One Christmas Night In...

Lily had barely had the chance to move the sharp remnants of glass from the shattered window out of her way, cutting her hand in the process, before she was pounced upon by half a dozen excessively muscled men—four from the security company and two policemen!

Trying to explain that she was trying to get out of the palazzo rather than into it had proved virtually impossible when none of the men spoke English and Lily spoke hardly any Italian. It had been left to Dmitri, wearing only a towel draped about his waist and with his hair wet and tousled, to explain the situation to the security company and the police. Although again, not speaking anything but rudimentary Italian, Lily wasn’t quite sure what that explanation had entailed.

How on earth did any man go about explaining that a woman was trying to break out of his home and not into it? Especially when that man was only wearing a towel about his waist to cover his own nakedness!

And he was still only wearing a towel—a fact she was only too well aware of as he stood in front of her, bandaging her cut hand …

If she had thought she’d felt embarrassed earlier it was nothing to the humiliation she felt now. The police, and finally the men from the security company, after putting a temporary cover over the broken window, had gone, and she was once again left alone with Dmitri.

‘Well?’ he rasped impatiently as he secured the end of the bandage before stepping slightly away from her.

Allowing Lily to breathe again at last. Well … sort of. She was still aware of the fact that Dmitri had probably been taking a shower or something when the alarm went off; his hair was still slightly damp even now, and of course he only wore that towel draped about his waist. Leaving the broad expanse of his chest and his long muscled legs completely bare …

‘Well, what?’ She looked anywhere but directly at him.

Dmitri snorted, not knowing if he wanted to shake her or just walk away in disgust—before he did something much more disturbing to her.

He scowled down at her. ‘Did it not occur to you that breaking a window would breach the security system?’

The stubborn jutting of her chin did nothing to alleviate her sudden impression of vulnerability; she looked about sixteen years old, dressed in faded jeans along with the black sweater she had worn earlier, and with her hair secured in a loose plait down her back. ‘Of course it occurred to me—I just thought I would have time to get safely away before anyone responded. And I would have done too, if I hadn’t been delayed by getting something to wrap around my hand,’ she added, looking annoyed.

Dmitri gave a sigh of frustration as he turned away to run one of his own hands impatiently through his rapidly drying hair; he had paused only long enough earlier to pick up a towel before hurrying from the pool complex to the west wing. Probably as well—otherwise he might have needed to actually go to the police station in order to have her released from a prison cell. He’d wanted to get there quickly in case the outspoken Lily said or did something to cause the police to arrest her, anyway!

He shake his head. ‘Safely away where? Lily, there is nowhere in Rome that I could not find you if I wished to do so,’ he explained as she frowned up at him.

‘Oh.’ She looked nonplussed, but didn’t question his claim—probably because his expression alone was enough to tell her that he meant what he said. ‘Oh, come on, Dmitri.’ She grimaced as he continued to frown. ‘You can’t blame a girl for trying!’

‘Yes, I can—when I end up having to lie to the police!’ Dmitri snarled.

Lily eyed him curiously. ‘In what way did you lie to them?’

He scowled darkly. ‘I told them we had had a lovers’ spat—that I walked out of the kitchen and left you to it, after which you threw something at the window in a temper and broke it.’

Those sky-blue eyes widened. ‘I don’t have a temper!’

‘Fortunately they did not know that.’

‘And they actually believed you?’

‘Probably not,’ he accepted.

‘I would say definitely not,’ Lily scoffed. ‘If we had argued, and I really had been angry enough to throw something, then I would have made sure it was at you—not a window!’

‘I am well aware of that,’ Dmitri rasped. ‘Fortunately the police and the men from the security company were not, and wisely decided to accept my romanticised version of what took place.’

Which explained the reason for the knowing smiles and winks of the security men before they’d left. ‘No doubt you all had a good laugh at the little lady’s expense?’ She stood up abruptly.

Dmitri skewered her with that piercing green gaze. ‘I assure you that so far I have not found anything in the least amusing about this situation.’

‘That makes two of us!’ she retorted.

Dmitri wondered if anything could succeed in shaking this woman’s independence of will.

