The Italian's Christmas Proposition (HQR Presents)

by Cathy Williams

  ‘We’re having a deep and meaningful conversation,’ Rosie remarked and then wished she hadn’t because he immediately withdrew his hand with a frown.

  ‘We’re discussing a way forward with this,’ he responded quickly. ‘I took this charade past the bedroom door and into the bed.’

  ‘You slept on the sofa,’ Rosie was quick to remind him. She wanted him to reach out and take her hand again. She missed the warmth, the feel of his finger casually stroking her bare skin. ‘And you would have carried on sleeping there until your deal got signed and you were free to leave.’

  ‘I opened the Pandora’s box,’ Matteo said drily. ‘But let’s forget about who did what. We weren’t having a deep and meaningful conversation. We were discussing what happens next and how best to deal with the fallout.’

  He shifted, uneasy and suddenly restless.

  The logic of his argument was reassuring. ‘Let’s face it, Rosie—when I walk away from this, I won’t have any further contact with you or your family. You will be the one left to handle the inevitable post mortem. It’s to your advantage if you’re given a helping hand in tackling the aftermath.’

  ‘Of course.’ She linked her fingers together and stared at them. That told her, she thought, just in case she started getting any ideas. She doubted he even realised the subliminal warning. ‘What if word gets out?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Social media is everywhere. People with mobile phones taking pictures. What if someone you work with finds out that you somehow got yourself engaged while you were over here on business? And then got cruelly dumped?’

  Matteo grinned. ‘I like the way you’re going to cruelly dump me. I’d bet that there might be a few women out there who would enjoy hearing that.’ He became more sober. ‘Go ahead and be as heartless as you like. I don’t care what other people think of me.’

  Somewhere along the line, food had been eaten and wine had been drunk. Matteo hadn’t really noticed. He had been way too absorbed in the woman sitting opposite him, absorbed to the exclusion of everything else, and that in itself was a source of wonder because he couldn’t recall the last time any woman had commanded that sort of attention from him.

  Work absorbed him. Women relaxed him. Not this one. His life had been a rollercoaster ride since meeting her and it surprised him to acknowledge that, as hair-raising experiences went, this one was pretty exhilarating.

  He watched her with brooding intent, his keen eyes noting everything about her softly appealing face, from the delicate tinge of colour staining her cheeks to the glittering blue of her eyes and the fullness of her parted mouth. Then he thought of her in bed, naked and eager, her full roundness, her heavy breasts, such a sexy contrast to the angular women who constituted his usual diet. He felt himself harden at the thought of her.

  ‘I envy you not caring what other people think of you,’ she was saying as their eyes tangled. ‘If I had half of your indifference, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now.’

  ‘But you wouldn’t be you if you had half of my indifference and who says that I’m not enjoying myself sitting here right now?’

  Her tongue darted out, moistening her upper lip, and Matteo had to stop himself from groaning.

  ‘Stop doing that,’ she whispered, lowering her gaze, but almost immediately returning greedy eyes to his lean, handsome face.

  ‘Doing what?’

  ‘Staring at me...like that.’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘You know.’

  ‘Oh, I know.’ He laughed under his breath. ‘I just want to hear you say it.’

  ‘You’re looking at me as though you could...’

  ‘Eat you?’ He raised his eyebrows expressively. ‘It’s exactly what I want to do, mia cara. I want to feast on your body, suckle your breasts until you’re squirming underneath me, and then I want to take you until you cry out and beg for me to never stop.’

  ‘Matteo!’ She squirmed and looked around her, red-faced.

  ‘Let’s get out of here.’

  A thought suddenly struck her. ‘We should. We can’t have the whole troop return to the lodge to find that your things are in the spare room!’

  ‘Don’t panic. I removed myself for the night, not for the long haul, and if the bed isn’t made quite as it should be then who’s to say that we haven’t spread ourselves around the house in our uncontrollable need to pleasure one another, irrespective of whether it’s your bedroom or not?’ He burst out laughing as crimson colour stole into her face. ‘Don’t look so shocked. It happens.’

