Page 27 of The Sicilian’s Deal For 'I Do'

‘You’re close. Look.’ He reached out and touched her under the table.

Mia smiled but rolled her eyes. ‘You know that’s not what I mean.’

He sipped his wine, said nothing more.

‘So?’ she asked, leaning forward, elbows on the table, no longer interested in the food, though it was absolutely spectacular.

‘What do you want to know?’ There was a guardedness to his voice, a wariness about what she might ask him, and how he might answer.

Mia didn’t back down.

She had a limited time to get this man out of her system and that meant coming to understand him, because she didn’t want to find herself thinking about him in six months’ time, wondering what made him tick, what made him a certain way.

‘Why?’

‘Why?’ He let out a sound of exasperated amusement. ‘That’s unquantifiable. A thousand things happen in a person’s life that cause them to behave or feel a certain way, it’s rarely just one.’

‘And I’m asking about yours.’

‘Why?’

‘Well, because I’m here for a week and we can’t be in bed the entire time,’ she pointed out, cheeks blushing.

‘Is that a challenge?’

She dipped her gaze to the table. ‘I want to understand you, Luca.’

He reached over and lifted her chin. Mia’s eyes hooked to his and her heart lurched in her chest. ‘That wasn’t part of the deal.’

Did he really mean to keep her at arm’s length emotionally while physically exploiting all of their chemistry?

‘Is this what you do with women?’ She changed tack. ‘Have sex but refuse to talk?’

‘I’m happy to talk.’

‘About things that matter.’

His eyes were hooded, no longer easy for Mia to comprehend, but they were darkened by emotion, so she wished she had the key to understanding. She wished she knew him better.

‘I don’t have serious relationships.’ He removed his hand, returned it to his wine glass, sipped, swallowed, his Adam’s apple drawing her attention to his throat. ‘It wouldn’t be fair.’

‘No?’ She was glad that he’d at least expanded a little on his answer.

‘Why date when you have no intention of marriage?’

‘You aren’t unique in that respect, Luca. I’m sure there are lots of women who would be happy to spend time with you without wanting more.’ Even as she said it, she suspected that was false. Of course that wasn’t the case. Even women who might have felt they were anti-marriage or long-term commitment couldn’t fail to be tempted by Luca.And you?a voice inside Mia jeered. After all, what insurance policy did Mia have against wanting more from him? More than this week?

Her eyes dropped to her engagement ring and she stared at it with a rush of relief. That was her insurance policy, her real life. Her duty. Her obligation. Even if she decided she wanted more from Luca, she couldn’t have it, because sheneededto marry Lorenzo. She’d promised her parents, and they had stressed to her how important the wedding was, as well as the sale of the business. Her father was desperate to retire, desperate enough to sell the family business, but only if Mia was a part of the deal, so that she would retain an interest in the ongoing success of the company her great-grandparents had built from nothing. She reminded herself it wasn’t a love match. And Lorenzo knew that too. It was a mutually beneficial marriage on paper.

Something fuzzed at the edges of her mind, something dark and ominous that tightened her stomach into knots, but she couldn’t quite grab hold of it. Her father had been stressed lately. Was it any wonder? After the debacle of the last would-be sale and wedding, he probably had the same form of stress echoes that Mia did.

‘I have a policy of not stringing women along. I see women, when it suits me, but I don’t date often, and I am always careful not to make any promises of more than I intend to offer.’ He replaced the wine glass carefully. ‘Personal conversation isn’t...necessary.’

She frowned. ‘So you’ll sleep with them but not talk?’

‘It works for me.’

She angled her face towards the dark sky over the shimmering, black ocean. ‘I don’t know why, but that makes me feel kind of sad for you.’

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