caressing the sensitive spot just behind her ear, causing

the ache deep inside her body to become a fiercely

urgent eager pulse.

Jodie moaned in outraged protest. He had no right

to be doing this to her.

But Lorenzo had obviously mistaken the cause of

her moan, because he murmured, "More curiosity?

Very well, then — you shall have your answer." His

hand swept up over her body to her breast, shaping it

and then rubbing the pad of his thumb over the erect

swelling of her nipple until all she could visualise

inside her head was his tongue curling round her nipple

and then lapping rhythmically at it.

Knowing her own desire had never been an issue

for her; it was having that desire not just satisfied but

aroused to the pitch it was being aroused to now that

had always been her problem. She had imagined she

might feel like this, but her imagination had fallen

way short of the reality, she acknowledged dizzily as

she locked her fingers in the thick darkness of

Lorenzo’s hair and urged his head down towards her

eager nipple. In the afternoon sunshine that filled the

room through the slats in the window blind, she could

see the telltale hardness of Lorenzo’s erection, and

her senses twisted with sweet triumph at the sight of

his arousal.

"Still curious?" Lorenzo’s tongue stroked the sensitive

flesh of her nipple and her body arched up towards

him for more. His hand dipped between her

legs, his palm warm against the eager swelling of her

mound. Instinctively Jodie held her breath, willing

him to part the closed lips of her sex and find the wet

heat waiting so urgently for him. Reality, reason, responsibility

were forgotten. She was like someone

possessed by a sudden fever — taken over by it so that

it overruled every other control system within her.

The knowing fingers answered her silent plea, parting

the soft pads of flesh and then stroking her with intimately

long, slow strokes that made her cry out

whilst her body jerked in frantic response.

"Now you see what your curiosity has brought you

to," she heard Lorenzo saying thickly. But he wasn’t

making any attempt to stop giving her the pleasure

his touch was inciting. Instead his touch became

stronger and deeper, until — suddenly and shockingly—

the ache inside her became a fierce convulsion

that gripped her and then exploded into an intense

orgasm.

Jodie lay stiffly on the bed, refusing to look at

Lorenzo. She felt scorched by the humiliation of what

had happened, and too close to tears to risk allowing

herself to speak. Not because she had had an orgasm

— it wasn’t her first, after all — but because of

the way she had had it. And because of the man who

had called it up out of her body so effortlessly.

"You shouldn’t have done that," she finally managed

to say.

"No," Lorenzo agreed heavily. "I should not."

Jodie closed her eyes. She could feel him withdrawing

from her as he stood up.

"I’ll go and ring the salon and tell them we shall

be later than arranged."

Why had she let that happen? Why hadn’t she

stopped him straight away? Her post-orgasm lethargy

clung heavily to her body as she showered again and

dressed as quickly as she could, promising herself that

it was never, ever going to happen again. Lorenzo

was a man — and an Italian — he was probably driven

by machismo and all those other things that gave such

men their powerful sexuality. And of course her unwitting

challenge had meant that he had had to make

his point to her. Other than that she had no idea why

he had done what he had — only that he must not be

allowed to do so again.

Lorenzo stood in his study and looked broodingly

out of the window. He had never been the kind of

man who allowed himself to be driven or ridden by

the needs of his body, so why, why had he allowed

himself to give in to them now? She was just another

woman, that was all, and not even an obviously sexually

available woman.

Not sexually available, no, but sexually responsive…

Lorenzo closed his eyes and immediately saw

Jodie as he had seen her minutes before, lying naked

on the bed, giving herself up to her pleasure…the

pleasure he had given her. Immediately his body, still

half tumescent from its earlier unsatisfied arousal,

stiffened into a painfully hard erection. He couldn’t

possibly want her as badly as that. Wanting the

woman — the virgin — he had chosen to marry for

purely practical reasons was a complication he did not

need in his life right now.

How had he managed to find a woman who was

still a virgin — a hungry sexually curious virgin — who

looked at him with a question in her eyes as old as

Eve? But he couldn’t afford the time it would take to

find someone to replace her now. At the moment

Caterina was still shocked enough for him to gain the

upper hand in the war between them, but once she

had time to recover from that shock she would be

back to her plots and the subtle, mind-poisoning tricks

at which she excelled. And besides, by now the whole

of Florence probably knew the identity of his bride-

to-be.

What did one wear to buy clothes sold in a designer

showroom? Jodie wondered ruefully. Probably not

what she was wearing — which was her spare pair of

clean jeans and a clean top — but since she had

brought only the bare necessities to Italy with her,

they would have to do.

Lorenzo was waiting for her when she found her

way back to the main salon. As soon as she walked

into the room he announced grimly, as he ushered her

towards the main door, "What happened earlier in

your room must not be allowed to happen again."

He was looking at her, speaking to her — lecturing

her, almost! — as though it had been her fault, Jodie

recognised indignantly as they stepped into the lift.

"It certainly mustn’t," she agreed fiercely. "But I

wasn’t the one who instigated it."

"Maybe not. But you didn’t stop me, did you?" The

lift had reached the ground floor.

"Why do men always blame women when it is they

who—?" Jodie began heatedly, only to be stopped by

Lorenzo.

"It was Eve who offered Adam the apple," he reminded

her flatly, as he held open the lift door for

her.

"Man"s eternal get-out," Jodie seethed. "The

woman tempted me…"

"So you admit that you did?" Lorenzo demanded as

he guided her towards the street exit.

"I admit no such thing," Jodie retorted angrily,

blinking in the fierce sunlight.

"It will take less time if we walk to Via

Tornabuoni," Lorenzo informed her as he took hold

of her arm and nodded in the direction they were to

walk, ignoring her fury. "It is this way. We will cut

through this alleyway here, which brings us out into

this square."

Jodie forgot her annoyance and caught her breath

in awed delight at her surroundings. She longed to be

able to take her time and absorb everything around

her, but Lorenzo was hurrying her through the square

and down another narrow street, where an ancient

church crouched between the other buildings, its

doors open in welcome.

Via Tornabuoni turned out to be a wide street filled

with imposing buildings and even more imposing

shops — so much so that Jodie found herself hanging

back a little when they reached one store. A uniformed

doorman opened the door for them and