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‘I’lad you think so’ Gaetano showed her upstairs into the master bedroom ‘This is where we sleep’

Poppy froze, her brain snapping into gear again ‘We?’

‘We can’t stay this close to Rodolfo and pretend to be engaged without sharing a room,’ Gaetano fired back at her impatiently ‘His staff service this place as well as his’

‘But you didn’t warn me about this!’ Poppy objected ‘Naturally I assumed you had an apartment somewhere on your ohere I’d have my own room’

‘Well, you can’t have your own rooy ‘Doubtless Rodolfo would like to think you’re the vestal-virgin type, but he wouldn’t find it credible that I had asked you to marry me’

Poppy studied the huge divan sleigh bed and her soft oodness’ sake, there’s only one bedand I’ it with you!’

‘You have to sleep in here with erimly

‘And what’s your downside?’ Poppy asked with interest

‘Celibacy,’ Gaetano intoned very drily ‘I can’t risk being seen or associated with any other woed to you’

‘Oh, dear’ Poppy commented without an atom of sympathy ‘From what I’ve read about your usual pursuits in the press, that will be a character-building challenge for you’

Exasperation laced Gaetano’s lean, darkly handsome features He would never ever hurt a woe Poppy head first into a mud bath ‘There’s a lot of rubbish talked about my private life in the newspapers’

‘That line ht ith one of your socialites, Gaetanobut not with me I know that party did take place and what happened at it’

Gaetano fought the urge to defend hireen eyes andfor a shower,’ he said instead and began to undress

Leonetti flesh alert! screamed a little voice in Poppy’s head as Gaetano shed his shirt without inhibition And ould he be inhibited when he was unveiling a work of art? He was all sleek atedpower of his pectoral in type but she was a virgin and she had never shared a room with a half-naked male before That was not information she planned to share with Gaetano, especially as she pretty much blamed hie in adulthood

At sixteen, after his rejection, she had almost decided to have sex with so in tiot out of hand She wasn’t proud of that episode, well aware that she had acted like a bit of a tease with the boy concerned Her real lesson had been grasping that going off to have mindless sex with someone else because Gaetano didn’t want her was pathetic and silly While she was at college doing her nursing training she had had boyfriends and occasional little moments of temptation but nobody had tempted her as much as Gaetano had once tempted her And Poppy was stubborn and had decided that she would only sleep with so to have sex just because so to have sex just for the sake of it

Poppy opened one of her cases and only then appreciated that her luggage had already been unpacked for her So this was how the rich lived, she thought ruefully, wondering what she was going to use as pyjamas when she didn’t ever wear the enough to cover her decently in h Gaetano’s drawers to borrow a big white tee shirt that was both large and sexless He e of lierbut she hadn’t and she had no plans to tempt fate

Gaetano was thinking about sex in the shower and wondering if Poppy would consider broadening their agreement He wanted her and she wanted him To his outlook that was a simple balanced equation and it made sense that they should make the most of each other for the duration of their relationship It was the practical solution and Gaetano was always practical, particularly when it cah sex drive

A towel knotted round his lean hips, Gaetano trod back into the bedroom Poppy took one look at all that bronzed skin still sprinkled with drops of water and realised that she wanted to lick hiroan at her own atrocious weakness, she pushed past hied