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Which wasn’t possible. While he had no experience of virgins, he very much doubted they responded with such captivating abandon.
Captivating? Seriously?
And that was another thing... Since when had he found inexperience—or even the hint of it—a turn-on?
‘Roman, for goodness’ sake, slow down,’ she protested, tugging against his hold and trying to dig in her heels.
They had reached the pool terrace before he had calmed down enough to realise he was behaving like a caveman. Also not like him... He prided himself on being smooth and sophisticated with women. Especially women he wanted to bed.
He let her go, abruptly. She stumbled to a stop and huffed. Looking indignant and annoyed, but also confused.
That made two of them.
‘If you’ve changed your mind about sleeping with me, that’s perfectly okay. But you need to say so,’ he managed, annoyed now, not just by her conversation with Marco, and what it had revealed—that she saw this liaison as a one-off booty call that she got to call the shots on—but also his ridiculous overreaction to it.
After all, he was hardly a stranger to one-off booty calls. So why did he suddenly feel used? It wasn’t as if either one of them were looking for anything more than a chance to explore this explosive chemistry. Although, he was also wondering now why he was still so desperate to sleep with her, and why he was so sure this chemistry would take more than an hour to satisfy, when this was not the first time she had driven him crazy... And they’d known each other for less than twenty-four hours.
Her lips flattened into a line of displeasure, but the wariness and confusion in her expression remained.
‘I... I didn’t change my mind,’ she said so cautiously, he felt like a bully. ‘I just... I have to catch a bus back to Genoa from Sorrento today. It’s an eleven-hour journey and I’m scheduled to be running a tour group at seven tomorrow in the marina and then I have a waitressing shift at three.’
He stared, momentarily nonplussed by the prosaic answer. For a split second, he wondered if she was lying to him, to gain his sympathy or something, because he was just that cynical. But he dismissed the idea quickly, because it was clear from her expression she thought what she had just confided was perfectly reasonable, when he knew it was anything but.
Her sister was married to a billionaire. She was part of said billionaire’s family. Which made her Cade’s responsibility. And yet it seemed the man had abandoned that responsibility withthe same carelessness he had once rejected Roman, and his own child.
He blinked as the last of his indignation died. But his temper remained, although this time it was not directed at the young woman in front of him.
‘Why are you working two menial jobs in Genoa?’ he asked, keeping the disgust out of his voice with an effort.
He’d always known Cade and Cade’s father were greedy, entitled, self-serving, irresponsible bastards—and he’d got over wanting things to be different a long time ago, even if the day he’d managed to arrange a meeting with the heir to the Cade empire, and beg him for a job, as a foolishly misguided sixteen-year-old, still smarted. But apparently evenhehad begun to buy into the media reports of Brandon Cade’s blissful new marriage—and his enthusiastic embrace of family life and domestic responsibility. Because Roman was actually surprised by the extent of the man’s callousness towards his own sister-in-law.
Who let their wife’s sister work two menial jobs when they were loaded? And had been their whole life?
Milly, though, seemed even more surprised by his question, when her brows shot up, then snapped together.
‘They’re not menial jobs,’ she said. ‘They’re the best jobs I could get. And they pay the bills...’ She sighed. ‘Until I can find the time to do more of what I actually want to do,’ she added, and he found himself wondering what it was that she wanted to do. But then she propped her fists on her hips, drawing his attention to the way the worn cotton stretched over the visible outline of her nipples. ‘Not everyone can be a media mogul, you know.’
‘And yet your sister happens to be married to one,’ he countered, dragging his gaze away from her breasts before his erection became unmanageable again.
Her expressive eyebrows launched back up. ‘What exactly has whatIchoose to do for a living got to do with Brandon?’
No onechoseto work shifts as a waitress, or ferrying tourists around, if they had other options, and from the wistful expression when she had mentioned having time to ‘do what she wanted to do’ it was obvious Milly Devlinhadother ambitions. But he had no desire to clue her in to his personal animosity towards Brandon Cade, because that was way too much information for a casual fling—even if this fling already didn’t feel all that casual.
So, he stopped himself from stating the obvious—that Brandon Cade had the money and the connections to nurture Milly and support her in whatever ambitions she had.
That Cade had chosen not to help her said more about him than about Milly.
But all that was beside the point. And haranguing her about what a bastard her brother-in-law was was not going to solve the problem at hand. Which was the one-hour time limit she had just put on their sex-fest—so she could spend eleven hours on a bus!
Seriously?Was she a masochist or something?
‘How about I get my helicopter to escort you back to Genoa first thing tomorrow morning?’ he offered. ‘So you can skip the long bus journey?’
He wanted one whole night with her, and her deliciously responsive nipples. They’d started something on the beach he intended to take his own sweet time finishing—and somehow he doubted once, or even twice would be enough to discover all this woman had to offer, and satisfy the need that had been provoking him all day and most of the night.
She was a distraction, nothing more than that. But she was a fascinating and exciting one, which he wanted to savour. After all, it had been a good six months since he’d had the time, or theinclination, to sleep with anyone. And a great deal longer than that since he’d experienced the endorphin rush she had inspired in the last twelve hours simply by breathing—and antagonising him. And surely no-holds-barred, hard, sweaty sex was just what the doctor had ordered to get his downtime on Estiva off to a flying start.
He’d been struggling in the last six months with an endless feeling of boredom. And exhaustion. It felt as if he’d achieved everything he’d ever wanted to achieve. He’d lost his hunger, for work, for his business, which had driven and energised him for so long. And he wanted it back. His doctor had suggested a two-week break on Estiva from the pressures of work and social commitments. He’d balked at first, but, after another couple of months of struggling to focus, he had finally given in to the inevitable, that his lack of energy was not going to disappear on its own. But the truth was, even totally burnt out, it was going to be hard for him to relax... He hadn’t had a proper vacation since he had begun his quest to unseat Cade Inc as the top media brand over a decade ago.
