The Dare Collection: July 2018. Nicola Marsh

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СКАЧАТЬ let it go. Hell, it was the right move to make. But when Roman opened his mouth, that wasn’t what came out. “Tell me.”

      “It’s just boring stuff.” She shifted off him and climbed to her feet. A small petty part of him was pleased to see her legs shake a little. The sex had been...beyond words. Desperation—that was what he felt for her. He’d hoped she’d respond favorably to the note, but Roman hadn’t been sure she’d actually come to him.

      He wasn’t sure of a lot of things when it came to Allie.

      She scooped up her clothes but made no move to pull them on. He liked that. She was so comfortable in her body, and that confidence was just as attractive as her looks were. But all that was surface-level shit. He wanted to know her.

      Roman stopped short. Knowing her wasn’t part of the bargain. It was supposed to be just sex—strictly physical with nothing else involved.

       She didn’t say no emotion. She said no business. Apples and oranges.

      He steadied himself and followed her into the villa. She meandered to the kitchen and pulled a bottled water from the little fridge. Allie watched him as she took a long drink. “What?”

      “What?”

      She frowned. “Now you’re the one mentally wandering. What’s going on in that devious brain of yours?”

      He grabbed his own water and contemplated it. “I was thinking about the terms of our agreement.”

      She went still. “And?”

      This was the moment he could back off, change course and keep them in a safe spot. But Roman had never met a woman that both turned him on and called him on his shit the same way Allie did. He might never again. Letting her slip through his fingers without at least poking at the potential for more was a stupid move.

      Roman didn’t make a habit of making stupid moves.

      “And I want to know more about you.” He watched her closely, noting the tension that crept into her shoulders.

      Allie set her water bottle down on the counter. “Why?”

      “I haven’t connected with a woman the way I’ve connected with you. Ever. I want to know if it’s just lust that will run itself out or if it has the potential to be more.”

      “Normally...” She shook her head. “There is no normal in this situation. In another world, I’d think that sounded downright nice. But this isn’t another world, this is ours—and no matter how great the sex is or how compelling the connection, there remains the fact that you want to buy my business out from underneath me.”

      “Ah-ah.” Roman held up a finger. “No business talk. That was part of the agreement.”

      She glared. “That was before—” Allie cut herself off and looked at the ceiling. “Damn it, you’re right.”

      “Taking business out of it—”

      “Roman, that’s crazy.”

      “You keep throwing around that word. Maybe you’re even right.” He set his water bottle next to hers and placed his hands on either side of her hips on the counter. “But what if you’re not, Allie? Do you run into this kind of thing so often that you’re willing to pass it up?”

      She frowned harder. “Your argument is compelling. Irritating, but compelling.”

      He’d given her a lot to think about, but he wasn’t planning on giving her recovery time to think too much. Roman traced her collarbone. “Any siblings?”

      “Only child.” Her expression closed off, as clear as if she’d lit a neon sign warning him away.

      Family is off-limits. Got it. It was almost enough to confirm that Allie’s pushing so hard for the women’s shelter had something to do with her past. He set the thought aside—for now. He wanted her to tell him when she was ready. He might have the file on her history, but he decided right then that he wouldn’t read it. Better to hear from Allie whatever she wanted to share with him.

       What happens when we get back to the mainland?

       We’ll figure it out.

      She pulled her hair off her shoulder to give him a clear path to stroke to her arm and back again. “You have siblings?”

      “No. I always wanted one or two, but my parents had other priorities.”

      “Like what?”

      He glanced at her face, but there was only curiosity there. Roman stroked her knuckles. “They’re both from old money, and while I was growing up, their only priority was making the family even richer. My old man was a stockbroker, and my mother was a consultant like I am.”

      “Was?”

      He shrugged. “They retired a couple years back. I haven’t seen them since, but they bought a boat and have been traveling the world. It’s large enough to house a small army, because my parents never do anything halfway. They’ll come around again when they get tired of the travel, but I don’t expect them to stay. They’re nothing if not restless. Always have been.” He loved his parents, in a way, but it was a distant sort of feeling that meant talking to them once every few months and the occasional Christmas card if they stayed in one place long enough to receive it. He had friends who’d grown up with loud families filled to the brim with messy love that manifested in jokes and hugs and the occasional heated fight. There was no room for that in the deep stillness of the Bassani household. “Even when I was little, they traveled regularly. They’d be gone for weeks at a time.”

      “That must have been hard to deal with as a kid.” She looped her arms around his neck, bringing them chest to chest. “I don’t know anyone with perfect parents—mine included—but at least most of them were there. The absent figures must have sucked.”

      “I thought it was a grand old time when I was in high school. Parties every weekend and girls staying over most days of the week.” He tried to give the comment lightly, but it came out bittersweet.

      Allie saw it. She smiled and ran her finger along the shell of his ear. “You turned out all right—except for the whole business thing that we aren’t talking about.”

      He laughed. “Except for that—which is my life.”

      “Seriously? You don’t have anything else going on but work?”

      He squeezed her hips. “Do you?”

      She opened her mouth but seemed to reconsider. “That’s a fair point. I could argue that my business is more honorable, but...I’m not in the mood to argue.”

      Roman liked this side of her, playful and almost coy. He turned them so he could lean against the counter with her in his arms. “What, pray tell, are you in the mood for?”

      “I’m so very glad you asked.” She kissed his throat, his shoulder, his pectoral muscle, sliding to her knees in front of him.

      The wood floor would be hell on her knees, but she gave him a look СКАЧАТЬ