No doubt Alessandro would bring women on flights with him all the time—hit that mile-high club time after time in complete comfort. The crew certainly hadn’t batted any eyelids when they’d seen her with him. Who knew how many women he’d had in there? It was a den of debauchery.
‘You don’t want to lie down and rest for a while?’ He suddenly glanced up and seemed to pick up on the direction of her thoughts. ‘You’ve had a long day of travelling already.’
‘No, thanks,’ she answered immediately, her skin burning at the thought. ‘I’m fine.’
As he held her gaze his expression turned wickedly quizzical. ‘What are you thinking about Katie?’
‘Nothing,’ she lied.
‘So “nothing” makes you blush like that?’
Katie pointedly turned away and buried her nose in the nearest magazine.
* * *
Alessandro huffed out a tight breath. He was trying to keep his temper in check, but the reports Dominique had emailed over just before their departure were making it impossible. Brian Fielding might be hyper-controlling over his wife and Katie, but he was very much out of control in his own life. He was one of those jerks who thought he could have it all without doing any work—gambling not only with cards and chance machines, but with get-rich-quick schemes and insecure investments. One of which, ironically, was Zetticci Foods.
His father’s former company was in worse shape than Alessandro had realised. While Aldo had been a creative genius—an instinctive, outstanding chef, with innate knowledge and a passion for his work—since his death the company’s direction had faltered.
As CEO, Naomi had clearly gone for a splatter gun approach, throwing out a ton of new products and hoping one would hit the market. None had. She’d sacked every one of the chefs she’d brought on board over the years and then turned to her brother Brian for a cash injection.
And what Brian had told Katie was correct. They were on the brink of losing White Oaks, Susan’s home and inheritance. According to the brief report, the older woman was now wheelchair-bound and being cared for by family at home. Being cared for by Katie—because Brian was regularly travelling to conferences, active on local government board meetings...
Alessandro grimaced. Brian was all about the show.
He glanced up from the report, his gaze unerringly landing on Katie again. When she’d mentioned her sauces earlier she’d lit up enough to nudge his curiosity. He’d got an assistant to track down a sample from that deli and bring it to the airport.
‘Are you hungry?’ he asked.
She sent him a startled look, then swiftly averted her gaze. He watched with mild incredulity as yet another blush washed over her skin.
‘Katie,’ he mocked in a low voice, ‘you’re the one reading innuendo into everything I say.’
He had to admit he found it both amusing and arousing. The fact that she was so aware of him was a kind of balm—because her effect on him wasn’t just arousing, it was irritating.
‘It’s the way you look when you say it,’ she grumbled, glancing back to shoot him daggers yet again.
Hugely entertained, he cocked his head and muttered coyly, ‘Oh, I forgot...it’s my looks...’
‘You have no idea what it’s like for us mere mortals,’ she ground out.
She didn’t think herself attractive? He arched his eyebrows at her and waited.
‘We’re invisible,’ she explained when she finally got sick of his silence.
The last thing she’d been to him all day was invisible. The more she opened her mouth, the more he was fascinated by what she had to say and by the sweetness of the lips doing the speaking. They looked so lush, and here he was wondering if other parts of her were as perfect...
He was so tempted, so curious to taste and explore, that somehow he’d become every inch the satyr she’d pegged him as. Every thought was related to her being naked and sprawled on a bed before him. Which, contrary to popular opinion, was not the way he usually worked. He enjoyed women—always—but he could take it or leave it. He’d never felt desire as if it were an addiction before.
‘You know you have power over people,’ she added.
‘Are you treating me like a piece of meat, Katie?’ he muttered, acutely aware of the irony in his accusation. ‘Are you sure it’s only my looks? What about my money? My charm? My extraordinary intelligence?’
‘Let’s not forget your outsize ego.’
‘Yet you’re defining me only by my appearance,’ he mocked.
She pressed her lips together. He wished she wouldn’t bite back her snap.
‘Are you treating me like a toy, Alessandro?’ She glared at him. ‘Am I here for your amusement? To liven up an otherwise boring day?’
She was so on the mark that he nearly winced. Instead he leaned back in his seat, irritated by his uncontrollable inappropriate thinking and her superficial judgement. Why should he care what she thought of him?
‘Is that what women are for you?’ she added softly.
‘Do you want me to marry you or not?’ he growled.
She seemed to freeze. Then she pulled on a tight smile. ‘Are you hungry?’ she enquired, very politely.
He suddenly felt sorry, because he’d scared her into compliance—he’d not meant to, but he’d threatened to take away what she wanted. In that moment he was no better than Brian.
‘Always,’ he grumbled—and he meant no innuendo in that.
Frankly, he often forgot to eat when he was working flat-out, and he’d been working around the clock these last couple of weeks to pull together some deals. So, come to think of it, he did have a mighty hollow deep in his belly.
She looked down at the table between them and then glanced back up at him. ‘Do you want to try my sauces?’ she asked.
Her voice sounded huskier than usual, and it was his turn to shoot her a look.
