Modern Romance July 2016 Books 5-8. Кейт Хьюит
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‘I bet you do.’
‘Why are you so offended?’
‘Because I don’t want to be your bit on the side,’ Hannah cried, rising from the sofa and pacing the confines of the room in her agitation. ‘I don’t want to be anyone’s bit on the side.’
‘You wouldn’t be. To say that is to suggest I’d be entertaining other women at the same time, and I assure you I am always faithful to my current partner.’
‘Oh, well, then.’ Hannah rolled her eyes. ‘That’s a relief.’
Luca pressed his lips together. ‘What, exactly, is your objection?’
Hannah stared at him, knowing she was being emotional and unreasonable. This offer was exactly the sort of thing she should have expected from Luca. It was what she’d been contemplating herself over that fateful weekend. So why was she acting all outraged now?
With a sigh Hannah ceased her pacing and sat back down on the sofa. ‘I’m sorry, Luca, but I find everything about your offer objectionable. It’s tempting, of course it is, because you’re right. I am attracted to you, very much so, and it’s hard to ignore that.’
Luca’s eyes glittered starkly in his set expression. ‘Then don’t.’
‘But I don’t want an affair,’ Hannah explained, even though at the moment she was questioning her own sanity at turning down the most desirable and compelling man she’d ever known. ‘At least, I don’t want just an affair.’
‘Ah.’ Comprehension dawned on Luca’s features and his lips gave a cynical twist. ‘So that really was a “maybe”.’
Hannah laughed sadly. ‘I suppose it was.’ She took a deep breath, needing to explain herself further. ‘I know what it’s like when a man wants you to simply slot into his life, and that’s not what a relationship is about.’
‘The boyfriend of six years ago?’
‘Yes.’
‘But you miss him.’
‘Yes, although it isn’t as simple as that. But a relationship, for me, is give and take. Wanting to be with a person no matter what comes your way, not only in a set of circumstances arranged to your liking. And frankly, Luca, I don’t want to be dropped when you’ve burned through this thing between us.’
Luca’s mouth quirked upwards even as his eyes remained hard. ‘Maybe I’d be the one to be dropped.’
‘Considering how quickly you’ve worked through women, I think that’s unlikely,’ Hannah answered. ‘You’re only the second man I’ve ever been with. Perhaps I’m responding more emotionally because of that. But the answer has to be no, Luca.’ Her heart twisted in protest but Hannah remained firm. ‘I want more from a relationship, if I ever choose to have one. I’m not even sure I would. It is risky. We both know that. You clearly don’t want to take the risk and I’m not sure I do, either.’
‘So you want more than I’m offering, except you’re not even sure you’d be willing to risk it?’ Luca surmised tersely. ‘You can’t have it both ways, Hannah.’
‘I’m not having it any way,’ Hannah answered with wry sorrow. ‘But I’m definitely not interested in the kind of arrangement you’re suggesting.’ She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. ‘It’s not for me.’ Even though it hurt, more than she’d ever admit, to turn him, and her only offer of happiness and companionship, down.
It wouldn’t end well, she knew that. She’d start to care too much and Luca would get bored with her. He’d treat her like any of his other women and that would shatter her confidence and break her heart. It was better this way, to end it before it began, even if it felt as if she were being torn in two.
Luca stared at her for a long moment. ‘If you’re sure,’ he said quietly.
‘I’m not sure,’ Hannah admitted on a despondent laugh. She couldn’t keep the yearning from her voice or the desire from pooling inside her. ‘All you’d have to do is touch me, Luca,’ she admitted, and she knew she wasn’t warning him; she was asking him.
Knew Luca realised it as well as heat flared in his eyes, turning them nearly black, as he eased off his chair, coming to kneel before her. She could see the light glinting on the blue-black strands of his hair and wonderingly she reached out and touched the rough-smooth stubble on his jaw. She shouldn’t do this. She really shouldn’t do this, and yet she had to.
‘Hannah, do you know what you do to me?’ he breathed.
‘Tell me,’ Hannah answered. She felt transfixed, almost drugged, by the desire that stole through her veins at the mere thought of Luca touching her. Wanting her.
‘You drive me crazy,’ Luca muttered as his hands slid under her hair, cradling her face and tilting her towards him so their lips were a whisper apart. ‘You make me lose my mind. All I’ve been thinking about for the last week is this.’ And then he kissed hers, his lips slanting across hers in blatant, primal possession.
Hannah opened herself up to his kiss, yielding everything under the delicious onslaught of his mouth and hands, her body arching towards his as her hands tangled in his hair.
‘How can you say no to this?’ Luca demanded as he slid his hands under her hoodie, his bare palms cupping her breasts, the friction of skin on skin making her shudder with longing.
‘I’m not saying no, am I?’ she muttered thickly as Luca tugged the zipper down her hoodie.
‘Don’t ever say no,’ Luca commanded as he pulled her hoodie off. ‘I can’t bear it. Don’t ever say no to me, Hannah.’
Hannah knew she was powerless to say anything at that moment. Her hands roved greedily over his chest, tugging his shirt out of his trousers, for she longed to feel his skin against hers. With a groan Luca tore at his shirt and Hannah was about to tug her own shirt over her head when some distant, desire-fogged part of her brain registered the creak on the stair.
Her hands stilled and Luca glanced at her, his breathing ragged, a question in his eyes.
No, Hannah thought. No, please...
The door creaked open. ‘Mummy...?’
LUCA FROZE AT the same moment that Hannah frantically pushed her T-shirt down and scrambled up from the sofa. He turned, his whole being numb with shock, as she went to the sleepy little boy standing in the doorway. Her son.
‘Hello, sweetheart.’ Hannah scooped up the boy in her arm, nuzzling her cheek against his hair even as she shot Luca a nervous look. ‘You’re meant to be asleep.’
‘I had a bad dream.’
‘Let me tuck you back up in bed, Jamie.’
Jamie. So this was the man in her life. He realised he’d stopped wondering who Jamie was, mainly because he’d been so consumed by his desire for Hannah. Now the realisation slammed into him with the force of a sledgehammer, leaving him winded and reeling.
Jamie’s eyes rounded as he looked directly at Luca. ‘Who’s that, Mummy?’
‘The man I work for, Jamie. He...he was just here for a meeting.’ She shot Luca another look, almost as if she were angry with him. And shouldn’t he be the one to be angry? He was the one who had been duped, deceived...
A son. Why had Hannah never told him she had a child?
With Jamie cuddled in her arms, Hannah turned towards Luca. ‘You can see yourself out...?’
Luca gazed at her for a tense moment. ‘I’ll wait here,’ he answered coolly.
He was