page32 (1/2)

‘Well?’

This when they were outside, heading towards the grass, joining thecrowds of couples who hadher eyes frolare of the sun, and he just looked at her

‘Come on’

He reached out, clasped her hand, and her whole body quivered The feel of his fingers linked with hers was like an electric charge, and under its i voices were silenced as they found a shady spot close to the Cathedral and sat on the ground

‘Just say what you’ve co it up ords you don’t et involved with menot in the way that most people think of involvement You sexually connected with me and you weren’t ready for it to end You couldn’t produce proper involvement out of a hat, but you still had to show me that it wasn’t over’

She hugged her knees up to her chest, suddenly drained

‘Hoas I to know the difference between involvement and a sexual connection?’ he said, half to hinize the difference when I had never been presented with the situation before in ured that I could put you behindinto someone else’

‘That’s just horrible’

‘I’one froht co it’

‘You’re doing it again, Alessandro,’ Kate whispered ‘You’re confusing me ords’

‘I’ words to tell you how I feel You asked me why I followed you Well, I followed you becausebecause I couldn’t stand the thought of you touching anotherwith another man’

‘You were only jealous because you weren’t ready for o—you would have seen any man as competition—but that’s not real jealousy Real jealousy has its basis in soer It’s different’

But hope flared

‘In my world there was never a place for jealousy of any kind It’s not an enized it’ He sht Real jealousy does have its basis in soer than lust It wasn’t just i into bed with another man’

He clenched his jaw and shook away the violence of eht about that

‘What I felt I couldn’t even bear the thought of you looking at anyone elsetalking to anyone else’

He risked grazing her cheek with his finger It was enough to send his libido soaring into overdrive and he wanted nothing so much as to take her hand and place it firmly on his erection, so that she could feel what she did to hi it toothe current zipping between them, electric and impossibly alive

‘I’d never planned to God, Kate, you have no idea how ht now’

‘Wanting just isn’t enough for ulf the fragile shoots of hope that had been growing