‘Our going to bed together, you mean? Well... Yes.’ Her gaze didn’t quite meet his. ‘It was clouding the issue. Obviously, having known and liked my father, you feel some sort of responsibility towards me. But I assure you—’
‘I feel concern for you, not responsibility.’
‘Oh.’
He nodded. ‘I realise some of my actions and comments may have come across that way to you, but I assure you that responsibility is the last thing I feel when I look at you or touch you.’
‘Oh.’
‘Now you are worrying me,’ he drawled. ‘The Lia Fairbanks I know always has plenty to say on any subject,’ he explained as she frowned. ‘Lia, has it occurred to you that I could just as easily mistake your responses to me as gratitude?’
Her eyes widened. ‘You think I went to bed with you out of gratitude?’
He smiled slightly. ‘What I think is that we should start being honest with each other, so that in future we avoid these misunderstandings.’
The only words Lia heard were in future. That implied the two of them were going to have a future. Maybe not as anything more than friends, but even friendship was better than responsibility or gratitude.
‘I’m waiting for you to start being honest,’ she prompted after several long seconds of silence.
Gregorio chuckled at her guardedness. ‘I have been honest with you from the beginning. I told you when we met again last week that I’d wanted you from the first night I saw you in Mancini’s with your father and Richardson.’
‘And now you’ve had me.’
‘Yes.’
‘I... This is in the spirit of honesty, you understand?’
‘I understand.’
‘Well. I... You’re only the second man I’ve... Well, that I’ve...’
His brows rose. ‘I am only your second lover?’
‘Yes.’ Lia breathed a sigh of relief that she didn’t actually have to say the words. ‘And in comparison the first one was awful,’ she said with feeling. ‘Not that I’m comparing you to David in any way,’ she added quickly. ‘I just want you to know that our lovemaking was spectacular. Wonderful. Special.’
‘In the spirit of honesty?’
She frowned up at him. ‘Are you mocking me?’
‘Not at all.’ Gregorio chuckled. ‘In the spirit of the same honesty, can I say that our lovemaking was—Lia...?’ He prompted against the fingertips she had placed over his lips.
‘I really don’t want to hear how I measured up to the legion of women you’ve had in your bed.’ She grimaced.
‘I seem to recall that a Roman legion comprised about five thousand soldiers, and while I have been sexually active for some years, I very much doubt the total of my bed partners comes anywhere near that number.’
‘You are mocking me!’
‘Only a little,’ Gregorio acknowledged huskily. ‘And only because I am honoured to have been your second lover—especially as the first was such a failure.’ His voice lowered. ‘What I would really like above all things is to be your last lover too.’
‘Sorry?’ Lia’s mouth had gone dry. Did Gregorio mean...? Was he asking...?
No, of course he wasn’t. Gregorio didn’t do for ever. She must have misunderstood him.
‘Lia...’ His hands moved up to cradle each side of her face as he looked down at her intently. ‘Beautiful Lia. Our lovemaking was spectacular to me too. Wonderful. Most of all, special.’
‘It was?’ Lia wasn’t sure she was still breathing. She couldn’t possibly be awake.
‘It was,’ Gregorio confirmed gently. ‘I wanted you from the moment I saw you, but in just a few days I have also fallen in love with you.’