Wife By Force: International Billionaires II: The Italians Read Online Free PDF Page B

her basket and pulled out a book. The subject had certainly held her interest when she’d started it days ago. A long dissertation on children’s learning disabilities was exactly what she needed to distract herself.
    The words blurred before her eyes.
    The vision of him was seared into her memory. No use trying to wipe her brain cells clean. She obsessively went over it again. He’d filled out as a man. No more lanky limbs. Only heavy, muscled shoulders, taut thighs. Her mind coiled around his image, dreading that it would end up in her dreams.
    His sudden movement jerked her attention back to reality.
    He’d eased himself on his side and a zing of awareness flashed through her, knowing his focus was on her once more. Instead of meeting his gaze, she stuck her nose deeper into her book.
    “So, you are happy to be here in Italy.” His voice was filled with confident satisfaction. “This is where you are meant to be.”
    “Really?” She swung her head around to frown at him. “Because you say so?”
    He sighed. “Here we go again.”
    “We? There is no we going anywhere.”
    His black stare bored into her. “I was starting a perfectly civil conversation and you immediately jump to conclusions about what I meant. Why are you determined to start an argument with me?”
    Good question. Where had the distance and dismissal and disdain she’d planned on gone? She tried to find some flippant response, except before she found the words, she made a mistake and glanced away from his face.
    All conscious thought disappeared.
    The swirl of dark chest hair covered hard pectoral muscles. His abdomen sported a sleek six-pack. His olive skin gleamed in the sun, water droplets still sparkling like a string of diamonds on his shoulders. His words drifted out of her mind. She tried to concentrate on why it was important to explain how much she hated him, but then his nipples snagged her entire attention. They were dark and tight from the lingering cold of the pool. Her mouth watered, unwillingly.
    “Lara?”
    His voice seemed muffled, muted. Ignoring the low burr of his voice, she let herself look some more, look at the bulging arms, the smooth tan skin, the rock-solid muscles. Her gaze traced up the line of his strong neck and jaw.
    “ Bella .” His tone turned raspy. “Look at me.”
    I am , she wanted to say, but in the dim recesses of her brain, she knew it would be stupid. Yet even more stupidly, she kept her focus on his body. She couldn’t tear her focus away from his beauty. It didn’t seem to matter he was ugly on the inside. He was all beautiful male on the outside. She feasted on him. For years, she’d shut this passion down inside her, and now, at the worst possible time, with the worst possible man, her lust roared to life and she had no control over it.
    “You are driving me crazy.”
    His husky words drew her attention to his mouth. The thin upper lip, the hint of lushness in the lower. They opened and she wanted to taste, taste his tongue and lips and wetness. Shivering at the thought, she forced her gaze to slide along his jaw and the shadow of hair on his skin abruptly jerked her out of the sexual haze engulfing her.
    He hadn’t shaved today.
    His sisters claimed he never appeared as anything other than formal now. Never appeared as anything other than The Casartelli.
    Polished. Poised.
    Pompous , she’d muttered to herself as his sisters went on and on.
    “What are you thinking?” His tone lowered, magnetic and inviting. Desperate.
    She managed to yank her focus away from him and pin it on the book. Where it should have stayed all along. “What are you doing here?”
    “Swimming? Relaxing?”
    His voice was still husky with invitation, but she refused to be pulled under his spell again. She forced herself to stare at the wavering lines of text in front of her. “Why aren’t you at work?”
    “I chose to take a day off?”
    “You never take off work.”
    “Is that true?” Sighing, he eased down