Yes, of course it could. Obviously what had happened between them after dinner had disturbed her enough for her to try and break out of the palazzo.

Dmitri still flinched inwardly when he recalled entering the kitchen to see a vulnerable Lily surrounded by a threatening group of men, and with blood dripping down her hand and onto the tiled floor from where she had cut herself.

Because she had wanted to get away from him.

Because she had been so traumatised by the depth of the intimacies they had shared she did not wish to remain here and risk having them repeated.

Admittedly the circumstances of finding themselves alone here together were unusual, and their lovemaking had been unwise to say the least, but Dmitri could never remember a woman being so desperate to escape his attentions that she had attempted to flee into the night as if pursued by the devil himself!

He looked at her closely. ‘Are you so determined to leave here you would risk injury to yourself in an attempt to do so?’

Lily raised defensive brows. ‘My intention was obviously to get away from here, not to injure myself.’

His nostrils flared. ‘I am still not sure the cut on your hand does not require stitches—’

‘I heal quickly,’ Lily cut in firmly, putting the hand in question behind her back—hoping out of sight would prove to be out of mind. Although, knowing Dmitri, she somehow doubted it would achieve that objective! ‘Can we just go to bed now? I mean—’ She broke off with a self-conscious wince as the embarrassed colour warmed her cheeks. ‘I’m going to bed,’ she amended. ‘Alone. You can do whatever you please.’

‘To quote you from earlier, “How kind of you to allow me to,”’ Dmitri came back dryly.

Her eyes flashed deeply blue. ‘I’m tired, I have an aching hand, and I feel slightly embarrassed at having brought the police and security company here—’

‘Only slightly?’ he jeered.

‘Slightly embarrassed,’ Lily reiterated. ‘And I am decidedly cranky. Do you really want to mess with me any more tonight?’ She met his gaze challengingly.

If it hadn’t been entirely inappropriate to the situation Dmitri knew that he would have been tempted to laugh at her manner of speech; she really didn’t allow herself to feel cowed by anyone or anything. As her thwarted attempt to escape from him testified …

He sighed. ‘Once the glazier has replaced the window tomorrow morning I will take you anywhere you wish to go.’

‘You’re suggesting we go out for ice cream and to see the Trevi Fountain?’ Her heavy tone made it sound like some sort of bizarre punishment on Dmitri’s part.

‘No,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘I meant I will drive you to a hotel.’

Her eyes widened. ‘Really?’

Dmitri’s irritation deepened at the disbelief in her tone. ‘Really,’ he echoed tersely.

Lily eyed him warily, not altogether sure she completely trusted this about face. ‘What about Claudia and Felix?’

His expression darkened just at the mention of the missing couple. ‘I will have to find some other way of locating them.’

‘How exactly?’

‘I have no idea as yet!’ he said harshly. ‘Only that I will endeavour to do so.’

Because Lily had created an awkward situation for him by trying to break her way out of here? Or because he genuinely felt regret about keeping her confined when she would obviously rather be somewhere else? Either way—

‘Are you cold?’ Lily frowned. She was sure she’d seen him give a slight shiver. Or perhaps it was just a shudder of revulsion at the memory of having his home invaded by the police in the middle of the night!

‘Why on earth would I be cold?’ he said scathingly. ‘It is late December, one o’clock in the morning, my window has been broken and I am wearing only a towel. Why should I be cold?’

‘There’s no need to be sarcastic,’ Lily said indignantly.

‘There is every reason—’ He broke off exasperatedly, breathing hard. ‘Tell me, Lily, does this sort of thing happen to you in England?’

She gave a puzzled frown. ‘What sort of thing?’

Dmitri raised dark brows. ‘Being kidnapped by an Italian count. Made love to on a kitchen table.’ After the discomfort he had suffered for the past hour he felt a certain grim satisfaction as he saw the colour warm Lily’s cheeks. ‘Housebreaking. Being questioned by the police.’

Her cheeks remained flushed. ‘There aren’t an awful lot of Italian counts in England. I was breaking out of the house not into it. And the police could hardly question me when I don’t speak Italian and they don’t speak English. So the answer to your question is no, Dmitri, nothing like this has ever happened to me in England!’

