polite, but she was certain they were curious. Renzo had an entire staff at his Italian headquarters. Could he really not find a PA who kept his appointments straight?
Renzo put a hand on the small of her back. It was a possessive move, a familiar move, though it probably only looked gentlemanly to those observing. Faith could feel her color rising, and her gaze dropped away from the other men’s.
“Let me show you where you will be most comfortable,” Renzo said.
“Thank you,” Faith murmured. What else could she say? That his fingers were burning into her where they lightly rested on her? That her nerve endings were tingling withawareness? That for the past week she had thought of little else than that kiss they’d shared?
Renzo steered her toward another area of the plane that had a long couch built along one wall and a flat-screen television that rose up from a cabinet at the touch of a button.
“You may watch until we take off,” he said. “At that point, it will have to be turned off until we’re in the air.”
“Thank you,” she said stiffly, standing with her hands folded together while she waited for him to return to his engineers. There was a wall between this room and the office he’d been in, and she could no longer see the two men.
Renzo laughed softly. “Relax. No one is going to bite you,
cara
. Unless, of course, you wish it?”
Her heart turned over. His blue gaze glittered hotly, and for one brief moment she thought he might actually pull her into his arms. Shockingly, a part of her wanted him to do so.
But only for a moment, only until she got her senses back and realized what a mistake that would be.
He did not touch her, however, and she began to believe she’d imagined that look that had said he would devour her if she let him. He was toying with her.
“I think I’ll be fine without any biting,” she said, unable to sound like anything but a prim preacher’s daughter as she said it.
He laughed again. “You are a delight, Faith Black.” And then he skimmed a finger down her cheek. “But I assure you that you would like it very much if I bit you. I know just where and how to nibble for the most impact.”
Faith couldn’t breathe. Molten heat rolled through her, pooling between her thighs, making her ache with longing. How did he do it? How did he make her want to forget every last bit of good sense she had and slip between thesheets with him? They were only words, and yet when he spoke them, they were dangerous. Seductive.
“You really shouldn’t say things like that,” she told him, proud that she managed to speak without choking.
He loomed over her, six feet two inches of gorgeous Italian male who smelled delicious and radiated a lethal sex appeal that had her wanting to wrap herself around him and to hell with the consequences.
Renzo’s brow arched mockingly. “And you shouldn’t refuse to consider the possibilities.”
She had nothing to say to that. Renzo put his hands on her shoulders, then leaned down and brushed his lips across her forehead before turning and leaving without another word.
Her entire body hummed with electricity as she sank onto the couch in a daze. For a whole week, she’d convinced herself that he’d forgotten about their kiss in her apartment, that he’d put it from his mind as inconsequential, that the heat and excitement she’d felt had only been her imagination.
I know just where and how to nibble for the most impact
.
Faith shuddered at the images that statement brought to mind. It was a long flight to Rome, and she wasn’t going to sleep a wink.
CHAPTER FIVE
T HEY arrived in Rome early the next morning. Though Faith had thought she wouldn’t sleep at all, she in fact had, and woke feeling somewhat ready for the day. She’d dressed with care in a dark gray suit and heels, and put her hair into a tight knot. If Renzo was planning to work, she was ready.
Her heart had sped up at the sight of him. He’d been sitting in a
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