realised he’d never actually slept in the same bed with a woman before. His assignations—he couldn’t even call them relationships—had always ended with a definitive post-coital farewell.

      ‘Well,’ Hannah said at last, ‘it’s obvious, isn’t it? A Plain Jane PA is hardly your type.’

      ‘You’re not a Plain Jane, Hannah.’

      She laughed, a snort of genuine amusement that made him smile. ‘Come on, Luca. Your normal type is supermodels and socialites, right? I’m neither.’

      ‘That doesn’t mean you’re plain.’

      ‘I’m not glamorous or gorgeous,’ she returned. ‘I don’t mind.’ She shifted where she lay, so he felt the mattress dip beneath them. ‘Why do you date socialites and supermodels? I mean, why not a normal woman?’

      ‘Well.’ Luca cleared his throat, caught between amusement and a surprising embarrassment. ‘I’m not really interested in their personalities.’

      Hannah was silent for a moment. ‘Well, that’s blunt,’ she said at last.

      ‘I try to be honest.’

      ‘Except when you’re duping a houseful of people into believing you’re about to be married.’ She rolled over so she was turned towards him, although Luca couldn’t actually see her face in the darkness. He had the alarming impulse to reach out to her, curve a hand around her neck and draw her closer. Kiss those lush lips he’d found himself sneaking looks at all evening. ‘Why do you go for shallow?’ she asked. ‘Why is it just sex for you? Because that’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?’

      Luca was silent for a long moment, struggling to form an answer that was honest without being too revealing. ‘Because it isn’t worth it,’ he finally said. ‘To have more.’

      He waited for Hannah’s response, his body tensing against the possible onslaught of questions. Her voice came out in a soft, sorrowful sigh.

      ‘Maybe it isn’t,’ she agreed quietly.

      Luca waited for her to say more but she didn’t. He closed his eyes, telling himself it was better that way, because he didn’t want to explain his answer even if part of him wanted to know why Hannah agreed with him.

      With his eyes closed, his other senses were heightened, so he could breathe in her light floral scent, feel the warmth of her body so close to his, hear the gentle draw and sigh of her breathing.

      Desire flared through him again and more intensely this time, and ruefully Luca acknowledged that he might be the one in need of a pillow barrier. He rolled onto his other side, away from Hannah, and tried to will himself to sleep.

      * * *

      If this were a romcom, Hannah thought wryly, she and Luca would fall asleep and then somehow, in the night, they would wake tangled up in each other’s arms. They’d gaze into each other’s eyes, still caught in the throes of sleep, and then Luca would brush a kiss across her lips, slide his hand down her body, everything fogged with sleep...

      Hannah realised her rueful imagination was fast turning into fantasy, and heat flooded her belly at just the thought of Luca looking at her that way. Touching her that way.

      She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to banish the images. Maybe her mother was right, and she needed to start dating again. Diane was always worried that Hannah worked too much, that she didn’t have a social life of her own. Hannah replied that she didn’t have the time for a social life, but the truth was relationships were too much risk. Maybe that was something she and Luca had in common.

      She sighed, the sound loud in the stillness of the room.

      ‘Problem?’ Luca asked, his voice sounding strained.

      ‘This is a bit awkward,’ Hannah said into the darkness.

      ‘Just go to sleep, Hannah.’ Luca sounded annoyed now, and, chastised, Hannah rolled away from him. She could do this. She was exhausted, for heaven’s sake. She needed her sleep. Yet all she could think about, all she could focus on, was Luca’s body a few feet from hers. Maybe only a foot. And his chest was bare. She imagined resting her cheek against it, her arms around his waist, their legs tangled together.

      She stifled a groan. It was going to be a very long night.

      * * *

      Hannah woke to a light knock on the door and she blinked blearily as she raised her head from the pillow.

      ‘Just a moment,’ Luca called, and then his arm snaked out, hooking around her waist, and drawing her towards the hard wall of the chest. The feel of his body coming into full, intimate contact with hers stole the breath from her lungs and she froze in shock. Then she felt his obvious arousal nudging her thighs and she gasped aloud.

      ‘It’s morning,’ Luca muttered. ‘That’s all it is.’

      All right, fine. She was a grown-up; she understood basic biological functions. But honestly. This was way, way past the call of duty. And yet it felt so very nice.

      As the door opened, Hannah adjusted to the feel of Luca’s body against her own. This was what she had fantasised about last night, and the reality felt even better than she had imagined. His chest was warm and solid and the smell of him was intoxicating, overwhelming. The press of his hand on her lower back made her rock helplessly into his hips, his erection settling between her thighs, making heat flare sharply inside her. Luca’s breath hissed between his teeth as his body instinctively pushed back before he stilled.

      ‘Hannah.’

      Mortified, she tried to move away, but Luca’s arms were like steel bands around her. ‘Stay still,’ he commanded in a low voice that was as hard as iron.

      Two staff members wheeled in a cart laden with two breakfast trays, and Luca eased up in bed, taking Hannah with him so they were both reclining against the pillows, the duvet pulled demurely across their laps. Hannah wished, bizarrely perhaps, that she were wearing the gorgeous lace negligee, revealing as it was. She felt ridiculous in her oversized T-shirt that had faded to an unappealing grey colour from too many washes. And her hair... She lifted her hands to the tangle around her face and Luca smiled at her, tucking a stray strand behind her ear.

      ‘Nothing like a little bedhead in the morning,’ he said with a teasing smile, and Hannah blinked, discomfited, until she realised he was putting on a show for the staff.

      ‘I’m glad you love me no matter what I look like,’ she replied sweetly. ‘Or what

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