Tempted By A Caffarelli. Melanie Milburne

chest.

      ‘Sure you didn’t.’ Chloe gave her another knowing look. ‘You cried your heart out for a week. And you ate a whole cheesecake.’

      ‘Half a cheesecake.’ Poppy scowled at her. ‘And I only cried because I really wanted to have someone in my life...someone to belong to. Ever since Gran died, I feel like I don’t belong to anyone any more.’

      Chloe gave her a big squishy hug. ‘You belong to this village, Poppy. Everyone loves you. We’re your family now.’

      * * *

      Poppy chewed at her lip as she walked back to the kitchen. Maybe Chloe was right—it would be a good way to demonstrate to Oliver she had moved on.

      But Rafe Caffarelli?

      He was crafty and clever. Everything he did was with a specific purpose in mind. She knew he wanted her house, but what if it wasn’t just the house he had set his mind to possess?

      Especially after that explosive kiss...

      She refused to think about that kiss. She had tried to block it from her mind. Every time she thought of it she cringed at how willing she had been, almost desperate, practically hanging off him like a limpet, before he’d put her from him.

      She couldn’t make him out. He had bought her shop, yet he hadn’t raised the rent and had told her he wasn’t going to. Could she trust him not to suddenly change his mind? Was he trying to charm her by stealth?

      He could hardly be in doubt of her attraction to him now. She tried her best to hide it but he was so damnably attractive! His casually tousled hair and the dark stubble on his jaw would have looked dishevelled or scruffy on someone else. On him it looked sexy and it made her fingers twitch to reach up and thread through those dark, silky strands or to stroke that chiselled plane of his jaw.

      And his mouth... She gulped as she thought of the contours of his lips, how they were so finely sculptured and yet so utterly masculine; how he had tasted; so warm and yet so fresh. Would he kiss her again? Was that why he was taking her out to dinner? Would she have the strength of will to resist him?

      Of course.

      She’d been caught off-guard before. He had taken advantage of her momentary lapse of concentration. She would be better prepared this time. He could dazzle her with whatever strength of charm he liked.

      She was back in control.

      * * *

      Rafe pulled up at the dower house just at seven. There was a cacophony of mad barking from inside the house as he raised his hand to the knocker. He heard Poppy shushing the dogs with limited success and then she opened the door.

      ‘You look...’ He was momentarily lost for words. ‘Amazing.’

      She was wearing a slim black cocktail dress that was simple but elegant, highlighting her trim figure without in any way exploiting it. The subtle sexiness was heart-stopping. Rafe swore his heart actually did miss a beat. She had her hair up in one of those artful twists that looked both casual and elegant at the same time. She had a simple string of pearls around her graceful neck and matching earrings, that he suspected weren’t terribly expensive, but with her creamy skin as a backdrop they looked as if they had just come out of a bank vault. Her make-up was light and yet it highlighted every one of her girl-next-door features: the high cheekbones, the cinnamon-brown eyes and the perfect bow of her mouth, which had a fine layer of shimmery gloss on it.

      He still couldn’t get his mind to stop revisiting that kiss. It was on permanent replay in his head. He couldn’t remember a time when a kiss had affected him so much. He had kissed dozens, probably hundreds of women. But something about Poppy Silverton’s sweet mouth melting into his had sent an arrow of longing deep inside him that had nagged at him like a toothache ever since.

      He wanted her. Badly.

      ‘I’ll just get my wrap and purse.’ She ushered the little mutts back with a shooing gesture and bent to pick up her belongings from the hall table.

      Rafe’s gaze travelled the length of her legs, from her thin ankles encased in sexy high heels to the neat curve of her bottom. One of the little dogs—the one with a patch of black over one eye, like a pirate—growled at him warningly.

      ‘Down, boy,’ Poppy said.

      ‘Are you talking to me or the dog?’ Rafe asked.

      A delicate blush bloomed over her cheeks as she put her wrap around her shoulders. ‘Pickles is a little shy of strangers. But once he gets to know you he’ll be all over you like a rash.’

      ‘I can hardly wait.’

      Her blush deepened a fraction. ‘So...you like dogs?’

      ‘I love dogs.’ Rafe bent down and scratched behind Chutney’s ears. Relish came over and pushed his mate out of the way to get in on the action, but Pickles was maintaining his beady-eyed stand-off, eyeing Rafe with the sort of suspicion a protective father might cast upon a suitor who had come to collect his teenage daughter for her first date.

      ‘Do you have a dog at home?’ Poppy asked.

      Rafe straightened. ‘No, I travel too much. It wouldn’t be fair to leave it with household staff.’

      ‘Where do you base yourself? Italy or France?’

      ‘I have a villa in Umbria and one in Lyon. A have apartments in Rome and Paris I use for business trips. Our family owns a few villas in other locations around the globe. I won’t bore you with listing them.’

      She gave him a look. ‘Which do you love the most?’

      Rafe had loved the smallish but comfortable villa just outside Rome he and his brothers had grown up in before their parents were killed. Conscious of the extreme wealth she was marrying into, his mother had insisted on a more normal upbringing for her boys, reducing household staff to a minimum and even doing a lot of the cooking herself.

      But his grandfather had sold the villa after Rafe’s parents had been killed. He hadn’t consulted Rafe or his brothers about it. It had been delivered to them as a fait accompli. It had been devastating to lose not just their parents but their home as well. It was as if everything they had held most secure had disappeared. As a result Rafe tried not to get too attached to people or places or things. His brothers were exactly the same.

      ‘I don’t have a favourite,’ he said. ‘They each serve their purpose.’ He held the door open. ‘Shall we go?’

      Rafe settled her in the car before he got behind the wheel. ‘So, three months since your last date?’

      ‘Chloe had no right to tell you that.’

      ‘I’m glad she told me. I wouldn’t want to be cutting in on anyone’s territory.’

      She sent him a narrow-eyed look. ‘This isn’t a date.’

      ‘What is it then?’

      She clutched her purse tightly on her lap. ‘It’s just a dinner between two...um...’

      ‘Friends?’

      ‘Associates.’

      Rafe gave a little chuckle of amusement. ‘I’m surprised you didn’t say enemies. I must be improving a little in your estimation.’

      ‘Not that much.’

      ‘Come now, Poppy,’ he chided. ‘Let’s not spoil our first date with bickering like children.’

      ‘It’s not a date!’

      Rafe smiled as he pulled into a space outside the restaurant. ‘Sure it’s not.’

      * * *

      Poppy forced herself to stop scowling as she entered the restaurant with Rafe. She also had to stop herself from shivering in reaction when he put a gentle guiding hand to the small of her back. The electric sensation of his touch burned through the fabric of her dress.