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‘I can take you through the grounds.’

‘So I can further want what I can’t have?’

He felt the double entendre, but he didn’t react to it.

‘How about it?’

‘No.’ She was all muddled. ‘Yes, that would be lovely, but…’ What was he asking her—a sort of date, or as friends, or just as strangers who’d met up…? ‘I ought to go.’

‘Of course—what time shall I pick you up?’

She swallowed, unsure what to say, or if she should go, knowing deep down she was more likely to cancel, but Gabe told her the plan.

‘I’ll have breakfast with my grandfather and then drive down and pick you up.’

‘Should I bring anything?’

‘Just yourself.’

With him she was herself, and he made her brave enough to admit, ‘I don’t do this sort of thing.’

‘What sort of thing?’

‘Fly off with strangers.’

‘Nor do I,’ he agreed, because offering to play tour guide was unheard of for Gabe, yet here they were.

‘I mean I…’ She could hardly blurt out that she was a virgin, that she’d never dated. It was irrelevant, surely?

He was asking her out on a day trip, not inviting her to his bed!

They hadn’t so much as kissed.

And now came the awkward part, because she knew how Italians parted and so she leant in to do the Italian kiss-kiss thing, but he moved his head back, just as he had done with Donatella, and she inwardly cringed.

‘I don’t do all that,’ he said.

‘Sorry—’ she started and then cringed again. ‘I just thought that was how…’ And then her words died on her lips as his face moved closer.

He could take it no more.

‘I do this…’

His mouth was like velvet, and his kiss so expert that in a matter of seconds she knew why all her prior attempts had failed—she’d never been shown bliss.

How a light stroke of the tongue could have her fighting not to moan, and how her fingers when in his hair made her breasts ache, all with his kiss.

His hands were on her hips, holding them loosely, but as their kiss deepened, his grip on them tightened, holding her a little back, the slight pressure making her desperate for more contact.

And more than that, she understood now how and why two strangers could tumble into bed, because already her mind was there. Then he pulled her in, and she had never hated her coral dress more, because it was another layer that kept her from him.

She was shocked at her rapid arousal and stunned at the feel of him pressing against her, and yet she was too scared of herself, too scared of disappointing him, to follow through, and she abruptly pulled away, stunned and a little nervous of her own wild thoughts.

‘Goodnight.’

She didn’t exactly push him off, but their parting was abrupt.

He watched her turn as if flustered and almost run into the hotel.