A Valentine from Harlequin

his. “My feelings, exactly, cara,” he said, leading her toward the balcony doors. “Some emotions defy the words and speak directly to the heart.”

Chapter Five
    Now that the live music had started, the party had really come to life, making it possible for Charlotte and Paolo to slip into the crowd unnoticed. Without asking, he drew her into his arms and onto the dance floor.
    “The Duncans might not like this,” she muttered, glancing around nervously. “I’m here to work, after all.”
    “They will like,” he assured her, “not only because Gerald Duncan is anxious to enlist my support in his latest venture and will do nothing to displease me, but because you’ve exceeded all their expectations and made this the perfect evening for their daughter.”
    Sensing she wasn’t entirely convinced, he again tipped up her chin. “Listen to me, cara. I’m no Weatherby. I don’t lie in order to win a woman’s heart.”
    She heard candor and integrity in his voice. It gave her the courage to ask, “Is that what you’re trying to do, Paolo? Win my heart?”
    His hand slipped to the small of her back and urged her closer. “Most certainly.”
    “I’m not sure I’m ready to give it quite yet.”
    “I’m a patient man, Charlotte, and prepared to spend however long it takes to persuade you that my intentions are honorable.”
    “How can you be so sure, when we’ve only just met?”
    “We met months ago and the spark ignited left a lasting impression.” His voice dropped a captivating half octave. “That moment of recognition did not die, cara. It rekindled itself tonight.”
    “Still,” she said, struggling to step warily through the minefield of his persuasion, “we’re starting out afresh now.”
    He shrugged. “Of course. How else does a great romance start, but at the beginning?”
    She sighed. “You make it all sound so reasonable, I half believe you. If it weren’t for the way John—”
    Unmindful of the fact that they were surrounded by others, he silenced her with another kiss, this one so darkly intoxicating that she quivered. “Hush,” he said against her lips. “I’m nothing like him. Do you really think that, having let you slip through my fingers six months ago, I’m about to risk my carefully engineered second chance by telling you lies now?”
    “ Engineered? ” Unnerved, she stared at him. “Are you saying you knew I’d be here and arranged this meeting? Is that what you meant when you said you had everything choreographed down to the last detail?”
    He shrugged again, a continental lifting of one broad shoulder she wished she didn’t find so attractive. “Not exactly, but word travels quickly in my circle of acquaintances. I knew weeks ago that Gerald intended to hire you to organize this party, that my name would be on the guest list, and that the man who’d monopolized your time in Barbados had moved on to greener fields.”
    “Pastures,” she said distractedly. “It’s ‘moved on to greener pastures.’”
    “Such a strange tongue, this English. I must teach you Italian, the true language of love.”
    “Now just hold your horses, Paolo—!”
    He interrupted with a laugh she could only compare to the slow trickle of warm molasses running from a hot spoon. “As I said, a strange language. But if horses are what it will take to win you, I’ll give you horses.”
    Clinging rather desperately to her dwindling sense of survival, she protested. “Stop talking like that! You could be married with eight children, for all I know. And I could have a husband—”
    “But you don’t,” he said calmly. “You wouldn’t be here in my arms and allowing me to kiss you if you had. And anyone here can vouch that I have neither a wife nor children. However, if you prefer to hear it from my parents and sisters—”
    “I don’t know even your parents and sisters!”
    “You will, cara. Very soon. I shall take you to our family villa overlooking the Adriatic Sea to meet them.”
    “I don’t think so! In your own way, you’re just as devious as John, pretending we met here by accident when, in fact, you’ve been stalking me from a distance for months.”
    “Keeping track, perhaps, but never stalking.”
    “Call it what you like, it adds up to the same thing.”
    “It was necessary for both our sakes,” he said reasonably. “You needed time to establish yourself as an independent entrepreneur, and I needed assurance that you’d recovered from your brief