  He beckoned across a waiter with a crook of his finger and tossed his credit card down without bothering to check the bill. ‘I’ll enjoy showing you the ropes.’

  Rosie had no need to ask what he meant and she blushed furiously, her whole body going up in flames with anticipation and excitement.

  ‘Come on.’

  ‘Where are we going?’ she asked, breathless, cardigan still pulled tightly around her as she followed him out of the restaurant. Instead of heading towards the cloakroom so that she could fetch her coat, they headed towards the reception desk where she was greeted like an old friend.

  ‘I think we can spend the night here, don’t you?’ He slid her a sideways glance.

  If he wanted their pretend relationship to hit the gossip grapevine fast, then he couldn’t have chosen a more efficient method. They all knew her here at the hotel, and sharing a room with him...?

  A flare of adrenaline-charged excitement coursed through her. She felt faint and she had to look away as he sorted out the most expensive suite for them.

  ‘This is crazy. Mum and Dad...everyone...will be expecting us to show up at the chalet after dinner.’

  ‘Mum and Dad and everyone else will be raising their glasses to the wildly enamoured couple. If you’re planning on forging a way forward as someone with a voice, then you could start using it right now. Besides, I can’t wait, and I don’t want to get back to the chalet to find myself bogged down making small talk until midnight.’

  ‘I can’t wait, either,’ she confessed, as they made their way to the lift, on a heated sigh. Her hand was trembling as she extracted her mobile phone and punched in Candice’s number. She sent a text because she didn’t know if she would be able to sound controlled should a conversation ensue.

  The lift doors opened and as soon as they had whirred shut behind them he pulled her to him. His head descended and his mouth crushed hers hungrily, his tongue plundering her mouth until her legs felt as weak as jelly and she had to cling to him for support, like a rag doll. She pushed her hands underneath his clothes, finding bare, warm skin, and she shoved them up to rub his flat nipples. His body was hard and sinewy. She wanted to explore every inch of it, to feel every corded muscle, sinew and tendon.

  In a minute, she thought weakly, the lift doors were going to open and they would be faced with some shocked faces, but they made it to their floor in privacy, and by the time he was unlocking the door to the suite with the gold-and-black card she was desperate to get rid of her clothes.

  They stumbled into the huge sitting area, bodies urgently pressed together. He was stripping along the way, blindly leading her in the general direction of the bedroom until he abandoned their stumbling progress and swept her off her feet, kicking open the door.

  The bedroom was bathed in the peculiar glow only falling snow outside could cause and he left the curtains open. She was on the mattress of the super-king-sized bed without even realising how she had got there, and she hastily propped herself up on her elbows, watching as he stripped off.

  He was so glorious he took her breath away. So glorious that nothing else mattered. Not her family, not what other people might start thinking, not the aftermath of this madness waiting to catch her out.

  The only thought in her head was, I want this guy more than anything.

>   The wretched elf outfit had to come off but he stilled her frantic hands as she began to scrabble with buttons, the zip and various bits of Velcro, all of which seemed to be oddly positioned in ridiculously unreachable places.

  ‘I want to see you do a striptease,’ he murmured, his voice as dark and as seductive as chocolate. ‘I want to enjoy watching you. You have an amazing body.’

  He held out his hand, their fingers linked and then she was on her feet and he was on the bed, places reversed. He, utterly naked, and she...

  Bit by bit the clothing was removed and bit by languorous bit she began to enjoy herself. Initial nerves were replaced by brazen relish. His eyes on her were such a turn on and she was wet and on fire by the time the last strip of elf costume had been flung to the ground.

  She sashayed her way towards him and stood by the side of the bed, and he sat up to slip his hand between her thighs, parting them, feeling the wetness there against his hand. Then he gently parted the delicate folds of her womanhood and flicked his tongue along the groove, finding the stiffened bud of her clitoris with ease.

