Page 17 of Bound By The Italian’s 'I Do'

Impulsively, she pressed a finger to his lips. ‘Don’t tell anyone,’ she said in a mock whisper. ‘It’s a secret.’

He stared at her for another beat and then burst into a roar of laughter. Issy couldn’t help it. The sound was so infectious that laughter escaped her own lips, and when he put his hands to her sides and lifted her into the air so her face rose above his and her hair, which she’d set free, hung down like a waterfall, the compulsion to kiss him was so strong that it took everything she had to resist.

But resist she must. Even if her body did feel like it was on fire. ‘Can you put me down please?’

His shoulders rose slowly before he acquiesced. But there was no time for her to make a break for distance. No sooner did her feet touch the deck than he pressed a hand into the small of her back and wiped a strand of hair off her face. ‘You’re beautiful.’

‘Even though I’m short one end?’ she quipped, a quip she was thankful and proud of making because those two words made her feel all fuzzy...but not as fuzzy as the look in his eyes did.

Heaven help her, everything about this man made her feel fuzzy.

Didshe fancy him?

His gleaming sensuality burned through her. ‘Small but perfectly formed.’

A sharp pang sliced through her chest and she had to work doubly hard not to show it.

It shouldn’t even bother her! After all, wasn’t this proof that all the money she and Amelia had scrimped and saved for over the years so Issy could pull off Gianni’s version of perfection had worked? She should be glad they hadn’t needed to invest in a stretching machine for her, not have her heart twist at the knowledge that he wouldn’t look twice at the real Issy and certainly wouldn’t consider her perfect.

Whocaredwhat he thought? Not her. Once the deal in London was signed, sealed and delivered, she would disappear from his life and never see him again.

For the first time, Gianni saw the brightness Issy had maintained all this time in her eyes dim. In seconds she’d blinked it back to brightness, but he’d seen it and he wondered what had caused it, and then wondered why the hell he cared for the cause.

Aware of arousal strengthening in him, he reluctantly slipped his arm away from her, took a step back and indicated the slide. ‘Ladies first.’

She smiled sweetly. ‘Age before beauty.’

He sniggered. She might be a lying, conniving temptress set on his destruction but she amused him. It had been a long time since he’d enjoyed a woman’s company—anyone’s company, come to that—so much, and when he cupped her cheeks and planted a hard, passionate kiss to her mouth, it was sheer impulse driving him with nothing calculated behind it.

Dio, she tasted so good.

‘Seeing as I am here at your whim, ready to comply with your every wish, I will do the honours.’ And with that, he climbed the three steps to the top of the slide, sat himself down and then let himself fall.

Issy peered over the balustrade and watched the enormous splash made when he landed. A knot of anxiety formed when he didn’t immediately surface but it barely had time to root when his dark head suddenly appeared and, after wiping water from his eyes, his grinning face tilted up to hers.

Okay. Now it was her turn.

She could do this. To back out would only make him suspicious, and she couldn’t afford that.

She remembered a time when a day at a splash park had been the height of fun, and charging down water slides of all shapes and sizes the biggest thrill of her life.

But those slides all landed in pools of water with a definable bottom and a host of lifeguards overlooking.

Stop being a wimp!

Resolved not to think about what she was about to do, she skipped up the three steps, waved at Gianni treading water a safe distance from the landing zone, plonked her bottom down and let go.

It felt exactly like what she imagined it would feel to free-fall. It was also much quicker than she’d anticipated, the water pouring down the slide as a lubricant hurtling her to the upward curving base so quickly she had no time to prepare or brace herself for the landing. Into the air she flew before slamming into the sea with a scream. Salt water shot up her nose and into her open mouth as she submerged into the depths.

CHAPTER FIVE

GIANNI’SAMUSEMENTATthe spectacularly ungraceful way Issy flipped in the air before crashing into the water vanished when she resurfaced in a panic of flailing arms. He didn’t hesitate to streak through the water to her.

The moment he hooked an arm around her waist to stabilise her, she flung her arms around his neck and clung like a limpet to him.

‘Hey, take it easy,’ he chided when there was a danger she would drag him under. ‘I’ve got you. Relax.’

Blonde hair splattered all over her face, dark blue eyes fixed onto his. She loosened her hold the tiniest fraction.

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