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still jarred at the impact with his hard body. She rubbed fingers over her forehead, willing her heart to calm.
    Slowly, she took in the sumptuous furnishings in the huge room, a dark mahogany study table to the side with papers strewn on it, the large four-poster king bed with dark blue sheets. That same cool aqua scent clung to the room. A small, framed picture sat on the nightstand on the opposite side, of a pretty woman with dark hair and delicate features.
    Dear Lord , was this his room? Who was that woman then?
    With her gut in a tight knot, Alex forced her gaze to the window. The view afforded here of Lake Como was even better. Spectacularly maintained gardens, acres of it, lit softly by moonlight and solar lights along the paths greeted her. Silence lingered in this part of the gardens.
    Even his guests were not allowed to impinge on his private slice of heaven, she realized slowly.
    This estate was not just beautiful but huge.
    And this was only one of the many properties they owned.
    The Contis were a dynastic family with an old-world wealth and Leandro...at the helm of it. And she had barged in on their illustrious party and told them that he had a daughter.
    If her chest wasn’t so tight, Alex would have laughed at the absurdity of it.
    â€œYou’re afraid to face me now? After that performance in front of everyone.”
    Low and crisp, his tone was like fingertips sliding over her bare skin. As if it was yesterday he had touched her and not seven long years ago.
    Alex turned slowly, loathe to betray how unbalanced she felt in his presence.
    He stood leaning against the closed door, minus the suit jacket, the gray of his dress shirt making his eyes gleam doubly. Leaner than she remembered, his features sharper. Even more settled into that powerful aura that had always clung to him.
    The austere severity of his features from the sculpted jaw to that aquiline nose, the lean, wiry breadth of his chest tapering to a waist, the thinly sculpted curve of his lower lip, everything about Leandro Conti said leashed power.
    Any moment now, she wouldn’t find him attractive. Any moment now, she’d remember that the same mouth that could kiss so passionately and tenderly could also shred her to pieces as soon as he was done.
    â€œI’m trying to overcome my shock that you cared enough to stop me.” Instead, her insides thrummed with a thrill. “And if that was a performance, then you forced me to it.”
    Those eyes of his studied her relentlessly. Why didn’t the infuriating man say anything? Demand a DNA test? Throw her out if he didn’t believe her? Threaten her like his grandfather had done?
    She had been prepared for all of that. Except his impenetrable silence, this unnerving composure.
    It made her want to take a sledgehammer and smash it to pieces.
    â€œYou pulling me into a room like this, away from prying eyes should bring back memories for you,” she threw recklessly. “Lucky for me, because it seems you erased that evening from your mind.”
    His chin jerked, and his eyes lost that inscrutable expression. “I was successful. Until this very evening.”
    Alex blinked at the hurt that pinged through her, as if her poisonous dart had found its way back to her. She didn’t think he was saying it to get a rise out of her, like she’d done.
    No, he merely stated fact.
    â€œWhat would you have dared to remind me, Alexis?”
    Her name on his lips was a possessive caress that threatened her paper-thin composure.
    Suppressing the dangerous urge to take up the challenge in his tone, she said, “Your assumption that I’m dying to... renew our acquaintance smacks of arrogance. I’m here only for Isabella.”
    Whether he believed her or not, Alex didn’t know. But then, from what little she knew of Leandro, he thrived on self-control. That he hadn’t instantly called her a liar like his grandfather had done, his utter silence in the