  Rosie moaned and arched back, automatically opening her legs wider to receive his exploring tongue. She moved against him, hands reaching down to press his head harder against her so that he could taste her even more thoroughly.

  As he licked, he caressed the soft flesh of her inner thighs, stroking lightly until she was going crazy with desire. She wanted to come against his mouth and yet she never wanted the rolling waves of sensation to end.

  He took her so far and then pulled her down to the bed to join him. This time, their love-making was fast, hard and furious and her orgasm was explosive, coming even as she felt him arch back and groan loudly, succumbing to his own release.

  She was utterly spent when he eventually positioned her onto her side so that they were facing one another. She looked at him drowsily, smiled and stroked the side of his face.

  ‘We’re not in a trap.’ Matteo kissed the side of her mouth, the angles of his lean face thrown into shadow because his back was to the window. ‘So the charade went a little further than originally intended but is that such a bad thing?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I mean this...us.’ He swept his hand along her thigh and she shivered. ‘This ridiculous chemistry... So, we’re chalk and cheese and what we have isn’t going to last. You know that and I know that but for now... God, I want you, tesoro mio. When I think of you, I want you, and I want you immediately. I touch you and I don’t want the touching to end. This charade...why don’t we enjoy it for what it is and forget about tomorrow?’

  CHAPTER NINE

  ROSIE DIDN’T WANT to think it but she did anyway: this is perfect.

  She and Matteo were standing on an incline, looking down at a Christmas extravaganza. It was a little after seven and the slopes were ablaze with lights. The sound of laughter and kids screeching with excitement were only just drowned out by the harmonious singing of the Christmas choir, who were perched on a makeshift stage just outside one of the five star resorts in radiant reds, whites, faux furs and boots.

  For the first time in days, the snow had stopped falling, conspiring to provide a picture-postcard image of what the perfect December evening should look like.

  Of course, she guiltily acknowledged to herself, the reason it was perfect was because Matteo was standing next to her with one arm carelessly slung round her waist. They were both drinking mulled wine and Rosie was heady with happiness.

  She’d never thought that it was possible for her to be quite so happy. Her family adored Matteo. After her father’s initial misgivings, they had all succumbed to his charm. He could hold court without seeming to and what she might once have considered the hugely annoying trait, being just so self-assured, she now found deliciously mesmerising.

  It was really no wonder her entire family had been sucked into his magic circle. She could only imagine their giddy relief at the fact that she was supposedly engaged to a guy like him, settled with someone of whom they heartily approved.

  She didn’t want to think about how they would react when it ended. She didn’t want to think of all those scary tomorrows and what they might herald. Three days ago, he had dangled that carrot in front of her: enjoy the chemistry they shared and forget about tomorrow. She had grabbed that carrot with both hands. She was going to live for today. She was going to savour the excitement, the wonder of being with an unsuitable guy who still, somehow, managed to make her blood boil hot in her veins. She was going to enjoy losing herself in the glory of his love-making. Beyond that, anything could happen. In theory.

  ‘Miss your family not being here?’ Matteo inclined his head to murmur into her ear and Rosie shivered and looked up at him. In the reflected glow from all those thousands of lights that illuminated the snow-covered slopes, his face was all shadows and angles.

  She thought about it. ‘Normally I would,’ she confessed. ‘But I’ll be seeing them on Christmas Eve when we...er...when I go back to England. It’s unusual for me to be here at this time of year. It’s because I’m instructing.’

  She gulped down some of the mulled wine. Would Matteo be returning to England with her? And would he be spending Christmas with her entire family at her parents’ country house in the Cotswolds? Or would he be going his own way, doing his own thing? She didn’t want to ask the question because she was afraid that the answer might not be to her liking. The deal with Bob and Margaret had been signed and now there was nothing binding him to her, aside from the chemistry.