‘Really?’ He began to laugh, because that had been such a cute little tease. ‘Not bad!’
To his delight, she suddenly laughed too. And she was gorgeous doing it.
‘Sorry...’ she murmured once she’d recovered her equilibrium.
No. He didn’t want her ever to be sorry for giving as good as she got. She was prickly, quick to repel any possible suggestion of something between them. But there was something, and now she’d put the image in his head of licking some luscious sauce off her naked flesh. The blast of heat in his body was beyond uncomfortable.
Purely for something to do to distract himself, he lifted four small bottles out of the brown paper bag he’d stashed beside him.
‘Nice packaging,’ he noted. They looked more professional than he’d expected, with their simple green and white labels. ‘Which should I try first?’
She shrugged her shoulders.
He fetched a few small plates from the galley and poured a little from each bottle onto them.
‘You don’t want a cracker or something to put it on?’ she asked.
Or something.
He inwardly growled at his one-track lustathon thinking—had he regressed a few millennia to become some hormone-overloaded caveman? He’d last been with a beautiful woman only a few weeks ago, before work had ramped up so much. It wasn’t as if he’d had a dry spell...ever.
It’s because she said she didn’t want you.
His pride was pricked. He hated being told he couldn’t do something. Authority issues from the bad days of his late teens, he mocked himself. Being denied something made him all the more determined to do—to take or have—whatever it was he’d been banned from. So, yes, naturally he now wanted to do Ms Katie Collins. He wanted it more with every passing minute. But he couldn’t be that jerk—she had enough of those in her life already.
Focus on the food.
He tried the apricot sauce first. It punched his tastebuds so hard he closed his eyes, in
haling sharply at the intensity. This was better than good.
He blinked and stared at her accusingly. ‘You made this?’
‘Well, I have help to pick the fruit—’ She broke off warily and coloured.
Diverted, he wondered who helped her with the fruit picking.
But then she continued, ‘And I use the kitchen in the house.’
She literally made them all herself? ‘Whose recipes?’
‘My own.’ She sat a little straighter. ‘I’m quite good at it... Though really it’s the herbs. We grow those too.’
‘You have your very own special blend of herbs and spices?’ he drawled.
‘Is that so hard to believe?’ she asked with a little reproach.
He cleared his throat. ‘You’ve done some culinary courses?’
That flush in her cheeks resurged. ‘I tried to do a couple of courses at the local institute, but I couldn’t leave Susan. So I learned from every cooking channel I could find.’
She tilted her chin with prim defensiveness, daring him to question her. Her eyes glinted, filling with quiet confidence in the face of his surprise.
‘What else do you have aside from these?’ he asked, trying to steady his appetite.
‘Don’t you like them?’ she asked, looking as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.
‘You don’t need my feedback,’ he said roughly. ‘You know damn well how delicious they are.’
Her smile blossomed, igniting a glow that seemed fuelled by something deep within her. ‘I know, right?’ She laughed cheekily.
His gut tightened at her unexpected confidence. Coy little trickster... It turned out that she, like her sauce, was passionate, confident and full of sassy flavour. At least in regard to this. The turnaround from the wet lamb who’d wandered into his office on wobbly legs only a couple of hours ago was astounding. In this moment—in this one thing—she shone.
‘Like I said, I use the fruit we grow.’ She reached forward, turning the bottles so the labels faced her. ‘Those apricots are a heritage variety. Same with the plums.’
Alessandro nodded, slightly dazed. He’d never found discussing fruit trees fascinating before, but he couldn’t take his eyes from her. He thought again that she was like her sauces—intense, fiery and sweet.
‘Susan’s father planted those trees,’ she added softly. ‘I help her care for them, cook their fruit. I love it.’
And that love came out in the flavour of her creations.
Unsettling long-ignored memories stirred. His father had been like that—guided by instinct and emotion. Alessandro had always been more interested in the business side of things. His analytical brain worked better in bigger picture ways. Katie was self-taught and humble, and she had inimitable warmth.
Another searing shaft of hunger strained his resolve. The desire to touch her almost derailed his reason. As she blossomed before him he ached to conquer and claim...
A horrible thought occurred to him. Had hideous Carl Westin ever seen her like this?
‘Maybe this is what he wants,’ he muttered, before thinking better of it.
She sent him a mystified look. ‘Who?’
He blinked. ‘Carl. Your sauces.’
Her jaw dropped as she stared at him in astonishment. ‘You think he wants my recipes?’
No. He did not. But the fact that she honestly believed he might showed just how oblivious to her own beauty she was. Alessandro half laughed, even as he was almost overcome by the urge to haul her out of that seat.
He could have her soft, yielding sweetness beneath him in an instant. He’d discover her true taste. But he swallowed the desire back.
He forced his focus back to the sauces. ‘Which is your favourite?’
‘The cherry vinegar.’ She dipped her finger into the small pool he’d poured onto the plate and sucked the sauce off the tip of it.
Any other woman he’d have thought was making a deliberately seductive move, but there was too much of the innocent in Katie’s eyes.