Dmitri noted that she had chosen not to offer even the suggestion of a contradiction over their lovemaking. Because that had happened to her in England? Or because she was embarrassed that it had happened at all?

‘Please just go to bed, Lily,’ he advised, a nerve pulsing in his tightly clenched jaw.

She shook her head. ‘No—you go and put some clothes on and I’ll make you a pot of hot coffee.’ She moved to the coffee percolator on the worktop and filled it up with water, before going to the refrigerator to take out the ground coffee. ‘Although why on earth you were taking a shower at almost one o’clock in the morning is beyond me.’

‘I was not taking a shower,’ Dmitri denied, frowning as she continued to make the coffee; he was used to people doing what he said when he said it—if not sooner!—something Lily either didn’t appreciate or deliberately chose to ignore.

She turned after spooning the coffee into the filter and switching on the machine. ‘Then what were you doing?’

Nor was Dmitri accustomed to people questioning his actions—something else that she felt absolutely no hesitation in doing. He found it extremely irritating, while at the same time strangely refreshing …

For fifteen years Dmitri had said and done exactly as he wished, without criticism or question from anyone. To find himself subjected to the curiosity of a woman who stood only as tall as his shoulder, weighed as little as a pubescent teenage girl—even if she was far from being one—and who had a tongue as sharp as a razor, was something of a shock. A little like living amongst sheep for years only to then find himself confronted by a lioness! ‘Dmitri?’

He felt a brief warmth as she continued to call him by his first name. ‘Yes?’ he answered huskily.

She shot him a pointed look. ‘I asked where you were when the security alarm went off.’

‘In the pool.’ Cooling off. An exercise in futility when he was heating up again rapidly now that he was once again back in her company.

‘Oh.’ She blinked. ‘So you aren’t completely naked under that towel?’

This time Dmitri couldn’t stop the smile that curved his lips. ‘Not completely, no.’

Not too much of a comfort when Lily was pretty sure Dmitri was the sort of man who would wear body-hugging swimming briefs. Possibly in black. The sort that defined more than they hid.

And why not? He certainly had the sort of lean and muscled body that would look—

No—not going there. How he did or didn’t look in a pair of swimming briefs was of absolutely no interest to her.

Liar!

How he looked was of far more interest than was good for her!

She turned away from the mockery she could now see glinting in his eyes. ‘Coffee’s almost ready,’ she announced brightly, after checking the pot.

‘Is that my cue to go and put some clothes on?’ he murmured softly.

It was certainly his cue to go somewhere! Anywhere. As long as it was well away from the confines of this kitchen. ‘Unless you want to continue being cold, yes.’ She affected an uninterested shrug—one that probably didn’t succeed in convincing either of them of her sincerity.

No one man should be allowed to possess the sinful good looks that Dmitri did. That air of haughtiness that in no way disguised the animal magnetism beneath. The hard and muscled body that drew her attention like a moth to a flame.

‘Lily?’

She drew in a deep breath even as she schooled her features into polite query before turning. ‘Yes?’

‘Just so that you know I was telling the truth just now …’ He slowly removed the towel from about the leanness of his waist, revealing that he did indeed wear brief black swimming trunks that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. Lily’s imagination, at least!

Had he deliberately removed the towel in an attempt to cause her further embarrassment? Or because he knew the effect his near-nakedness was already having on her?

If he hadn’t known before then he did now, because she couldn’t take her eyes off him. Her cheeks became flushed with her rapidly escalating arousal, her breasts were once again feeling full and tingling, and between her thighs she was starting to ache gently.

Dmitri’s bare shoulders were so very wide and powerful. His muscled chest was covered in that fine dusting of dark hair that only hours ago Lily had caressed. His stomach was flat and lean—he might sit behind a desk in an office most of the time, but he must also work out regularly to achieve that washboard six-pack. As for that telling bulge beneath the thin black material of his bathing trunks …

Lily moved her gaze back almost desperately to the hard, sculptured beauty of his face, glaring at him as she saw the open amusement that he made no effort to hide. ‘Very nice, Dmitri,’ she bit out as she slowly, deliberately, looked him up and down from head to toe. ‘Now, would you mind not being such an exhibitionist and putting some clothes on?’

