She cast him a reproving glance. ‘You know, you behaved shockingly in that restaurant.’

‘I know.’ He looked contrite. ‘You’re right. I was a disgrace. I should apologise to the restaurant.’

Unconvinced by his humility, she said sternly, ‘It was such a risk. I can hardly believe it happened.’ She shook her head in despair. ‘You’ve done some reckless things, Sandro, but that’s the most wicked I ever remember you being.’

His edged his brows pensively together, then he met her gaze, a gleam in his dark eyes. ‘No, tesoro. No, I would say that I can be more wicked than that.’

She gasped, scandalised. ‘In a restaurant?’

He shrugged. ‘Anywhere, truthfully. A restaurant, a church. If I have Lara Meadows beside me, there are no limits to the wickedness I can be inspired to.’

‘Oh, you.’ She gave his arm a punch, and after a moment of walking in a silence that clamoured with Alessandro’s unspoken laughter she bit her lip and tried again. ‘You know, I did say this wouldn’t be a date.’ Even to her own ears her protest sounded feeble.

He smiled. ‘You did, I know.’

‘So-so why did you-you know, kiss me like that? And then there was last night…That was just an outrage. If the P &C committee ever found out what I’d done in that schoolyard…’

‘What’s the P &C Committee?’

‘Parents and interested Citizens. If they had any idea…’ She shuddered, picturing the public outcry.

He slowed to a halt under a street lamp, and took her other hand as well. ‘You know why I do these things. I am a man. What else am I to do? You’re so beautiful, your lips are so luscious…’ His voice thickened. ‘And you belong to me…’

‘Oh. Oh, well…’ She was stirred to her bone marrow, and her voice went all wobbly and husky. ‘You know what Holly Golightly said. People can’t belong to people. And it’s-no excuse. You can’t just kiss everyone you like the look of. I told you this would be a meeting.’

‘A lovers’ meeting.’ His warm, sure grip firmed on her hands and she felt pleasure flow in her veins like wine. ‘We’re lovers, aren’t we?’

‘Were. We were lovers.’

‘We will always be lovers, Larissa.’ He said it with such seriousness, she had to believe he meant it. He took her shoulders. ‘And I don’t want to kiss everyone I like the look of.’ Whether it was the effect of the wine, or the after-effects of the restaurant, his voice deepened with a sincerity she couldn’t deny, and his eyes glowed with an ardent light. ‘Only you. Always, always, I want to kiss you.’

Her heart seized, then lurched into a rapid, bumpy rhythm.

She gripped his arms. ‘Oh, Alessandro,’ she said, breathless and trembling with emotion, ‘I wish-I wish I could believe that.’

‘Believe it,’ he said firmly, pulling her close and kissing her with a conviction that set her veins ablaze and made her erotic regions tingle with longing.

‘Hurry,’ he said, desire in his eyes, urgency in his voice. ‘Let’s walk fast.’

The last remaining blocks were like a dream of life the way it could have been, floating along the pavements of old Sydney, hand in hand with her lover, reckless and wild, hunger in her veins.

He ushered her through the Seasons entrance and across the lobby. At the lifts, she flashed him a smile and murmured, ‘Déjà-vu.’

The ride up to the thirtieth floor was silent, the air drumming with desire, her thudding heartbeat, and magic visions of the past. She might have been racked with desire, but odd thoughts still crept up on her as he stood beside her in the pulsing silence. One of them being if she’d known this was going to happen, she’d have put in some serious work at a gym.

And another one. What about when he saw her scar? How would he react? And then there were the traces left by her pregnancy and a year of breastfeeding. Her nipples weren’t exactly the same sweet pink raspberries he’d adored.

For God’s sake, would she remember what to do?

Alessandro unlocked his door and stood aside for her. At once the room’s atmosphere rushed to meet her.

Ah. The suite.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

IT WASN’T exactly the same, of course. Lara supposed it must have been refurbished over the years, because once she was through the foyer, she saw that the colours seemed different in the glow of the lamps, warmer and more vibrant. In fact, the windows were not in the position she remembered either, so perhaps it wasn’t the same suite. But the feeling was the same.

And the bed. That low, wide, sleek bed. The covers had been turned down, the pillows fluffed up. So enticing. So-sexual.

Her heart pounded with a nervy, excited rhythm.

Alessandro slipped off his jacket, sending her an assessing glance. ‘Would you like anything? Some wine?’

Lara shook her head. ‘No. No, thanks. Could we dim the lights a bit, do you think?’

His brows twitched but he barely hesitated. ‘Of course.’

In fact the room was already quite softly lit, but he switched off all the lamps, except for one by the bed. Then he dragged the counterpane from the bed and tossed it onto a chair, strolled across and parted the curtains a little, then walked back to her, pulling off his tie and loosening his collar.

Her pulse thundered in her ears. He stood before her, so straight and tall and darkly gorgeous, his eyes all at once so serious and compelling, the shadows in her heart were swamped by emotion. She could feel the electric tension in him, the fierce current that connected him to her at a deep, primitive level.

It all felt so familiar. How many times had she been at this point with him before? And apart from that first unforgettable time, what had followed from this moment had always flowed as naturally and as free of inhibition as the rhythm of life. But it had all been less complicated then. Though tonight…Undeniably, the same dark, smouldering current was there, pulling her to him as powerfully as the sun.

His dark eyes glowed beneath lids that were heavy and slumberous. He slid his thumb across her cheekbone as if she were some exotic beauty. ‘I have longed to be with you again.’

He spoke with such intensity, the words wrapped in his beautiful, deep accent, she felt her insides curl up as though licked by fire.

‘Have you?’ she breathed. ‘Me too.’ Her voice sounded husky with the intense emotion overflowing in her heart. ‘I’ve never, never stopped thinking of you.’

He reached for the top button on her coat, his quick supple fingers sliding from one to the next, and she felt cooler air flood in as the coat fell to the floor.

How crazy she’d been, how ridiculous to have felt nervous. Once she was trapped in his scorching hot gaze, the desire already smouldering in her blood blew through her like a desert wind, and another Lara, the wild, primitive Lara, took over.

The moment their lips touched, the fire in her sprang to blazing life. His kiss was hot and sexual, and she responded with all she had, aroused by the sensual delights of lip and tongue in sexy collision, relishing his urgent hands curving around her breasts, moulding the undulations of waist and hip, caressing her inflamed nipples.

Starved of sensation for so long, her skin burned for contact. She pressed herself to his hard angular frame, purring at the graze of his long, muscled thighs against hers, while the secret tissues between her legs flamed. Her greedy hands became possessed of their own convulsive life, lusting to enjoy him to the max, to clutch at his black silky hair, smooth the nape of his strong neck, knead his powerful shoulders.

As one kiss dissolved to the next, each deeper and more searching than the last, everything about him-his feel and taste, his strong, sure touch-all felt so achingly familiar, so beloved, and so much hers.

In the past he’d been gentle and considerate, his fierce male dominance tempered by tenderness. Tonight, though gentle enough, he was uncompromising, hard and firm and confident, and there was no holding back her instinctive response. With every part of her so hot and aroused, an explosive cocktail of excitement and emotion coursing through her veins, this could be no polite engagement. The heavy beat of passion seethed in her blood and flamed for immediate assuagement.