To his total torment, she’d left a tiny smear just above her lip. At that sight all his good intentions melted. He couldn’t resist that contrary look in her eyes. Like the myriad of colours it was all reflected there—confidence, caution, humour, haughtiness...and desire. It was beyond temptation.
‘Alessandro?’ She sat very still as he swiftly rose from his seat. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Tasting the cherry.’
He braced his hands on the armrests of her seat and slowly bent closer. Hesitating, testing, allowing her the space, the time, to pull away, to say something. She didn’t. Pleasure washed over him and he hadn’t even touched her. He gently licked that little smear from her mouth. At the tiny hitch in her breathing he brushed his lips that bit lower, to cover hers.
He’d steal only the lightest, quickest of kisses. A tiny tease...just because. She expected it anyway, didn’t she? He couldn’t let her down, what with all her wild assumptions about him.
‘Katie?’ he asked, searching.
She stayed still and silent, but the expression in her eyes said it all.
* * *
There was a moment, the tiniest of pauses, when his lips were barely pressed against hers at all, and then he returned with a gorgeous, luscious pressure that simply melted Katie. His tongue traced over her lips in a teasing slide until she opened and let him in.
This was a kiss.
This was everything all in one soft touch. In mere moments her heart pounded, suddenly too big for her chest, as he stole—and gave—an experience like no other.
He sparked something within her. A trickle that ran faster, fuller, until it became an intense warmth, flooding her system. She strained closer to let herself taste him the way he was tasting her. He deepened the contact, swirling his tongue into her hungry mouth, and shyly, eagerly, instinctively she matched him.
The dizzying sensation intensified. Delight mixed with heat and an ache for more. She shivered, seeking his touch on her skin. She wanted to get closer and she didn’t want this to stop. It was too nice. She’d never experienced anything so nice.
Suddenly she was seized with the conviction that nothing was ever going to be the same. She was never going to be the same. He’d awakened a need so intense she thought it could never be met. And in that moment of realisation—of shocking recognition and burgeoning desire, of undeniable deep need—she moaned.
He suddenly lifted himself away and stepped back.
Katie pressed herself into her seat, desperately putting more distance between them as she tried to recover her breath. She gazed up, dying inside when she registered his casual expression. Why wasn’t he breathless?
‘You can’t... You shouldn’t...’ She trailed off, unable to scramble a sentence together. Why wasn’t he shattered?
It was just a kiss. You’re taking it too seriously.
That amused look in his eyes grew as she struggled to regain her sensibility.
‘That wasn’t fair,’ she breathed.
‘Not fair?’ He returned to his seat and folded his arms across his chest.
‘You were only supposed to sample my sauces.’
Instead they’d both discovered he could seduce her with a snap of his fingers. Her flush burned.
‘Oh, yes, the sauces,’ he echoed with soft irony. ‘You really created them all by yourself?’
‘Why is that so hard to believe?’ she snapped balefully. ‘You don’t think I can be good at anything?’
‘I think we’ve both just figured out what you’re good at.’
She gaped, flummoxed into speechlessness, and felt that wretched burn of embarrassment slide over her skin again. He was so skilled, so charming...no wonder all those women fell into his bed.
Now he smiled at her wickedly. ‘If you don’t want me to kiss you again, then stop fishing
for compliments.’
Her jaw fell open. Was she meant to be grateful for his kisses? ‘I don’t need you to kiss me to make me feel better about myself.’
He reached forward to the plates on the table, swirled his finger in the cherry vinegar sauce and licked it off with a lascivious flourish. ‘No, you just need me to marry you to help you escape your evil guardian.’
He made it sound ridiculous. As if she was being ridiculous. But she could see no other way to keep White Oaks safe for Susan.
‘Yes,’ she ground out through gritted teeth. ‘And that’s all I want from you.’
CHAPTER FOUR
BACK IN LONDON it would be almost midnight, but here in Las Vegas it was early evening. Not that there was any sense of time in this city. It was always open...always ready to entertain. And the last thing Alessandro wanted right now was to find himself anywhere near a bedroom with Katie Collins.
He never should have kissed her.
Gritting his teeth, Alessandro guided her through customs clearance and then straight into the limo his assistant had organised.
Their hotel was on the main strip, suitably ritzy and fantastically distracting, with ornate decor and vast, gleaming lounge areas. The receptionist handed him a key card while the porters took his luggage. Of course Katie didn’t have any.
He turned and looked at her, standing in the centre of the luxurious lobby. The wide-eyed amazement on her pretty face was priceless.
He never, ever should have kissed her.
He tensed as desire rippled through his body. Pushing it down, he glanced away and rubbed his hand over his face. He was tired, si? Hence the loss of self-control. But he’d pull himself together. They’d take in the view, have dinner, have a rational and realistic chat about Katie’s future...
Except he didn’t think he could actually be alone with her yet. Not after the sensual torture of the plane trip. His awareness of her was shocking, and he was unaccustomed to travelling with a woman like this—to being close, but not being able to touch her more than that kiss he’d already stolen.
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