  In his let’s enjoy this and forget about tomorrow suggestion he had failed to clarify what counted as ‘tomorrow’ and she didn’t want to press him for an answer.

  ‘Are you going to miss them?’ she asked teasingly. ‘I expect you’ve found it all a little...chaotic. It always is when we all get together, especially with the kids, and especially at this time of year.’

  ‘It’s been an experience.’ Matteo shrugged. ‘This would not be how I would usually spend the run up to Christmas Day but, as experiences go, I am certainly glad I’ve had it.’

  ‘That’s good,’ Rosie said uncertainly. She laughed. ‘I think.’

  ‘I’ll certainly be glad to have the place to ourselves once again.’ Matteo lowered his voice and brushed his lips against her cheek. ‘There’s something unnerving about making love when outside there’s the danger of two little people banging on the bedroom door and demanding interaction in whatever game they’ve decided to play.’

  ‘They liked you,’ Rosie said.

  ‘Don’t sound so shocked,’ Matteo commented wryly, leading her down towards the lit slopes where the carollers were finishing the last of their repertoire. He still had his arm around her waist and she was leaning into him.

  ‘I bet you never come into contact with anyone under the age of...let me think about this...maybe twenty-one? The average age for new recruits to join a company after university?’

  ‘You forget,’ Matteo surprised himself by pointing out, drawing her closer against him, ‘That I grew up surrounded by a lot of kids. When I hit twelve, I was given the task of looking after a number of the younger ones.’ He laughed at the surprise on her face. ‘And don’t tell me that you’re sorry because you’ve suddenly remembered my very different childhood.’

  ‘You took care of the other kids?’

  ‘It was company policy, so to speak. You would be surprised at how many of them were off the rails by the time they hit six.’

  ‘You don’t like talking about your past.’

  ‘I’ve never seen the point of dwelling on things that cannot be changed.’

  ‘Have you ever confided in anyone?’

  ‘By anyone, you mean a therapist?’ Matteo burst out laughing. ‘That touchy-feely stuff isn’t for me.’

  ‘There’s a lot to be said for that touchy-feely stuff,’ Rosie said pensively. S
he shivered as his hand crept under her thick, padded, heavily insulated jacket to caress a sliver of skin under the waistband of her ski trousers. ‘I’m a great believer in sharing...what’s on your mind.’

  ‘I know.’ Matteo grinned down at her. ‘You’re excellent at letting me know all the highways and byways of what you’re thinking.’

  ‘Do you find it boring?’ She stiffened and pulled away from the light caress.

  ‘You’d know about it if I did.’

  ‘How? Would you tell me?’ She looked up at him seriously, wishing she could read his face, wishing she had as much insight into the workings of his mind as he obviously thought he had into hers. Wishing that the playing field was a little more level.

  ‘I wouldn’t have to.’

  The carollers disbanded and normality returned, although skiing was now being replaced by après ski and the crowds were dissipating, with clusters of warmly wrapped people hiving off in whatever direction their various resorts, chalets and hotels lay.

  The loss of that background carolling suddenly made the cold, wintry slopes feel very quiet, very still. ‘I meant have you ever confided in any of your girlfriends in the past?’

  ‘No,’ Matteo said abruptly.

  Rosie ventured boldly into the unknown. ‘You’ve never felt close enough to anyone to talk to them about your past?’

  ‘I’m trying and failing to see where this conversation is heading.’

  ‘It isn’t heading anywhere.’ She sighed.

  ‘Good,’ he said silkily. ‘Now, where do you want to eat? Are you hungry? We could always skip an elaborate meal and head back to the chalet. I’m looking forward to having the place to ourselves.’

  ‘So you’ve said.’ She kept her voice as bright as she could but this time it felt like an effort.

  He was looking forward to an empty chalet because without anyone around he could, taking his time and without fear of interruption, do what he did best. Make love. Wonderful, stupendous, fabulous sex. But that was where it ended. He wasn’t interested in being alone with her so that they could share anything more significant than their bodies.