Romantic Acquisition Page 0,44

She’d had too much to drink the night before and didn’t want to get into the same predicament she’d been in with Carlo this morning. She had fuzzy memories of the night before, and she thought she might have done something inappropriate last night too. But Carlo just laughed knowingly at her when she asked him about it and pulled her back onto the dance floor, swinging her around, making her laugh gaily with all the moves he expertly put her through.

The night was wonderful as they all made their way back to the ship. Carlo walked her to her room and leaned her against the wall of the hallway. “Are you going to invite me in?” he asked.

“No,” she laughed but enjoyed Carlo flirting with her even though it was dangerous.

“Why not?” he asked, feigning a wounded look.

“Because it wouldn’t lead anywhere you’d like it to go so what’s the point?” she challenged and tried to slip under his arm.

He wasn’t going to let her get away with that though. He spun her around so her back was against the wall. “Are you telling me that if I kissed you right now, you wouldn’t melt in my arms?”

“Carlo, please don’t.”

“What’s the answer? You’re saying that it wouldn’t go anywhere. That’s your mind speaking but your body is telling you something completely different. Why don’t we listen to your body for a while?”

Kate wriggled against him, trying to escape. She knew exactly what would happen if he kissed her. And she wasn’t sure if there would be another interruption to stop him.

“Carlo, you don’t have to prove anything! I admit it. I want you. Obviously I can’t deny that. But do you really want me to regret something in the morning?”

He looked at her eyes, his own intense as he shook his head. “I’m not sure if you’d regret it. We seem to go up in flames each time we touch so it wouldn’t be a bad experience for either of us, would it?”

“Bad experiences tend to happen later, much later. We don’t know each other well enough to get into this kind of relationship.”

“What are you telling me?” he asked, determined to get at the root of why she was so afraid to commit to a physical relationship with him.

“Why can’t we be friends?’ she demanded.

He stared at her face, his eyes glancing over her crystal blue eyes and knew there was something she wasn’t telling him. “Why can’t we be friends?” he repeated. “Because you tremble in my arms when I touch you. And because I feel the same way about you. Each time you touch me, even inadvertently, something happens inside me and all I can think about is getting you alone, in a bed and naked.”

She couldn’t respond to him. Her mind was filled with the same image and her body reacted to the notion of making love to him.

He nodded when he noticed her eyes clouding up. “I can see you feel the same way. But you’re not going to give in to those feelings are you?”

Kate shook herself. “Let’s just say that I gave into them once and it almost destroyed me. I’m not willing to go through that again.”

Carlo took a step back and nodded. “I’d figured something had happened in your past that had scared you away. Will you tell me about it?”

“No.”

Carlo took a deep breath. “Well, I’m a patient man. And I can be persuasive. So I’ll bide my time and will respect your space. But I’m human. It would be wise to remember that,” he said and kissed her softly on her lips. After that, he turned and walked down the hallway, disappearing into the next room.

Kate took a shuddering breath and opened the door to her own room. She pulled off her clothes, showered and brushed her teeth, feeling some steadiness with the routine. She slipped into the bed naked again, enjoying the sensuousness of the sheets as she did so.

She didn’t sleep that night though. She stared at the ceiling, felt the ship sway gently on the ocean and imagined what it might be like to make love with Carlo.

Would it be so horrible? Would she be able to endure it if it wasn’t? And what if she got pregnant? Would he demand that she abort the baby? She couldn’t and wouldn’t do that, but it would break her heart if he didn’t love their child the same way she knew she would.

The idea of having a