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permeated her words. “Have you worked hard?”

    “Up until yesterday, I worked every day including weekends for six straight weeks to maintain the business dealings I had in motion and to convince my father not to purchase a radio station one week and a newspaper chain the next. Believe me, the palm reading was true for me.”

    “I only questioned you because my mother was an artist and following in her footsteps has always been a dream of mine.”

    He filed that bit of information away.

    “But your creativity might be channeled into your current business. You seem to love perfume making.”

    Nodding, she peered back down at their joined hands.

    “What else does it say?”

    “There is a separation between your heart line and your head line, which indicates you are not as impulsive as you believe yourself to be.” He traced those distinct lines, feeling her pulse throbbing gently beneath her soft skin.

    “I will have to tell my brother—Marcel—that he has been wrong about me all these years.” She lifted her head to smile up at him, so close he could have kissed her.

    And he wanted to kiss her.

    They stood silently for a long moment, each taking the other’s measure in the warm afternoon sunlight.

    “How does my love life look to you?” Her voice was a breathy whisper that teased his senses.

    “I happen to know it’s getting better by the second,” he confided, his thumb tracing a circle around the center of her palm.

    Her eyelids fluttered in response and he closed the space between them to capture her lush mouth. Her lips parted with speed quickness and he deepened the kiss.

    She shivered lightly against him and he tugged her hand free to place her palm on his chest before he folded her in his arms. Her head tipped back in silent surrender, and hot sensation flooded through him as her body pressed against his.

    He’d dreamed of this the night before, imagining exactly what she’d feel like if he ever had the chance to hold her. The reality was even better than those heated imaginings, her sweet sighs an enticing sound that worked some kind of dark, sensual magic on him. The need to steal her away some place remote was too strong to ignore. He wanted to lay her down. To cover her body with his….

    “Danielle.” He pulled back sharply while he still could. “Let me walk you back to your room.”

    “I—” She shook her head, her expression confused. Wary. “I can’t think. I don’t know.”

    Her refusal was logical. Sensible. And…ah hell, he needed to have some space between them before he forgot everything else but kissing her again.

    “I have meetings tomorrow, but why don’t we go ashore in Naples together the next day? We can hire a boat to take us out to Capri.” He wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight if he didn’t know he could spend time with her again. “I’ll meet you at your stateroom at noon. Okay?”

    He held his breath, unable to breathe in the same air as her without wanting to keep kissing her.

    “Oui.” She nodded, her violet eyes a narrow rim around dilated pupils. “Until then.”

    She refused his offer to walk her back to her room, which was probably wise considering how much he wanted to cross that threshold when they got there. He let her go, hoping she would trust him a little more each day, because he didn’t know how he would hold himself back the next time he kissed her that way. He’d dated enough women to know that chemistry like theirs didn’t come along often. And since tomorrow would be the third day of the cruise, they only had so much time left to explore the heat that simmered between them.

     

    T HE SHIP’S newest destination tempted her.

    The Maltese Islands beckoned to her every time she looked out over the ship’s rail, but Danielle attended the fragrance exhibition and two meetings the next morning in the hope of running into the Dubai-based retailer again. She preferred socializing outside their formally scheduled