The Italian's One-Night Consequence. Cathy Williams

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      Maddie reached into her rucksack, withdrawing a wallet and extracting notes.

      ‘What are you doing?’ he asked with a frown.

      ‘Paying my way.’ Maddie looked at him, surprised at his reaction to what she thought was perfectly obvious.

      ‘When I go out with a woman I foot the bill,’ Leo asserted.

      She stiffened. ‘Not this woman. I pay my half. That way I’m in no one’s debt.’

      ‘The price of a cheap Italian meal doesn’t put you in my debt.’ Leo tossed a handful of euros onto the silver platter—enough to cover the meal with an overly generous tip.

      ‘Have you never met a man who knows how to treat a woman?’ he asked, rising to his feet.

      Maddie thought of her ex-boyfriend. Adam had loved paying for things for her. Flowers, chocolates, expensive meals out—but with the lavishing of gifts had come the manacles of control, the compulsion to turn her into something he wanted. And underneath all that had been his superiority—thinking that by making her into his doll he was asserting ascendancy over her, owning her.

      But she’d remained the girl from the wrong side of the tracks, and sure enough that was something that couldn’t be buried under gifts and presents. Inevitably she’d learned a valuable lesson in the perils of ever thinking that someone rich and well-connected could ever be anything but condescending and manipulative.

      Anyway, all those wildly expensive gifts had made her feel horribly uncomfortable, and she certainly didn’t like the idea of Leo or anyone else paying for her. As she had found to her cost, there was no such thing as a free lunch.

      ‘Are you asking me if I’ve ever met a man who knows how to reach for his wallet and buy me pretty baubles?’ She slapped a few euros on the table. The waiter was going to be very happy indeed with the extravagant tip coming his way. ‘Because if that’s what you’re asking then, yes, I have. And it didn’t work out for me. Which is why I prefer to keep things simple and pay my way.’

      She stood up, and Leo shrugged, but his deep, dark eyes were assessing and thoughtful.

      ‘Far be it from me to tear someone away from her closely held principles,’ he murmured.

      They headed outside, walking in the balmy summer air in no particular direction.

      Except with some surprise Maddie realised that her legs were somehow moving towards the honeycomb of streets where her grandfather’s house was. It was on the outskirts of the city centre and, whilst the location was to die for, the house was not nearly as grand as some of the others and was in a state of disrepair.

      The old man, so she had been told by her solicitor, had gradually downsized over the years, more and more as his healthy income had been whittled away to next to nothing, lost in gambling dens and crates of whiskey.

      Maddie had wondered whether the absence of his only child had perhaps fuelled that spiral of despair, which had made her even more motivated to accept the challenge that had been bequeathed to her.

      She stole a sneaky glance at the towering, over-the-top, sex-on-legs guy next to her and suddenly felt ashamed that she had snapped at him for trying to be a gentleman when in all likelihood he couldn’t afford it any more than she could.

      ‘Sorry,’ she apologised sheepishly. ‘You hit a sore spot there.’

      Leo paused and looked down at her, holding her eyes with his, his expression speculative.

      Her body trembled as she gazed back up at him, her eyes undoubtedly betraying her want.

      ‘I’ll be on my way,’ Leo murmured, breaking eye contact to stare up the road which was still as busy now as it had been hours previously. New York was not the only city, it would seem, that never slept.

      ‘Leo...’ Maddie breathed.

      She wanted him. She didn’t know whether it was because she was lonely or because the unexpected stirring of attraction had reminded her that she was still young after all. Maybe he had unlocked some realisation that she couldn’t remain a prisoner of her past for the rest of her life.

      Or maybe he was just so damned sexy that she simply couldn’t resist the pull of raw, primal lust.

      Two ships passing in the night, she thought...

      ‘Do you want me to kiss you?’ Leo asked on a husky murmur, still not touching her.

      ‘No!’ Thank goodness they had managed to find themselves in a quiet corner of the otherwise busy street.

      ‘Then you need to stop looking at me like that.’

      ‘Like what?’

      ‘Like you want to eat me up...like you’d like me to eat you up.’

      ‘Leo...’

      ‘We’re both adults,’ Leo delivered on a rough undertone, ‘so I’ll be honest. You’re spectacular-looking and I want you more than I can remember wanting any woman for a long time. I want to touch you. I want to taste you...everywhere. But I don’t do long-term and in this instance we’re talking a one-night stand. A one-night stand to remember, but still a one-night stand. If you don’t like that, then walk away, Maddie.’

      ‘I always promised myself that I would never have a one-night stand,’ Maddie said, by rote, but her body was certainly not walking away. Indeed, it was staying very firmly put.

      Leo shrugged, holding her gaze.

      Confusion tore through Maddie, because she wasn’t lying. She’d never been a one-night stand kind of girl. From a young age her looks had attracted attention, and she had learned very fast that attention from the opposite sex more often than not bypassed the important stuff—like getting to know her, giving her credit for having a brain and seeing beyond the fact that she was, in Leo’s words, ‘spectacular-looking’. Adam had only served to cement those lessons in her head.

      But...

       But, but, but...

      ‘Would you like to come in for a cup of coffee?’ she hazarded.

      Leo’s eyebrows shot up. He refused to let her hide behind the cup of coffee scenario. ‘You want me. And I want you. I’ll accept the offer of coffee, but I’m not interested in a push-pull game of one step forward followed by two back.’

      ‘Nor am I.’ She tiptoed forward, filled with a sense of heady daring, and brushed his perfect mouth with hers.

       CHAPTER THREE

      AFTER A BRISK walk away from the city centre, they found themselves in a tree-lined avenue filled with mansions.

      ‘I don’t live in one of these.’

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