“Because it sounded as if I was agreeing to share this night with you and was trying to make sure it wouldn’t be the one and only.”
Every word out of her mouth…He pressed the heel of his palm to his breastbone, as if that would quell the itching behind it. “And you didn’t mean that?”
“God, no, I-I…” She threw both hands over her face, before looking up at him, helplessness and accusation filling her expression. “It’s your fault. Exposure to you is turning my gray matter into day-old milkshake.”
A laugh tore out of him, drove his head back with the force of its unexpectedness and power. “Turnabout is fair play. Although you turn mine into the boiling version.” He reduced the distance between them another step, testing his stamina, thrilling to the torture of balancing on the edge of loss of control. “And I will want more nights. As many as I can have. I hope you won’t hold back to observe an ‘appropriate’ period before indulging in intimacy. I want nothing more than to end this night with you in my arms, in my bed.”
She melted back against her car. “And I want nothing more than to end this night in both.”
Gabrielle watched Durante’s eyes flare at her admission, knew he’d reach for her. She had to say the rest now. Now.
“But I can’t.”
The flare subsided, ice putting out the blue-hot flames.
Something twisted beneath her ribs. She couldn’t bear to see disappointment replacing exhilaration in his eyes.
She hurtled on. “Believe it or not, I did approach you with business and only business in mind.”
Relief swamped her when his eyes simmered again. “I believe you. But it ceased to be business the moment you laid eyes on me.”
She didn’t even think of denying the fact. “Yes.” She still had to qualify it. “But I can’t afford to let it be that way—”
He cut across her unsteady words. “You can’t afford to let it be any other way. Business will be taken care of in due time. But I’m not postponing this for anything else’s sake.”
“But what is this?”
“Something unknown to either of us, something unprecedented. And you know it as well as I do.”
Gabrielle stared at him. He kept stunning her. But what most amazed her was that she picked up no malice from him, that malignant triumph most men transmitted when women made the mistake of not only falling for them, but admitting it, too.
Not him. She felt he was above pettiness and double standards. This was also no line that he gave every desirable woman he met. In fact, his ruthlessness likely originated from his never instigating the pursuit. He was renowned for his detachment.
There was nothing detached about him now. She just knew he was being swept along the same unstoppable current as she was.
That didn’t mean she could let herself be swept. There was far more at stake than the elapsing of “an appropriate period before indulging in intimacies.” And not only couldn’t she tell him what, but that this was happening at all made her feel she’d fallen flat on her face into someone else’s life. Men like him—and there were no men like him—didn’t appear in hers.
She looked up at him, at once pleading for him to understand her chaos and afraid he’d shimmer and disappear. “Whatever this unknown and unprecedented thing is, and no matter how I feel about it or how right it feels to feel this way, I’m still totally weirded out by the detour everything has taken. Hours ago I didn’t dream…”
“…you’d see me and the world would cease to matter.”
His confidence sent her explanations scattering. “Oh, quit making it harder for me to make sense. The world might have ceased to matter, but it didn’t cease to exist. I had this proposal memorized and now I barely remember what it was all about.”
“I barely remember why I came here tonight, too. I don’t care about anything now beyond you.”
“Maybe if you hear my proposal, you’ll change your mind.”
“I won’t. Not even if you’re coming to me with the patent for an eternal-youth or super-power serum.”
“Actually, I was thinking along opposite lines. That you’d be so opposed to my offer, you’d drop me.”
“So it’s something you think I’m liable to turn down flat? Is that why you were trying to sweeten me with the hundred grand? Is there something dark and controversial about you, mia ragazzaccia?”
The way he said “my bad girl” quickened her melting rate. “Oh, I wish. Okay, really, I don’t. I’m pretty grateful there’s nothing so…interesting about me. I’m just—”
“The woman I want to know everything about. And to that end, I want to conduct an experiment.”
She blinked. “An experiment?” She stopped. “God, I keep repeating things. I might start asking for crackers next.” His smile widened, blinding her with a flash of charisma. She groaned. “So, what’s this experiment? What are you out to prove?”
“That you were onto something great when you approached me without revealing your identity and purpose. The labels might have interfered with our impact on each other. I don’t think your name or your business will shed any light on who you really are. I want to know you. What you are, what makes you tick, what shaped you, what you want and why and how you want it. I want to revel in what we have blazing between us, to enjoy us, man to woman. For tonight.”
Another breaker of reaction shuddered through her. “Are you for real, or am I dreaming you up?”
The heat of his smile became almost unbearable. “I take it you agree to participate in my experiment.”
She shook her head. “That experiment is skewed and the results are bound to be unreliable. I know exactly who you are.”
“You only think you do. But what do you know? My statistics? My reputation, status and estimated fortune? Sterile facts mixed with conjectures and financial data. Did knowing any of the above prepare you for the effect I have on you in the flesh?”
She raised her hands begging for respite. “Okay. I admit the ‘labels’ conjured up a man who, while impressive, has nothing to do with the flesh-and-blood reality of you. In fact, I’m having a tough time connecting you at all to that man.”
“You see? If you can’t access your preconceived ideas about me, we’re on a level playing field. Say yes, bellissima.”