The Man Who Risked It All by Michelle Reid

Author:Michelle Reid
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781408973141
Publisher: HarlequinUKLtd
Published: 2012-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

HE RAISED his hand and held it out to her. That was all it took to draw her to him. Lexi walked the few metres and placed her hand in his. His fingers closed around her fingers, warm, slightly callused, strong.

‘Glass of wine?’ he asked her.

‘Please,’ she said, but it was barely a whisper that scraped over her dry throat.

Dropping his feet to the floor he stood up. She noticed straight away that his movements were smooth and lithe—pain free. As if he’d planned everything down to the smallest detail he drew her closer to his side, slid her captured hand around his waist then let go of it so he could pour out the wine without them losing physical contact.

He handed her a glass, which she took with her other hand. ‘To us,’ he said, and chinked their glasses together, then waited like some powerful dark force for her to raise her glass to her lips.

‘To us—or now.’ Lexi found she had just enough fight left in her to extend the toast before she raised the glass and sipped from it.

It took him a moment or two to accept what she’d said before he lifted his own glass and drank.

In some dark place inside her Lexi knew she wanted to weep.

Maybe he could sense it. Maybe he was aware that no matter how much she wanted him she did not want this. Because he released a small sigh, placed his glass back on the table and took her glass to do the same thing with it, then turned to take her fully into his arms.

‘One small step at a time, hmm?’ he murmured, alongside the kiss he pressed to the top of her silky head.

Lexi lifted her face to look at him, the swirling blue-green in her eyes mocking him for saying such a thing when they both knew that what was going to happen next was not going to be anything like a small step. And, anyway, she had already taken a huge step just by coming here to him, so thinking small did not come close to where she wanted to go with this.

‘Of course if small is all you can manage right now …’ she posed, in an attempt to make light of things.

Franco laughed—not a throw-back-his-head kind of laugh, but a low down, deep-into-his-chest kind of sexy, dark and very masculine laugh. ‘I don’t know what I’m up for,’ he confessed with rueful honesty, ‘though we could make it interesting finding out …’

Lexi turned to release a small, slightly shaky laugh. Franco felt some of the tension ease out of her slender frame. He felt the same easing out of himself. He’d achieved something here he hadn’t dared expect to achieve. He’d brought down her defences without needing to touch on all the ugly stuff still waiting in the background for its moment to shatter them both.

Whether that was being fair to her or not he did not want to consider right now. She was here.

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