This time he was unable to quell a laugh as Lily spoke to him and looked at him in that condescending way; she really was the most intriguing woman he had met for a very long time. If ever.

A sobering thought in itself … Becoming intrigued by the beautiful and outspoken Lily Barton was certainly not on Dmitri’s future list of things to do. His immediate list, however, was a different matter altogether …

‘Don’t wait up for me if you would rather go up to bed,’ he said as he squashed that tempting thought by glancing away on the pretext of rewrapping and securing the towel about his waist.

Her brows rose. ‘I’d like to stay and have coffee too—unless you would rather I didn’t?’

Dmitri’s jaw tightened just at the thought of Lily still being there when he returned. Waiting for him … ‘And what possible reason could I have for not wanting you to stay and enjoy a cup of coffee when you were actually the one to make it?’

‘No reason.’ She shrugged. ‘You just seemed … Well, as if you would rather be alone.’

Dmitri was accustomed to being alone. Claudia still lived at the palazzo with him, yes, but she was a late riser and he was an early one, meaning that they rarely ate breakfast together. Claudia also invariably went out in the evenings—latterly with Felix, he now realised!—and Dmitri was usually out at his office for most of the day and early evening. Meaning that brother and sister lived fairly separate lives for the main part.

In fact, Dmitri did not remember the last time he had spent as much time all at once in the company of a person he was not related to or discussing business with.

Even his physical relationships were usually conducted with the least amount of socialising, and Dmitri had always made a point of never spending the whole night with any of those women. Mutual physical gratification was one thing—eating breakfast or spending the day with any of those women was not something he had ever felt the inclination to do.

So this prolonged time spent with Lily was unusual for him. Something he should perhaps have thought of before he’d had her brought here …

‘If it takes you this long to answer then I was obviously right in my deduction,’ Lily drawled ruefully. ‘I’ll just pour myself a cup of coffee and disappear upstairs with it before you come back—’

‘It only took me so long because I considered the question too ridiculous to necessitate a reply at all,’ Dmitri said.

‘Ridiculous?’ Lily repeated slowly, her gaze wary as she waited expectantly for another one of his now familiar set downs. Nor was she disappointed!

He shrugged bare shoulders. ‘Ridiculous in that I see no relevance to me as to whether you choose to drink your coffee down here or upstairs in your bedroom.’

Ouch!

Lily deliberately stood her ground as she raised blond brows. ‘Now who’s getting cranky?’

She watched as Dmitri closed his eyes briefly, as if by doing so he might shut her out of his awareness altogether —or in the hope that she might just have disappeared by the time he opened them again.

No such luck! ‘I’m still here, Dmitri,’ she taunted gently.

Pale green eyes glittered as he raised his lids to glare across the room at her. ‘So I see.’ He breathed deeply. ‘I will return for my coffee shortly.’ He strode from the kitchen, amazingly still managing to look every inch—every delectable, edible inch—the proud and haughty Count Dmitri Scarletti, despite being barefoot and half naked.

Leaving Lily to make the choice as to whether she should go back upstairs or whether she should stay exactly where she was …

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘SO you decided to take your coffee upstairs with you last night, after all, then?’ Dmitri folded his lean length down into the chair opposite Lily’s at the kitchen table, where she sat at seven-thirty the following morning already eating toast and drinking coffee.

Instantly reminding her that she had taken the cowardly way out the previous evening and not waited for Dmitri to return from dressing …

At the time she had decided that caution was probably the better part of valour—which was a polite way of saying she simply hadn’t trusted herself to spend any more time in his provocatively disturbing company last night.

She placed her coffee cup carefully down on the saucer, continuing to look down at that saucer as she answered him. ‘I was tired after all the travelling and—and excitement of yesterday.’

‘That is one way of putting it, I suppose,’ Dmitri drawled.

