Unnoticed and Untouched Read Online Free PDF Page B

as she tried very hard not to react to his skin touching hers. Why didn’t she just shove him away? “Outraged? I have no say in anything you choose to do. I am not outraged. It was merely an observation.”
    He put a finger under her jaw and tipped her chin up. His sharp eyes glittered with some hidden passion that hadn’t been there only a moment ago. It shocked her. And intrigued her.
    He was so close. Too close, the heat emanating from him enveloping her, making her long to press into him and see just how hot she could feel. Would she burn up in his embrace?
    No. No, no,
no
. She would not think of her Italian playboy boss in that way. It wasn’t safe. It was irresponsible.
Reckless
.
    Faith did not do reckless. The one time she had, it had cost her far more than she could have ever dreamed. She was finished with reckless.
    “But you disapprove,” Renzo said.
    “Not this time.” And she almost meant it, except for the fact it would mean Renzo would actually sleep with that obnoxious woman. Though, on the other hand, the woman would pay for it in the end when Renzo dumped her. Faith might enjoy shopping for that parting gift. “Go for it.”
    He laughed. “And what makes you think I have not already?That she just doesn’t understand I no longer want her?”
    It was a valid point, but she knew better because she’d witnessed the fallout too many times. The tears, the desperate phone calls, the attempts to sneak past her and into his office in order to plead for another chance. Women could be, she’d decided, awfully pitiful sometimes. She wanted to tell them to get some dignity, to stop begging and go on with their lives. Men like Renzo were immune to histrionics.
    “Because a woman who has been subjected to the D’Angeli treatment is usually angry with you. She wasn’t. She wants you, and pretty badly I’d say.”
    The look in his eyes was sharp. He moved a step closer and she shuddered involuntarily. “What are you doing?” she asked.
    “Nothing,” he said, much too innocently. “I like the way you talk, Faith. It sounds like sweet syrup, all long and drawn out as if you had all day to speak. Not like the women in New York.”
    “That’s because I’m from Georgia. It’s hot there. We talk slow and walk slow and, well, do a lot of things slow.” My God, she was babbling. To her urbane, gorgeous boss. Where was her dignity?
    One of Renzo’s dark eyebrows arched. “Really? I can imagine that some things are done best when done slowly. How wise you people from Georgia are.”
    Her heart was slamming into her ribs and a fine sheen of moisture was rising in the valley between her breasts. “I sound no different now than I have for the past six months. I can’t imagine how you haven’t noticed it before.”
    He took another step and she backed up, found herself against the wall of the terrace where it curved inward. Heput a hand on the wall beside her, trapping her as his other hand came up and caressed her jaw.
    It was electrifying.
    “I have been wondering this myself,” he said. “You have hidden yourself well, Faith.”
    Her body hummed with electricity that she feared would scorch her if it continued for much longer. “I’ve hidden nothing. I’ve come to work every day and sat at a desk not ten feet from your office door. I’ve brought you coffee, papers. I’ve fielded phone calls and given you reports. And I’ve gone shopping for those goodbye presents for your women—”
    “Ah,” he said softly, “you
are
offended.”
    “No,” she replied. But then, because she couldn’t help it, she added, “Though I think you should shop for your own presents.”
    Renzo laughed. “Perhaps you are correct, and yet you always choose the nicest things. How can I compete?”
    “By employing a full-time personal shopper?”
    His gaze dropped to her mouth for a moment and she sucked in a breath, trying to calm her racing heart. He hadn’t backed away, hadn’t taken his hand from her cheek in