The Sicilian's Marriage Arrangement

He did not look in the least bit guilty. “He implied you might come back to his room tonight. Are you sleeping with him?”

“That’s none of your business!”

He leaned over her, the big torso of his six feet, four inch body intimidating at such close range. Suddenly he didn’t remind her of just any old jaguar, but a hungry one intent on hunting his prey and moving in for the kill.

She felt like the prey.

“Tell me.”

She was shy, but she wasn’t a coward, or so she reminded herself frequently. “No. And if you’re going to act like some kind of Neanderthal brute all evening, you may as well tell your chauffeur to take me back to my hotel right now.”

She’d said it so many times now, it was beginning to sound like an impotent litany.

Amazingly, he backed off. Physically anyway.

“I am no brute, but I admit the thought you share your body with him does not predispose me to good temper.”

“Why?”

“Surely after the kiss we shared only minutes ago, you do not have to ask this.”

“Are you saying you give the third degree to every woman you kiss?” She didn’t believe it.

“You are not every woman.”

“No. I’m the hopelessly introverted, hopelessly average and probably hopeless in bed granddaughter of your business associate.” The bitter memory rolled off her tongue before she became conscious what the word probably would reveal to him. Maybe he wouldn’t notice she’d all but told him she was not sleeping with David. “I don’t see where that makes me anything special to you.”

It seemed he hadn’t comprehended the implication of her words when he spoke. “You are not introverted with this David fellow. You were laughing with him and holding his hand.”

He made it sound like she’d been caught in flagrante delicto with David. “He’s my friend.”

“I also am your friend, but you do not hold my hand.”

“For Heaven’s sake, you wouldn’t hold a woman’s hand unless it was to lead her to bed.” Had she really said that?

“And are you trying to say this is not where your friend David was leading you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

“It is not ridiculous for me to think this. He looks at you with the eyes of a man who has claim to you.”

“There is such thing as the claim of friendship.”

“And friendship requires late night visits to his hotel room?”

“I’ve never been to his hotel room late at night, for goodness’ sake. I’m hardly the type to carry on a brief affair, or did you miss the hopeless-in-bed description?” As the words left her mouth, she realized with chagrin she’d given Luciano what he wanted—a definite answer to whether or not she was sleeping with David.

He didn’t look smug, however. He was too busy glaring at her. “Stop repeating that bitch’s words as if they are gospel. She knows nothing of you or your passions. You will be a consuming fire in my bed, of that I am certain.”

“Your bed?”

He sighed. “I have no plans to seduce you tonight, so you can relax.”

“But you do plan to seduce me?” She pinched the inside of her elbow to make sure she was not sleeping and having some bizarre dream. Pain radiated to her wrist. She was awake.

“Perhaps you will care to tell me what restaurant so caught your approval on your first day in the city?” he asked, ignoring her question.

Certain she’d had all the seduction talk she could take for one night, she eagerly accepted his change of subject. She told him about their visit to the nightlife of the Psiri where she’d sampled out of this world food at one of the many small cafés that did not even open until six in the evening.

“It was a lot like Soho, but I felt more comfortable in Psiri than I ever did visiting that section of New York City. Maybe that’s because I went there with my roommate from college. She was from Manhattan and her friends were all very gothic.” Hope could still remember how out of place she’d felt in the avant garde atmosphere.

“Psiri is fantastic and a lot more laid back. I didn’t feel like I was on display, if that makes any sense.” Her Boston manners and introverted ways had made her feel out of place in Soho, but the Psiri was patronized by so many different nationalities, no one person stood out.

Luciano shrugged, his broad shoulders moving fluidly in the typical European movement. “I have never been to Soho and it has been several years since I indulged in the nightlife of Athens.”

“I suppose it’s hard to do normal things like drink ouzo in a small bar on a busy street when you’ve got a security team trailing you.” Like the one in the nondescript car behind the limousine.

“Si, and there is the lack of time as well. I have spent the better part of the last ten years building my business holdings. My socializing has been of necessity targeted to that end.”

“Just like Grandfather.”

“Perhaps.”

“Is that what tonight is about? Are you doing my grandfather a favor in return for which you are angling for some kind of business coup?”

Luciano went curiously still. “What makes you ask this?”

It was her turn to shrug. “I don’t know. I guess it’s just hard to believe you’ve thought about me at all over the past six months.” She ignored his threatened intent to seduce her as macho posturing. It must be a Sicilian male thing. “It’s not as if you’d called or anything. And I know I’m not your average date.”

He might socialize for business, but the companions he chose to do it with were invariably gorgeous and terribly sophisticated. Much like the model he had turned away from on New Year’s Eve to kiss Hope instead. She still found that inexplicable. One of his previous amours had been a dispossessed princess with a reputation for fast living. His latest was an Italian supermodel who gave sultry new meaning.

Hope was as far from such a being as Luciano was from an awkward teenager.

“Accept that it pleases me to see you.”

“Why should I?”

“Because I say it is so.” Exasperation laced his every word and she wanted to kick him.

“You can say anything, but it’s your actions that show what you really feel.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Their arrival at their destination prevented further conversation.

Luciano helped Hope out of the limousine. Who would believe such a shy little thing could be such a termagant as well? After her response to his kiss on New Year’s Eve, he had been sure wooing her would be the easy part of the deal with Joshua Reynolds. However, she was hardly falling into his arms in gratitude for his pursuit.