Five Dates with the Billionaire - Alyssa J. Montgomery Page 0,27

could wreak the same havoc on each tip the way he was doing to her lips and tongue.

A soft moan of protest escaped as he ended the kiss.

Mia’s eyelids snapped open, her gaze was ensnared by his and she was powerless to mask her need. She had neither the will, nor the sophistication, to do so. What had happened was completely outside her experience.

‘Bravo!’ Vincento exclaimed. ‘Now you have no need to visit the tragic Bridge of Sighs, signore. You have made this the romantic bridge of your signorina’s sighs and one she will always remember!’

Oh hell!

Mia came back to earth with a thump and felt the heat of a blush on her chest sweeping up her neck and all the way to her cheeks. Damn her inability to control her blushes.

She’d forgotten the gondolier stood behind them; forgotten they were in the very public space of the canal. Everything but Connor and his bone-meltingly expert kisses had faded from her mind.

She wasn’t dreaming.

Connor had kissed her.

Thoroughly.

And Mia had responded.

Enthusiastically.

What had she been thinking?

What had he been thinking?

Completely unaware that Connor’s kisses had rocked Mia’s world more effectively than the wash of a passing vaporetto against the gondola, Vincento continued the tour. ‘On your left…’

Mia was unable to focus on a single thing the gondolier said. Sliding her sunglasses firmly back into place, she stared straight ahead of her. She wasn’t taking in any of the sights, she was merely trying to avoid eye contact with Connor and come to grips with what had happened and how she felt about it.

How on earth did they proceed from here?

Mortified by her ready and willing response to him, she decided the only way to continue was to pretend it had never happened.

When they pulled into the jetty near the famous palace, Mia was quick to alight the gondola and was surprised when a teenage boy ran towards them calling out a greeting.

‘This is Peppi,’ Vincento said proudly. ‘He is my son and excellent photographer. He has souvenir for you, si?’

‘Oh!’

Peppi must have been in prime position on the bridge because he’d captured several polaroid photos of Connor and Mia immediately before, during and after their lips had locked together.

‘You like?’ Peppi asked eagerly.

No. Mia didn’t like them. Not one little bit.

They exposed way too much of what she’d been feeling.

Way too much starry-eyed satisfaction.

Way too much dreamy desire for more when the kisses had come to an end.

If Mia had possessed the ability to become invisible, she would have. She couldn’t think of a suitable response. If only she’d still had her sunglasses in place, the photos would be less damning.

‘I think you’ve done an excellent job capturing the moment, Peppi.’ Connor pulled some Euro notes out of his wallet, handing them to Peppi. ‘We’ll purchase all the photos from you. Grazi Peppi. Grazi Vincento.’

At least the incriminating evidence wouldn’t fall into anyone else’s hands. How horrifying if the press got hold of these images!

‘Enjoy your time in our beautiful city,’ Vincento said with a bow.

After their farewells, Connor handed Mia the photos. ‘You blush beautifully, Mia, but why are you so embarrassed by our kiss?’

‘It should never have happened.’ She thrust the photos into her open tote bag and kept walking.

‘We couldn’t ignore Vincento’s request and we made Peppi’s day. He has quite a nice little sideline going there and I like to reward entrepreneurs.’

Never mind making Peppi’s day. The delicious kiss had been the highlight of Mia’s life, but she wasn’t going to let Connor know it. ‘If you wanted to humour Vincento, you could’ve kept it to a chaste peck.’ If he had kept it brief, she wouldn’t have embarrassed herself by responding to him so unreservedly when he obviously hadn’t been affected at all.

‘Where would be the fun in that?’

‘It wasn’t fun. It was…’

‘A fabulously good first kiss.’

She stopped dead and turned towards him aghast. ‘How did you know?’

Had she kissed so badly?

‘Know what?’

‘That it was my first…’ Trailing off, she frowned.

He jerked his head back and his eyes widened. ‘You’ve never been kissed before?’

The pulse of the awkward silence throbbed through her.

‘But you knew.’ Confusion clouded her mind. ‘You called it a first kiss.’

Connor gave a small sound of disbelief. ‘I meant it was our first kiss.’

Mia groaned. Was it possible for her to blush any more before someone picked her up and threw her in the canal to cool off?

‘I had no idea,’ Connor told her. ‘How is it that you’re twenty-six…?’ He rolled his eyes