Lily glowered as she looked at him properly for the first time this morning, her eyes widening slightly as she saw he was wearing faded blue jeans and a black cashmere sweater that emphasised the width and power of his shoulders. The sleeves of the sweater were pushed up to just below his elbows, revealing the strength of his arms and wrists—

Oh, good Lord—she couldn’t be stupid enough to find even his arms and wrists sexy, could she?

She had expected him to be dressed in readiness for going to his office this morning, to continue his search for Claudia and Felix. Once he had seen Lily safely delivered to a hotel, of course. ‘I was referring to the way the police descended on the palazzo last night.’

‘No doubt a thrilling tale for you to tell your friends on your return to England,’ Dmitri said dryly as he sat forward to pour himself a cup of coffee from the pot in the centre of the table.

Lily bristled. ‘If you think I enjoyed even one moment of that—that embarrassing episode, then you are sadly mistaken! In fact, I would prefer never to think of it again.’

Dmitri remained completely unruffled by her vehemence, and he sipped his coffee before replying. ‘Not even as an amusing tale to relate to your grandchildren one day?’

‘Of the night I tried to break out—unsuccessfully, I might add—of an Italian count’s palazzo?’ She eyed him scathingly.

He bared his teeth in a smile. ‘Exactly.’

Lily grimaced. ‘I think I’ll pass, thanks.’ Especially when those grandchildren might then ask what she had been doing locked away in there in the first place! Not only did this situation reflect badly on Felix, but her own behaviour so far had been less than suitable for telling any future children or grandchildren she might have.

Dmitri knew he should not be enjoying Lily’s obvious discomfort, but after the unsatisfactory night’s sleep he’d had he was feeling less than indulgently inclined towards her this morning.

Coming back down the stairs last night and discovering she had taken him at his word and already gone up to bed had been the start of that dissatisfaction. He had then wondered—despite having made the offer to take her to a hotel in the morning—if she had indeed gone to bed or if she was up in her room even now, plotting and planning some other way of leaving the palazzo. Hopefully avoiding detection this time!

Consequently, by the time he’d gone up to his own bedroom he’d been feeling less than sleepy, and had remained awake for some time after that, watching the security panel in his bedroom in case the alarm should go off again. Even once he had fallen into an uneasy sleep he was sure he had still been half listening for the sound of someone moving stealthily through the building!

To come downstairs this morning and find her calmly seated at the kitchen table enjoying her breakfast—and looking completely rested into the bargain—only increased his feelings of irritation at his own lack of sleep. ‘As you wish,’ he said unsympathetically. ‘The glazier should be here shortly, and in the meantime I have some telephone calls to make.’

‘In connection with Felix and Claudia?’ she prompted sharply.

His mouth tightened. ‘As it happens, yes. I take it you have still not heard from your brother?’

‘No.’ If Lily was being honest she was starting to get more than a little annoyed with Felix herself now. Not only had her brother just disappeared, but he hadn’t even bothered to so much as check whether or not Lily had received his message in time to cancel her trip to Rome. None of which was helped by the fact that Lily had realised first thing this morning that today was Christmas Eve.

‘The glazier should not take long to replace the window, and then I will be free to drive you to a hotel—if that is convenient for you?’

‘Yes. Yes, of course it is.’ Lily sat up straighter in her chair as he came straight to the point; obviously idle chit chat was not the order of the day. ‘Obviously I don’t have any other plans for today.’

‘Obviously not,’ he conceded dryly.

‘But I could always get a taxi to a hotel rather than put you to any trouble on my behalf. Any more trouble on my behalf,’ she corrected as Dmitri raised mocking brows.

His smile was strained. ‘It is no trouble, I assure you.’

Lily gave him a small smile. ‘No doubt you’ll just be glad to see the back of me?’

‘No doubt.’

Well, you asked for that one, Lily, she seethed inwardly. Gave him the perfect opening, in fact. ‘Is there anything I can do to help you?’

Dmitri eyed her coolly. ‘Such as?’

‘Make some of the telephone calls for you? No, that isn’t going to work when I don’t speak Italian,’ she acknowledged ruefully. ‘There must be something I can do!’

His mouth twisted into another semblance of a smile. ‘I cannot think of anything.’

Great. Now Lily felt completely superfluous. Which she obviously was.