Gregorio took a tight grasp of her arm as he opened the passenger door of the car. ‘Get in,’ he bit out between gritted teeth.
‘I—’
‘Get in the damned car, Lia, before I pick you up and put you there.’ His voice was low and controlled. As if he might start shouting if he allowed himself to speak any louder.
It made Lia even more reluctant to put herself in the vulnerable position of being alone in his car with him. At least out here in the street she had somewhere to run.
She raised her chin challengingly. ‘I believe you are stepping way over my line now.’ She reminded him of their conversation on Saturday.
Those black eyes glittered dangerously. ‘You just made an outrageous accusation. One I do not intend to dignify with an answer when we are standing out here in the street, where anyone might overhear our conversation.’
Her cheeks warmed. ‘You made the purpose of your interest in me obvious on Saturday evening. Or am I wrong in thinking you want me in your bed?’
A nerve pulsed in his clenched jaw. ‘No, you are not wrong.’
She nodded. ‘Which is why, after discovering you’re now my employer, I have come to the conclusion I have.’
Gregorio never lost control. Never. He considered it a weakness to do so. And weakness could be exploited...manipulated.
Nevertheless, he knew he was seriously in danger of losing control at this moment. No one had ever accused him of the things Lia just had. No one would ever dare. No matter what she believed, he had no reason to manipulate her into an intimate relationship with him.
Not when he knew she felt the same desire for him that he felt for her...
Even if it was a desire she obviously didn’t want to feel.
Gregorio’s only motive in protecting and helping her was the fact that she no longer had anyone else in her life who would do so. The wealth she had grown up with and no doubt taken for granted was no longer there as a buffer either.
So, yes, Gregorio might have put in a word with Michael Harrington regarding employing Lia at the hotel, but his only reason for doing so had been an effort to give her back some of what she had lost.
For Lia to have reached the conclusion she had, that he was blackmailing her into a relationship with him as a result of his actions, was unacceptable. An insult of a kind Gregorio had never faced before.
The nerve in his jaw throbbed. ‘We are having dinner together.’
‘Did you not hear what I just said?’
‘Of course I heard you,’ Gregorio snapped. ‘How could I do otherwise? But, as I said, I will not answer any of your accusations on a public street.’
His bodyguards had parked their SUV behind his sports car and the two men were now standing on the pavement a short distance away, watchful and alert to any and all danger.
‘I have no intention of being alone with you. Anywhere,’ Lia added with finality.
Gregorio stilled to regard her through narrowed lids. That last remark had been made so vehemently...
Lia’s eyes were glittering brightly, her cheeks flushed and her lips full and pink. The evening was warm, and she had removed the jacket of her business suit as soon as she’d left the hotel. The cream blouse beneath was so sheer Gregorio could see the outline of her light-coloured bra. Her breasts were quickly rising and falling as she breathed deeply, the plumpness of her engorged nipples showed as a darker pink through the lace of her bra.
Gregorio slowly moved his gaze back up to her face. ‘You want me too,’ he stated.
‘That’s a lie!’ Lia recoiled as if Gregorio had struck her, pulling her arm from his grasp as she did so. ‘How could I possibly want you?’ Her breathing became even more erratic. ‘When you’re the callous man who helped hound my father to his death?’
Lia heard herself say the words, saw Gregorio’s reaction to them—his expression hardened and his eyes were once again those fathomless black pits—and all the time knew Gregorio was right. That she’d spoken so vehemently because she did want him. And she shouldn’t. For all the reasons she had just stated.
Except her traitorous body was refusing to listen to her. Her breasts felt fuller and more sensitive and she felt the ache of arousal between her thighs.
‘You are lying to yourself, Lia,’ Gregorio dismissed scornfully. ‘We both know that.’
‘Your arrogance is only exceeded by your conceit!’
He gave a hard smile. ‘When you are ready to hear the truth about your father I suggest you give me a call. Until then...’ He turned to nod at the two bodyguards, indicating his intention of leaving.